Stephen Lindeman of Google Energy Market Development Joins DTE Energy Executive Chairman Jerry Norcia and President and CEO Joi Harris for PuLSE Institute’s 2026 Virtual Economic Justice Conference
As billions of dollars pour into data centers and artificial intelligence infrastructure across America, The PuLSE Institute, the national independent anti-poverty and economic justice think tank headquartered in Detroit is bringing some of the leaders closest to that transformation into a consequential conversation about a question too often left outside the boardroom:
Who will benefit from the new economy?
The PuLSE Institute announced today that Stephen Lindeman of Google Energy Market Development has joined the lineup for its 2026 Virtual Economic Justice Conference on Data Centers, taking place Monday, October 12, from 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon.
Lindeman will join Jerry Norcia, Executive Chairman of DTE Energy, and Joi Harris, President and CEO of DTE Energy, for the conference’s opening Plenary Session at 8:30 a.m.
DATA CENTERS AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE: WHO BENEFITS FROM THE DIGITAL ECONOMY?
Their participation brings together voices from one of the world’s most consequential technology companies and the leadership of one of Michigan’s major energy companies at a moment when the rapid expansion of data centers is raising fundamental questions about energy, infrastructure, investment, jobs, affordability, community benefit and the distribution of economic opportunity.
The conference is being convened under the theme:
THE MORAL RESPONSIBILITY OF LEADERSHIP IN THE DATA CENTER AGE
Economic Justice, Corporate Stewardship, and the Future of American Prosperity
For The PuLSE Institute, an independent anti-poverty think tank, the data-center debate cannot be measured solely by the size of investments, the number of megawatts consumed or the technological power of artificial intelligence.
It must also be measured by its human and economic consequences according to nationally acclaimed journalist, author and public intellectual Bankole Thompson, who is the founder and chairman of The PuLSE Institute.
“The data center boom is rapidly becoming one of the defining economic developments of our time, and economic justice cannot be an afterthought once the infrastructure has been built and the investments have been made,” Thompson said. “We are bringing Google, DTE Energy and community voices into the same consequential conversation because the central question is larger than technology or energy: Who benefits? If billions can be mobilized to build the infrastructure of the future, leadership must have the moral imagination to ask whether that future will also expand opportunity for people and communities that have too often stood outside the gates of prosperity.”
The conference takes place during the week of the United Nations International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, observed October 17, giving added urgency to PuLSE’s examination of the relationship between technological investment, corporate stewardship and persistent economic inequality.
BEYOND THE BOARDROOM: THE COMMUNITY ENTERS THE CONVERSATION
At 11 a.m., the conference will turn directly toward the voices and concerns of communities with:
BEYOND THE BOARDROOM: What Residents Are Asking About the Data Center Boom
The session will examine the questions being raised beyond corporate suites and development announcements: What will these investments mean for residents? Where are the jobs? Who gets the contracts? What happens to energy costs and infrastructure? How should communities participate in decisions affecting their economic futures? And what obligations accompany developments of this magnitude?
Detroit City Council President James Tate and former Michigan State Representative Ronnie Peterson are expected to speak in the Beyond the Boardroom conversation, with additional voices to be announced.
By placing the Plenary Session featuring Google and DTE Energy alongside Beyond the Boardroom, The PuLSE Institute is creating a forum where corporate leadership and community concerns become part of the same economic-justice conversation.
That is central to the conference’s purpose.
The data-center revolution is unfolding at a time when communities across America continue to confront poverty, economic inequality, uneven access to opportunity and longstanding questions about who participates in major economic transformations.
The PuLSE Institute believes those realities cannot be separated.
“Economic inequality does not disappear because a new economy has arrived,” Thompson said. “The real test of progress is whether we use moments of extraordinary innovation to widen the doorway to prosperity. We should not wait twenty years to discover whether the data-center revolution strengthened communities or simply passed through them. Those questions belong at the table now.”
The October 12 gathering further establishes The PuLSE Institute’s Annual Economic Justice Conference as a serious forum for examining the intersection of corporate power, economic inequality, public responsibility and the lived realities of communities.
Previous PuLSE Institute forums have brought together prominent leaders from business, government, academia, civil society and international institutions to confront major questions surrounding poverty, inequality and economic justice.
REGISTRATION
Tickets for the 2026 PuLSE Institute Virtual Economic Justice Conference are now available through Eventbrite. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/
