Brandpie Energy - Issue 05

How Rising Stars are tackling energy's challenges

overclaim. Instead, they are rebuilding trust from the inside out through clarity, presence, and evidence. Clarity is a leadership discipline For this new generation, clarity doesn’t start with communications. It starts with decisions. At Fervo Energy, Chief of Staff Nour Ghadanfar is helping lead one of the first next-generation geothermal projects in the US at scale. The stakes are high, the scrutiny intense, and the margin for error slim. “Clear, transparent communication lies at the heart of excellence in execution and planning, especially when you’re doing something for the first time,” she explains. But clarity, in this context, isn’t about simplifying the story for external audiences. It’s about aligning internally before saying anything at all. “One of our core values is ‘do what we say we’re going to do,’” Nour adds. “You will rarely find us saying something we’re not fully committed to delivering.” That restraint matters. In an industry where credibility can evaporate overnight, overpromising can be a risk. At Con Edison, Lucia Game, Senior Specialist – Electric Vehicle Demonstration Projects, sees clarity as a matter of sequence. Working on electric mobility and large-scale demonstration projects, her focus is not on flooding stakeholders with information, but on giving them what they need, when they need it. “The goal is well-informed decisions,” she says. “When expectations are clear, confidence follows.” Across roles and technologies, the pattern is consistent: clarity is not a communications output. It’s a leadership discipline, rooted in alignment, accountability, and follow-through. If clarity starts inside, trust is earned outside – often far from the spotlight. Maile Resta, Communications Manager at rPlus Energies, views audiences as collaborators, believing trust is built face- to-face and true understanding comes from spending time with the communities and teams you serve. "I don’t really identify as a PR or comms person,” she says. “I identify more as a Trust is built through presence, not campaigns

Clear, transparent communication lies at the heart of excellence in execution and planning, especially when you’re doing something for the first time.

Rising voices. Rising ambition

Nour Ghadanfar Chief of Staff Fervo Energy

Trust no longer follows scale. A new generation is earning it through proof, not spin.

If people don’t trust you, you're just throwing spaghetti at the wall and watching all of it fall.

P rogress doesn’t fail because energy leaders now. And it’s where a new generation is stepping in, not to polish the message, but to change how belief is earned. "If people don’t trust you, you're just throwing spaghetti at the wall and watching all of it fall,” says Kristina Zagame, Senior Researcher at EnergySage. It’s not a line you’d expect from an industry built on engineering, regulation, and certainty. But it captures the shift underway. Across geothermal, renewables development, utilities, marketplaces, and climate media, a new cohort of rising leaders is rejecting spin, noise, and solutions don’t exist. It fails when people don’t believe them. That is the real challenge facing

Kristina Zagame, Senior Researcher EnergySage

Rising Stars in Energy Branding

Brandpie proudly sponsors the CHARGE Rising Stars in Energy Branding award.

Max Bhugra-Schmid Senior Consultant, Brandpie

Brandpie Energy - Issue 05

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