Dylan Gretok is Founder and CEO at Seagull EcoChem, while also earning his degree in chemical engineering, economics, and entrepreneurship at North Carolina State University. Inspired by his passion for the environment, Dylan is building a more sustainable future by commercializing a seaweed-derived plastics packaging replacement, which he hopes will remove the green premium on packaging alternatives and drive mass adoption. His work is supported by beVisioneers, the Mercedes-Benz Fellowship, and by NC State's Innovation and Entrepreneurship department.

Dylan shares with us his founding journey at Seagull, why he believes his technology is well positioned to displace existing, environmentally harmful materials, and how he overcomes challenges as a student entrepreneur. We also discuss his love of the outdoors, how students can persevere in the face of adversity, and staying grounded while juggling multiple competing commitments.

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James Johnston is a PhD-turned-entrepreneur who has spent the last 12 years building toward a single thesis: that energy markets need to be redesigned from the ground up for a distributed future. This venture, Piclo, is the first Distribute Energy Resource (DER) flexibility marketplace in the United States.

The global energy transition has an infrastructure problem. Building new transmission lines and generation capacity takes years — queues are long, supply chains are strained, and the economy can't wait. Meanwhile, we are in the wake of the AI boom where data centers are multiplying, electricity demand is surging, and affordability is becoming a political crisis. The answer, according to James, is unlocking the power of distributed energy resources.

DER — batteries, solar, controllable loads, and other small-scale assets — is the lowest-cost, fastest way to build energy infrastructure. But unlocking its potential requires more than just deploying the technology. It requires the markets, systems, and procurement mechanisms to match. That's the gap Piclo was built to fill.

Piclo's flexibility marketplace connects utilities and hyperscalers with DER owners, operators, and aggregators through an open, competitive platform. Instead of utilities prescribing specific technologies through patchwork bilateral programs, they post a need — capacity, demand response, location, timeframe — and let the market respond. The result is better prices, more competition, and a critical mass of liquidity that bilateral contracting can never achieve.

Tune in to learn why the era of DER has finally arrived.

Keynotes:

• Why data center load growth is forcing utilities to rethink how they procure energy

• What it takes to build a two-sided marketplace in a regulated industry

• How a marketplace model unlocks competition, liquidity, and lower costs for DER

• And much more

Book Recommendation from the Show: Amory Lovins' Small is Profitable

Adam Cowie-Haskell is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), where he focuses on electricity markets within BPC's Energy Program. His energy interest is in improving regulation, enhancing efficiency and lower costs in wholesale electricity markets throughout the United States. In 2025, he co-authored a report for the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability calling for greater load flexibility as a solution to accommodate large load growth. The report has been cited in multiple Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and state proceedings.

Adam tells us about the critical role that policy plays in the proper functioning of electricity markets. He walks the audience through the history of wholesale market restructuring and the new challenges that the electric power systems in an era of rising load growth. Adam provides an overview of current policy proposals designed to lower the cost of electricity for residential customers and discusses what reforms are needed to catalyze lasting change. Adam also shares his advice to students looking to break into electric power markets and improve their quantitative skills.

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