Archives: Speakers

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Eric Chaves

Eric Chaves is the founder of Terrament, a startup building long-duration energy storage using gravity batteries deployed deep underground. Terrament’s novel design combines existing technology from the mining and wind industries to maximize the two simple ingredients of gravity storage: height and weight.

Eric is an entrepreneur and technologist with a diverse background spanning architecture, industrial design, and software. With a passion for design and experimentation, this broad, evolving experience has always informed his multidisciplinary approach to entrepreneurship. Terrament is his third company. His former companies include a media-tech startup called Antenna, and a software and design studio called Syllable.


Tara McDermoth

Tara McDermoth represents EmPower Solar as the Chair of the Long Island Solar & Storage Alliance, where she is the government liaison for policy issues related to solar and energy storage.

Prior to joining the EmPower Solar team, Tara was the Long Island Program Coordinator for Citizens Campaign for the Environment, where she organized educational and advocacy campaigns on various environmental issues on Long Island. She also spent three years as a “Young Island” blogger for the Long Island Business News. She has been active in various professional and environmental organizations, including the C3E Women in Energy group on Long Island and serves on the Advisory Board for the Renewable Energy and Sustainability Center at Farmingdale State College. Tara also co-founded two nonprofit organizations focused on smart growth and keeping young professionals on Long Island.

In 2018, Tara was named one of the Top 50 Women in Business by the Long Island Business News. She was also inducted into the Social Justice Distinguished Scholar Academy for her work in environmental justice issues in collaboration with Farmingdale State College.

Tara earned her B.A. in Sociology at SUNY Stony Brook and her Master of Public Administration at CUNY Baruch, both with a focus on environmental studies. She is also a “Semester at Sea” alumni, where she completed part of her degree while traveling at sea through several different global ports. In 2011, she was one of four U.S. Climate Change Professional Fellows for the Australia cohort, where she worked with Australian researchers, industries, and advocates dealing with energy and climate issues.


Matthew Isaacs

Matthew Isaacs is a commercial real estate and property technology executive. Matthew has currently serves as the Vice President of Business Development and Sales at Radiator Labs, where he dedicates his work to decarbonizing the world’s legacy buildings. At Radiator Labs, Matthew has established several key partnerships, developed a shared savings service model, and built a $100M+ sales and project pipeline.

He previously led a sales team at Eastern Consolidated that completed over $150M in mid-market investment sales and development site transactions. Prior to joining Eastern Consolidated, Matthew spearheaded the redevelopment of a 75,000-square-foot factory in Brooklyn into a modern office building now occupied by WeWork. Matthew has also rehabilitated and redeveloped several multifamily properties in New York City.