Renewable Energy Lobbyists: Clean Sustainable Green Power & Climate Change Government Incentives

Our Team

Murray S. Liebman, Esq.
President

Murray Liebman founded Liebman & Associates, Inc. ("L&A") in 1997 to provide clean energy and environmental policy and technology counsel to senior executives of organizations ranging from Fortune 100 companies to smaller entrepreneurial businesses. With Mr. Liebman's strategic counsel, L&A's clients have secured well over one billion dollars ($1B) in federal government investment. This federal investment has leveraged many more billions of dollars of private sector funding for the development and deployment of next-generation clean energy technologies and infrastructure. Mr. Liebman's expertise includes developing teams spanning multiple skill-sets to overcome barriers and achieve advanced Cleantech project successes.

Mr. Liebman served as Government Relations Director for the American Gas Association (AGA), a trade association comprising over 200 natural gas utilities delivering gas to more than 70 million homes and businesses in all 50 states. Together, AGA members account for more than 90 percent of the natural gas delivered in the United States. Mr. Liebman directed the Natural Gas Industry's Research, Development and Deployment (RD&D) Initiative. This Initiative is comprised of natural gas producers, pipelines, distribution companies and equipment manufacturers. Mr. Liebman also served as the RD&D Chairman of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy. In these capacities, he helped establish the group's technology priorities and investment commitments. Mr. Liebman has testified before Congressional Committees and educated Executive Branch policy-makers at all levels.

Prior to AGA, Mr. Liebman served as Executive Vice President of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). SEIA is comprised of 1000 member companies, including manufacturers and utilities, across North America. In this capacity, he advanced regulatory, policy, and financing opportunities to increase solar sales worldwide.

Mr. Liebman's government and political experience is significant. He worked at the US Departments of Energy (DOE) and Interior, and at the White House Office of Environmental Policy. At the White House, he was responsible for co-creating the President's Council for Sustainable Development. Mr. Liebman served three years as a Presidential appointee at DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. At DOE, he helped manage the world's largest program developing and commercializing clean energy technologies across the power, industrial, building and transportation sectors ($2 billion annual budget).

Mr. Liebman is an energy and environmental attorney. Prior to coming to Washington, DC, he practiced with a boutique litigation firm in his hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is admitted to practice law in New York, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia. He earned a Juris Doctorate (J.D.) with honors from Tulane Law School and a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree concentrating in energy and environmental law from the Georgetown University Law Center.

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Kara D'Onofrio Byler
Vice President of Government Affairs

Kara D'Onofrio Byler is Vice President of Government Affairs for Liebman & Associates, and works directly with Members of Congress, Congressional staff and Executive Branch managers to secure technical, financial and policy support for client initiatives. She has been instrumental in securing multi-million dollar appropriations, executive branch agency grants and legislative language for L&A clients.

Ms. Byler is actively engaged in government strategy development and managing the full government affairs portfolio for the energy, telecom, utility and high-tech industries. This includes developing strategies relating to renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy availability and reliability, climate change, energy tax incentives and appropriations.

Ms. Byler adds additional client value through her development of business-to-business transactions involving large-scale residential, commercial, and industrial community and facility development and technology deployment. She also brings to L&A a substantive background in other aspects of public affairs, including media strategy, speech writing and event logistics.

Prior to joining L&A, Ms. D'Onofrio Byler served as Deputy Director of Protocol and Events in the Office of Public Affairs at Georgetown University. There she developed high-profile events with worldwide dignitaries, ranging from Presidents of nations to Supreme Court Justices, from corporate CEOs to television celebrities and a wide assortment of Congressional leaders in between.

Additionally, Ms. Byler has held positions at a national security think tank and on Capitol Hill where she began her career in public affairs conducting legislative research and developing materials for the press on key policy issues.

Ms. D'Onofrio Byler graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University with a major in Government and minor in English.

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Joe Greenberg, Ph.D.

Joe Greenberg comes to L&A, as an independent contractor, with expertise in the areas of corporate and business unit strategy, business development, marketing, and product and project management. Dr. Greenberg serves on L&A's technical team supporting its clients with strategy and government proposal development.

Prior to joining L&A, Dr. Greenberg was a senior leader of the Products team at Plextronics, Inc. responsible for the company's product strategy and roadmap. He led multiple product development teams in defining, creating, pricing and launching new products, including Plextronics' award-winning Organic Photovoltaic Inks. His responsibilities included alignment of all commercial and government programs with the company's product roadmap. In this capacity, he built relationships with federal and local government agencies and sub-contractors to build the Plextronics brand, fulfill contract deliverables and expand opportunities.

Prior to joining Plextronics, Dr. Greenberg was with Applied Materials, Inc. where he led strategic planning, market analysis and business forecasting for a $1B+ business unit and played a central role in growing the business by 5+ points of market share in a $4B sector of the semiconductor capital equipment industry. Prior to joining Applied Materials, he was a consultant with McKinsey & Company where he led clients in fact-based decision making to deliver substantial improvements in operating results and managerial effectiveness in the high tech, healthcare, and finance sectors.

Dr. Greenberg holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Brown University and earned his doctorate in Applied and Engineering Physics from Cornell University.

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Dennis J. Vito

Dennis Vito advises Liebman & Associates, Inc. (L&A) as an independent contractor, on clean energy technologies, providing strategic technical, business, and government policy support across the entire power generation life cycle. Mr. Vito is an energy industry executive with over thirty-eight (38) years of experience specializing in capital projects and strategic business initiatives ranging from mergers and acquisitions to federal government contracts. As an executive with the largest electric industry engineering and construction (E&C) firms he has had direct responsibility for financial and technical performance of engineering divisions with up to $60M in annual revenues.

Mr. Vito had multiple positions of increasing responsibility over eighteen (18) years with E&C firm, Gilbert-Commonwealth (now Worley-Parsons Power). His responsibilities included contract and business management, business and project turnaround, and power plant construction and nuclear plant operations services for U.S. plants such as Limerick, North Anna, Brunswick, Crystal River and Virgil Summer. As Managing Director of Gilbert-Commonwealth, his business responsibilities included nuclear and non-nuclear power projects in the United Kingdom (Tire Burning Plant in Manchester), Egypt (Gas Turbine & Combined Cycle and T&D capital projects), Eastern Europe (Nuclear plant services in Krsko, Slovenia and a District Heating Project in Sofia, Bulgaria) and South Korea (Nuclear Plant support for Ko Ri units 1 & 32). Mr. Vito also served as Director of Business & Technology Development with responsibility for the assessment of new technologies and business acquisition candidates.

Mr. Vito's international energy industry experience also included the turnaround of a $50M Transmission & Distribution (T&D) project for the Egyptian Electricity Authority funded by USAID for E&C firm, Day & Zimmermann Inc.

Mr. Vito's technology experience was broadened with executive management positions in process simulation and information technology systems integration for Autodynamics and Compucom. These positions required the assessment of current technologies in support of the chemical, oil & gas and power generation markets as well as the development and execution of business plans to bring these technology capabilities to market.

Mr. Vito's most recent leadership position involved the turnaround and growth of an aerospace engineering services and technology division for CDI Corporation supporting industry leading original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as GE Aviation, Pratt & Whitney, Sikorsky, Hamilton-Sundstrand and Boeing. During his five (5) year tenure in this position, he also led the acquisition and integration of two (2) Aerospace industry niche businesses.

Mr. Vito has a Chemical Engineering and Nuclear Power Systems Engineering educational background. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry/Engineering from the United States Naval Academy in 1973. In addition, after graduation from the United States Naval Academy, he served six (6) years in positions of increasing responsibility aboard nuclear powered submarines including certification as Chief Nuclear Engineer. Additionally, he earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree concentrating in marketing from St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he also served as an adjunct professor.

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Kimberley Anne Kendall, Esq.
Vice President, Natural Resources & Business Continuity

Kim Kendall manages L&A's pro-bono environmental activities. This work has ranged from the deployment of energy efficient windows and day lighting at schools to the deployment of photovoltaic systems at off-grid locations supporting marine mammal observation and education.

Ms. Kendall comes to Liebman & Associates with more than 20 years experience with federal and state government, spanning the executive and legislative branches. During this time, her areas of expertise have included natural resources, clean energy technologies, and business continuity. Before joining L&A, she served five years in senior positions at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Ms. Kendall was an attorney in the Office of the General Counsel where she focused on natural resource damage assessment and restoration cases. Ms. Kendall was also Senior Advisor to the Undersecretary for Oceans and Atmosphere where she participated in the establishment of a federally protected sanctuary for horseshoe crabs. Immediately after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, she co-chaired, with NOAA's General Counsel, an intra-agency task force that developed NOAA's Continuity of Operations Plan and for this effort was awarded the Agency's highest honor, the Administrator's Award.

For seven years, Ms. Kendall served at the US Department of Energy (DOE) as a Senior Advisor in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) where she created and administered the federal government's Million Solar Roofs Initiative and had responsibility for the promotion of instituting pollution prevention and energy efficiency technologies and best practices for federal government buildings. Ms. Kendall spent several years in DOE's Policy and International Affairs Office where she supported DOE in bi-lateral discussions and trade missions with India. During her tenures at DOE and NOAA, Ms. Kendall maintained a security clearance.

Ms. Kendall commenced her extensive career in environmental and natural resource issues as an attorney at the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. When in Massachusetts, she worked for a number of years in the Boston Office of Senator John Kerry. Her educational background includes a Juris Doctorate (J.D.) from the New England School of Law and she is a Member of the Massachusetts Bar.

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