Board of Directors (Jan 27-28)

Sharon Tomkins is vice president of strategy and engagement for Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas), a Sempra Energy regulated California utility. She is responsible for developing and delivering the information, that meets customers’ energy needs and supports state environmental and social policy objectives.
Tomkins leads the company’s energy policy and strategy, which includes issues management for balanced energy, energy choice, affordability and reliability.
Tomkins joined SoCalGas in 2010 as regulatory assistant general counsel. Prior to this, she was a partner at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, where she was a founding member of the firm’s Energy, Natural Resources & Environmental Practice and represented clients in a variety of litigation, regulatory and appellate proceedings. Tomkins’ energy focus began during her representation of various clients, including Sempra, during the California energy crisis. She also developed and taught the law school class, Energy Law, Policy & Climate Change, at UCLA law school. After graduating from law school, Tomkins clerked in the U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, for the Honorable Danny J. Boggs.
Tomkins is chair of the board of directors of the California Minority Counsel Program. She also serves on the board of directors of the United Way of Greater Los Angeles and Constitutional Rights Foundation, as well as the advisory board of the U.C. Davis Energy Efficiency Institute. She is a member of the University of California, Irvine Chief Executive Roundtable.

Tomkins graduated Order of the Coif from the USC Gould School of Law and received her undergraduate degree in English, with High Distinction, from Pennsylvania State University.

Bill Kemp serves as U.S. Partner for the Energy & Utilities industry practice of Roland Berger LLC. Roland Berger is one of the top five global corporate strategy consultancies, with 3000 professionals in Europe, Asia and North America.. He leads the firm’s services in the US on decarbonization strategies and strategy implementation. Bill helps clients to develop strategies that leverage effectively their real competitive advantages, and then to focus and align their organizations around achieving the ultimate test of successful strategy: results. He previously co-founded Enovation Partners, led the Strategy consulting practice for Black & Veatch Management Consulting, and before that ran the Asia-Pacific-Africa energy industry practice of Deloitte Consulting,

Bill has served in various leadership positions in the International Association for Energy Economics, and speaks frequently before industry groups such as the Edison Electric Institute, the Western Energy Institute, American Gas Association and others. He earned a B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard University and a Master of Public Policy from U.C.-Berkeley. Bill first started coming to meetings of WEI or its predecessors in 1986 (!).

Pam Henderson, Ph.D., is CEO of NewEdge, Inc., a growth, strategy and design firm that advises companies across every industry including over 75 Fortune 500 and 50 startups and non-profits. Pam pioneered Opportunity Thinking™ principles, a new approach to innovation that helps organizations create sustainable growth. Organizations are adopting Opportunity Thinking™ as their corporate innovation strategy for long term growth.

Formerly on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University, Pam later worked with the national laboratory system and Washington State University to commercialize early stage technologies. Pam speaks internationally and has published widely on market insight, business and innovation strategy, and design and has received recognition in the Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, and NPR.

Pam is also the author of a new book on Opportunity Thinking, titled You Can Kill An Idea, But You Can’t Kill An Opportunity! How to Discover News Sources of Growth for Your Organization, now in its fourth publishing by Wiley, a trademark of John Wiley & Sons.