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

Our Principals

Murray S. Liebman, Esq.
President

Murray Liebman founded Liebman & Associates, Inc. ("L&A") in 1997 to provide strategic counsel to senior executives of organizations ranging from Fortune 10 to small entrepreneurial companies on energy and environmental technology issues.

Mr. Liebman served as Government Relations Director for the American Gas Association (AGA), a trade association comprising over 190 natural gas utilities delivering gas to more than 60 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. He 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 groups' technology priorities and investment commitments. Mr. Liebman has testified before Congressional Subcommittees on numerous occasions and educated Executive Branch policy-makers at all levels.

Prior to the AGA, Mr. Liebman served as Executive Vice President of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). SEIA is comprised of 150 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 and the 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 the US Department of Energy's (DOE) 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 ($1.4 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, New Jersey, 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
Director, Government Relations

Kara D'Onofrio is the Director of Government Relations for Liebman & Associates. Since joining L&A, Ms. D'Onofrio has helped to secure multi-million dollar congressional earmarks and executive branch agency grants for L&A clients. Throughout her career, Ms. D'Onofrio has developed over (70) high-profile events of worldwide dignitaries, ranging from Presidents of nations to Supreme Court Justices, from corporate CEOs to television celebrities, from George Tenet (Director of Central Intelligence) to Dr. Paul Wolfowitz (Deputy Secretary of Defense), and a wide assortment of Congressional leaders in between. She brings to L&A a substantive background in public affairs, including government relations, media strategy, speech writing, event logistics and administration.

Prior to joining L&A, Ms. D'Onofrio served as Deputy Director of Protocol and Events in the Office of Public Affairs at Georgetown University. In this position, Ms. D'Onofrio executed all aspects of high-profile events, including logistical timelines, security, transportation flow, facilities, administrator briefings, and media strategy. While at Georgetown, she also served as the university liaison with prominent external organizations.

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

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

Kim 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 was credited with establishing 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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Whit Allen

Whit Allen is a worldwide developer of energy technology businesses with a keen focus on customers' business and organizational issues, predictable income growth and high performance teams. In his executive roles, spanning corporate board and officer positions as well as general management of a $250 million organization with 160 employees, Mr. Allen has engaged stakeholders in both venture startup and Fortune 100 corporate environments. His leadership experience ranges from strategic market, product and business planning to worldwide alliance, sales force, operations and business development in over 30 countries. He has also demonstrated success in high-tech, complex sales across the telecom, industrial, utility, government and OEM markets; creating R&D, manufacturing and marketing joint ventures; and lobbying governmental organizations in the US, Brazil and Mexico.

Mr. Allen advises Liebman & Associates (L&A) on power systems technology, distributed generation, energy security, and power quality and reliability, as well as the applications of such in the telecommunications, utility and high-tech industries. He most recently served as the Executive Vice President of Business Development at Sure Power Corporation, the pioneer of high availability distributed generation systems for mission-critical applications. Sure Power retained L&A, and through this relationship won multi-year, multi-million dollar awards from the US Departments of Energy and Transportation.

Prior to joining Sure Power, Mr. Allen was Global Sales Vice President for the Power Systems division of Lucent Technologies and led a turnaround of the division's business in Asia. Before being promoted to that position, he was Managing Director of Latin America where he personally developed a $100M business from scratch and was presented with Lucent's highest sales honor. Prior to his tenure at Lucent, he directed high-tech sales across the globe for AT&T's Microelectronics Group and served in marketing, sales and technical capacities for other AT&T divisions.

Mr. Allen is fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University and a Master's degree (International MBA) from Thunderbird, The Garvin School of International Management where he graduated with distinction. The author of numerous technical papers on critical power systems and a lecturer on the subject of distributed generation, his career has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal and his opinions have appeared in the New York Times.

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David Berry

David Berry comes to L&A having served for six years at the White House Council on Environmental Quality and at the US Department of the Interior for a decade. He is an internationally renowned expert on sustainable development metrics. At the White House, David co-founded and ran the Sustainable Water Resources Roundtable where federal agencies, states, corporations and NGO¹s work on sustainability of water resources and seek research collaboration. He also founded and chaired Interagency Groups on Sustainable Development Indicators and Industrial Ecology. Under his leadership the work raised awareness of environmental, social and economic trends, supported collaboration among agencies and encouraged creative action. He currently works with the US Department of Defense developing metrics for sustainability of US Military Bases for the Strategic Environment Research and Development Program, a joint venture of the Department of Defense, Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency.

David has spoken throughout the US and Europe, Asia, and the Americas. He was invited to speak on sustainability and spirituality at the Russian Academy of Science to scientists from around the world and has served on two committees of the National Academy of Science of the US. He was U.S. delegate to an OECD forum on sustainable development and led the US team on information for decision-making at the Commission on Sustainable Development at several United Nations meetings.

Dave was an economist for the Canadian Ministry of Natural Resources and in the 1970's he was a principal in a corporation applying computer control for energy management in large buildings and factories. Later, when his wife became a US diplomat he ran an international trading company in Korea and Ecuador trading in a wide range of materials and manufactured goods. He resigned from the Federal Government in 2001 to become an independent consultant. Mr. Berry has performed often on Korean and American television and radio including on National Public Radio's "The Prairie Home Companion".

In his consulting, David Berry encourages people to see their own activities in a broader and deeper context. When sustainability is seen as an opportunity rather than a sacrifice, people are inspired to move to make their vision happen.

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Michael D. Ryan, Major General, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.)

Prior to affiliating with L&A, Major General Ryan held the position of Executive Vice President Government Business for Rolls-Royce in North America. In his 9 years with the company, General Ryan was responsible for furthering the company's business interests and relationships with the Executive and Legislative branches of the United States and Canada. Over that period of time, Rolls-Royce's position with the U.S. Department of Defense and with U.S. based Airlines nearly doubled, and the company's defense portfolio grew to include positions on four of the top eight DoD aircraft programs, two multi-billion dollar DoD R&D programs, the next generation destroyer, and one of the two Littoral Combat Ship variants for the U.S. Navy. General Ryan was also instrumental in the establishment of a fuel cells business here in the United States and, until leaving the company, was a member of the Board of Directors of Rolls-Royce Fuel Systems, USA, Inc.

Before joining Rolls-Royce, General Ryan enjoyed a long and distinguished career as a United States Marine. A Vietnam veteran with 120 missions over Laos and Vietnam, he later helped found the USMC's "Top Gun" school (MAWTS-1), for which he was named Marine Corps Aviator of The Year in 1979. After a tour as Aide to the Commander of the fledgling Central Command and then to the Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Ryan was chosen to command the first squadron to fly the second generation Harrier, the AV-8B. After War College and another stint as Aide to the Commandant, he returned to MAWTS-1 as its commander. He then served staff tours overseas and in the Pentagon until his promotion to Brigadier General in 1993. During the next five years as a General Officer, General Ryan served as the Legislative Assistant to the Commandant, Deputy Chief of Legislative Affairs to the Secretary of the Navy, Deputy Commander of the Second Marine Expeditionary Force, and, from 1996-1998, as Commanding General of the Second Marine Aircraft Wing, a force of some 450 combat aircraft and 15,000 Marines and Sailors.

General Ryan holds a BA from Siena College, is a Distinguished Graduate of The Basic School and a graduate of National War College. He is a non-executive director of Pursuit Dynamics, plc, a member of the Board of Directors of the Washington Airports Task Force, a Trustee for the Marine Corps University Foundation, and a member of the Selection Committee for the prestigious Collier Trophy. In 2007, General Ryan was awarded The Distinguished American Award by the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation.

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Casey Beyer

Casey Beyer serves as an independent contractor to L&A, bringing nearly three decades of experience across all levels of government, as well as the private and non-profit arenas. He has served Democratic and Republican Members of the US House and Senate, served the State of California as Chief Assistant Secretary of State, and has directed Government Affairs and Public Relations in the high-tech, real estate, and public/non-profit sectors.

Mr. Beyer most recently served as Director of Community Development in California for John Laing Homes, the second largest private homebuilder in America. Prior to that, he was appointed Chief Assistant Secretary of State for California, a role in which he was the key contact for the agency with government officials throughout the state and led efforts to build strong relationships with the business, non-profit and citizen advocate groups of California.

In the high-tech space, he was Public Policy Director for Exodus Communications, a Silicon Valley high-tech company recognized as the global leader for Internet data center design and e-commerce infrastructure. In this role Mr. Beyer established alliances between the data center infrastructure business team and the government sector.

From 1989 to 2000, Mr. Beyer was the Chief of Staff and Senior Staff Director for Congressman and state Senator Tom Campbell who represented Silicon Valley. Mr. Beyer was the key staff person for energy and environmental policy. A significant accomplishment was development of the Northern California Congressional delegation's bi-partisan support of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Act that created the largest ocean sanctuary off California's coast from Cambria to Half Moon Bay.

Mr. Beyer has held leadership positions at the Valley Industry & Commerce Association, Silicon Valley Leadership Group, and American Electronics Association. He completed his master studies at San Jose State University in Urban and Regional Planning with academic emphasis on Energy Conservation Management and an undergraduate degree at the University of California Santa Barbara in Urban American History & Environmental Studies.

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Marcus DuBois King, Ph.D.

Marcus King maintains expertise in a broad range of energy and environmental issues. King has served as Research Director of the Sustainable Energy Institute (SEI), working with large corporate energy producers and consumers to promote dialogue on clean energy policies and technologies. Prior to SEI, King was Senior Manager for Energy and Security Programs at a consulting firm where he represented domestic and international corporate clients engaged in nuclear fuel cycle-related activities.

During the Clinton Administration, King served as Staff Specialist to the Deputy Under Secretary for Environmental Security at the US Department of Defense (DoD). With an annual budget of over $5 Billion, the Deputy Under Secretary was DoD's Chief Environmental Officer responsible for environmental safety and occupational health policies and programs, including waste clean-up.

Prior to DoD, King served the Deputy Secretary and Under Secretary of the US Department of Energy (DOE). These officials maintained oversight of all issues relating to the National Laboratories and the nuclear weapons complex, including environmental and radioactive waste management. At DOE, he also addressed options for restructuring the liquid fuel sector in South Africa.

King received a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in international relations from the Fletcher School at Tufts University with concentrations in International Environmental Policy and National Security Studies. At Fletcher, King wrote his doctoral dissertation on the national security implications of global warming. He has published numerous trade press articles on nuclear issues.

King is a policy advisor to the President of Georgetown University where he works with University organizations and academic leaders to plan and create interdisciplinary alignment with international initiatives that exploit the effects of globalization to enhance institutional development. King has also served as an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown and George Washington Universities where he has taught courses on environmental security and sustainable development.

King currently serves L&A as an independent contractor and advisor on nuclear waste and sustainable energy.

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