Powering Change in Tech and Energy
A Conversation with Marc Oman PhD ’03
Marc Oman, BS ‘03 IEOR, has followed a winding path to impactful leadership in tech and energy, culminating in his current role as Principal, Energy & Infrastructure, at Google. Yet, as he shares, there was no master plan guiding him—just a commitment to curiosity, hard work, and a willingness to pivot. In this Q&A, Marc reflects on how his Berkeley IEOR background has shaped his leadership amid the rapid changes in tech and the sweeping transformation of the energy industry.
What inspired your decision to pursue an MBA at Harvard after earning your IEOR degree from UC Berkeley?
I decided to pursue an MBA after 4 years in management consulting. I wanted to pivot away from consulting and become an expert in the industry of my choice, which ended up being in cleantech. My undergraduate IEOR degree gave me a solid foundation for some of the more quantitative aspects of business school, even if I had to work harder to fill certain gaps in other courses such as accounting and finance. The “systems thinking” approach taught in engineering school helped me with the case method used at Harvard Business School. Course work aside, the internships and projects I pursued at Berkeley as an undergraduate played an equally important role. For example, in 2001 I joined a team of undergraduate classmates on a project to advise PG&E on a new program to keep track of residential solar PV projects. This planted the seeds of my interest in cleantech, which “germinated” during my MBA at Harvard and helped me secure MBA internships in cleantech investment banking and finally land a job post-MBA in this field. Looking back at my career from where I am today, my trajectory might look linear. But in reality I didn’t have a grand plan. I mainly followed my instinct and worked hard. I also had good fortune and several great mentors along the way.
How did your background in business and engineering help you succeed in such dynamic and evolving industries as tech and energy?
Tech and energy are significant economic sectors and both are undergoing massive transformations. In my ten years at Google, I have seen the company’s focus evolve from desktop to mobile-first, then to offering Cloud-based solutions, and finally to now embedding AI in everything we do. Understanding and adapting to this constantly evolving business environment is both difficult and exciting. On the energy side, the challenge ahead is no less daunting or important. Collectively, we are working to transform a centralized, fossil fuel-driven power generation system into a decarbonized, decentralized, digital energy economy. My team and I at Google are working, along with many others, to change a centuries-old power system in just a few decades. All of that with the damage of climate change disruption becoming more visible every year. On a personal level, I always think carefully about breadth vs depth of knowledge. Both are often required to have an impact on organizations. Knowing how to balance the two, being solid on the details while knowing when it’s time to “zoom out” and think big picture, is something I am always striving to improve.
Can you share a standout project at Google?
In 2022, Google partnered with ENGIE, a French utility, to develop AI-based tools to improve the value of their renewable energy portfolio by improving the accuracy of wind production and the price at which wind electricity should be sold (or bid, to be more specific). I spent almost a year developing the basis for this partnership, explaining how short-term energy market trading works and assisting ENGIE and my Google Cloud colleagues in thinking about ways to ingest weather data and historical wind farm production. Successfully closing this partnership required not just technical knowledge but also demonstrating how it would create value to the management teams in both organizations.
What specific skills, experiences, or mindsets do you believe are essential for leadership roles in tech and energy?
Thinking back to my undergraduate days, I had no idea I wanted to work in tech or energy. All I knew was that I enjoyed learning and working in small teams. I would encourage IEOR students to focus their energy on developing the right mindset first, before thinking about skills or experience. Having the right mindset means developing resilience, humility, and knowing how to let go. Another important piece of advice: find good mentors, ideally 2-3 people who can provide advice among family, friends and professional circles. Skills and experiences will flow from there.
As the leader of Google’s initiative to achieve 24/7 carbon-free energy sourcing by 2030, what are the biggest challenges you’ve encountered in scaling renewable energy solutions across different countries, each with unique regulations?
Scaling renewable energy requires getting many things right. I’ll mention three. First, we need to accelerate commercializing novel carbon-free energy technologies, such as advanced geothermal or small modular nuclear reactors (SMR). Second, we need to change the way energy markets are designed, creating more incentives for demand-side flexibility and reducing capacity-related subsidies for fossil-fuel generation. Third, national governments need to set more ambitious targets for decarbonization and be held accountable if they don’t live up to them. More generally, collectively we need to ensure a “just energy transition” in which countries that are responsible for historical climate emissions help finance climate change mitigation efforts in poorer countries.