Profit & Purpose Sustainable Business Conference

Joris Veldhoven has served as President of New York Transco since March 2026, overseeing the company’s overall strategic direction, performance, and P&L.

In this role, he is leading New York Transco’s continued growth into the bulk electric transmission developer of choice for New York State, while cultivating partnerships with regulators, supply chain companies, and stakeholders.

A central focus of his leadership is aligning high-performing internal teams with trusted, senior-level external relationships to deliver critical infrastructure that powers New York’s clean energy future.

An internationally experienced energy executive Joris brings deep expertise in the energy sector, with a proven track record of originating, structuring, and delivering largescale, complex energy and infrastructure projects. He is known for his passion for deal-making, strategic execution, and mobilizing teams to turning ambitious ideas into reality.

Previously Joris worked for over 17 years at Shell, including many years at Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind as the company’s President and CEO.

Joris graduated cum laude with a degree in Industrial Engineering from Eindhoven University of Technology. He is based in Brooklyn, New York, where he lives with his wife and three daughters.

Reda Chouffani is a cloud expert and business intelligence architect with more than 20 years of experience in technology and software development. As Chief Technology Officer of New Charter and globally ranked managed service provider Biz Technology Solutions, he helps organizations harness emerging technologies to streamline operations, improve productivity, and drive business growth.

Reda is also a published technology thought leader whose work has appeared in TechTarget and CIO.com.

Pete Harckham was elected to the New York State Senate in November 2018 and re-elected in 2020. 2022 and 2024—the culmination so far of a distinguished career in public service. Currently, he is chair of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee.

Through his three full terms in office, Harckham has become one of the most productive members of the New York State Senate. He worked to make the 2% Property Tax Cap permanent; delivered record aid to education; and addressed the opioid crisis by doubling minimum treatment times and reducing barriers to life saving treatment.

Well-regarded as a champion of the environment, Harckham helped pass the toughest climate protection legislation in the nation, and also introduced legislation, later enacted, requiring all new passenger car and truck sales to be zero emission by 2035 and allowing municipalities to build solar canopies and jumpstart community renewable energy projects. In 2023, Governor Kathy Hochul placed Harckham’s landmark wetlands legislation protecting Class C streams statewide, which will safeguard fragile drinking water resources, into her proposed 2023 State Budget.

Additionally, Harckham has been a leading voice to hold the utilities accountable in the wake of failed responses to natural disasters, and has been there for residents during the Covid-19 pandemic. To date, he has held 18 food drives to fight hunger, assisted thousands of residents with unemployment claims and delivered PPE to first responders and municipalities throughout the 40th Senate District.

In 2015 Harckham was appointed Assistant Director of the Office of Community Renewal, responsible for the roll out and implementation of a special allotment of $4.3M in CDBG funding for Westchester municipalities. Afterwards, he served for two years as the Director of Intergovernmental Affairs for the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge project.

From 2008 to 2015 Harckham served on the Westchester County Board of Legislators (BOL), where he was a leading voice for protecting the environment, maintaining vital services and investing in our families. He was the BOL’s Majority Leader from 2010 through 2013.

Before being elected to the BOL, Harckham served as board president of A-HOME, a not-for-profit housing corporation that builds affordable housing in northern Westchester, and worked as

a communications professional on Madison Avenue for major advertising agencies. He also helmed his own communications and marketing firm, and founded K&E Farms, a small horse farm in Katonah, NY, where he donated conservation easements from the farm to the Westchester Land Trust. Both his prior residence and farm were converted to solar power.

In addition to his professional work, Harckham served on the President’s Council for the Northern Westchester Hospital, and was a board member for the United Way of Westchester and Putnam, the Junior League of Northern Westchester Community Advisory Council and the Livable Communities Council.

Jeshica Patel focuses her practice on government, law, and policy matters with a focus on New York State environmental and energy issues. She has deep experience representing government agencies and authorities on environmental, energy, and agriculture matters, and coordinating legal affairs for state agencies including the Department of Environmental Conservation, Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Department of Agriculture and Markets, Department of Public Service, Office of Renewable Energy Siting, New York Power Authority, and New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

Prior to joining Greenberg Traurig, Jeshica served as assistant counsel to Governor Kathy Hochul for Energy, Environment, and Agriculture in the New York State Executive Chamber.

John transforms intricate environmental challenges into clear legal solutions.

John represents industrial and commercial clients facing complex environmental exposure and remediation cases, successfully defending clients in class and mass actions, citizen suits, private cost recovery actions, and contract disputes. Applying a detailed understanding of his clients’ operations, John develops strong, fact-based defenses grounded in reliable science to focus the legal issues in complex litigation. While John’s practice centers on cases involving technical, scientific, and engineering issues, the key is to make these issues clear and relatable.

John also counsels permittees and project developers navigating environmental permits and transactions. The same strengths that John uses in litigation also steer his clients through multi-layered permitting processes. Ensuring that regulatory agencies understand how a client’s operation fits within the legal framework, John works with clients and consultants to secure logical and sustainable permit requirements. In agency enforcement actions, he helps defeat unsupported claims while charting practical paths toward compliance when necessary.

In any context, John bases defenses, negotiations, and permitting strategies on a close understanding of his client’s goals and operations, the purposes of the legal framework, and the forces driving agencies, litigation opponents, or other parties in a transaction.

John leads B&D’s Waste Management & Recycling Practice Group. Before entering law school, he served in the U.S. Peace Corps in the Republic of Moldova.

Daniella Piper is the Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at the New York Power Authority, where she drives NYPA’s corporate strategy, leads advanced nuclear development, and accelerates an innovation agenda aimed at boosting operational performance, advancing decarbonization, and transforming the state’s energy grid. With more than 18 years of leadership across operations and strategic transformation, Daniella has steered NYPA’s flagship Niagara Power Project and propelled major statewide infrastructure and technology initiatives. A licensed professional engineer with advanced degrees in electrical engineering and construction management—and a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program—Daniella also amplifies industry progress through her service on boards that support research, executive education, and workforce development.

Christopher Raup leads state and federal regulatory engagement on topics including customer affordability, service reliability, transmission and distribution system development, renewable energy, and electrification.

Chris joined Con Edison in 2006, and has worked in energy markets policy, state regulatory affairs, new business opportunity development, and regulatory innovation.

Prior to Con Edison, Chris worked as an engineer for nine years at Brooklyn Union Gas, in positions of increasing responsibility, with rotations in Natural Gas Vehicles and Strategic Planning.

Chris received a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering from The Cooper Union in 1996, and in 2006 Chris earned an MBA from the Erasmus University’s Rotterdam School of Business in the Netherlands.

About Con Edison.  Con Edison and its affiliate Orange & Rockland provide electric delivery service to 4 million customers, natural gas delivery service to 1.3 million customers, and district steam service to 1,500 customers, all in the greater New York City metropolitan area.

Michael N. Romita, a business leader with extensive public policy expertise, was named the President & CEO of the Westchester County Association in March of 2020.  Since taking on this role, Michael has helped to create and advance groundbreaking initiatives designed to strengthen the economy in Westchester and the surrounding region.  He has led the WCA’s growth in focus areas such as real estate and housing, healthcare and life-science, workforce development, energy and sustainability, and digital opportunity.  He is repeatedly recognized as one of the region’s leading voices in business, economic development, and sustainability.

Prior to the Westchester County Association, Michael was Executive Vice President in charge of corporate strategy and operations at Castle Oil Corporation, a mid-stream energy company founded by his grandfather.  He started his career as an environmental litigator at the U.S. Department of Justice where he represented the United States in federal court on a broad array of environmental and energy matters.

Michael holds a B.S. from Tufts University, J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, and Master of Laws from The London School of Economics. He has served on the boards of many charitable and civic organizations, including the Westchester County Parks, Recreation, and Conservation Board and MINT, a mental health foundation.  In addition, he recently co-chaired the Westchester County Executive’s Transition Committee on Economic Development.  Michael and his wife Melissa live in Westchester and wait patiently for their daughter to face time them from college from time to time.

Francesca Rossi is an internationally recognized computer scientist, AI researcher, and thought leader in AI ethics and governance. She serves as an IBM Fellow and IBM’s Global Leader for Responsible AI and AI Governance at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center.

Over the course of her career, her research has spanned several areas of artificial intelligence, including multi-agent systems, neuro-symbolic AI, and the ethical and societal implications of AI. More recently, her work has focused on trustworthy AI, AI governance, and the design of AI systems that are not only capable, but also aligned with human values and societal objectives.

At IBM, she has played a leading role in developing the company’s AI ethics strategy and governance framework, helping establish organizational processes and technical approaches for the responsible development and deployment of AI technologies. She has also contributed extensively to international discussions on AI policy and governance through collaborations with governments, international organizations, industry, and civil society.

Dr. Rossi is the Past President of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) and has served in numerous international advisory roles related to AI governance, including initiatives of the OECD, the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI), the World Economic Forum, the European Commission, and the Partnership on AI. Throughout her career, she has worked at the intersection of AI research, public policy, and governance, helping bridge technological innovation with societal responsibility.

She is a Fellow of AAAI and the European Association for Artificial Intelligence (EurAI), and has received numerous honors for her scientific and professional contributions. She has published extensively in artificial intelligence and is a frequent invited speaker at international conferences, universities, policy forums, and industry events around the world.

She currently teaches a graduate course on AI ethics at Columbia University, covering topics such as ethical challenges in AI, AI governance throughout the lifecycle, ethical frameworks, corporate AI governance, and AI regulation.

Dr. Rossi holds a Laurea degree in Computer Science and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Pisa, Italy. Before joining IBM Research in 2015, she was a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Padova for twenty years.

Her current work explores how advances in generative AI and AI agents are reshaping society, and what approaches to governance, ethics, and human-AI collaboration are needed to ensure these technologies remain trustworthy, beneficial, and aligned with human values.

She is driven by the conviction that technology should serve humanity, not the other way around. She believes that our goal should not simply be to build ever more capable AI systems, but to harness AI to expand human knowledge, creativity, opportunity, and well-being.