Jackie Burman

Vice President, Operations and Finance

Jackie Burman is the Vice President of Operations and Finance at Securing America’s Future Energy. In this role, Jackie oversees finances, human resources, and operations for the organization.

Prior to joining SAFE, Ms. Burman spent more than 4 years in Cape Town, South Africa where she assisted a wide range of non-profit organizations in reaching their funding goals. During her time abroad, she also helped create a fundraising academy to provide young adults with the skills necessary to begin careers in development. She worked in both marketing and fundraising in DC before this.

Ms. Burman holds a Bachelor of Art’s Degree from UNC-Chapel Hill and Masters’ degrees in business administration and Jewish Communal Service from Brandeis University.

Thomas Coleman

Executive Director, Grid Security Project

Thomas Coleman is Executive Director of SAFE’s Grid Security Project.

Prior to SAFE, he was the Chief Technical Advisor at NERC, where he worked with industry and stakeholders to assess, report on, and provide recommendations to ensure the reliability of the North American Bulk Power System. Mr. Coleman led the efforts around NERC’s natural gas risk strategy and was the NERC lead for NERC’s Electric Gas Working Group. He also led initiatives for the NERC Reliability Issues Steering Committee, identifying and providing solution sets for grid reliability and security risks as well as efforts around long term, short term and historical reliability assessments. Mr. Coleman joined NERC in 2014. Before joining NERC, Mr. Coleman traded power and natural gas commodities and directed long term origination at JP Morgan and Williams Energy.

He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Florida and his MBA from Vanderbilt University.

Gourang Wakade

Vice President of Development

Gourang Wakade is the Vice President of Development for SAFE and its sister organization, the Electrification Coalition (EC).

He leads a lean development team to develop and execute a comprehensive fundraising strategy that yields sustained multi-year funding results.  Building on the success achieved to date by SAFE EC, Gourang manages a collective fundraising portfolio of $16 Million and is in charge of the overall development systems and strategy while focusing primarily on identifying, cultivating, and soliciting high net worth individuals and foundations, with particular attention on increasing unrestricted funding for both organizations.

He is an experienced fundraiser with a large and varied global network and has proven success in raising and securing multi-year six-figure plus funding commitments for complex and demanding projects across a variety of industries including non-profit, corporate finance, and higher education. Prior to SAFE, Gourang served as the Vice President of Development for the Council on Competitiveness, a non-profit membership association of CEOs, University Presidents, Labor Leaders, and National Lab Directors. In addition to managing membership, and development at the Council on Competitiveness, Gourang was the lead for the organization’s bi-annual fundraiser, the America Competes Award, that honored Business and Civic Leaders for their contributions to ensure American Competitiveness. He also produced and managed sponsorships for the organization’s Annual National Competitiveness Summit. Gourang also served as the Director of Conferences and Engagement, for the Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils where he actively recruited leaders from around the world to join and fund the establishment of the organization.

Gourang has a Bachelor’s in Arts degree from the College of Wooster, Oh. He also serves on the Fundraising Committee for the Spring Gala of the Hillwood Estate Museum and Gardens in Washington, DC.

Jeffrey Gerlach

Vice President, Policy Strategy 

Jeff Gerlach is Vice President of Policy Strategy at SAFE.

Prior to joining SAFE, Jeff worked at a management consulting firm, where he supported the Department of Energy’s Office of Petroleum Reserves and Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability. He previously interned and consulted for SAFE in 2013, contributing to the Oil Security Index and the Commission on Energy and Geopolitics’ Oil Security 2025. Additionally, he worked on multiple political campaigns in Minnesota and completed a year of service in AmeriCorps.

Mr. Gerlach received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Anthropology from the University of St. Thomas in 2011 and his Master of Public Policy from the University of Chicago in 2014.

Alyssa Siddiqui

Managing Director of Corporate Engagements

Alyssa Siddiqui is Managing Director of Corporate Relations at SAFE and the Electrification Coalition (EC). She is responsible for identifying and implementing innovative strategies to enhance the organizations’ profiles, expand industry partnerships, and develop new opportunities for engagement and growth. Alyssa leads corporate partnerships for the EC’s medium and heavy-duty fleet electrification work and for SAFE’s autonomous vehicle initiative. In 2021 she launched the Electrification Coalition Business Council.

Alyssa joined SAFE and the EC after over a decade at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, most recently as the Senior Director of Corporate Relations, where she led the strategy and execution of an integrated fundraising plan to achieve an annual revenue goal of over $9 million. She managed high-level corporate recruitment of new members, expanded relationships with existing clients and key stakeholders and launched the Let’s Rebuild America infrastructure initiative. Alyssa also oversaw the U.S. Chamber’s largest signature event, The Aviation Summit, held annually in Washington, DC which attracted over 900 attendees and participants, including top CEOs and industry leaders.

Alyssa began her career at the National Park Foundation working on the capital campaign for the Flight 93 National Memorial Fund. She graduated from Colby College with a Bachelors of Science in Government. She is a member of the Washington, DC chapter of Women of EVs and was named one of the Top Women in EV 2022 by The EV Summit.

Ron Minsk

Senior Advisor

Jason Islas