Cleantech Group

Anandhi Gokhale

Based in Emerald’s Singapore office, Anandhi covers the energy and power sectors. She is involved in all phases of the investment process: sourcing, evaluating, selecting and supporting novel energy startups from early diligence to exit.
Anandhi’s background is in renewable energy. As part of SunEdison’s rotational leadership program, she worked across business units – from new product development integrating energy storage with solar for commercial clients in North America to evaluating M&A opportunities for the IPO of TerraForm Global. She went on to manage a 150 MW portfolio of utility-scale solar and wind plants in India, responsible for $28M+ in annual turnover. More recently, she worked on product and business development at SenseHawk, a tech startup that leverages drone data to digitize solar development. Anandhi firmly believes that technology together with business model innovation can enable a sustainable future.

Andre Lorenceau

CEO & Founder of DiviGas, Hydrogen’s next-generation separation membrane.

Andrew Young

Ir Andrew YOUNG has over 35 years of executive experience, he was a senior executive and was the Chief Commercial Officer (2011-2017) of Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks Corporation and Director of Partnership Development (1998-2011) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Ir YOUNG is currently an Associate Director (Innovation) of Sino Group with responsibility to explore and identify the Group’s innovation and technology development and explore investment opportunities.

Ir YOUNG graduated from the University of South Australia with a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering) degree and holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration and Master of Business Administration. He is a fellow member of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers and a Chartered Professional Engineer of the Institutions of Engineers Australia. Ir YOUNG is also an Adjunct Professor at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and The University of Hong Kong.  He serves on various committees in different universities, such as Singapore Management University, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, etc. Ir YOUNG also sits on various position in leading commerce and industry associations, including the Chairman of Hong Kong Automation Technology Council and AI & Robotics Alliance of Hong Kong, Vice Chairman of Hong Kong Startup Council and Hong Kong Medical and Healthcare Device Industries Association, and member of Construction Industry Council, etc.

Anthony DeOrsey

Anthony manages Cleantech Group’s research team, delivering critical insights on new cleantech innovation and opportunities for engagement to Cleantech Group’s clients in the industrial, investment, and policy communities. He is based in the U.S.

Anthony joined Cleantech Group in late 2019 after over 8 years of work in US-China cross-border expansion consulting and start-up venture funding roles, including 5 years living in Shanghai.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from University of Rhode Island, a Masters in Sustainability from the Harvard Extension School, and he an MBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

Arjun Bhattarai

Dr. Arjun is the chief technology officer and co-founder of VFlowTech Pte Ltd. VFlowTech is a Singaporean spin-off company commercializing vanadium redox flow batteries, founded after ten years of research into improving performance of flow batteries and the creation of new uses for advanced energy storage systems. Arjun has a PhD in Material Science and Engineering from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore with specialization on vanadium redox flow batteries. He has a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. Dr Arjun’s core expertise area is renewable energy technologies, such as batteries, fuel cell, biomass conversion, etc

Ben Krasnostein

Ben is an experienced business leader and investment professional, with over 20 years experience across private equity, private credit, infrastructure development, project finance, M&A and legal advisory across multiple industry sectors. He is Managing Director of Kilara Capital and an experienced investor and Family Office Principal.

Kilara is an investment management and deal origination business, dedicated to providing investment opportunities that provide commercial returns together with carbon drawdown and emission reduction outcomes.

Kilara is focussed on the Food industry supply chain, Carbon Markets, Energy transformation, Sustainable packaging & Renewable Energy infrastructure and services. Kilara invests in operating businesses and develops projects, which contribute to the goal of sustainably reducing global emissions via carbon sequestration, clean energy generation, sustainable food production and other ‘circular’ initiatives.

Carla Martinesi

Choon Jin Yeoh

Mr. Choon Jin Yeoh is currently the Director overseeing the Urban Solutions and Infrastructure Services industry cluster groups of Enterprise Singapore. Enterprise Singapore is the government agency championing enterprise development.

Choon Jin’s portfolio covers the energy, water and waste management sub-sectors as well as built environment and real estate. He leads the team to engage committed enterprises to help them build their capabilities, innovate and expand their presence internationally. Choon Jin participates actively in various multi-agency collaboration platforms and works closely with stakeholders on sustainability-related discussions. Prior to his current role, Choon Jin was overseeing the Marine & Offshore cluster and also spent a few years in private sector R&D as well as the banking industry.

David Bentley

Ardent Underground provides safe, large-scale cost-effective compressed hydrogen storage using existing shaft construction technology and capability. Building on decades of shaft construction experience, Ardent creates a liner impermeable to hydrogen and transfers the large pressure forces to the surrounding rock structure. At a fraction of the cost of aboveground storage solutions, a small footprint, and considerably lower risk, Ardent delivers the missing link to a green hydrogen future.

David Wu

David Wu is the President and co-founder of Ascent Funds, an energy-transition fund with a strong focus on hydrogen innovation. A former investment banker with Rothschild in London, David was the Head of Capital Markets for Greenheart Group in Hong Kong, InterOil Corp in New York, and Fosun International in Shanghai. Now based in Singapore, David is currently Senior Advisor to luxury fashion house Lanvin Group, sports media giant Group One and Singapore’s first waste-neutral fashion brand Sans Faff. David is passionate about educating future generations on the energy transition and brought the Hydrogen Grand Prix race to Singapore in early 2023. David graduated from the University of Cambridge where he studied Economics and Management.

Dean Cher Kai Siong

Dean heads the Mobility business at SP Group (SP), which is focused on developing a nationwide electric vehicle charging network across Singapore. SP aims to catalyse the growth and adoption of sustainable transportation in the country, and currently operates the largest public EV charging network in Singapore.

Dean’s predominant experience has been in the Commodities sector where he has had over a decade of experience working with all types of companies in the commodities value chain, ranging from oil majors, banks and producers.

Delph Mak

Delph Mak is the Vice President of Gradiant AI, the digital solutions business of Gradiant, a global water solutions provider.  Responsible for accelerating the digital business growth globally by increasing the adoption of digital platform solutions in the water sector, she is a thought leader in digital water and is committed to drive successful digital transformation initiatives for the sustainability sector.

Prior to Gradiant, Delph has very diverse career experiences in both business and technical roles across multiple industries including management consulting, water, energy and biopharmaceuticals. Her areas of expertise include strategy development, business development, project management, innovation strategy, marketing, and manufacturing. She also has a wide global exposure having worked or lived in the USA, UK, Canada, India, China and Singapore.

Delph is passionate about creating a more sustainable future which motivates her work in the water and sanitation industry. She also sits on the Board of Directors of the World Toilet Organization (WTO), a global non-profit committed to improving sanitation conditions worldwide. Delph holds a Master of Science degree in Engineering and Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and has a Chemical Engineering background.

Elina Jani

Elmira Soghrati

Krosslinker is a deep-tech startup based in Singapore that designs and develops advanced energy-efficient material, ‘aerogel’ for the thermal insulation applications in construction, industrial insulation, energy infrastructure, automotive, textile, EV battery and cold-chain industry. Krosslinker’s proprietary aerogel technology platform has addressed several major challenges of the traditional manufacturing process to enable this world’s best insulation material, to be accessible and affordable for the mainstream insulation market.
Our first aerogel product addresses a pressing need of protecting temperature-sensitive biopharma products for a $ 30B cold-chain packaging, transport, and storage market. Krosslinker will be entering into commercial manufacturing later this year.

Entela Benz

Dr Entela Benz is CEO and founder of Intensel, a global award-winning Al-powered climate tech solutions provider. The group predicts financial risk related to extreme weather and climate change. Corporate clients in Asia include Jardine Matheson, Hang Lung Properties, CLSA and ING Bank.
Benz also serves as an adjunct associate professor at HKUST Business School’s department of Finance, where she teaches a variety of subjects including investment analysis and ESG investing. For more than 15 years, Benz has been acting as an expert speaker and executive trainer on ESG and Impact investing for institutions such as Citibank, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, DBS, Daiwa etc. Previously, she worked for UBS Investment Bank in Hong Kong and a hedge fund in Geneva, Switzerland. She has several academic and industry focused publications on top tier journals.

She obtained a finance certificate postgraduate degree from Oxford University, a master’s degree in international economics from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies and a doctoral degree in Financial Asset Management and Engineering from the SFI, Swiss Finance Institute, Switzerland.

Franklin Yao

Franklin Yao is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of YouKuai Group International, leading its vision, strategic decisions and partnerships towards co-curating a global plant-based protein ecosystem. Franklin started YouKuai in September 2019 after a journey into meditation and Buddhism inspired him to be more conscious of his health and well-being and dedicate his career to areas where businesses can create social good.

Gaetano Dedual

Gina Domanig

Gina Domanig is the Managing Partner of Emerald Technology Ventures, a globally recognized investor in the areas of energy, water and materials, having invested in sixty companies to date. In 2000, she founded Emerald which is one of the largest industrial technology-focused venture capital firms in Europe and North America. Gina currently serves on the boards of GeoDigital International Inc, Metgen Oy, TaKaDu Inc, and Ushr Inc.

In addition to Emerald activities, Gina serves on the board of Die Mobiliar Genossenschaft, the fourth largest insurance company in Switzerland, and u-blox AG, a global leader in wireless communications and positioning semiconductors.

Gina has over 30 years of international business experience including banking, M&A, strategic development, and venture capital. Prior to starting Emerald, she was senior vice president at Sulzer, a Swiss multinational, responsible for strategic planning and M&A. Gina holds MBA degrees from Thunderbird in Arizona and ESADE in Barcelona and is fluent in English, German and Spanish. She is based Emerald’s Zurich, Switzerland office.

Helge Daebel

An Environmental Engineer by training, Helge leads the water practice at Emerald Technology Ventures, a globally recognized Climate Tech investor with offices in Zurich, Toronto, Singapore and a 25-year investment history. Part of this history has been a unique traction in the water space including successful exits to major industry players (SUEZ, XYLEM and BASF). In 2020, Emerald closed a dedicated global water fund, a USD 100M in size with commitments from Temasek, SKion Water, Ecolab and Microsoft.

Henry O’Connell

Holly Stower

Holly is a Senior Associate leading Resources & Environment research at Cleantech Group and is based in the UK. She is focused on emerging innovation and trends, including those in water, waste, the circular economy, natural resources, and corporate sustainability. ​

Prior to joining Cleantech Group, Holly was a Public Affairs & Communications Executive with the Solar Trade Association and the Association of British Insurers. Before this, Holly worked in advocacy for climate and wildlife charities. ​

Holly earned an Undergraduate and a Master’s in Environmental Science from the University of East Anglia.

Ian Hayton

Ian is a Senior Associate leading Materials & Chemical research at Cleantech Group and is based in the UK. He is an engineering and business professional with a passion for technology, innovation and the environment. Ian is experienced in strategy, marketing, business support, and R&D activities​.

Prior to joining Cleantech Group, Ian held several roles at Exergy, including Business Process Improvement Manager, Chemical Process Engineer, and Chemical Research Engineer.  ​

Ian earned an MSc degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Manchester​ and a BSc in Biomedical Science from The University of Sheffield.

Jack Ellis

Jehan Kanga

Rux Energy is an advanced hydrogen materials company, aiming to double the volumetric efficiency and halve the cost of dispatchable hydrogen storage for heavy mobility, aviation and marine. Rux Energy has partnered with leading Australian universities and trailblazing Australian composites, mobility and aerospace integrators to accelerate the piloting of our breakthrough MOF technologies, validating performance and fast-tracking implementation, to meet our planet’s decarbonisation needs.

Josephine Kwan

Josephine Kwan is a visionary entrepreneur and impact-driven business leader known for her ability to identify opportunities for growth and positive change. As the Founder of Flow 2 Freedom Apparel and the Director of ChopValue, Josephine has leveraged her ongoing experience to build innovative and successful businesses that empower people and organizations to achieve their full potential. With her unique combination of creativity, strategic thinking, and business acumen, Josephine has established herself as a leading voice in women and girls in sport and the sustainability industry, inspiring others to make a positive impact.

Jubin Varghese

Jugnu Pati

Jugnu has spent 15 years in impact investing, and investment banking with extensive experience in both debt and equity with a focus on fintech and cleantech sectors. She has a proven track record of investing in emerging and frontier markets in more than 15+ countries across South, Southeast Asia and Africa and extensive experience working with and serving on the boards of early and growth stage businesses. Prior to joining ADB Ventures, Jugnu was Investment Director and Head of Asia with Bamboo Capital Partners, a swiss based fund where she led the development of the impact-tech space in Asia. Previously, she worked as an Investment Officer at IFC, World Bank Group where she was responsible for debt and equity transactions in the financial services sector for South Asia. Jugnu is an Indian national and currently lives and works in Singapore. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, and an MBA from Xavier Institute of Management, India

Justin Lee

Li Li

Li Li, joined BASF Venture Capital as an investment manager in 2018. She is responsible for investment and portfolio management in China. Li started her career with PwC China and provided transaction services to top investment institutes such as Warburg Pincus, TPG, Ping’an, Sequoia and MNC investors. She then started and managed corporate strategy and M&A department for Voith Group in China. Before joining BVC, Li used to work for SABIC Ventures for their Chinese investments. She graduated from Fudan University with an Economics major.

Luna Yu

Genecis is solving the climate crises of organic waste and plastic pollution with one circular economy solution: bioplastic made from food waste. Genecis’ technology converts organic waste into PHA (Polyhydroxyalkanoate), a biodegradable, compostable, and non-toxic polymer that can be tuned to replace a wide variety of traditional plastics. PHA can be used for single-use plastics, clothing and textiles, automotive interiors, medical tools and products, and food contact applications. By using organic waste for PHA production, Genecis’ process is lower-cost and lower-emission than competitors’, offering a circular economy solution for waste valorization and sustainable product development. Genecis partners with companies interested in using PHA in their supply chains, offering custom polymer and product development and co-branding.

Mark Swinnerton

Green Gravity’s technology offers large-scale, long-duration renewable energy storage. The technology moves multiple heavy weights vertically in a legacy mine shaft to capture and release the potential gravitational energy of the weights. By using proven mechanical parts, Green Gravity’s storage technology can be half the cost of battery alternatives and has twice the asset life. Storing energy in this way uses no processed chemicals, has no performance degradation and can deliver tens of megawatt-hours of storage in single sites.

Max Han

SangYeob (Max) Han is a serial social entrepreneur and also impact investor who to solve unfairness and social problems by using business approach with impact business. He founded the project group ‘Nexters’ to execute social activities, and was founder of Wisdome, Korean largest insights and experiences sharing platform, also published a book named ‘Beautiful Lie’ about impact businesses, large corporations and NPOs that revolutionize social problems in India and Bangladesh. As a managing partner of the impact investor ‘Sopoong Ventures’ , he works on investment and growth for climate tech startups and innovative entrepreneurs in Korea and SEA.

Maxine Ghavi

Maxson Lewis

Melissa Tremlett

With over 20 years of corporate experience, Melissa is a trusted advisor and highly experienced in liaising effectively, building rapport with diverse stakeholders, and managing domestic and international partnerships. As the Program and Partnerships Manager, Technology and Innovation at National Energy Resources Australia, Melissa works with clean technology entrepreneurs, corporates, government, and researchers in the energy sector to build local capability.

Meni Mancini

Nick Bentley

Nick is a proactive Co-founder and Director engaging in the energy industry. A de-carbonisation and sustainability focused professional who champions identifying and unlocking the opportunities enabled by applying today’s technology. Nick is a strong advocate of using Australia’s geographic and expansive natural resource position to develop a sustainable pathway to de-carbonisation.

Nicole Cerulli

Nicole is an Associate, Transportation & Logistics at Cleantech Group and is based in Spain.  She focuses on emerging innovation and trends in transportation and logistics and has experience across all cleantech sectors.  ​

Nicole earned a Bachelor’s degree in Urban Studies and Sustainable Development from Barnard College and a Master’s in Urban Resilience Design and Management from Universitat Internacional de Catalunya.​

Om Kaosa-ard

Om Kaosa-ard is the Head of Venture Capital of Innopower. Prior to Innopower, Om spent 13 years with SCG, one of the largest conglomerates in Thailand, then he moved to explore the startup and venture capital industry in many roles from Head of Thailand Operations of a SEA esports startup to the Head of Business Development & Growth at a Thai Fintech Startup. Om also advised on a few fundraising activities for Thai startups prior to his role at Innopower. Om and Athip overlapped and worked together at IRPC to drive the New Business Innovation Department. Even though a broad experience in many industries from Manufacturing, Real Estate, Energy, to Startups, Om mainly focus his work and expertise in corporate finance spectrum from Investment, Merge & Acquisition, Financial Budgeting, Cost Control and Business Development Projects for his entire career.

Om received MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania in 2011 and Bachelor of Engineering 2nd class honor from Chiangmai University. He served many roles during his MBA and collage years such as the Co-President of the Southeast Asian Club at Wharton and the Vice President of the Student Association of Faculty of Engineering, Chiangmai University.

Paul Lichty

Dr. Lichty is an inventor of the high throughput ALD patent and founder of FN. Paul has a broad technical background that has allowed him to be co-inventor on over half a dozen patents. Paul’s leadership and organizational experience has helped him to run FN’s operations while developing the technology through 3 prototype stages, up to the current commercial scale. Paul received his PhD in Chemical Engineering and bachelor’s Mechanical Engineering from the University of Colorado.

Phil Morle

Phil is a Partner at Main Sequence a venture capital firm founded by Australia’s national science agency – CSIRO. There he invests in deep tech founders who are building unimaginable new companies with a strong connection to research. There he has invested in Eden Brew, Samsara Eco, Uluu, v2food, Nourish Ingredients, EVERY Company, RapidAIM, Coviu and Q-CTRL. Before this he was the founder of Australia’s first Silicon Valley style incubator, Pollenizer, where Phil played an instrumental role in developing the startup ecosystem across Asia Pacific and advised some of the world’s biggest organisations on practical ways to deliver new growth and the cultural change that is required to get there.

Pui Yan Leung

Pui Yan serves as Partner, Investment in Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India and focuses on opportunities in Southeast Asia.

Prior to joining Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, Pui Yan was an Investment Director at Singtel Innov8, the CVC arm of Singtel.  Prior to that, she assumed a range of operating roles, including Business Development, Product Marketing and Strategy.

Pui Yan is a Kauffman Fellow and graduated with a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering Degree from the National University of Singapore.

Rayeon Park

Rayeon Park is a strategic planning lead at GridWiz. She leads a strategy team with a strict focus on delivering integrated platforms to optimize fleets of distributed energy resources as virtual power plants. The areas for the team include demand response, energy storage, rooftop solar, and EV charging solutions. Prior to joining GridWiz, she was a senior manager at KPMG CC&S (Climate Change & Sustainability). She received a B.A in architecture from UC Berkeley.

Remon Gazal

Richard Youngman

Since January 2016, Richard Youngman has been CEO of San-Francisco based Cleantech Group (CTG). This followed 7 years of driving the growth of CTG’s activities outside North America, especially in Europe and Israel, and Asia, based in CTG’s office in London.

Richard has more than ten years’ experience researching cleantech innovation, venture capital markets, and start-ups across Europe and globally. He is a regular keynote speaker at major cleantech events and is the driving force behind the annual Global Cleantech 100, a list of the world’s most promising private cleantech companies.

Rodi Guidero

Rodi Guidero serves as Executive Director of Breakthrough Energy, an organization founded by Bill Gates to help drive the policy, market, and technological changes required for a clean energy transition. As part of these responsibilities, Rodi also serves as Managing Partner of Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a collection of funds that aims to build the new, cutting-edge companies that will lead the world to net-zero emissions. Previously, Rodi worked at BMGI (now Cascade Investment), the investment office that manages Bill’s assets and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust. In this role, he focused on Bill’s investments in early-stage technology companies and venture capital funds. Rodi holds a J.D. from Stanford Law School and a B.A. from the University of Washington.

Sam Smith

Sheena Thomas

Shinya Shimizu

Master of electronics and information engineering, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo
April 2012: Joined McKinsey & Company and provided consultancy service mainly to manufacturers in Japan.
January 2014: Co-founded AgIC Inc. (currently Elephantech Inc.) and became CEO.
July 2022: Concurrently serving as CTO of Elephantech Inc.

Shunsuke Ishimoto

Simon Renwick

ROC Technologies (ROC) is the first wave energy device from a team specializing in the delivery of offshore structures. The result is a multi-MW, scalable, deep water device which builds on the lessons learned from previous generations of wave energy converter, with a projected LCOE of < $200/MWh.

Steven Vassiloudis

An experienced chemical engineer specialising in process scale-up and commercialisation of novel technologies. Steven has worked with several clean tech start-ups to develop their novel technologies including the Hazer Group, AquaAerem and Sicona Battery Technologies.

Steven is also a Director of Kemplant, a global chemical engineering & process plant provider. Kemplant specialises in the design & supply of process plant and equipment, including equipment for the lithium and battery chemicals industries.

Tulika Raj

Tulika is an experienced commercial leader who has led $2B worth of transactions including fundraising and large project investments. She has hands-on experience of developing and growing renewable energy companies, coupled with more than 10 years of experience in clean energy investments (from solar to wind developers at growth to exit stages), at major energy companies and renewable funds. Tulika holds a Bachelor Degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and an MBA from the London Business School. After a long career working for companies like Schlumberger, BP, Denham Capital and Octopus Investments, in 2020 she co-founded SunGreenH2.

SunGreenH2 is an award winning venture backed company transforming #greenhydrogen production from electrolysis with proprietary technology for high performance, low cost electrolyser components using advanced nanostructured materials.

Vinson Chua

Walter Czarnecki

Walter Czarnecki serves as Livent’s Chief Commercial Officer and is based in Singapore. Before joining Livent, Walter served as President and CEO of OmniMetrix, a publicly-listed leader in IoT industrial monitoring solutions. He has over 20 years of business development, strategy and P&L leadership experience, including at Acorn Energy and Ener1, Inc. Prior to this, Walter was based in Beijing where he led the Energy Technology team for China Renaissance Partners, a Chinese investment bank, and in New York, where he began his career at Lehman Brothers Investment Banking.

Walter holds an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an MA in International Studies, with a focus on Mandarin and East Asian Studies, from the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. He is professionally proficient in Mandarin and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Bucknell University with a BA in Economics and English.

Wanwipa Siriwatwechakul

Wanwipa is a MIT/Princeton trained chemical engineer. She is based in Bangkok, Thailand, as an Assistant Professor at Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology, Thammasat University, and works on different research projects related to to improve human lives, ranging from tissue engineering for healing diabetic wounds to addressing environmental problems by converting wastes to high-value products. Wanwipa is an avid yoga practitioner, and she enjoys hiking and scuba diving in her free time.

Yuko Shimada

Yuko oversees Scrum Studio’s open innovation program focused on carbon neutrality, energy, and sustainability, as well as manages research projects and business development. Yuko began her career at Citigroup in the debt capital markets (DCM) and investment banking divisions. She then worked at Deloitte as a consultant, advising government agencies on renewables, power and energy. Following Deloitte, she worked as a credit analyst at Moody’s Investors Service, covering Japanese electric utilities, automobile companies, and trading companies. She joined Scrum Ventures in November 2021.