As EDF’s Director, New York Clean Energy, Rory Christian focuses on energy and clean air in the New York region. Rory currently leads EDF’s work scoping smart grid development in New York City and other high-density urban settings, developing opportunities for financing energy projects and the NYC clean heat campaign.
Before joining EDF, Rory was the Director of Energy Finance and Sustainability for the New York City Housing Authority. Prior to his role at NYCHA, Rory worked to develop the Public Sector Business unit of Constellation Energy, where he developed new business products and tailored internal operations to effectively pursue opportunities with federal, state, and local government agencies.

Patricia J. Lancaster, FAIA is the President of The Lancaster Group, a capital program management and consulting firm, and a full Professor in the Masters Program at NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate. She is a New York State Registered Architect with more than 25 years’ experience in public/private real estate partnerships, teaching, and public service for the City of New York. From 2002 to 2008, she was Commissioner of the New York City Department of Buildings. As Buildings Commissioner, Lancaster was responsible for setting local construction standards, enforcing the Building Code and Zoning Resolution for more than 975,000 buildings, and regulating New York City’s $35 billion per year construction industry.
Patricia J. Lancaster, FAIA is the President of The Lancaster Group, a capital program management and consulting firm, and a full Professor in the Masters Program at NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate. She is a New York State Registered Architect with more than 25 years’ experience in public/private real estate partnerships, teaching, and public service for the City of New York. From 2002 to 2008, she was Commissioner of the New York City Department of Buildings. As Buildings Commissioner, Lancaster was responsible for setting local construction standards, enforcing the Building Code and Zoning Resolution for more than 975,000 buildings, and regulating New York City’s $35 billion per year construction industry.

Jason is an adviser and co-founder of rabble. In addition to advising the team on creating financial instruments and investment vehicles for new investments, Jason is also the resident executive chef and sommelier for the firm. He enjoys long philosophical conversations on the future of urban spaces with the CEO and Head of Impact (especially while walking on the beach).
Jason is partner at Capital Solutions, Inc. and is focused on originating and structuring principal investments and creating new partnership; he has expertise in acquiring and financing institutional quality real estate across the medical office and life science, retail, multifamily, and senior living sectors.

Signe Nielsen has been practicing as a landscape architect and urban designer in New York since 1978. Her body of work has renewed the environmental integrity and transformed the quality of spaces for those who live, work and play in the urban realm. Key threads of her work are to create new open spaces within challenged communities and to improve access to recreational resources. A Fellow of the ASLA, she is the recipient of over 100 national and local design awards for public open space projects and is published extensively in national and international publications. Ms. Nielsen believes that advocacy and education are critical avenues to address change in the urban environment and has served on numerous task forces and authored many position papers.

In addition, Ms. Nielsen is a Professor of Urban Design and Landscape Architecture at Pratt Institute in both the Graduate and Undergraduate Schools of Architecture and currently serves as President for the Public Design Commission of the City of New York. Born in Paris, Ms. Nielsen holds degrees in Urban Planning from Smith College; in Landscape Architecture from City College of New York; and in and in Construction Management from Pratt Institute.

Mathew is driven by the opportunity to play a small part in the big changes undergoing how we use, produce and store energy. He is currently the Vice President, Distributed Energy Development at National Grid, where he is responsible for developing and evaluating opportunities to further the deployment of distributed energy assets. Previously, Mathew led originations for KRoad DG, a PE platform focused on monetizing new business models that employ energy storage and other dispatchable DERs.

Mathew first entered the energy industry as a founding member of Yingli Green Energy’s American subsidiary, where he severed on its leadership committee through its rise to world’s largest solar panel manufacture. At Yingli he built and led the sales and operations teams and later spearheaded corporate development efforts. Prior to solar, he led teams within PwC’s Strategy Group in the formulation of growth strategy, facilitation of new market entry and evaluation of strategic acquisitions for leading private equity firms and Fortune 500 clients.

Mathew also worked at Honeywell (NYSE:HON), Praxair (NYSE:PX), and semiconductor equipment manufacturer Heller Industries, focusing on business development and product design. He holds an MBA from Cornell University and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from SUNY Buffalo. Mathew lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two daughters, who consistently remind him that anything is possible.