DANBURY, CONN. — Executives from a leading solar energy service provider and New England’s largest utility system will discuss “Sustainable Energy Solutions?: Critical Next Steps for Renewable Energy Integration” in   a panel as part of a new forum at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, March 25, 2014, at Western Connecticut State University. Admission to this event, sponsored by the Ancell School of Business, will be reserved exclusively for WCSU students, faculty and staff. The panel will be held in Room 218 of the Westside Classroom Building on the university’s Westside campus, 43 Lake Ave. Extension in Danbury.

The panel will feature SunEdison Managing Director of Regulatory Affairs for the Eastern United States Fred Zalcman and Northeast Utilities Manager of Pricing Strategy and Administration Edward Davis. The discussion will be moderated by Mr. Wil Chow, Esq., previous managing director and chief regional counsel at JPMorgan Chase, who has conducted and published research studies about business ethics, corporate responsibility and governance.

The Ancell Forum on Sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics in Business will continue to sponsor events throughout the coming academic years and provide a venue for dialog on the promotion of sustainable enterprises, stakeholder accountability and ethically responsible business management. The current panel will focus on the use of future of energy generation, distribution, and net-metering in Connecticut. Discussion will include consideration of the emergence of distributive energy generation as a means to bring energy conversion units closer to energy consumers, with the goal of providing improved efficiency and sustainability as an alternative to the traditional centralized system of power generation.

Zalcman, who received a joint degree in law and public administration from Indiana University, has more than two decades’ experience as a policy analyst and attorney specializing in promotion of market structures and regulatory policies that support energy efficiency, renewable resources and clean distributed power generation. He served as executive director of the Pace Law School Energy and Climate Center prior to joining SunEdison, a Maryland-based company whose mission statement sets the goal “to make solar services a viable and rewarding alternative to traditional energy sources.” The Alliance for Clean Energy New York recognized Zalcman in January 2013 as recipient of its Outstanding Industry Leader Award for “his dedicated efforts on behalf of creating a robust, self-sustaining market for solar energy in New York State.”

Davis joined the Northeast Utilities System in 1979 and has held central staff and field positions with responsibilities in areas including consumer economics, customer engineering, wholesale and retail marketing, and rate and regulatory affairs at the state and federal level. Recipient of a Master of Business Administration from the University of Connecticut, he has participated in various electric power industry organizations as a representative of Northeast Utilities, which provides electricity and natural gas service to approximately 3.6 million customers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

For more information, contact Ancell School Coordinator Kathleen Lindenmayer at lindenmayerk@wcsu.edu or (203) 837-8511.

Western Connecticut State University offers outstanding faculty in a range of quality academic programs. Our diverse university community provides students an enriching and supportive environment that takes advantage of the unique cultural offerings of Western Connecticut and New York. Our vision: To be an affordable public university with the characteristics of New England’s best small private universities.