How are the decisions we are making today on energy and climate – locally and nationally – vital to our future national security?

Please join us for a discussion about energy security and national security at our December 13th Green Needham Meeting.

The conversation will be led by two outstanding young American veterans. Jon Gensler and Wade Barnes are graduates of West Point and the Naval Academy, respectively, and both served in overseas deployments.

Jon and Wade will begin by describing what the choices we have made as a society on energy and climate change have meant to our armed forces and those who serve in them. They will outline how that experience has made clear how much our future national security depends on the choices we make next. Finally, they will discuss some of the ways the military itself is pointing our way forward, such as the Navy’s plans for a fossil-fuel free carrier task force.

Preparing themselves to help shape our energy and climate future, Jon and Wade are currently enrolled in joint degree programs at Harvard’s Kennedy School and business school (MIT/Sloan and Dartmouth/Tuck).

Read more about them below. We look forward to hosting them in Needham and hope you will join us to participate in the discussion.

Jon Gensler

Jon Gensler was born and raised in Huntington, WV, where much of his family still resides. After graduating with the Class of 2000 from the United States Military Academy at West Point, Jon served as a tank platoon leader and infantry mortar platoon leader with the 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment out of Ft Carson, CO. After serving in Iraq from 2003-2004, Jon returned to Ft Carson and completed his service in 2005.

Jon has since spent a year living abroad in New Zealand and over two years in sales for Lutron Electronics in Coopersburg, PA. While there, Jon co-founded a branch of the US Green Building Council in the Lehigh Valley and earned the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design professional accreditation (LEED-AP®). Jon is currently pursuing a dual MBA/MPA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and Harvard University’s John F Kennedy School of Government, expecting to earn both in May 2011. He is a vibrant and strong advocate for clean energy development, active with Operation FREE, and brags about his West Virginia roots to anyone who will listen.

Wade Barnes

Wade Barnes is currently an MBA candidate at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and an MPA candidate at Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Prior to this he spent five years as a naval officer assigned to ships in the United States Navy. Wade completed four deployments to the Middle East and Southeast Asia during his service, participating in a wide range of activities ranging from humanitarian aid efforts in the Pacific Rim to counter-narcotics efforts in the Gulf of Oman and anti-piracy operations near Somalia.

Since departing the military Wade has worked at the Virginia-based energy firm Apex Wind Energy. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the United States Naval Academy, and his interests include renewable energy and national security. In his free time Wade enjoys backpacking and SCUBA diving.