The team

Management board

Executive Chairman - Nicholas Parker
Nicholas Parker co-founded the Cleantech Group, introducing the cleantech concept to the investment and business community in 2002. Previously Nicholas accumulated over 15 years experience starting and investing venture funds worldwide through limited partnerships, family offices, corporate funds and endowments. During this time, he pioneered the first "sustainability" driven private equity funds and participated in one of the first solar IPOs. In the 1990s, he also founded, built and sold an environmental finance firm. He has served as an advisor to multilateral agencies and major corporations.

Nicholas earned a BA Hons. in Technology Studies (Carleton University, Ottawa) and an MBA (City University, London), and has authored or edited more than ten publications related to cleantech, finance and international business, starting with Investing in Emerging Economies in 1993. He serves as Chairman of E+Co, a public purpose investment company for clean energy enterprises in developing countries, and is on several boards, including: Government of Singapore Cleantech Advisory Board, Canadian Centre of Excellence for Commercialization of Research and the X PRIZE Energy & Environment Council. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). Nicholas has lived and worked in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America and currently resides with his two children in Toronto.

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Managing Partner - Sheeraz Haji
Sheeraz Haji is based in Cleantech Group's San Francisco office. Previously, Sheeraz spent eight years co-founding and leading GetActive (merged with Convio), a venture-backed software-as-a-service company providing CRM tools to nonprofits, associations and educational institutions. As CEO, and later as President of the merged entity, Sheeraz built a company with 1,200 clients and 300 employees.

He has also worked as a strategy consultant for McKinsey & Company, an Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) for El Dorado Ventures, an operations executive for GMO and a Product Manager for Digital Impact (acquired by Axciom).

Sheeraz launched his career as an environmental engineer in the Washington, DC office of Environ International. He has a BS from Brown University and an MS from Stanford University, both degrees in Environmental Engineering. Sheeraz is a U.S. and French citizen.

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Managing Partner - Richard Youngman
Richard Youngman runs the Cleantech Group's European operations, and is responsible for driving the growth of the group's activities in Europe, as well as managing the company's industry data gathering operations and membership products.

Most recently, he was Vice President of Research & Operations at Library House. He ran the Library House Research team, which discovers and collects the information about high-growth companies that underpins the company's data, analytical, and event services, and also oversaw the day-to-day running of the Library House operation.

Before Library House, Richard ran his own advisory firm conducting research and consulting on the measurement and evaluation of intangible assets and intellectual capital for organizations such as the European Commission. This followed nine years building a broad-based finance and research background with leading financial institutions such as ABN AMRO, Barclays Capital and BZW in the City of London. His work was centered on the debt markets and revolved around financing M&A deals and advising clients on achieving alignment between their financial and strategic plans.

Richard has an MA from Cambridge University, and an MBA from Theseus International Management Institute, Sophia Antipolis, France.

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Managing Partner - Keith Raab
Keith Raab, co-founder of the Cleantech Group, leads the company's global sales operations. In partnership with Nicholas Parker, Keith introduced the cleantech concept in 2002 and has helped develop it as a viable investment category.

Keith currently serves on CalSTRS' Clean Technology Advisory Board and the Erb Institute, Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Prior to joining Cleantech, Keith served as Manager of Investor Relations for the Environmental Capital Network (ECN), an organization whose purpose is to facilitate the finance of companies commercializing energy and environmentally beneficial technologies, products and services. At ECN, Keith ran the day to day activities and was responsible for organizing 11 national venture forums. He also built strategic relationships with investors and was responsible for working with companies to identify and direct them to various capital sources that fit their needs and stage of business development. Prior to joining ECN in 1998, Keith was the Managing Director of Echos LLC, an investor-backed, early-stage venture developing and commercializing a wastewater recycling and irrigation system. Previously Keith undertook consulting work for CID Equity Partners, the largest venture capital firm in the Midwest. He has also independently advised a number of early stage companies on business planning, technical development and capital formation. Keith started his career as a test engineer for the Department of the U.S. Navy.

Keith has an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship from Indiana University, a Masters of Engineering in Gas/Fluid Dynamics from the University of Michigan and a Bachelors of Engineering in Aerospace from the University of Michigan.

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Managing Director - Dallas Kachan
Dallas is responsible for global marketing for the Cleantech Group, and also oversees the Cleantech Group's news coverage, the most widely-read source of trade news covering daily business and technology developments in clean technology industries.

Dallas had a fifteen year career in high tech marketing, including VP marketing jobs at enterprise software and networking companies, and was a senior marketing strategy consultant to companies such as Oracle, Fujitsu, Nortel, Genuity, Attachmate and Interval Research with Silicon Valley's Regis McKenna and his own practice. He has served on the boards of publicly-traded Centrinity (TSX) and other private companies.

Dallas was most recently founder, publisher and acting editor of Inside Greentech, acquired by the Cleantech Group in August, 2007. Previously, Dallas was editor, reporter and national anchor for Canada's news service the Canadian Press, with a background covering science, environmental and business issues in print and broadcast.

Dallas has authored hundreds of articles on cleantech sector developments, serves on the board of the U.C. Berkeley Haas School of Business Cleantech Institute and is a frequent speaker at industry events.

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Director of Finance - Lori G. Russell
Lori Russell is responsible for finance, human resources and operations for the Cleantech Group. She is a CPA with over 15 years of experience in corporate finance and public accounting.

Prior to joining Cleantech Group she spent seven years as the Controller for MedView Services, Inc., a fast growing startup. Here she developed the Accounting Department’s financial reporting, accounting policies, and procedures from a privately held company format to a GAAP based system as a wholly owned subsidiary of three successive publicly traded companies. During this time she implemented a corporate budgeting and forecasting system while coordinating the accounting integration for thirteen mergers and acquisitions. As the Financial Reporting Officer at Great Lakes Bancorp she was responsible for all SEC reporting including preparation of the 10K’s, 10Q’s, and Annual Report. Lori was also an auditor for three years and has spent time, most recently, consulting with corporations and small startups.

Lori holds a BBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business Administration and is licensed as a Certified Public Accountant by the State of Michigan. She is a current member of the MACPA and past member of the AICPA and IMA.

Other senior management

Managing Director - Michael S. Ewles

Michael S. Ewles is the Managing Director of Information Systems. Prior to joining Cleantech Group, Michael served as the Senior Developer at Online Technologies Corporation (OTC), which helped customers deploy their business processes, sales, marketing, support, media, and communication applications over the Internet. While there, Michael designed and developed online solutions for MOPAR, WBCCI, Real Estate One, Severn Trent, EOTech, the original Cleantech Group website and numerous other applications.

Previously, Michael worked as a Systems Specialist for Little Caesars Enterprises in Detroit, MI and was the primary developer and designer of the first three iterations of their corporate website. While there he also maintained the inner LCE enterprise systems. Michael also has previous Director of Information Systems experience with Irwin Enterprises; an international ticket wholesaler based in Flint, MI. While there his responsibilities included programming and maintaining their high-speed numbering systems, developing their online sales network of local printers, and maintaining daily systems operations within the company.

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Managing Director - Rafael Coven
Cleantech Indices Managing Director Rafael Coven has a combination of extensive cleantech industry and institutional investor experience. He has spent most of the last 21 years in cleantech as a manager, entrepreneur, equity investor, and management consultant.

Rafael has global experience working with or consulting to such leading cleantech firms as Abengoa, Dynatech, Philips Lighting, Siemens, and numerous private equity and venture capital investors in the sector. During the 1990s, Rafael was an international equity analyst at Dietche & Field Advisors where he evaluated, made, and managed a US $700 million segment of the firm's $5.6 billion equity holdings (including many cleantech companies). He has also founded three cleantech companies and still actively reviews numerous cleantech businesses. He has lived and worked in several countries and speaks Italian and Spanish.

He holds a B.A. in Developmental Economics from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School. Based in Baltimore, Maryland, Rafael is a CFA level II candidate and a member of the US Green Building Council.

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Managing Director - Jaswinder Kaur
Jaswinder Kaur is the Managing Director of India for Cleantech Group. She has over 15 years of professional experience in business development, operations, marketing and venture capital both with start–ups and multinational corporations primarily in telecommunications and the IT sector. She began her career at Nortel Networks, before moving to a business development in a number of entrepreneurial ventures.

In 2000 Jaswinder became a co-founding partner at Venture Coaches, a seed and early stage venture capital fund and remains a venture partner in the Canadian Cleantech Fund. She has also served as board member and advisor for several portfolio companies and industry associations. In addition, Jaswinder has also been a professor at the School of Management, University of Ottawa and the Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, focusing on technology marketing, start-up financing and entrepreneurship. In 2006 Jaswinder joined the Indian Venture Capital Association (IVCA) as Executive Director in Delhi.

Jaswinder has her MBA from the University of Ottawa.

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Senior Director - Brian Fan
Brian Fan manages Cleantech Group's research operations, and has over 15 years of experience in market research, management consulting, investment management, technology product development, and marketing.

Brian was an Equity Research Analyst for The Cypress Funds, LLC, a long-short hedge fund with $300 million assets under management, where he generated original investment ideas in the technology, Internet, retail, consumer discretionary, defense/ aerospace, and lodging/gaming sectors.

Brian was Senior Partner at Olliance Consulting Group, a leading strategy consulting firm in Silicon Valley, where he formulated business and product strategy for over 40 clients including Nokia, Intel, Microsoft, NEC, Adobe, Motorola, Barclays Global Investors and numerous venture-funded startups such as JasperSoft, Krugle, and OpenLogic.

At Microsoft, Brian was Product Planner for Expedia.com, where he defined customer & marketing requirements and product features. As part of this, he oversaw Marketing Research, and designed and commissioned over a dozen major quantitative, qualitative and usability research studies.

Brian worked at the Walt Disney Co. in retail marketing and merchandising, and at Procter & Gamble in brand marketing.

Brian received his B.Sc. in Economics cum laude at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, where he was also a Benjamin Franklin Scholar and a Joseph Wharton Scholar. He is also a graduate of the Juilliard School in New York City.

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Director of Sales - Joe Trackwell
Joe Trackwell is the Director of Sales for Cleantech Group.

Prior to joining Cleantech, Joe served as the Director of Admissions for New Horizons Computer Learning Centers of Michigan where he directed operations for four learning centers throughout Mid-Michigan. Joe also served over 20 years in the United States Air Force. He held various positions throughout his career, including logistics support for the F-117 Stealth Fighter, as well as base environmental cleanup. He finished his Air Force career as a District Recruiting Supervisor, and retired in 2004. Joe earned his B.A. in Business Administration from Northwood University.

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Director of Partnership Development - Kim Pargoff
Kim develops and manages key strategic relationships and partnerships for Cleantech globally. Previously, Kim worked as Clean Energy Policy Director for an NGO in Michigan and Washington D.C. and worked in Business Development in the alternative energy industry as Sales and Business Development Manager with Capstone Turbine Corporation. At Capstone, Kim developed and managed core accounts such as Chevron Energy Solutions and United Technologies Corporation (UTC Power & UTC Fuel Cell).

She has worked on sustainability assessment and improvement projects with the California EPA and the California Motion Picture Industry and Walt Disney World Resorts. Kim also has over 4 years experience in high-tech and strategy consulting with Diamond Technology Partners and Accenture working in the telecommunications and financial services industries with high-tech start-ups and large clients such as Goldman Sachs, T-Rowe Price, Alltel, Bell Mobility, and Telefonica SA.

Kim has a MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management where she also obtained a Certificate in Corporate Environmental Management and Sustainability in Business from The Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UC Santa Barbara. Kim has a Bachelors of Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor with a focus on Industrial and Environmental Engineering.