Columbia Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy (LCSE) Symposium: Sustainable Energy, Resource, and Environmental Solutions

Mike Kopp

Deputy Under Secretary of Energy / Acting Director, Office of Arctic Energy

U.S. Department of Energy

Mike Kopp serves as the Deputy Under Secretary and Acting Director of the Office of Arctic Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy, where he helps lead departmental strategy and operations across a broad portfolio of national energy priorities. In these roles, Mike provides senior leadership on cross‑cutting initiatives, Arctic and remote community energy resilience, and high‑impact policy development that advances U.S. economic and national security interests.

Previously, Mike served as a Senior Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Energy, where he played a key leadership role in the Department’s Critical Minerals and Materials portfolio along with several other strategic initiatives. His leadership experience spans military service, elected office, and executive roles across the business, public, and nonprofit sectors. He began his career as a non‑commissioned officer and paratrooper in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division and is a graduate of the U.S. Army Ranger School.

Mike was twice elected to the Colorado State Senate, serving as Senate Minority Leader. He later managed the corporate affairs team for a large electric cooperative before being recruited to serve as President and CEO of a statewide business organization focused on economic growth issues including energy, housing, infrastructure, and regulatory policy. He subsequently helped launch an investment fund focused on the lower middle market. He has held gubernatorial and senate‑confirmed appointments and has served on the boards of both public and private universities in Colorado as well as multiple nonprofit organizations.

Mike holds a BA from North Central University and an MPA from the University of Colorado Denver.

James "Jim" Lyons

Chief Technologist

Capricorn Investment Group

Dr. James “Jim” Lyons is Chief Technologist at Capricorn Investment Group, where he serves as the lead technical adviser to the firm’s venture investment team. Since joining Capricorn in 2011, he has helped evaluate and support companies developing clean-energy technologies, including wind and solar power, energy storage, electric vehicles, advanced batteries, power electronics, and other emerging energy systems.

His work combines engineering expertise with venture investing and company development, with a particular focus on helping innovative technologies progress from research and early-stage development to commercial deployment. He has also served as a technical adviser or board member to numerous energy and technology companies.

Before entering venture capital, Lyons spent approximately three decades at General Electric in engineering, research, and technology leadership roles. As Chief Engineer for Electrical and Electronic Technologies at GE Research, he helped lead the development of GE’s wind-energy business and supported technology initiatives across multiple GE businesses.

His broader technical work has included waste gasification, solar photovoltaics, rural electrification, solid-state lighting, advanced transportation, and nuclear fusion technologies. Across these fields, he has worked at the intersection of research, product development, industrial strategy, and commercialization.

Lyons holds more than 40 patents and has authored numerous technical publications. He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech, and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from Cornell University.

His doctoral research focused on variable-speed wind-turbine generators, an area that anticipated his later leadership in renewable-energy technology development, investment, and commercialization.

Tripp Hornick

Principal

Quince Street Strategy

Tripp Hornick is Principal of Quince Street Strategy, a boutique advisory firm serving companies at the intersection of corporate strategy, operational implementation, financial planning and analysis, and innovative financing through government grants and incentives. He advises organizations in strategically important sectors, including critical minerals, semiconductor supply chains, grid resilience, advanced manufacturing, critical gases, and pharmaceutical materials. In 2025, Quince Street Strategy directly assisted clients in securing more than $1.4 billion in U.S. government funding commitments and letters of intent.

Hornick has held senior leadership roles in manufacturing, financial technology, and media companies ranging from pre-revenue ventures to businesses with more than $250 million in retail value. His experience spans global operations, profit-and-loss management, technology implementation, business development, compliance, and corporate governance. He has also served as an officer of numerous corporate and nonprofit boards.

Throughout his career, Hornick has specialized in translating strategic goals into practical, cross-functional initiatives that deliver measurable results. His work often brings together business planning, operational execution, financial strategy, and government engagement to help organizations pursue growth and navigate complex funding opportunities.

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and a recipient of its Young Alumni Award, Hornick has spoken at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s SelectUSA Investment Summits, advised Commerce Department officials across multiple presidential administrations, and briefed the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

He earned a Master of Studies in Law, cum laude, from Fordham University School of Law, with a concentration in compliance and ethics. In addition to his advisory work, Hornick is Principal of Quince Street Productions, where he produces live theater and streaming-media projects.

Richard Hartman

U.S. Air Force Office of Energy Assurance

Dr. Richard Hartman is an executive, researcher, and U.S. Air Force leader whose career spans energy resilience, national security, public health, environmental management, technology development, and federal policy. He serves in a senior operations and strategy role with the Air Force Office of Energy Assurance, following four years as its Chief Innovation Officer.

In these positions, Hartman has helped identify and accelerate technologies, financing structures, and public-private partnerships that strengthen energy security and mission resilience across Air Force and Space Force installations worldwide. His work has included geothermal energy, geologic hydrogen, advanced energy storage, Energy-as-a-Service models, and the development of the Defense Energy Consortium.

Hartman brings more than 35 years of leadership experience across the U.S. Departments of Defense, Commerce, and Veterans Affairs. Earlier in his career, he served as an Air Force bioenvironmental engineer and Senior Health Affairs Consultant to Air Force Special Operations Command. He was mobilized in support of Operations Noble Eagle, Enduring Freedom, and Iraqi Freedom and was named the 2003 Air Force Outstanding Individual Mobilization Augmentee of the Year.

At the Department of Veterans Affairs, Hartman directed health-policy analysis and led the creation of the VA Office of Rural Health. His work helped secure and deploy $250 million for 74 initiatives involving telehealth, clinical research, education, workforce development, and rural partnerships.

Hartman has authored or co-authored more than 20 technical publications and received five National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research grants. He holds a Ph.D. in Public Health Policy and Management from the University of South Florida and an M.S. in Engineering and Environmental Management from the Air Force Institute of Technology.