New energy and clean tech are hot areas these days, especially at Wharton. With so many students interested in these burgeoning fields, Wharton’s recent Energy Conference was a great opportunity for undergraduate students, full-time MBA students, executive MBA students, faculty, and alumni to connect.
“It was a fantastic event,” says Wharton MBA alumnus Jon Nehlsen, a partner at energy services firm MCFA in Haddonfield, NJ. “The first-rate speakers and panelists addressed a variety of topics ranging from developments in fossil fuels and public policy to renewable energy technology. One highlight was the discussion between policy makers and investors on how the private sector is analyzing renewable energy investment.”
Having graduated last May, Nehlsen says that he finds these types of events especially beneficial. “When you can continue to couple your friendships made in Wharton’s MBA Program for Executives with deep discussions about business topics, it becomes very interesting. After school, those academic discussions often stop so events like this are very important. I was thrilled to attend the conference and hope to go again in future years.”
Wharton full-time MBA student and Energy Club President Jonathan Lyons was pleased by the turnout at the conference. “We love Wharton EMBA students and alumni and were happy to invite them to this event,” he says.
While first-year Wharton | San Francisco student Raghavan Anand wasn’t able to attend the conference in Philadelphia, he says that Wharton’s Energy and Clean Tech Club in San Francisco has been active in connecting Wharton students interested in these topics as well. After inviting Lyons to speak at a Wharton | San Franciscoevent last fall, the West Coast students also organized two recent informational treks to energy companies and venture capital firms in the Bay Area for first- and second-year EMBA students. And when his class spent a weekend in Philadelphia, they joined their East Coast counterparts as well as full-time MBA students for a joint Energy Club happy hour.
Anand, a co-chair of the Energy and Clean Tech Club in San Francisco and a software engineer at Blue Jeans Network in Santa Clara, says that more than 20% of his class has signed up to participate in the West Coast Energy and Clean Tech Club’s events. “We have many students working in the energy industry as well as those like myself who aren’t working in it, but are deeply interested, especially in the clean-tech area. It’s great that our club can join up with the Energy Club on the East Coast to try to learn more from each other about these areas as well as share resources and contacts.”
He adds, “It’s beneficial to be able to interact with so many alumni as well as executive MBA and full-time MBA students on the East Coast. Our shared interests have helped bring us together at these various events and we hope to do even more together in the future.”
Read more about Anand and his Wharton | San Francisco classmates’ experiences at the blog: http://whartonexec.blogspot.com/
First year students from San Francisco and Philadelphia meet for a 3-day class weekend.