A Berkeley civic leader, small business owner, and pioneer of progressive digital politics, Brent Blackaby was elected to the Berkeley City Council in November 2024 to take action on our most pressing challenges – including crime & public safety, streets & transportation, affordable housing, wildfire safety, school safety, and homelessness. Brent brings a fresh perspective – informed by years of practical problem-solving experience, relationship building, and a can-do attitude – to get things done for the people of Berkeley. Brent and his partner, Larry Huynh, have lived in District 6 for the past 20 years. Their two children attend our local public school, Cragmont Elementary, where Brent chaired the School Site Council. He co-founded Make Our Schools Safe (MOSS), an organization working to improve campus security at every Berkeley school, and was appointed by the Superintendent to serve on the Berkeley School District’s safety committee. Brent also served on the Berkeley Police Accountability Board, where he provided citizen oversight of the Berkeley Police Department. Brent has co-founded two Berkeley businesses, including Trilogy Interactive – a pioneering digital communications company that has helped elect dozens of progressive leaders to the U.S. Senate and House, including Senators Barbara Boxer and Elizabeth Warren, and fight for statewide ballot initiatives to defend marriage equality, improve our schools, and protect the environment. Brent also founded and currently leads Confidently, a consumer privacy company that helps people take back control of their personal data across the internet. Brent spends his “free” time refereeing his kids’ soccer games and as an alumni interviewer for Berkeley-area high school seniors applying to Harvard. Bio from https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/council-roster/brent-blackaby

Principal Product Manager and Finance PhD building decision grade data and risk platforms. I lead quantitative product development at Jupiter Intelligence, translating complex models and large-scale asset data into clear financial outputs used by banks, insurers, asset managers, and corporates. My background spans academic finance, applied research, and product execution: from publishing and teaching finance to shipping scalable, defensible systems with engineering and data science teams. I’m drawn to problems involving uncertainty, risk, and long-term decision-making. Text from https://www.linkedin.com/in/wahibmghazni/

Dave Jones is the Director of the Climate Risk Initiative at UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (CLEE) and a former Senior Fellow at The ClimateWorks Foundation. Dave Jones served two terms as California’s Insurance Commissioner from 2011 to 2018. He led the Department of Insurance and was responsible for regulating the largest insurance market in the United States where insurers collect $310 Billion a year in premiums and have $5.5 trillion in assets under management. Jones led the Department’s response to California’s increasingly deadly and destructive catastrophic wildfires, including the 2015 Butte and Valley Fires, the 2017 NorthBay and Thomas fires, and the 2018 Mendocino, Carr, Woolsey, and Camp Fires. Dave Jones is a national leader and expert on climate risk and insurance regulation. From 2011 to 2018 he led the implementation of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Climate Risk Disclosure Survey of insurers. In 2016 he launched the Climate Risk Carbon Initiative which required insurers to disclose publicly their investments in coal, oil, gas and utilities. Concluding that there is a significant risk that coal investments will become “stranded assets” as markets and governments move away from burning coal consistent with the Paris Agreement, he asked insurers to divest their investments in coal. He was the first regulator to join the United Nations Environment Program’s (UNEP) Principals for Sustainable Insurance (PSI). Jones was the Founding Chairperson of the international Sustainable Insurance Forum (SIF) which is a network of insurance regulators from around the globe who are developing and sharing supervisory practices related to climate risk and insurance sustainability. Jones was one of the first financial regulators to endorse the recommendations of the G-20 Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). In 2018 Jones led the California Department of Insurance in undertaking a “2 Degree scenario analysis” of the transition and physical risks facing the top 600 insurers’ investment portfolios, with the assistance of the 2 Degree Investing Initiative. Prior to serving as Insurance Commissioner, Jones served in the California State Assembly (2004-2010), as a Sacramento City Councilmember (1999-2004), as Special Assistant and then Counsel to United States Attorney General Janet Reno (1995-1998) and provided free legal representation to low income families and individuals with the non-profit Legal Services of Northern California (1989-1995). Jones was one of 13 Americans in 1995 awarded the prestigious White House Fellowship in recognition of his academic, civic and professional accomplishments. Jones holds degrees from DePauw University (B.A), Harvard Law School (J.D.) and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government (MPP). He and his wife, Kim Flores, have two college-age children, Isabelle and William. Bio from https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/clee/about/people/dave-jones-2/

Holly Neber is Chief Resilience Officer of AEI Consultants, an employee-owned property consulting firm. Ms. Neber chairs the ASTM International Task Group for E3429-24 Standard Guide for the assessment of physical climate risk and resilience for commercial properties known as the Property Resilience Assessment (PRA). In addition to her role at AEI, Ms. Neber previously served as global President of CREW Network and the National Engineering and Environmental Due Diligence Association (NEEDDA) and is an active member of the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council (CREFC) Property Risk & Resilience Steering Committee, a founding chair of the CREW Network Sustainability Council, and active member of the Environmental Bankers Association (EBA) ESG Committee. Ms. Neber is a frequent speaker on the topic of climate risk, natural hazard resilience and commercial real estate trends. Recent speaking engagements include American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL), Real Estate Investment Advisory Council (REIAC), Banking & Finance Forum, Risk Management Association (RMA), Greenbuild, Bisnow, Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), Trepp, EBA, CREFC, MIT Center for Real Estate, and more. AEI Consultants provides building, environmental, land, climate risk & sustainability assessment and appraisal services throughout North America.