Joe Aamidor

Joseph Aamidor is a senior product and market strategy consultant focused on smart buildings, IoT, energy and real estate. He has nearly 15 years of experience in building and energy technology. He provides strategic guidance and advice to established building management firms, technology providers, and early-stage innovators. Previously, he served as Director of Product at Lucid Design Group and was a product manager at Johnson Controls. He frequently speaks at industry events and regularly publishes articles on the energy and smart building industry.

Learn more at https://www.aamidorconsulting.com/

Alina Adams

Alina Adams is a founder and CEO of Artveoli, Inc. She is a serial entrepreneur with over a decade of experience working in technology research and entrepreneurship organizations. She got her start working in the world-renowned microfluidics laboratory at Stanford University. She moved on to co-found a mobile application startup company, Volyy LLC, whereas the Vice President, she assembled a global engineering team and led product release and business strategy development. Alina also founded Silicon Valley Impact, a corporation that helps form relationships between technology developers and social benefit organizations.

To stay engaged with the entrepreneurship community, she is a mentor for several organizations including the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship and European Innovation Academy, where she is also Chief Mentor and Head of VC Relations. Alina worked with and mentored over 60 startup ventures globally, including Asia, Africa, Europe, US and South America.

Nils Aldag

Nils studied Business Administration and Law at the EBS University and at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

He is managing director and co-founder of Sunfire GmbH, a technology start-up addressing a key challenge of today’s energy system: The conversion of renewable electricity into fuels and gases to replace natural gas and crude oil. At Sunfire he is responsible for business development, sales & marketing and investor relations. Sunfire received venture capital financing from world-renowned investors. In 2017, the company was awarded “Global Cleantech 100 Company” for the third time.

Since 2016, Nils is Board Member and Energy Chair of Hydrogen Europe, the European industry association representing over 100 companies in the fuel cells and hydrogen industry and the industry representation of the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking under Horizon 2020.

In addition, Nils is a founding member of the DESERTEC Foundation.

Nick Allain

Todd Allmendinger

Ofer Becker

Always fascinated by shaping and channeling of light, Ofer found the paradox of the non-existent utilization of free, natural and healthy Sunlight, for widespread daytime indoor lighting a great challenge.  Founding Solight on 2012 with younger brother CEO Dror Becker, to address this absence, Ofer developed a highly efficient static collector, which supplies large amounts of natural sunlight for healthy, energy efficient, indoor lighting in a large variety of applications. With the help and support of Israel’s Innovation Authority and the EU’s prestigious Horizon 2020 SME program, SOLIS lighting systems are now being installed at selected client locations.

Kevin Berkemeyer

Kevin is CEO of Station A, responsible for Station A’s overall strategy and execution. Prior to Station A, Kevin was part of First Solar’s initial commercial team where he helped develop the North American strategy and began and led First Solar’s China and Thailand businesses, developing utility-scale solar projects in those markets. He started his career doing customer analytics and trading for commercial and industrial end users at retail energy startup Juice Energy in NY. Kevin received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Wisconsin- Madison and an MBA from MIT. In graduate school, he was Co-President of the MIT Energy Club, worked on solar and storage projects with ARPA-E, Tesla, and Conservacion Patagonica, and was a Research Assistant for MIT’s Future of Solar Study.

Jules Besnainou

Jules Besnainou is the Executive Director of Cleantech for Europe, the initiative helping the EU lead the race to net zero by bridging the gap between cleantech leaders and policymakers. He was previously a director at Cleantech Group, where he advised the world’s foremost cleantech investors, corporates and governments, helping them assess and invest in new innovations. After starting his career in San Francisco and London, he moved back to France to head the group’s EU presence and clients. Jules graduated summa cum laude from Sciences Po Paris.

Zoé Bezpalko

Mike Biddle

Wade Bitaraf

Wade leads the Energy and Sustainability initiative at Plug and Play Technology Center. He’s responsible for managing corporate relationships and startup facing. His passion is in serving startups at the intersection of technology and business.

Wade has co-authored multiple scientific articles in peer reviewed journals. He holds a master of science degree in Chemical engineering from Lamar university and master degree in Petroleum and Natural gas engineering from West Virginia University.

Phil Blythe

Louis Borders

Louis is a founder of Borders Books & Music, Synergy Software, Webvan, and Mercury Startups. He is a founder and current CEO of HDS Global.

HDS Global is a next-generation ecommerce service – the first to provide at one site a branded retailer experience for the world’s leading brands and to personalize perishable and prepared food for delivery directly, safely and cost effectively into the home. As the backbone for its service, HDS developed RoboFS, a highly robotic fulfillment system. HDS recognized the global opportunity of RoboFS to support large-scale distribution and manufacturing operations across many industries, developed partnerships with global leaders including Toyota and Ingram Micro, and advanced the design of RoboFS as the first, productized, end-to-end, integrated fulfillment system.

Louis revolutionized the retail book industry with the founding of Borders, the first book and music superstore chain. Borders successfully leveraged technology to improve the delivery of physical media to consumers. Louis sold his interest in Borders in 1993; at its peak, the company had annual revenues of $3.5 billion. In 1998, he founded Webvan, an online home delivery retailer, and served as its CEO until its successful IPO and reaching a market value of $7 billion.

Louis holds a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Michigan, and completed graduate coursework in mathematics at MIT.

Inna Braverman

Orianna Bretschger

A native of the Southwestern United States, Orianna Bretschger grew up appreciating water issues. Her academic track brought her to love science and engineering. Orianna received a B.S. in Physics and Astronomy at the University of Northern Arizona; and after a career in aerospace and government consulting, she subsequently found her way back to water while completing a Ph.D. at the University of Southern California. During her graduate work, she studied how microbes remove pollutants from water and produce electricity at the same time. In 2008, Dr. Bretschger joined the J. Craig Venter Institute in San Diego where she expanded her research in this area and began developing technologies for distributed wastewater treatment. Her research has resulted in 32 journal publications, 3 book chapters, and 7 patent filings. In 2016, Dr. Bretschger founded Aquacycl LLC with her partners. Aquacycl is now commercializing modular, plug-n-play, systems for sustainable wastewater treatment in industrial, agriculture and emerging markets.

Todd Brix

Todd is the CEO and co-founder of OCO Corporation which is commercializing patented modular process manufacturing technology to electro-catalytically convert carbon dioxide, using water and intermittent renewable electricity, into value-added formic acid based chemicals and fuels, more cheaply and profitably than current fossil-based processes, at very low scale, in a carbon-negative way. OCO and its R&D and commercialization partners have received $2.8M in Department of Energy (EERE+NETL) grant awards since 9/2018 to accelerate commercialization and was the 2018 winner of the Bend Venture Conference Impact Track competition.

Prior to OCO, Todd was a partner and general manager at Microsoft leading a succession of internal software/hardware teams to start and grow the IoT, Windows Mobile, and Windows Store product lines into multi-billion dollar businesses. Todd joined Microsoft after founding and selling one of the first Windows NT-based industrial automation software start-up firms for thin-film vacuum deposition equipment. He previously worked at Silicon Graphics, Inc. and Intel Corporation as a program manager in advanced system module manufacturing and semiconductor fabrication equipment.

Todd began his career at Chevron Research & Technology as a lead process design engineer focused on catalyst development, process control and performance prediction software, and designing and commissioning 10 different desulfurization and hydrotreating plants in East Asia.

Todd earned his BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Washington, and MBA from Harvard Business School.

Brian Burkhard

Brian joined Jacobs in 2014 as a practice leader in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). In this capacity, he worked with global sales and operational leaders and other ITS peers to help identify opportunities, inform clients, and pursue projects specializing in advanced transportation technologies. Brian worked across other lines-of-business to provide insight on advanced mobility solutions under the Jacobs Connected Enterprise initiative. His experience and expertise in the connected and automated vehicles (CAV) market enabled Jacobs to compete in this emerging field. This role has expanded to cover all of Jacobs geographies as the Global Technology Leader in Advanced Mobility Systems which includes ITS, CAV, road use charging and electric vehicles.

Brian is a co-author of an American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) guiding document for agencies to use in preparing for connected vehicles (CV). He recently served as an appointed panel member for a Transportation Research Board (TRB) analysis on the use of dedicated highway lanes for connected and automated vehicles (CAV). Brian currently serves as a board member for ITS California and is a technical advisory board member for a start-up electric vehicle charging company in Canada. Brian is a registered professional engineer with 30 years of experience as an electrical engineer.

Igino Cafiero

Kristy Caylor

Kristy Caylor is an entrepreneur, fashion visionary, and humanitarian.  She brings both fashion and business acumen to her newest endeavor, For Days.  Previously, Kristy founded Maiyet, a pioneering luxury brand that seamlessly integrated world class design with a transformative social philosophy.  As president and creative director, Caylor presented Maiyet seasonally on the Paris runway, opened a store in New York’s Soho neighborhood, and sold to Barneys, Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus and Saks. Deeply committed to sustainability, Caylor was an early innovator with Gap’s Product (RED) and has served on the leadership committee for Cradle to Cradle’s Fashion +. She is a member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, where she is on the Lexus Fashion Initiative advisory board. She was honored by the Voss Foundation as the 2014 Woman Helping Women Honoree and regularly participates with the UN Foundation.  In 2016 Caylor was appointed to the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Consumerism.  Caylor has been profiled and featured in leading publications, including the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Vogue, W and Elle. She holds an MBA from the University of Southern California and a BS in Industrial Engineering with a minor in Fine Arts Painting from Northwestern University.

Eleanor Chang

Eleanor leads investments for the Tencent Exploration Team, which works with emerging technology companies that have the goal of improving human life across the planet. Focus areas for the team include health and biotech, agriculture, energy and transportation.

Prior to Tencent, she was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong, where she worked with telecommunications companies and conglomerates. Her previous roles include serving as a management consultant with McKinsey’s Hong Kong and Palo offices and working with the strategy, investments and new business incubation team at eBay. At eBay, she also led product marketing for its electronics vertical.

Eleanor received a Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Stanford University.

Anita Choi

Anita Choi’s practice focuses on patent prosecution, patent diligence, and patent litigation support across a wide array of technologies. Ms. Choi counsels clients in the fields of biochemical and renewable materials, clean technology, agriculture, food products, materials science, molecular diagnostics, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals.

She has extensive experience in the preparation and prosecution of U.S. and foreign patent applications, patent portfolio analyses and management, patent due diligence, and freedom-to-operate analyses. She has significant experience in developing, strengthening, and managing her clients’ patent portfolios to maximize their commercial value. Ms. Choi’s clients include emerging and multinational companies, universities, and investors.

Ms. Choi is co-founder of the firm’s biochemicals practice, which counsels clients developing new feedstocks and innovative technologies to produce biofuels, biochemicals, and other bioproducts from renewable sources.

Ms. Choi is a member of the firm’s Venture Intellectual Property Group. She has experience performing IP due diligence reviews for venture capital investments and mergers and acquisitions, as well as representing clients undergoing diligence review. She also has experience working with clients on technology transaction matters, including counseling clients on licenses, collaborations for development and commercialization, and
university-sponsored research agreements.

Ms. Choi also works with the IP Litigation Group. She works closely with patent litigators to formulate strategies for infringement contentions, validity/invalidity contentions, and claim construction positions. She also actively supports the patent litigators in pre-litigation diligence matters to vet the strength of patents and patent portfolios.

Ms. Choi also participates in the firm’s Startup Speaker Series, educating entrepreneurs about IP protection issues related to patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. She is frequently invited to speak on IP issues that startups and entrepreneurs face and has been a guest speaker for various seminars and classes at UC Davis, the California Institute of Technology, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She mentors and counsels the next generation of entrepreneurs in developing IP strategies to protect their scientific breakthroughs and assists in moving these technologies from the laboratory to the marketplace.

Ms. Choi has an active pro bono practice and has been awarded the State Bar of California’s Wiley W. Manuel Award for Pro Bono Legal Services on multiple occasions. She assists numerous non-profit organizations in developing and securing patent protection for their core technologies. She also regularly represents families seeking legal guardianship.

In 2013, Euromoney named Ms. Choi an intellectual property rising star at its Americas Women in Business Law Awards. Ms. Choi received her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School where she graduated magna cum laude and was named to the Order of the Coif. She was also a Senior Editor on the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. During law school, Ms. Choi completed her M.B.A. at the Wharton School of Business.
Prior to attending law school, Ms. Choi worked at a large pharmaceutical company performing chemistry research. She has also worked in organic and inorganic chemistry labs at the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Ms. Choi received her B.Sc., with honors, in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology.

Terry Chuah

Terry Chuah is the Founder and Chief Career Strategist of TheCareerLifeCycle LLC. He was previously Senior Client Partner with Korn Ferry in San Francisco, He brings 20 years of executive search experience at the most senior levels in North America, Australia, Asia and Europe, having previously worked at Heidrick & Struggles and, prior to that, Russell Reynolds Associates. Terry has worked extensively in energy technology, hitech as well as in the industrial resources and manufacturing sectors.

In addition to having handled a broad range of assignments for global corporate clients, Terry has deep experience working with early stage venture-backed and mid-sized private equity-backed companies. Previously, Terry founded and ran a successful boutique executive search firm in Melbourne, Australia. Prior to that, Terry spent 12 years at BHP Billiton, Australia’s largest industrial resources company. Terry combines his executive search and corporate management experience with talent assessment and leadership development. He graduated from the University of New South Wales in Australia with a Master and Bachelor of Commerce.

He has completed the ECI – External Coach Intensive – as part of the Coaching Certification Program at Columbia University. Terry is also certified in the Myers Briggs Type Indicator as well as in Korn Ferry’s viaEdge psychometric which assesses leadership potential.

Jeff Clark

Jeff has more than 25 years of experience as a management consultant focused on business strategy and financial analytics to support the creation of client shareholder value within the energy, utility, wireless and technology industries. He was the founding partner and served as the CEO of Veracity Innovation, a joint venture with the Gas Technology Institute commercializing natural gas-related technologies. Jeff holds an MBA with a Specialization in Finance with Honors from The University of Chicago, Booth GSB and a B.A. in Economics with Distinction and Phi Beta Kappa from Whitman College.

Vaitea Cowan

Vaitea Cowan co-founded Enapter, an electrolyser manufacturer making green hydrogen affordable for all. Since 2017, she’s become a prominent figure in the industry, and gave the TED talk “How green hydrogen could end the fossil fuel era”. Her work has garnered significant recognition, including being listed in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Energy 2020 and winning the inaugural Earthshot Prize. The three co-founders grew the team to 240 by 2024 and took the company public in 2020. During her time in the company (2017-2024), the team created a new market and delivered more than 5,000 units worldwide for decentralized hydrogen use cases in energy storage, refueling, or process heat. Vaitea has a background in business with 7 years of experience in green hydrogen and advocates for increasing the representation of women in STEM and business fields.

Trish Cozart

Trish Cozart is a Program Manager at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center. Cozart manages the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN²), a $30 million-dollar program dedicated to speeding early-stage cleantech companies to market. Prior to joining the IN² team, Cozart spent nine years at NREL leading projects for an application development and analysis team, primarily supporting the Department of Energy’s deployment efforts for alternative fuels and advanced vehicles. Additionally, she led projects in other areas of the lab including wind, geothermal, solar, buildings, and technology transfer. Cozart also lent her expertise to coach federal government and national laboratory groups on impact metrics, customer discovery, and user experience.

She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Sciences from Colorado State University and Master of Science in Technical Communications from the University of Colorado at Denver.

Simon Daniel

Simon has 25 years of experience in technology and business innovation. He leads Moixa’s overall strategy and growth plans, and market relations across government, industry, investors – and has raised £10m into the business. He is a serial inventor, with numerous patents in energy and mobile devices – e.g. he invented and licensed a folding PDA keyboard which sold 2m units. He founded Moixa for smart energy R&D and launched USBCELL in 2006, gaining numerous awards. Simon previously spent 8 years in Accenture’s Technology practice, where as a Senior Manager he helped co-create a Financial eCommerce new business unit, working with new ventures and start-ups. He has a background in AI and computing, e.g. 2009 Singularity University, MA in Natural Sciences, Theoretical Physics from Cambridge University (91-93), gap years at IBM Research and Defence research agency. He is also a member of the Smart Systems Forum, as part of BEIS/Ofgem, reviewing UK flexibility strategy.

Kyle Datta

Kyle Datta has extensive global experience in the energy sector assisting major corporations and governments addressing climate change through energy efficiency and renewables. Mr. Datta was Managing Director of research and consulting at the Rocky Mountain Institute, where he coauthored two books on ending fossil fuel use, “Small is Profitable” and “Winning the Oil End Game. Mr. Datta served as vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton, where he served as managing director of the Asia energy practice and the U.S. utility practice. At Booz Allen, Mr. Datta developed the renewable energy and environmental strategies for several major oil, gas and utilities company. His previous positions include CEO of U.S. Biodiesel Group, which merged into REG and was the only U.S. biodiesel firm to successfully go public. More recently, Kyle was  founder and General Partner of Ulupono Initiative, an impact investing firm sponsored by eBay Chairman Pierre Omidyar.

Kyle was named to the Transformation Advisory Council of the Puerto Rico Energy Power Association, which will assist in the development of a long-term vision and transformation execution plan to make power system in Puerto Rico resilient, following the devastation of Hurricane Maria.

Kyle received a master’s degree in public and private management from the Yale School of Organization and Management, as well as a master’s degree in environmental science in resource economics from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He currently serves on the boards of directors for Blue Planet Foundation and the Johnson Ohana Charitable Foundation, and the steering committee of the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders.

Steve Deiker

Steve is a PhD physicist who co-founded Kairos Aerospace in 2014. Prior to founding Kairos, Steve was a research manager at the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory. He has worked on a variety of NASA- and DARPA-funded programs, including cryogenic detector programs, solar physics experiments and radiation modeling for spacecraft.

Lidiya Dervisheva

As an Investor at G2VP, Lidiya Dervisheva supports deal sourcing, industry research, and due diligence.

Before joining G2VP, Lidiya was a project manager and engineer at Synergy Efficiency Solutions, a commercial and industrial energy efficiency company based in Indonesia. There she led large energy audits, helped run operations and sales, and pioneered the first Indonesian ESCO. Previously, Lidiya held positions at Vattenfall Offshore Wind in Germany, London Sustainability Exchange in the UK, and Braemar Energy Ventures in New York.

Lidiya holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Yale University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Lidiya is fluent in Bulgarian, German, and English.

Bethany Deshpande

Bethany Deshpande is CEO of SomaDetect, a precision dairy and deep-learning technology company based in Fredericton, NB and Buffalo, NY. SomaDetect is developing an automated, inline sensor system that provides measurements of critical compounds in raw milk (including fat, protein, somatic cell counts, reproduction status, and antibiotic residuals) from every cow at every milking. With this technology, farmers are better connected with every cow they milk, enabling them to identify problems early, make informed decisions, and produce the best possible milk.

Founded in 2016, SomaDetect has been selected as the recipient of the Ag Innovation Showcase ‘Ideas, Energized’ prize, Grand Prize winner of $1 M from Buffalo’s 43North Competition, winner of Judges Choice Award at Rabobank’s Foodbytes event in NYC and has received investment from Dairy Farmers of America. Bethany is passionate about farmer-centered design, herd management, and positively impacting our dairy food system.

Bethany holds a B.A. in Mathematics and Health & Environmental Studies from the Glendon campus of York University (Toronto, Canada), and completed her M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Biology at Université Laval (Quebec City, Canada).

Francesco di Bari

As an entrepreneurial international professional and corporate executive, Francesco has 24 years of experience in finance, business development, M&A and change management. Prior to starting with Electrochaea, Francesco helped startups raising capital and building their operation in the space of robotics, artificial intelligence and software.

Francesco worked as CFO, Managing Director, Head of M&A and COO in multinational companies such as Daimler-Benz, Deutsche Telekom, Infineon Technologies, SYMG and Solera Inc. building up and establishing businesses in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Francesco is member of the Advisory Board of Speedcargo Ltd, Singapore, a robotic company founded by the Singaporean Government and the Technical University Munich.  Francesco holds a Dottore in Economia Aziendale degree from the Università Commerciale L. Bocconi Milan, and a CEMS Master from the Wirtschaftsuniversität in Vienna.

Domenic Di Mondo

Domenic is a chemist specializing in catalysis and polymer chemistry, with several publications and patents in this area. In his role at Greenmantra, Domenic is focused on driving innovation and market growth for products, applications and new intellectual property. He joined GreenMantra® just after its inception in 2010 and led the development, scale up, and commercialization of the company’s patented thermo-catalytic process for the controlled depolymerisation of hard-to-recycle plastics. In 2016, Domenic was recognized with The Canadian Plastic Industry Association’s Young Leader Award, and along with his research partners, the R&D100 GreenTech Gold Award for advances in the continuous depolymerisation of waste plastics. Domenic earned a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Guelph, and post-graduate certification in Strategy & Innovation from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Genet Garamendi

Genet Garamendi is a founding team member and the Head of Strategic Relationships and Communications for Checkerspot, a design-centric advanced materials company. As a passionate story teller, relationship and team builder, connector, and IPO veteran, she is an advocate for solutions that are better for people and our planet. Checkerspot is already breaking new ground on solutions as advances in our understanding of biology, chemistry, and materials science are converging with advances in computational, experimental and fabrication tools, unleashing performance capabilities that we once only imagined.

Previously, Genet served as TerraVia’s SVP for Global Corporate Communications, Sustainability and Government Relations. She led engagement and outreach to stakeholders including mediaNGOs, partners and Government on environmental and policy issues around TerraVia’s leading role in algae innovation, food and sustainability.

Genet brings with her deep experience in a variety of sectors from government to television media. She was also the communications leader on the successful Solazyme IPO. Before joining TerraVia (formerly Solazyme), she was VP of Communications at Premier Retail Networks, the in-store media network that was located in over 6000 stores for retailers like Walmart and some of the largest grocery stores nationwide. In addition, Ms. Garamendi has worked for Discovery Networks U.S. as the Director of Publicity and Communications for TLC Network where she worked on many acclaimed series such as The Great Egyptians, Windsor Restored, Tobacco Wars, and the Oscar nominated documentary, On the Ropes.

Prior to her work in television she worked in Congress for Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren and Congressman Vic Fazio (former Chairman of the DCCC and member of the House Appropriations Committee) as a Deputy Press Secretary, Press Secretary and Legislative Aid focused on health care issues, agriculture, women’s issues and Medicare.

Gopal Erinjippurath

Gopal manages the Analytics Engineering team at Planet Labs Inc. His background is in the development of foundational technology that powers products in the imaging and machine learning space. He is known for agile engineering execution from concept to scalable high quality products.

Gopal’s recent experience is in industry-leading analytics products from early concept demonstrations to multiple customers at Captricity and Harvesting, where he advised the CEO. Previously he led the algorithm engineering development of Dolby’s first imaging display product, the Emmy Award winning Dolby Professional Reference Monitor and technologies for high dynamic range video reproduction in Dolby Vision, now in the iPhone X/Xs, Netflix and LG Ultra HD TV.

Gopal holds an MS in Electrical Engineering from University of Southern California and completed the Ignite Program, connecting technologists with new commercial ventures, at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Larry Feinberg

Larry Feinberg, PhD., is an entrepreneurial industrial biotechnologist and the CEO and co-founder of KnipBio. Larry completed his doctoral studies at the University of Massachusetts where he focused on biogeochemistry, physiology and genetics of hyperthermophilic microbes. He has deep expertise in early-stage technology ventures and bio-product discovery.  At Mascoma Corporation, he led the Organism Discovery group and New Business Opportunities team.

Tom Ferguson

Nicholas Flanders

Nicholas Flanders is the co-founder and CEO of Opus 12. Nicholas holds an M.S. in engineering and MBA from Stanford University. Opus 12 is his second venture-backed startup. Previously, Nicholas was an analyst in McKinsey’s Cleantech practice, where he served multiple clients in the energy and materials sector and co-authored groundbreaking studies of the global energy system. Nicholas was featured among Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Energy in 2016.

Opus 12 has developed a device that converts CO2 emissions into cost-competitive chemicals and fuels.

Founded at Stanford in 2015, Opus 12 scaled up its technology in the Cyclotron Road program at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL). Opus 12 has received funding from Shell, SoCalGas, NASA, DOE, NSF, ARPA-e, and top-tier investors. Opus 12 is the 2015 winner of the DOE’s Transformational Idea Award, and the three co-founders have been featured among Rolling Stone’s 25 People Shaping the Next 50 Years and MIT Technology Review’s TR35 Innovators.

Thomas Folker

Larry Fromm

Laurence Fromm joined Achates Power in 2004 as the market-facing executive of the company’s founding team. While managing the business development, government relations and marketing for Achates Power, Fromm leads engagements with leading engine, commercial vehicle and passenger vehicle manufacturers around the globe. Prior to Achates Power, Fromm served as CEO of Chaos Telecom, a venture-backed, early-stage company, where he helped create the company’s first product — licensed embedded software for digital subscriber line modems. Prior to Chaos Telecom, Fromm was the vice president of Widcomm, Inc. (sold to Broadcom Corporation), where he managed development of the Bluetooth LAN access point and developed the company’s channel program in Europe, North America and Asia. Previously, Fromm was part of the executive team at Dialogic as the company grew to $400M in annual revenue, went public and was purchased by Intel Corporation. Fromm earned a Bachelor of Science, summa cum laude, in computer engineering from the University of Michigan and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

Dan Gabaldon

Over the past two decades, Dan has served leading companies across the energy value chain in many of their most critical strategic and operational improvement challenges. At Enovation, he has focused particularly on DER and Energy Storage, serving energy companies, OEMs and investors seeking to benefit from the rapid changes in this area. He has served a similar mix of clients in the natural gas sector on M&A and operational improvement issues. His work usually involves leveraging Enovation’s growing set of proprietary analytic tools and datasets, as well as his many years of experience supporting clients to make real impacts on their companies. He is a frequent speaker and author on DER, storage, and new energy innovation topics.

Josh Gilbert

Josh Gilbert is Chief Executive Officer and founder at Sust Global.

Sust Global is the leading provider of climate data and APIs, providing the climate data foundations for global financial institutions, data providers, investors and corporates.

Sust Global’s product delivers satellite-validated insights and integrations, by transforming climate science with satellite and geospatial datasources and cutting-edge deep-learning techniques.

Josh is a global expert and leader in climate tech and sustainable finance, having worked across climate tech, cleantech and geospatial analytics.

Josh is a thought leader and regular speaker on climate tech sustainable finance, quoted in publications such as TechCrunch, Reuters, FT/Sifted and UKTN. Josh holds a BA & MSc in Economics & International Development, and wishes he had more time to play music and Dungeons & Dragons.

Daniel Gimpel

My partners Yossi Fisher, Eric Selmon, and I founded a revolutionary predicative data analytic software company, MADA Analytics – for the future of renewable energy generation with integrated optimized energy storage solutions.  We assembled a diverse team with expertise in core competencies of AI algorithm development, deep understanding of utility scale energy storage utilization and solutions, renewable energy generation engineering, all within the complex whole sale energy power markets, and project finance discipline.

MADA Analytics has developed a unique SaaS software solution called “MEPS” for the purpose of 1) simulating optimal project design (feasibility & pre-feasibility) with a big data simulation solution which dramatically improves project finance with highly accurate predictable cash flows providing credit enhancement, and 2) recommend optimal energy dispatch from IoT data streams, that generate predictive analytics and models to improve energy trading supply in the power markets.

Prior to founding MADA, Daniel served as the Managing General Partner and Co-Founder of the Tamir Fishman Russian Venture Capital Fund.  Daniel lead over $100 million dollars in raising capital and investments for the fund and its portfolio companies.

Prior to Tamir Fishman, Daniel was the head of international sales for Fin-Tech software company, called Border Free (www.borderfree.com) – NASDAQ (BRDR), which provides foreign exchange hedging and ecommerce services.  Daniel began working in venture capital as an associate at Delta Ventures, a $60 million early stage venture capital fund based in Israel.

Daniel holds an M.B.A. in finance from Johns Hopkins University, and completed his B.A. in Philosophy/Ethics (Magna Cum Laude) after attending New York University, and Emory University.

Daniel lives in the Judean mountains as is an “obedient” Husband, a father to a full basketball team of 6 kids, a marathon runner, and a passionate lover of nature.

Susan Gladwin

Dave Gonzalez

Dave Gonzalez is Director of Strategic Business Development at Descartes Labs. He focuses on building relationships and strategies that match the capabilities at Descartes Labs with the needs of its customers. His experience includes geospatial product commercialization at Google, defining go-to-market strategy for Silicon Valley startup Skybox, and years of engagement with customers in a variety of technical product sales and consulting roles. Dave studied Geographic Information Systems at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Tilak Gopalarathnam

Tilak Gopalarathnam is currently the Director of Energy Technology Partnerships at LG Technology Center of America, a division of LG Corp. In this role, he is responsible for open innovation, partnerships and new business development in solar photovoltaics, energy storage and grid edge technologies. He works across business units and develops the technology strategy for new solutions in partnership with startups as well as established companies. One of his focus areas is the development of solar + storage solutions for the residential, commercial and utility markets.

Tilak has been working on various aspects of renewable energy and energy efficiency for the past 20 years. Most recently, he was responsible for innovations in solar module manufacturing at Flex. In prior roles, he managed the development of power conversion solutions for solar power plants at SunEdison, and designed power electronics for hybrid electric vehicles at General Motors. He has an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University and a B. Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology – Madras.

Matt Gregori

Matt Gregori serves as a Technology Development Manager for Customer Applications in the SoCalGas Research, Development, and Demonstration (RD&D) group. His team seeks out new natural gas and hydrogen technologies that are ready for deployment at the pilot or demonstration scale. His portfolio includes technologies in transportation, power generation, and residential, commercial, and industrial thermal applications.

During his career in the clean energy field, Matt has built and operated various types of clean energy projects, from biodiesel production facilities to food waste anaerobic digesters.

Matt earned a B.S. in Chemistry at The California Institute of Technology and an MBA at the Anderson School of Management at UCLA.

Catha Groot

Catha Groot is a Principal at Radicle Impact Partners, an early-stage impact venture fund focused on the food, energy and financial services sectors. Radicle invests in for-profit companies that generate scalable social and environmental impact. Prior to joining Radicle Impact, Catha was a Director of Strategy and Business Development at Personal Capital, a digital financial advisory company, and co-founder of Farm to Cup, a sustainable coffee marketplace.  She began her career on Wall Street, where she worked in private equity at Rockefeller Group Investment Management and in investment banking at UBS. Catha has an MBA from Stanford and AB from Princeton.

Maria Guercio

Baris Guzel

Jana Hanova

Jana Hanova has over 15 years of CleanTech, Power and Oil & Gas experience across North America and the Middle East. Prior to joining Evok, Jana worked with Creative Destruction Lab – Rockies as the CleanTech and Energy Stream Venture Lead, connecting tech start-ups with Smart Money & Mentorship and helping them gain market traction.

In addition to her tech start-up ecosystem experience, she led and managed multiple large Private & Public company engagements as a management and strategy consultant with PwC – in both the Middle East (UAE, Qatar, Oman, Saudi) and Alberta (Canada). She also worked with the International Energy Agency and the CTO Office of BC Hydro on accelerating the deployment of emerging technologies, with particular focus on electrification, decentralized energy and alternative energy systems.

Jana holds a M.Sc. in Resource Management and Environmental Science from the University of British Columbia and a B.Sc. (First Class Hons) in Geology/Geophysics from the University of Calgary.

Tim Hansen

Tim Hansen is Director of Energy & Environment at SR. He has 23 years of experience working in capacities including innovative clean technology R&D, independent technology evaluation and field demonstration, and assessment of technology impacts on sustainability and carbon reduction goals. He directed  R&D, pilot plant operations, and cleantech research teams of over 30 engineers, scientists, and technicians focused on sustainable chemistry, renewable energy, clean vehicles and fuels, and carbon emissions mitigation. He is currently focused on the impacts of technology on sustainability goals and targets. He is the US technical Expert on the ISO 14034 – Environmental Technology Verification standard development Working Group. Prior to joining SR, Tim was an Environmental Engineer for a small environmental consulting company focused on the industrial sector in the Southeast.

Peter Harding

Peter is the Founder and CEO of Kelvin Inc. Kelvin provides intelligent control for a dynamic world. We use A.I. to simplify the management of complex systems. Kelvin takes insight into action — improving production gains and reducing business risks.

Peter joined Technology Crossover Ventures in 2007 and has been in the venture capital industry since 2002. Peter has over fifteen years of technology, industrial and healthcare experience as an advisor and investor.

Prior to TCV, Peter worked in Shanghai, China as a Senior Associate and Manager of Asian Investments for DCM (Doll Capital Management). Peter also spent three years with DCM in Menlo Park focused on software, communications and internet investments.

Before DCM, he was an Investment Banking Associate in the software and services group of Epoch Partners (acquired by Goldman Sachs). Prior to Epoch Partners, Peter worked at Merrill Lynch in Los Angeles and London, where he advised healthcare and technology clients.

Peter received B.A. degrees in Economics and Public Policy Analysis from Pomona College and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Eli Harris

Jeff Hendler

Jeff Hendler serves as Chief Executive Officer of Logical Buildings. Logical Buildings is a smart building technology software developer, IoT and DER systems integrator, behavior management, and smart building services provider: integration of our products and services in large multifamily and commercial properties materially reduces operating expenses, generates revenue from existing mechanical equipment, enables Wi-Fi connectivity, and improves building operations/fault detection/resiliency. Our clients are market leaders and are integrating our Smart Building AI Platform services and technologies – increasing net NOI and NAV property by property.

Logical Buildings is a first mover technology company digitizing large multifamily and commercial properties – – developing smart meter, IoT, and DER data ontologies that power AI semantics that are linked to specific property management activities that significantly lower energy costs, improve work flow productivity, and extract new revenue streams from existing property assets — we monetize data for clients.

Logical Buildings has been built by energy and telecommunication systems engineers working with our shareholders who are owner/developers of more than $10 billion of multifamily and mixed-use properties. The company is currently serving more than 60 million square feet of major multifamily and mixed-use properties.

Jeff represents Logical Buildings as Innovation Member of the Smart Cities Counsel and Green Button Alliance. He also serves on the executive committee of the National Energy Marketers Association, as their Smart Grid Committee Chairman. In addition, he is an active voting member of the NYISO and PJM wholesale power grids. He also represents Logical Buildings as a member of the Consumer Technology Association, NY Battery Energy Storage, and Clean Energy Business Network.   Jeff is an acting advisor/member of the Wharton Energy Network, and graduate of the Wharton School of Business.

Sebastien Henot

Joseph Hirl

Joe Hirl is a 25+ year energy executive with extensive experience in software development, building technologies, energy risk management, business development, and power plant operations in the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific.  He recently sold his energy data analytics company, Agilis Energy, to Trane and is now responsible for Trane’s North American Digital & Energy Services. Trane and Agilis had been working under a close partnership for the last 5 years.

Prior to Agilis Energy, Joe was Senior Vice President at Progress Energy and responsible for all unregulated energy marketing & trading and merchant asset positions. Before Progress, he was Managing Director and Country Manager for three separate Enron trading businesses in Scandinavia, Australia and Japan.  Joe began his career as a US Navy Nuclear Power officer where he was responsible for the operation, maintenance and supervision of shipboard nuclear reactors.

Joe received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame, Operational Certification as a Nuclear Engineer from the US Department of Energy’s Naval Reactors and a Master in Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

Joe is the inventor of US Patent No. 8,583,531, Decision Support System for the Management of Energy Use, Contracting and Capital Investments for Facilities.

Ole Hoefelmann

Lex Hoefsloot

As CEO and co-founder, Lex is all about the end-goal and long term vision for the company. He does not only think about which technologies to use, what people to hire and which investors to work with, but also what company culture to build. He believes that by living the Lightyear mission we can make the world a better place. When not at work, Lex likes winter sports, reading, hiking and playing the piano.

Haggai Hofland

Haggai holds a B.A. in Economics and Management, with a specialization in Entrepreneurial Management from Tel Aviv Jaffa.

Haggai has been working in the Solar industry for the past 8 years, vast majority of those years working on products that are making the solar market more efficient.

Haggai started in the Solar industry at Watts & More (PLE for Solar) as a data analysis director. Later Haggai joined a small Investment found that specialized in investing in PV assets @ Italy where he served as the COO.

Before co-founding Raycatch Haggai co-founded webper, a startup in content media publishing sites.

Ted Huang

Ted was the founding managing director of Acario Innovation – the CVC arm of Tokyo Gas Co. based between Tokyo and Menlo Park CA.  He has led the investment activities of Acario with a global mandate looking into key segments including energy storage, EV ecosystem, mobility, and smart grid.  Acario also focuses time and resources around the intersection of energy and AI to gain deeper insights into the next generation of services from utilities perspective.

Prior to joining Tokyo Gas, Ted was the Managing Director of CITIC Securities’ Energy Group.  He has worked in a number of senior positions within the investment banking and energy sectors with firms such as Citigroup, JP Morgan, and Barclays Capital.  Ted started his career in Houston Texas with Enron Capital & Trade in 1998 as a financial analyst, and have worked subsequently across North America and Asia Pacific.

Ted holds a bachelor degree in Economics with minor in Computer Science from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and a MBA from INSEAD.

Hiroaki Izuma

Hiroaki is Business Development Director of Acario Tokyo Gas CVC, digitally transforming Tokyo Gas with cleantech startups. Tokyo Gas is the largest gas utility in Japan, having 11M gas and 1.3M electric customers. Prior to Aario, Hiroaki was CEO of OGIS International based in San Mateo, Senior Executive Officer of OGIS-RI in Tokyo and Vice Chairman of Shanghai Ogis Tonghua Software in Shanghai. He started his career as a researcher of Osaka Gas and as a Technology Planning Director launched open innovation platform for the first time among Japanese utilities. He majored mechanical engineering at Kyoto University and was a visiting scholar for Institute For Robotics and Intelligent Systems at University of Southern California.

Jeanette Jackson

Jeanette Jackson is the CEO of Foresight, Canada’s cleantech accelerator.
Foresight works with innovators, industry, investors, government, and academia
across Canada to identify, develop, and commercialize cleantech solutions.

Jeanette is an entrepreneur with broad experience across multiple industries. She
founded a tech company and built it into a thriving business before a successful
exit. She has secured millions in investment dollars, project funding and revenue,
led cross-functional teams, and developed innovative programs for entrepreneurs,
industry, and investors.

Since taking on the role of Foresight CEO, Jeanette has led the organization
through remarkable growth, expanding accelerator programs from one province to
national, building a vibrant Innovation Challenge program, and launching a sectoral
approach to cleantech innovation. Recognized as a leader in cleantech, both in Canada and internationally, Jeanette is a frequent speaker, media guest, and
advisor to industry and government.

Monica Jain

Monica Jain, founder and executive director of Fish 2.0 and Manta Consulting Inc., is dedicated to growing networks that bring together her top passions: fisheries and the oceans, finance, and impact investment. She launched Fish 2.0 in 2013 to create a network of quality entrepreneurs and investors who could grow the sustainable seafood sector. Since then, she has worked with over 400 entrepreneurs, 300 investors, and 40 sponsors to expand Fish 2.0.

Monica was named a White House Champion of Change for Sustainable Seafood in October 2016 for her achievements with Fish 2.0 and her long-standing work advancing ocean conservation and sustainable seafood. Her career spans 30 years and 4 continents, encompassing marine biology, philanthropy, venture capital, banking, and international development in such far-flung locales as New Zealand, Madagascar, Latin America, and Spain, as well as in the United States.

Alongside Fish 2.0, she continues her work as a strategic advisor and consultant to foundations, investors, and corporations, helping them launch initiatives and build partnerships. She has supported the development of corporate sustainability strategies, spawned philanthropic initiatives, and helped dozens of companies find aligned investment. Monica holds degrees from Stanford University and the Wharton School of Business.

Jakob Jensen

Jakob Jensen spent 20 years investing in early-stage cleantech. Four years ago, when he met Heliac – the by far most interesting company in his career – he left the investment side to become an entrepreneur himself. Since then Jakob has deep-dived into the opportunities and challenges of decarbonizing industrial process heat. From his role as Chief Commercial Officer Jakob provides insights into market trends, business models, and the available solutions.

Brage Johansen

Fifteen years experience of cleantech company development in the energy sector.

Glenn Johnston

Jane Kearns

Jane is a senior advisor with MaRS Cleantech. She is a recognized leader in sustainable innovation and has extensive experience growing companies at the intersection of business and sustainability. She co-founded, grew and profitably sold a full-service renewable energy company, Clean Energy Developments, and leverages over 20 years of experience in the environmental finance, cleantech and sustainability sectors to help build businesses that matter.

Throughout her career, she has advised entrepreneurs and executives on project and equity financing, mergers and acquisitions, strategic planning and business development. She helped launch Columbia Business School’s first environmental finance course, which continues to be taught in the school’s MBA and EMBA programs, as well the School of International and Public Affairs. Jane is the co-founder of the CanadaCleantech Alliance, a board director at the Water Technology Acceleration Project (WaterTAP) and sits on advisory boards for the MaRS Catalyst Fund, Shell’s Quest Climate Grant and the Pembina Institute’s UnGALA. Jane holds an MBA from Columbia University.

David Kenney

David Kenney has led VertueLab since 2008. Prior to joining VertueLab, David held a wide range of roles during a 12-year tenure at Intel Corporation, including finance, project management, and business/organizational operations. He helped build Intel Solution Services — a technical consulting organization — to an organization operating in more than ten countries worldwide. He also co-founded and led the Intel Employee Sustainability Network. Before joining Intel, he was a Senior Consultant with Deloitte & Touche Consulting Group in Portland, working with federal and local government clients. He holds an MBA and Certificate of Public Management from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. David Kenney was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce in 2014 and 2016 to serve on the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE).

John King

Mr. King has won and managed over $7.5 million in contracts and investment from Fortune 500 utility companies, government agencies and private investors. He is lead inventor of Hyperlight Energy’s novel plastic solar concentrator technology.  Prior to Hyperlight, Mr. King was an architect of the $3.2 BB California Solar Initiative’s (CSI’s) online rebate system.  In 2007, he also authored a seminal paper, now referenced in Wikipedia’s solar power entry, predicting the tectonic shift in business models in solar photovoltaic from a traditional ownership structure to a power purchase agreement structure.  Mr. King is honored to serve on the Selection Committee for EvoNexus, San Diego’s premier start-up incubator. He holds 16 issued U.S. and international patents.  He holds an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, an M.S. from UC Irvine and a B.S. from Caltech.

Emily Kirsch

Emily Kirsch is the Founder and CEO of Powerhouse and the Founder and Managing Partner of Powerhouse Ventures. Powerhouse backs entrepreneurs building software-focused technology for the clean energy industry. At Powerhouse, Emily has built strategic connections between venture capital, corporate leaders, and entrepreneurs to drive innovation. Startups at Powerhouse have collectively raised hundreds of millions in capital, generated hundreds of millions in revenue, and have created over a thousand jobs in the US and around the world.

Prior to founding Powerhouse, Emily worked as the Lead Organizer at the Ella Baker Center, where she founded and lead the Climate Action Coalition which drafted and secured passage of the most ambitious Energy and Climate Action Plan of any city in the nation. Emily designed and launched the Green Jobs Corps with Ella Baker Center Founder and former Advisor to President Obama, Van Jones.

Emily serves on the Board of Station A and is on the Advisory Board of University of San Francisco’s Master’s of Science in Energy Systems Management. Emily serves on the Advanced Energy Technologies Council for the World Economic Forum.

Emily is the winner of 2017 Entrepreneurship Award from C3E, a partnership between the US Department of Energy, Stanford, and MIT to highlight women’s leadership in clean energy. Her work has been cited in Bloomberg, The Guardian, TechCrunch, The Huffington Post, and The New York Times. Emily has guest lectured at UC Berkeley and Stanford.

Steven Kloos

Steve Kloos is an experienced investor and company leader with a deep background in water, energy, and climate. He was previously at GE Water as Membrane Technology Leader, Advanced Technology Leader, and member of GE’s venture capital team. Steve led new investment sourcing as a Partner at True North Venture Partners, and served in two stints leading True North portfolio companies, and he is the founding board chair of Current Water and a longtime advisor to ImagineH2O.

Florian Kolb

Florian has 20 years of professional experience in tech and non-tech-related industries with a strong background in mergers & acquisitions (Florian has led and worked on more than 60 deals worth over 12bn USD, including venture deals), post-merger integration (7bn USD integration), operational management, restructuring (2,5bn+ program), business development, market entry and innovation (Silicon Valley).

Florian started his career working for a serial entrepreneur who developed and IPO’ed a highly successful packaging business. During the dot.com era, Florian advised tech and start-up companies in early- and later-stage fundraising. He focused on private equity and leveraged transactions in Automotive and Electronics before joining RWE, a leading pan-European energy company with more than 50bn revenues and more than 60.000 employees.

At RWE, Florian lead M&A deals worth more than 10bn USD. After the acquisition of it’s Dutch business, Florian managed the integration of this 7bn+ USD acquisition into the RWE group. He then became the Managing Director of RWE’s Dutch services company, transforming major corporate functions, delivering very ambitious cost-savings and multi-million USD IT programs. Florian was appointed in 2013 by the Executive Board of RWE to manage the 2.5bn+ USD group-wide transformation program, covering all main areas and functions of the business.

In 2015, Florian has been appointed as Managing Director of RWE’s activities in Silicon Valley (which now have been rebranded innogy). He focuses to secure future, non-traditional business for innogy via three core activity streams: 1. market entry, 2. Venturing and 3. innovation. This includes leading strategic investments in early- and later-stage companies, leading the group-wide data-driven business model activities and testing and launching new businesses for innogy in the renewables, grid and retail space. During the last two years, innogy has invested a very substantial double-digit million USD amount in various Silicon Valley-based activities. Florian serves on the boards of portfolio companies from Silicon Valley. Florian is also the founding father of the Free Electrons program, a global accelerator program operated by a consortium of leading utilities from around the world and is acting as a mentor for Singularity University programs.

Florian holds a masters degree in economics from the University of Passau, Germany.　He participated in executive programs from leading academic institutions such as INSEAD Fontainebleau, IMD Lausanne and various innogy TOP 150 programs.

Liz Koutsos

Liz is the President and CEO of EnviroFlight, a company that is pioneering the commercialization of black soldier fly larvae for feed and food applications. EnviroFlight upcycles regionally sourced by-products into sustainable high value ingredients to improve plant, animal and human nutrition worldwide. EnviroFlight is a joint venture between Darling Ingredients (DAR) and intrexon (XON) and recently opened the first commercial-scale black soldier fly production facility in the US.

Prior to EnviroFlight, Liz was the Director of Mazuri Exotic Animal Nutrition, a division of Land O’Lakes/Purina Mills leading a team to enhance the nutrition and conservation of exotic and endangered animals worldwide, successfully launching the brand into mass retail and e-commerce. Liz joined Mazuri following an appointment on the faculty of the Animal Science Department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, where she managed the Cal Poly Poultry Unit, developed a research lab and MS program and engaged undergraduates in the “Learn By Doing” model.

Liz is a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park with a BS in Animal Science, and the University of California, Davis with an MS and PhD in Nutrition and Immunology. Liz is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at North Carolina State University, and a Smithsonian Research Associate.

Ranga Krishnan

Ranga has over 25 years of diversified management and technology experience in small to large sized organizations. He has a proven ability to execute strategies, requirement gathering, plan, manage resources, defining and implementing processes & policies, team building, product development life cycle management, and project management over a broad range of products (Enterprise Software, Web Media, Database Software/Database Technologies, Security and Internet Software/Products). Expertise in Purchasing, Training, Administration and Development. He has Strong skills in organization, decision making, delegation, and people management.

Christoph Krumm

Christoph likes to help you do your chores. Having founded Sironix Renewables, he works to develop new greener, safer, and more effective ingredients for cleaning products, like laundry detergents. He was recently selected as an American Institute of Chemical Engineers Top 35 Under 35 for innovation, and has over ten years of experience inventing renewable energy technologies and conducting research in bio-renewable products. He has earned over $3M in grant funds and partnerships to help commercialize Sironix Renewables’ new eco-friendly cleaning product ingredients. Christoph earned his PhD from the University of Minnesota and bachelors from the University of Washington, both in chemical engineering.

Constance Lau

Constance H. Lau is president and CEO of Hawaiian Electric Industries (HEI); chairman of Hawaiian Electric Company, HEI’s utility subsidiary, which provides electricity to 95% of the state of Hawaii; and chairman of American Savings Bank, HEI’s banking subsidiary and third largest Hawaii bank. In 2015, Hawaii became the first state in the nation to adopt a 100% renewable portfolio standard and in 2018 adopted a carbon-neutral goal, both to be achieved by 2045. HEI is deeply involved in helping Hawaii achieve these goals.

Connie was appointed a C3E Clean Energy Ambassador for the Department of Energy and named 2011 Woman of the Year by the Women’s Council on Energy and the Environment. Connie chairs the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, which advises the President of the United States on the security of the sixteen critical infrastructure sectors and their information systems, and is a member of the Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council, which represents the industry with the federal government. She was one of U.S. Banker’s 25 Most Powerful Women in Banking for 2004, 2005 and 2006 when she headed American Savings Bank. She serves on the boards of Edison Electric Institute, Associated Electrical & Gas Insurance Services, Matson, Inc., Elemental Excelerator, Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies, Hawaii Business Roundtable, Punahou School, Consuelo Foundation, and on the advisory boards of UC Hastings College of the Law, University of Hawaii Shidler School of Business and the John A. Burns School of Medicine, and the Kamehameha Schools investment advisory committee.

Connie holds a B.S. from Yale College, a J.D. from UC Hastings College of the Law and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Allan LeBlanc

Nils Lekeberg

Nils studied Marketing and Control Systems in Singapore and Lund and then spent the first ten years of his career at Ford Motor Company in Sweden/Norway and England. When his childhood friend called and asked if he wanted to embark on an entrepreneurial journey, Nils quit his job as Marketing Manager at Ford Sweden and joined the start-up.

And he has never looked back.

Nils’ passion is to bring an idea to fruition and see it get a foothold in the market and move it into the growth phase. During the development of Lepido, Nils has spent equally much time between technical development and customer research, firmly believing that it is imperative to know the market, make sure the product offering really suits the customers’ needs and only then, find the technical solution to the problem.

Rebecca Liao

May Liew

May is a Director in the Investment Group at GenZero, and she is responsible for investments in technology-based decarbonisation solutions.

Before GenZero, she was Head of Sustainability and Innovation at SP Group, a leading utilities company in Asia Pacific. There, she led several key initiatives in energy transition, including strategising its sustainability focus on UN Sustainable Development Goals, investing in cutting edge sustainable technologies and venture-building of innovative business models. Her achievements include incubating and building the world’s first blockchain-powered Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) platform to accelerate the adoption of renewable energy.

She also worked at J.P. Morgan’s investment banking arm, in their New York and Hong Kong offices, where she executed strategic business reviews and capital markets transactions across fast-changing economic conditions. May started her career as a financial analyst with Fidelity Investments and with the private equity fund investments team at Temasek.

May graduated from the Boston University with a Master of Business Administration.

Matt Lucas

Dr. Matt Lucas is the Associate Director for Carbontech at Carbon180, an Oakland-based nonprofit that champions carbon removal solutions that can reverse climate change through science and innovation.  At Carbon180 he leads Carbontech Labs, the only startup accelerator and investment fund focused on carbontech–profitably converting waste carbon into valued products.  Matt brings his experience in both corporate venture capital and as an engineer at multiple hard-science startups to help other innovators achieve their double-bottom-line goals.  Matt received his PhD in mechanical engineering from UC Berkeley.

Susan Mac Cormac

Ryley MacKenzie

Ryley is co-founder and CEO of Expeto Wireless Inc., where he is responsible for corporate growth, business development and strategic direction. Expeto provides Enterprises with secure, scalable, private intranet wherever there is cellular connectivity.

Previous to Expeto, Ryley has helped create and build world-class teams with the IT Security and IP telephony verticals. Ryley has a history of helping to create and develop companies around the globe – most notably, one such company (based in Norway) was acquired by Oracle.

Ryley obtained his MBA from The University of Adelaide and a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) degree from The University of Manitoba. Ryley is also in the final stages of completing his Doctorate of Business Administration

Joe Madden

Joe is a pioneering entrepreneur focused on the convergence of markets, data, and impact. In 2015, he co-authored a paper outlining how existing commodity production data could be mined, transformed, and delivered to markets, enabling a deeper assessment of “value.” In order to drive the digital transformation of global commodity markets, Joe co-founded Xpansiv, which merged with CBL to create the global marketplace for Intelligent Commodities™. Prior to Xpansiv, Joe co-founded EOS Climate, a market leader in the California greenhouse gas markets, which was awarded the Governor’s Economic and Environmental Leadership Award (GEELA), California’s highest environmental honor.

Ryan Mannion

Ryan Mannion is a founding member and executive vice president for brand strategy and growth at Symmetri Marketing Group, a purpose-driven marketing and technology services firm based in Chicago. With more than 20 years of marketing and operations experience, Ryan offers expertise and enthusiasm to help enterprises in a wide range of industries build their brand, drive growth and catalyze change.

From multimillion to multibillion dollar organizations, Ryan’s experience includes developing brand and growth strategies for businesses that go to market through direct, indirect and online models. He has a deep understanding of how people interact with brands — from business buyers, employees and investors to users, media representatives and communities of interest. Ryan understands that meaningful brand interactions today must occur both on screen and in person, and he’s always seeking inventive ways to integrate the roles of online and offline channels.

Get to know him, and you’ll soon discover his natural curiosity about how the world works, the ways people think, and why they make certain decisions. Ryan’s favorite question is, “Why?”  “Why is that important?” “Why is that so difficult?” “Why do people care about that?” And his curiosity inevitably leads to action. When he’s not asking questions, you’ll hear, “Make it real!” “Get to know people!” “Be helpful!” “Stand for something!”

Just watch him work and see for yourself. Or, when he’s not at work, see the same energy and engagement play out in everything he does. His love for family. His devotion to the Chicago Cubs, win or lose. His never-ending quest for perfection in a Pequod’s pizza, ham sandwich or cup of coffee. His delight in people laughing. And, his insistence at the end of the year on yet another screening of “Elf.”

Martin Mantalvanos

Martin Mantalvanos, a recognized leader in ITS, AI and Data Management is the CEO of Hannah Systems, a software company specializing in delivering a richer, fuller city environment for autonomous and connected vehicles and bringing our autonomous future one step closer. A serial entrepreneur and innovator, Martin has been navigating complex global transportation systems and markets in Europe, South America, Asia and the United States. With expertise in traffic, mapping, navigation and big data, Martin has built global teams for more than 30 years. Before founding Hannah Systems, he founded RSM Technologies and previously lead Dublin based start-up Parking Partners to a favorable exit with PEEK Traffic.

Since 2014, Martin has been merging technology, business, and government partnerships. He has quickly become a Silicon Valley thought leader providing the glue between major stakeholders in the public and private sector and paving the way for product deployments including the City of San Jose’s Transportation Innovation Zone.

Martin originally founded RSM Technologies in Dublin, Ireland, after acquiring a unique traffic management software technology from Aalto University in Finland. Subsequently, he raised $8M in private funds, expanded the technical team in Europe, and established the U.S. leadership team in 2014. Martin has spent 17 years in the IT sector, 11 of which have been dedicated to the traffic industry. He is a regular speaker at global events focused on Smart Cities (traffic, navigation, mapping, data and AI). Notable conferences include the Annual Meeting of ITS CA, the Wireless Broadband Alliance Wireless Global Congress, and the Autotech Council.

Through Martin’s vision and leadership, he is now focused on the autonomous vehicle (AV’s) arena addressing the need for greater understanding of human driving and pedestrian behavior as well as creating a digital twin for cities around the world to aid in the advancement of AV’s.

Ellen Martin

As Vice President for Impact and Strategic Initiatives, Ellen is responsible for tracking progress and impact of the Closed Loop Fund portfolio, and generating actionable insights for portfolio partners, investors, municipalities, and industry. She is also a member of Closed Loop Fund’s due diligence team. Ellen directs research, including recent studies on the capital landscape for circular supply chains, PET, glass and multi-family recycling.

Ellen brings considerable experience in management consulting, partnership development, research and evaluation to Closed Loop Partners. She spent 6 years as a strategy consultant with FSG, the social impact consulting firm co-founded by Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter. Her clients included Fortune 500 companies, philanthropic foundations, governments, and national nonprofit organizations. She also directed learning and knowledge exchange for members and partners of FSG’s Shared Value Initiative, including Walmart, Nestlé and Coca-Cola, among others. During this time, she led the research team behind Fortune Magazine’s inaugural “Change the World” list, featuring $1Bn+ companies addressing global challenges through profitable business models.

Michelle Masek

Rajiv Mathur

Rajiv is program manager of all things transportation at ProspectSV, from client engagements to operating ITS Signal Lab and helping accelerate new technology demonstrations in the TIZ. He brings industry experience in program management, relationship development and stakeholder engagement. Prior to ProspectSV, Rajiv spent a year at BACC as an Encore Fellow working on a variety of new program initiatives. Rajiv had a three decade career at Intel Corporation in Santa Clara in a diverse array of technical and management positions. Most recently, he served as Program Director in Intel Labs’ University Collaborative Research division where he managed all aspects of Intel’s academic collaboration to several academic research centers at top tier universities, both in US and Europe. Rajiv holds a M.Sc. degree from Indian Institute of Technology (Kanpur) and a Ph.D. degree from Carnegie-Mellon University (Pittsburgh) both in Physics.

Kurtis McBride

Kurtis McBride is CEO and co-founder of Miovision, a technology company that provides cities with the data and tools they need to reduce traffic congestion, make better urban planning decisions, and improve safety on their roads. Under Kurtis’ leadership, Miovision has provided the data and insights to improve traffic flow in over 13,000 municipalities worldwide. Kurtis holds a Masters of Engineering in Systems Design from the University of Waterloo.

Katie McClain

Katie has over a decade of experience in the energy industry, with responsibilities across corporate affairs, communications strategy, brand development, and policy. As Director of Market Development, she helps deliver the Fund’s strategic value to limited partners and entrepreneurs. Katie is responsible for developing business leads for the Fund’s portfolio companies, helping portfolio and pipeline companies navigate and leverage the network, and leading the marketing and communication efforts of the Fund.

A clean energy leader with valuable industry experience and connections, she was previously Vice President of Public Affairs for Invenergy – North America’s largest independent renewable energy generation company. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the University of Chicago and a BA from DePauw University

Katie currently sits on the Board of Directors for DroneDeploy.

Scott Mercer

Scott is an entrepreneur with a passion for bringing future-focused technology to market faster. He has been named Entrepreneur of the Year by the Hawaii Venture Capital, Forty Under 40 by Pacific Business News, and Hawaii Business’ Twenty for the Next 20. Prior to Volta, Scott ran a vintage automotive restoration business and sold a restored 1967 Jaguar XKE to seed the beginnings of Volta. Scott currently drives a Brammo motorcycle, an electric Fiat, and occasionally a 1971 Alfa Romeo.

Andrée-Lise Méthot

Andrée-Lise Méthot is the Founder and Managing Partner of Cycle Capital Management, an impact investor and the most active cleantech venture capital platform in Canada. She has over 25 years of experience in venture capital, management and engineering. In the last few years, she has fundraised almost $400M from strategic and industrial players and she recently closed a fund with a strategic institutional investor in China.

Andrée-Lise serves on many boards of directors for public and private companies, including some of CCM’s portfolio companies. She is the co-founder and Chair of the Ecofuel Accelerator, for which she also championed the Ecofuel Fund. She sits on the Board of directors of Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), Transition énergétique Québec (TEQ) and Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI). She also co-founded Écotech Québec, the Quebec cleantech cluster and SWITCH, the Alliance for a green economy.

Andrée-Lise sits on the North-American advisory Board of the Cleantech Group, the selection committee of Bloomberg’s New Energy Finance’s New Energy Pioneers, the Private Sector Advisory Board for the Networks of Centres of Excellence of Canada and the External Advisory Committee to the Vice Principal Research and International Relations at McGill University. She co-chaired a Task Force under the auspices of the UNEP and the SETAC on the Life Cycle Initiative. She sat on various recognition committees, including the Grand prix du Génie Québécois, the Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards, and the EY Entrepreneur of the Year contest.

Andrée-Lise was recognized as one of Canada’s Clean16, named one of the Top 20 cleantech investors by CleanTechnica and amongst the most influential women in sustainable development and in the cleantech industry by Corporate Knight.

Shannon Miller

Shannon Miller co-founded EtaGen in 2010 and leads the company as CEO. While completing her doctorate at Stanford, Shannon researched methods for improving efficiency of fuel conversion to electricity, with the aim of improving global access to low-carbon energy. This work led to designing and developing the early prototype that served as the foundation for EtaGen’s high-efficiency, linear generator technology. She holds a B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.

Brenden Millstein

Brenden Millstein is CEO & Co-founder of Carbon Lighthouse, where he is responsible for corporate growth, engineering, and long-term planning. Under Brenden’s leadership, Carbon Lighthouse became profitable and began reducing emissions within 6 months of operations. Brenden previously worked for NYSERDA, the State agency charged with addressing New York’s largest energy and environmental issues. Working with a small team comprised of leading energy experts, Brenden co-administered a budget of $87 million, executing energy efficiency and demand response projects at 250+ manufacturing plants and high-rise office buildings in New York City. Brenden’s clients included Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase, CBRE, and many other banks and property management companies. Additionally, he also worked as a research fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, investigating both Li-ion batteries and advanced building materials.

Brenden obtained an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and an MS in Renewable Energy Engineering, also from Stanford. He holds a B.A. in Physics, cum laude, from Harvard University.

Alex Monegro

Alex is a co-founder and COO at ReWatt Power. He’s led a wide range of transformation and innovation efforts across different industries including professional services, education, energy, and power, most recently for a large international power producer and marketer. His education background is in business, psychology, and education. Alex believes that we have the technology we need to make a decentralized, low carbon energy future happen, and that what’s missing are the business models that allow for players with disparate incentives to work together. ReWatt Power is in the business of making that future happen.

Jodie Morgan

Jodie is an accomplished CEO, President, and Board member who has led business growth for various companies. She began her career with ICI Americas, a specialties chemicals company, working in engineering, sales and marketing roles. She joined SPI Holdings, a private-equity backed company, where as VP of Sales, Marketing & Technology, she grew enterprise value from $50 million to $200 million. Jodie earned her first President assignment at SPI Polyols (subsidiary of ABF, plc.), an underperforming food ingredients business losing millions of dollars annually. She successfully led a turnaround of the business, achieving a 20+% EBITDA margin. Her consistent ability to develop high-growth strategies led to appointments to the top roles at Solazyme Roquette Nutritionals, a biotech company, and Pinova Holdings, a specialty chemicals company based on renewable and sustainable resources. Jodie has worked in leadership roles with companies ranging from specialty chemicals, to food ingredients and pharmaceutical excipients, to serviced-based businesses. Her experience as a board member has included service on the board of directors of Pinova Holdings, Inc., Getec Huanabara Quimica Industrial S/A (Brazil), and several other profit and non-profit organizations. She currently serves on the Board for GreenMantra Technologies. Jodie earned an MBA from West Chester University of Pennsylvania, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Delaware.

Molly Morse

Dr. Molly Morse is the CEO and co-founder of Mango Materials, a San Francisco Bay Area-based start-up company that uses wastewater treatment plant methane gas to manufacture biodegradable materials. Her vision of the future involves the proliferation of anaerobic digestion so that methane can be used to make electricity, fuels, and materials – creating local regions of economic resiliency.

Molly received her Ph.D from Stanford University and her B.S. from Cornell University. Dr. Morse has contributed to multiple patents, publications and presentations.  Along with other Mango Materials team members, she is currently working to up-scale the biomanufacturing technology of using methane gas to produce biodegradable materials. Their current focus is on the production of waste-derived biopolymers that can be used as fibers for the textile and fashion industry.

Tina Murray

Tina Murray operates a voiceover services, marketing & branding agency. For nineteen years she has partnered with global companies to help them communicate their vision and mission to clients internally and externally via company websites, training manuals, videos, and promotional channels. She has worked as a Sustainability Consultant developing strategic CSR initiatives and promoting the environmental efforts of her client’s businesses.  Kickstart International, Pachamama Alliance, Kaiser Permanente, Adobe, SFMOMA Artists Gallery are just a few of the clients she has worked with. She serves on the Bay Area Regional Board of Directors of Grid Alternatives who help provide solar access to low-income residents and has been trained in their Women in Solar program.  Tina received an MBA from Saint Mary’s College of Moraga’s global executive program and has worked in Rwanda Africa with an International NGO fighting childhood malnutrition and has researched the future of AI and sustainability in Dubai, UAE. She also earned certificates in Clean Tech Energy Management and Sustainability Leadership from Presidio Graduate School in 2017.  She enjoys traveling to new places to inform her work and understanding of sustainable solutions in the global economy and is a member of the Keiretsu Forum, a group of angel investors in the Bay Area to support current technological innovations and entrepreneurial opportunities.

Robert Niven

Rob Niven is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Canadian company CarbonCure Technologies, the global leader in carbon dioxide removal technologies for the concrete industry and Cleantech Group’s 2020 North American Cleantech Company of the Year. Rob has the simple goal of making concrete sustainability both profitable and easy for industry. Under his direction, CarbonCure and its partners are achieving their mission to reduce 500 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually. Rob has received countless international awards recognizing his leadership in sustainability, innovation and technology development including the Canada’s Top 40 Under 40, the 2016 Ernest C. Manning Innovation Award, the Cleantech Group’s Top 100 Global Cleantech Companies and the BloombergNEF New Energy Pioneers Award. Rob holds an MSc in Environmental Engineering from McGill University and a BSc in Chemistry from the University of Victoria, British Columbia.

Michael O’Boyle

Mike O’Boyle is the Director of America’s Power Plan, a network of experts who provide policymakers with assistance to design policies to facilitate the cost-effective integration of renewable energy.  As director, Mike manages the network of experts, contributes primary research and articles, and interfaces directly with policymakers on key policy design questions related to utility regulation, wholesale market reform, and rate design to promote an affordable, reliable, clean grid.

Ulili Onovakpuri

Uriridiakoghene “Ulili” Onovakpuri returned to the Kapor Capital team in 2016. She is focused on sourcing investment opportunities, conducting diligence and supporting Kapor Capital’s portfolio companies particularly those in the digital health and medical technology industries.

Previously, Uriridiakoghene served as Director of Global Programs at Village Capital, a global accelerator program and venture capital firm which supports healthcare, education, agriculture, energy and FinTech businesses. At Village Capital she worked side by side with entrepreneurs from around the world helping them grow their ideas into marketable businesses.

Uriridiakoghene received her MBA with a concentration in Health Sector Management from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. She is a native San Franciscan and a proud UC Berkeley Alum.

Lawrence Orsini

Lawrence Orsini is the founder of LO3 Energy, an energy and technology centric company that builds tools and develops projects to accelerate the proliferation of the emerging distributed energy and computation economy.

His experience spans the energy field from managing relationships with Fortune 100 utility and corporate clients to development of utility policy and regulatory frameworks. Prior to LO3 Energy, Lawrence was the Director of New Products for CLEAResult and the strategic lead responsible for development, piloting and deployment of new utility service offerings focusing on energy efficiency, microgrids, and load management for commercial, industrial and residential market sectors.

Isabella Palmgren

Isabella Palmgren is the CEO & Founder of Mimbly, a Swedish start-up based in Gothenburg. She has a BSc in Bioengineering and an MSc in Entrepreneurship and Business Design from Chalmers University of Technology. Mimbly is a vision driven company founded in 2016 with a goal to create sustainable water solutions and has created the Mimbox. A water recycling add-on system for laundry machines that recycles 50-90% of the water, saves energy by keeping the heat in the system and captures the microplastics from the clothes. Isabella has an international background, from living several years in different countries, where her passion for sustainability grew stronger. Mimbly was founded because we want to make water consumption more sustainable.

Nicholas Parker

Nick has pioneered and championed sustainability ideas, ventures and initiatives around the world for over three decades. He’s currently Chairman of Parker Venture Management Inc. through which he makes catalytic investments (presently in solar, fintech and analytics) and provides strategic advice, particularly to private wealth holders. Nicholas is also Founding Managing Partner of Global Acceleration Partners Inc. (“GAP”) a financial enterprise accelerating cross-border deployment of technologies and business models into emerging economies, especially China where Nick has been active for the past twelve years, to achieve “exponential impact” against major sustainability challenges.

Nick coined and introduced the “cleantech” concept to the finance and business community in 2002 while launching Cleantech Group (“CTG”), a market-leading research and advisory platform that he chaired until the end of 2013. Under his leadership as “Mr. Cleantech”, CTG helped create a global innovation ecosystem, mobilized over $6B in private equity and convened thousands of decision-makers, while serving influential businesses and institutions in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America. In this role, he spoke at hundreds of top events and was regularly featured in most major media.

In recent years, Nick’s contribution to advisory boards includes the Singapore Economic Development Board, Ontario Premier’s Climate Change Advisory Panel, Centre of Excellence for Commercialization of Research and the Clinton Global Initiative where he was principal energy and climate advisor. From 2003-08, he was Chair of E+Co, the award-winning impact investment company for clean energy enterprises in frontier markets. Nick is currently a Distinguished Fellow of the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada and serves as Treasurer and Board Member of the Centre for Mindfulness Studies.

Nick earned a BA Tech, Hons. (Carleton University, Ottawa) and an MBA in International Business (City University, London). He has lived and worked in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America while currently residing in Toronto. He’s authored or edited many publications and articles related to cleantech, sustainability, finance and international business, starting with Investing in Emerging Economies in 1993, co-published by The Economist and the International Finance Corporation. Nick’s a keen swimmer, soccer fan, outdoor enthusiast and happy parent.

Guy-William Pivot

Guy-William Pivot is a French engineer in the innovative automotive industry. Technophile, Climate & Energy topics enthusiast. Vehicle lover and Tech Hacker.

He served in the Automotive industry for 8 years, in several innovative powertrain development projects, and was involved for 3 years in EV and infrastructure international standardization.

He is now responsible for Electric Vehicle Ecosystem Innovation in the Renault Nissan Mitsubishi Silicon Valley Innovation Lab.

Bryan Pivovar

Bryan Pivovar is Fuel Cell Group Manager in the Chemistry and Nanosciences Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, CO where he oversees NREL’s electrolysis and fuel cell R&D.  He has been a pioneer in several areas of fuel cell development for vehicle applications, taking on leadership roles and organizing workshops for the Department of Energy in the areas of sub-freezing effects, alkaline membranes, and extended surface electrocatalysis.  Since June of 2015, he has been leading a multi-National Laboratory team pursuing ‘Hydrogen at Scale’ as a pathway for energy system wide benefits that explores the importance of Hydrogen across energy sectors.  He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota and led fuel cell R&D at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) prior to joining NREL. He received the 2012 Tobias Young Investigator Award from the Electrochemical Society and has co-authored over 100 papers in the general area of fuel cells and electrolysis.

Brook Porter

A sought after investor and advisor for companies at the intersection of technology and sustainability, Brook Porter brings decades of high-tech energy, transportation and agriculture expertise to G2VP as a founding partner. Previously, Porter led multi-stage investments for Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’ $1B Green Growth Fund, which included Uber, Turo, Amprius, Bloom Energy, ChargePoint, INRIX, Farmers Edge, Kaiima, Proterra, Renmatix and Siluria.

A serial entrepreneur, Porter has also co-founded two alternative fuel companies: Intelligent Energy, a hydrogen fuel cell technology company acquired by UK-based Intelligent Energy and Primafuel, a biofuels solutions provider, now a subsidiary of Edeniq. During his time at Primafuel, Porter led all aspects of engineering and operations and played a critical role in multiple financings for the company. Brook was a co-developer of the ENV Fuel Cell Motorcycle, recognized by TIME magazine and Popular Science as one of the best inventions of 2005.

Brook holds a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, with an emphasis in environmental technology. He is named on multiple U.S. and international patents in the field of renewable energy, including energy conversion and catalysis.

Stephen Prince

Stephen Prince is the Head of Centrica Business Solutions North America. He is responsible for commercial operations and driving growth across three key strategy areas – energy insight; energy optimization; and energy solutions, including combined heat and power (CHP), solar, battery storage and standby generators. In addition, Stephen works closely with Centrica’s Direct Energy Business team to put customers in control of their energy – from energy supply to distributed energy solutions.

Prior to joining Centrica, Stephen served in a variety of leadership roles, most recently as President and CEO of Younicos, a global leader in battery storage and microgrid solutions sold to Aggreko in July 2017. He previously served in executive leadership positions in industry, software, consulting, and outsourcing companies within the utility, financial service, and public transportation sectors, holding titles of Chief Executive Officer, Managing Director, Chief Accounting Officer, Global Practice Leader, and Senior Vice President of Strategy, Business Development, Sales, Channel Management, Product Management, and Innovation.

Stephen earned an M.S. degree in Tax from the Golden Gate University School of Taxation, a Contracts Management Certificate from the University of California, Irvine, and a B.A. degree in Business Administration and Accounting from California State University, Fullerton.

Stephen resides between Texas and Massachusetts with his wife Karen and children.

Keith Pronske

Keith is President and CEO of Clean Energy Systems, a Sacramento-based alternative energy company using high-pressure, oxygen-fuel combustion technology to produce power without pollution.  He has more than 30 years experience in the power industry in North America, South America and Europe. He previously served as Vice President of Business Development for Belgian-based Tractebel SA, now part of Engie, and prior to that worked for the AES Corporation, one of the largest independent power companies. Keith has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Davis, and a Masters in Business Administration from San Francisco State University.

Anna Rath

Izabela Ratman-Klosinska

Since 1994, Izabela has been affiliated with the Institute for Ecology of Industrial Areas (IETU) in Katowice, Poland, a non-profit research organization supervised by the Polish Ministry of the Environment. She has been managing IETU’s Office of Projects Coordination, Marketing and Research Commercialization for 24 years, dealing with international projects applications, management and reporting, establishing and maintaining IETU’s business and research contacts. In the years 1994-2000 she implemented environmental restoration projects under a direct agreement closed between IETU and the US. Department of Energy.

Since 2008 she has been involved in the development and implementation of the Environmental Technologies Verification (ETV) scheme in the European Union and Poland. She was member of an EU funded project consortium AdvanceETV that created the foundations for the ETV scheme in Europe including the EU ETV General Verification Protocol. Since 2013 she has been an external expert of the Polish Ministry of Environment on ETV and a member of the EU ETV Steering Group implementing the scheme on the EU level. Also since that year she has been participating in the efforts towards establishing a global recognition of the ETV schemes as a member of the ISO TC 207/SC4/WG5 working group that developed the ISO 14034 ETV standard and has been currently working on the Technical Report to this standard.

In addition to her international activities on ETV, she is participating as an expert in a project dedicated to ensuing mutual recognition of ETV led by  South Korea under the flagship of the Asia-Europe Meeting initiative (ASEM). She is also member of the Steering Group of the ETV Pilot on Water Technologies of the Ontario Province.

In 2016 she took the responsibility of the manager of the IETU ETV Body, one of 4 EU ETV bodies accredited to verify water technologies.

Thanks to her extensive experience and knowledge of the ETV scheme, she participated in numerous national and international workshops and conferences on ETV, the recent one being a session of Circular Economy organized by the Polish Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Technology in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment during the COP24 conference.

Elizabeth Redmond

With a BFA in Industrial Design from the University of Michigan, Elizabeth has worked in fields covering materials consulting, life cycle analysis, alternative energy and IoT. Prior to CoWorkr, she founded a global design practice focused on energy harvesting for sensor-based electronics called POWERleap where they did work for Nike, InterfaceFLOR, the Saudi Arabian Government, P&G, Haworth and others.

Scott Reed

Scott Reed is the Vice President for Strategy and Marketing at SMTI.  The Tennessee-based late-stage start-up’s goal is to develop for home and building owners a new generation of cost-effective HVAC appliances (furnace, boiler and water-heater replacements) utilizing Gas Absorption Heat Pumps (GAHPs).  The highly scalable approach cuts utility costs, energy use and GHG emissions by 30-50% compared to existing market offerings.

With an MBA from the University of Southern California, Mr. Reed (who is based in Denver, Colorado) has often been the first non-engineering executive in a start-up seeking to change the world with an innovative technology approach.  Having joined STMI in 2015, he brings a background of experience in business development, project finance, and marketing with multiple technology and financial innovators in the renewables and energy efficiency space. Mr. Reed has worked in or led a variety of roles including leading product development, financial and technical modeling, and sales.  His previous experience includes stints with SunEdison, Cogenra and Chromasun, among others.

SMTI is not Mr. Reed’s first rodeo with GAHPs – a seemingly “long forgotten” technology with a deep history.  Previously, he won and served as the Principal Investigator for a commercialization grant from the California Energy Commission, demonstrating a “Solar Thermal Heat Pump” on a large hotel, which combined high-tech solar thermal concentrators with a GAHP.  Mr. Reed’s multiple experiences with introducing initially-higher-cost technologies that save money and GHG emissions, has taught him to take the long view – much like a marathon – that patience and persistence will be rewarded if the idea is sound.

François Robitaille

François is an enthusiastic entrepreneur, he’s proud about building an organization that will impact future generations. With his expertise, XpertSea is working to empower the aquaculture food production industry through technological innovation. Before co-founding Xpertsea, François was a Senior Associate at PwC, auditing and advising tech companies. François holds a Bachelor of Accounting degree from Laval University and completed his CPA, CA certification.

Candace Saffery Neufeld

Amit Safir

Amit Safir is the Partnerships Manager at BreezoMeter. BreezoMeter is the world’s leader in location-based, real-time air quality and pollen data, covers more than 5.5 billion people worldwide in more than 80 countries, improving health by providing intuitive and actionable data.

Amit has over a decade of experience working in Israeli health tech, both on healthcare systems and medical devices. In the past, Amit has built business cases for powerful technologies used for cancer screening and diagnostics at UC-Care and MobileODT, bringing products from ideas to reality and then commercializing them in multiple markets. Amit was born and raised in Monterrey Mexico, and has called Tel Aviv home for the past decade. He holds a BSc. in Biomedical Engineering as well as an MBA.

Laird Sanders

Laird Sanders II is the Sr. Regional Sales Manager for sonnen, Inc, the U.S. branch of the sonnen Group, a global pioneer and manufacturer of residential energy storage solutions.

Laird supports all channels in the Pacific region to develop new sales and business development.  Laird has 7 years’ worth of experience in the renewable energy industry and provided residential customers options for going solar prior to joining the sonnen team.

Laird holds a BS in business management from the University of Nevada, Reno.  When he is not busy helping to provide clean and affordable energy to all, he can be found investing, riding bikes, exercising, our enjoying some time by the beach. Laird is based out of Huntington Beach, CA.

Craig Scott

Mr. Scott is Director of Advanced Technologies, Corporate Strategy & Planning at Toyota Motor North America. Within his role in the Advanced Technologies Group, Craig is responsible for product planning and program development for alternative fuel vehicle programs including the Toyota Mirai fuel cell vehicle and Project Portal, the world’s first OEM-produced Class 8 heavy duty fuel cell truck. Previously he also managed vehicle programs including Prius, Scion iQ EV and the Toyota i-Road urban mobility vehicle. In addition to vehicle development, Craig also oversees all US hydrogen infrastructure planning and implementation activities. He is responsible for the development of proprietary research work related to global energy issues and sustainable transportation systems. Prior to Toyota, Craig was an assistant portfolio manager with Pacific Investment Management Company in Newport Beach, CA.

Mr. Scott has a BS in Finance and Japanese Studies and a MBA in Strategy and Finance from the University of Southern California.

Sam Scroggins

Mr. Scroggins is an Associate in Lazard’s Global Power, Energy & Infrastructure Group.

Since joining Lazard, Mr. Scroggins has focused on advising a number of global power, energy and infrastructure clients and has worked on a variety of assignments in the private and public sectors. His industry expertise includes renewable energy mergers and acquisitions, tax equity finance, project finance and project development and due diligence.

Most recently, Mr. Scroggins co-authored Lazard’s Levelized Cost of Energy and Levelized Cost of Storage analyses, which compare the costs of energy from various generation technologies and of energy storage technologies for a variety of applications. Other representative transaction experience includes the following, among others: advisor to Controlled Thermal Resources on its ongoing capital raise for the Hell’s Kitchen Geothermal Project, advisor to YPF S.A. on the recapitalization and sale of a minority interest in its thermal and renewables generation subsidiary YPF EE to GE, advisor to Clean Line Energy Partners on a range of strategic advisory matters, most recently culminating in the sale of the Oklahoma portion of the Plains & Eastern long-haul transmission project to NextEra Energy, advisor to Abengoa on its sale of a 25% stake in Atlantica Yield and formation of a global joint venture with Algonquin Power & Utilities, advisor to Canadian Solar on its acquisition of Recurrent Energy from Sharp Corporation (awarded 2015 Cross-border Energy Deal of the Year by M&A Advisor), advisor to Younicos on its acquisition of Xtreme Power (awarded 2015 Distressed Energy Deal of the Year by M&A Advisor), advisor to SolarReserve and GCL Solar Energy on the sale of solar photovoltaic projects in California to Consolidated Edison, advisor to Ares/EIF and Northbrook Power on the sale of hydroelectric projects located near the Allegheny River in Western Pennsylvania to the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, advisor to U.S. Bancorp on various tax equity investments in renewable energy projects, advisor to EIF on the sale of the MoGas Pipeline to CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust, advisor to Strata Solar on the sale of solar projects to Dominion Resources, advisor to Brite Energy in securing tax equity financing for residential solar projects in multiple states, advisor to a leading independent power producer on asset sales, asset financings (including tax equity investments) and other general strategic matters and advisor to various renewable energy developers on asset sales, asset financings (including tax equity investments) and other general strategic matters.

Prior to joining Lazard, Mr. Scroggins was an attorney at Foley & Lardner in New York City where he was part of the energy industry team and transactional and securities practice group. His practice focused on the areas of mergers and acquisitions, private equity, project finance and general corporate and commercial law, with a particular emphasis on transactions in the renewable energy industry.

Prior to Foley & Lardner, Mr. Scroggins played professional football for the Detroit Lions.

Mr. Scroggins serves on the Planning Board for the Village of Malverne, New York and was recently nominated as an Emerging Leader by the American Wind Energy Association.

Rowena Sellens

A PhD chemist by background, Rowena has 28 years senior management experience in the chemical industry, having held responsibility for R&D, manufacturing, sales & marketing and general management in ICI and Lucite International. This culminated in GM responsibility for Lucite’s €120Mpa turnover EMEA Materials businesses with leading brands Perspex®, Lucite® and Diakon®. She led technical and IP functions through transition from ICI to private ownership and then played a key role in commercial integration of global materials businesses following acquisition by a Japanese multi-national. Passionate about developing individuals and teams to deliver beyond their own expectations, she creates strong values-based culture within her businesses.  As the first CEO of Econic, her role is to define and lead the delivery of the complete suite of critical success factors required to achieve Econic’s strategic business objectives and secure the anticipated value returns. Since her arrival in 2014 Econic transformed from a pure catalyst research team to a focused business operation covering all aspects of market and technology development. The IP portfolio of the company has trebled in size. The team has grown from 9 to 30 people. Two funding rounds have secured £12M investment and two new investors. In 2017 Rowena relocated the business from Imperial College’s London incubator to Alderley Park in Cheshire. A £2M Horizon 2020 SME award helped build the pilot scale Customer Demonstration Facility opened in 2018.

Meghan Sharp

Laura Smoliar

After many years as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur Dr. Laura Smoliar co-founded the Berkeley Catalyst Fund (BCF) with Dr. Ted. Hou and Mr. Drew Lanza. The Berkeley Catalyst Fund (BCF) is focused on the vibrant startup ecosystem around UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, UC San Francisco, associated incubators and accelerators, and alumni throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Initiated in close collaboration with UC Berkeley’s College of Chemistry and the UC Berkeley Foundation, the fund is committed to sharing its returns with the College of Chemistry.

Laura earned her Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from UC Berkeley’s College of Chemistry with Nobel Laureate Yuan T. Lee. She also holds an A.B. Summa Cum Laude in Chemistry from Columbia College, Columbia University.

David Snydacker

Dave Snydacker is CEO at Lilac Solutions, which is building mining technology for the lithium industry. Lilac enables enhanced lithium recovery from existing lithium brine projects in South America and enables development of new lithium resources across North America. Dave holds a PhD in materials science and engineering from Northwestern University.

Arcady Sosinov

Arcady Sosinov is the Founder and CEO of FreeWire Technologies, a San Francisco Bay Area startup that develops power solutions for the grid edge, with a focus on infrastructure-light EV ultrafast charging. He has led the company from ideation, formation, incubation, and now customer acquisition and revenue growth. Arcady also serves as a Venture Advisor to Forge Ventures, and mentors entrepreneurial teams from various universities including UC Berkeley, San Jose State, and Cal Poly. Prior to FreeWire, Arcady spent seven years in the finance industry, most recently with a $130B investment firm called GMO. His responsibilities included quantitative analysis and application development, with a focus on emerging markets. Arcady holds two bachelor’s degrees from Boston University, as well as an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

Zach Stein

Zach is CEO of Osmo Systems, an Oakland-based startup building novel sensing technology to bring the world’s 1m aquaculture ponds and tanks online. Zach and his cofounding CTO grew up together and launched Osmo Systems with the mission of enabling aquaculture to outcompete unsustainable commercial trawling in terms of health, taste, sustainability, and price. Together, the pair raised the first significant seed round of investment for an aquaculture tech company in SV and will be launching their novel sensor system in 2019 with multiple industry leading farms.

Chris Stern

Chris Stern is the CEO of and Co-Founder of Carbicrete, a Montreal-based technology company that develops innovative, low-cost building solutions that contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Carbicrete’s patented technology enables the production of cement-free, carbon-negative concrete using industrial by-products and captured CO2. The company offers concrete manufacturers the process, materials and support to make lower-cost, higher-quality precast concrete in a way that reduces their carbon footprint.

He is a successful cleantech entrepreneur. In 2010 he co-founded PURE Energies, a residential solar energy company. PURE Energies was sold in the largest Canadian VC-backed exit of 2014 to NRG Energy Inc., the largest independent electricity producer in the United States. Chris has extensive experience developing businesses from inception and his areas of expertise include sales, customer acquisition, team-building and evangelizing.

Chris is also a partner in Innovobot, an active equity and advisory services firm that helps companies with disruptive technologies, or that operate in industries being disrupted by technology, with capitalization and operational support in sales and marketing, product and service development, IP strategy, operations and supply chain optimization.

Chris holds a degree in mechanical engineering from McGill University.

Matthew Stevenson

Matt Stevenson is responsible for managing Inventys’ fundraising efforts and strategic initiatives, striving to find the right partners and investors to continue to fuel the company’s path towards commercializing a breakthrough energy technology. Matt also oversees the finance operations, commercial and legal aspects of Inventys’ business, ensuring the company is positioned to scale rapidly with best practices in place.

In his role, Matt leans heavily on past technical and corporate finance experience in industry and the capital markets. These roles touched oil and gas, energy infrastructure, as well as corporate development and capital project experience in the commodity chemicals and alternative fuels space.

Matt holds a B.A.Sc (With Distinction) Masters degree in Chemical Engineering, both from the University of British Columbia, and is a CFA charterholder.

Andreas Stubelius

Chris Sworder

Steve Taub

Steve is a Managing Director of Investing. Based in Boston, MA, he joined the team in 2012.

He leads investments in companies whose products and services, such as advanced robotics and additive manufacturing, fit into GE’s manufacturing and operations. He is always looking for great entrepreneurs in attractive markets so that he can work with them to identify opportunities and synergies across GE’s portfolio.

Steve’s career with GE began in 2006 as a strategist and market analyst for the renewable energy group at GE Capital’s Energy Financial Services.

Previously, Steve spent nine years as a consultant in the electric power industry, where he specialized in assessing the market for new technologies. Earlier in his career, he worked for a large aerospace company, and with the US Department of Energy’s environmental cleanup program.

Steve holds master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering and in Technology and Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University.

He is currently a board observer at Optomec, Rethink Robotics, and Hyperloop One.

Steve collects vintage mechanical wristwatches, which fascinate him for their design variety and precise movement. He might invite you to admire one he is wearing the next time you see him.

Matthew Trotter

Matt Trotter, managing director at Silicon Valley Bank San Francisco, works with high growth companies that create highly disruptive technologies in the businesses of transportation, industrials, aerospace, consumer electronics and semiconductors, with a focus on the convergence of hardware, software and data.

Matt is passionate about his customers’ success, and it shows in the capital, connections and strategic counsel he provides to support their growth in hardware and deep technology — some of the most competitive business environments in the world.

Matt is a graduate of California Polytechnic State University, where he played varsity soccer. Matt’s active young daughter keeps him and his family busy but he still finds time to kick the ball around in a Sunday men’s league.

David Tze

Tony Van Bommel

Tony Van Bommel is Senior Managing Partner in the Industrial, Clean and Energy (ICE) Technology Venture Fund in BDC Capital’s Toronto office. He is responsible for overseeing the ICE Fund investments and maximizing value creation across the portfolio. Tony has been with BDC Capital since 2001 and with the ICE Fund since its inception in 2011.

Prior to joining BDC, he spent four years as Senior Investment Manager with InNOVAcorp, a General Partner for the Nova Scotia First Fund, an early stage knowledge‑based venture fund. For 10 years prior to this, he worked as a lawyer and partner in the business law firm Little & Wright in London, Ontario.

Tony has held multiple directorships in both public and private emerging growth companies across Canada. He is also a past Chairman of Junior Achievement of Nova Scotia. He has received the CVCA VC Deal of the Year award for Q1 Labs in 2012 and was instrumental in two companies that also won the CVCA Deal of the Year award: Radian6 in 2011 and Bit Stew in 2016. Tony was recognized in 2015 as one of Canada’s CLEAN50 and in 2014 as one of the world’s most influential environmental investors by the Journal of Environmental Investing.

Tony earned the Dalhousie Governor General’s Gold Medal for the top graduate student chosen from all faculties at Dalhousie University and the gold medal from the Dalhousie University MBA program. He received his Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of Western Ontario where he won the Pitney Bowes Award for the top graduating law student in Ontario who combined academics, athletics and service to the community.

Arthur “Bud” Vos

Bud likes to build things. And he likes going fast. In his personal life, you might find him designing robots or mentoring his daughter’s high school robotics team. Or you might catch a glimpse of him speeding madly around a track in a very fast car. At work though he’s all about building companies – and doing it fast, of course. Bud has transformed several fledgling companies in the energy space into well-recognized and highly respected industry leaders. Today he’s very excited to be leading the Enbala team in its rapid growth to the leader in distributed energy resource management.

Dana Wagner

Tim Wang

Tim joined the Westly Group in 2016 and helps manage the firm’s deal flow and due diligence process. Prior to joining the Westly Group, Tim was a co-founder and Head of Business Development at a China-based financial technology start-up, ChinaScope, where he raised $5M from Moody’s Corporation. Tim began his career as an analyst at S&P Capital IQ, a leading financial data provider for financial institutions and advisory firms. Tim worked with the Client Development team out of their New York office before moving to Hong Kong to initiate and lead their Asia go-to-market efforts and building a team that would manage relationships with all of Capital IQ’s clients and prospects in the region.

Tim has always had a passion for sustainability, focused on the intersection of sustainability, economics and government. Tim holds a BA in International Relations from Brown University and an MBA from the USC Marshall School of Business.

Josh Weisman

Josh Weisman is Vice President of Sales at Scoop, the largest carpooling solution in the United States that partners with some of the world’s most forward-thinking organizations, including LinkedIn, T-Mobile, and Workday, to offer convenient and enjoyable carpooling to their workforces. At Scoop, Weisman manages the entire enterprise sales process, forges partnerships with employers in new and existing markets, and leads the sales organization. Prior to joining Scoop, Weisman was a founding team member at Chariot, where he oversaw Global Sales and Marketing. Chariot was acquired by Ford Smart Mobility in 2016.

Steve Weiss

Steve has led Genomatica’s marketing since May 2010, as a consultant. Steve is also co-founder of Grey Heron, a management and strategic marketing consulting firm that helps executives and investors turn technology into substantive businesses, in energy and resource efficiency, cleantech, the Internet of Things, cloud software and advanced materials. Their 130+ clients include multiple Cleantech 100 winners, plus Bioeconomy notables such as Genomatica, Liquid Light (acquired by Avantium) and Beta Renewables. Steve has shared guidance on strategy, fundraising and differentiation in multiple articles, webinars and video interviews. Steve has Masters and Bachelors degrees in Computer Science from MIT and has held research, product development, marketing and general management roles at IBM, HP, Neuron Data (AI) and multiple startups. Read Steve’s articles and follow him on LinkedIn.

Brett Wilcox

Brett Wilcox is CEO of Cvictus Inc. From 1985-2005, Brett was founder, owner and CEO of Northwest Aluminum Company, Goldendale Aluminum Company and Golden Northwest Aluminum Company which together operated two primary aluminum smelters (250,000 MT/year) and three casting operations (400,000 MT/year). From June 2005-December 2011 Brett was CEO of Summit Power Alternative Resources, where he managed all aspects of energy development on several wind, solar and natural gas projects including permitting, construction, commercial power sales and financing. In 2007-08 he also served as Interim CEO of Laurus Energy with responsibility to develop and finance its eUCG project in Alberta, Canada.

Brett currently serves on the Board of Directors of Kaiser Aluminum Corp., and previously on the Board of Oregon Steel Mills. Brett also owns and runs Capital Realty Corp, which develops and manages real estate and other family investments. He graduated from Princeton University in 1975 concentrating in economics and public finance, and Stanford Law School in 1978. Brett has served as Chair of the Oregon Economic Development Commission and Oregon Progress Board, and is involved in numerous civic and charitable activities.

Dr. Katharine Wilkinson

Dr. Katharine Wilkinson is an author, strategist, and speaker, bringing focus to what is possible for humanity and our home, this earth. She is Vice President of Communication & Engagement at Project Drawdown and lead writer of the New York Times bestseller Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming. Her first book, Between God & Green: How Evangelicals Are Cultivating a Middle Ground on Climate Change, was dubbed “a vitally important, even subversive, story” by The Boston Globe.

Katharine speaks internationally, sharing her expertise at Aspen Ideas, Skoll World Forum, Talks @ Google, and through frequent media appearances. Her interdisciplinary background spans academia, business, and the social sector. Previously, Katharine was Director of Strategy at the purpose consultancy BrightHouse and worked for The Boston Consulting Group and Natural Resources Defense Council. She has taught at the University of Oxford and Agnes Scott College and currently advises on Mary Robinson’s new podcast, Mothers of Invention.

Katharine holds a doctorate in Geography & Environment from Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and a B.A. in Religion from Sewanee—The University of the South. She is happiest on a mountain or a horse.

Johanna Wolfson

Joshua Wong

Joshua is the Founder and CEO of Opus One Solutions, a leading software engineering and solutions company empowering the electricity grid to contribute towards a digitalized, decentralized and decarbonized planet. His thought leadership and industry insights have enabled utility transformation in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Prior to Opus One, Joshua was the Director of Engineering at eCAMION Inc., a grid-scale energy storage provider. He was also head of smart grid at Toronto Hydro Electric System Limited, where he led the policy, strategy, regulatory, business, and engineering development of Toronto’s smart grid infrastructure, including Toronto’s 25-year smart grid roadmap. Joshua is a licensed Professional Engineer in the Province of Ontario. He holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto, Masters of Electric Power Engineering from the University of Waterloo, and has completed executive programs from MIT Sloan, IMD Business School and Harvard Business School.

Aviran Yaacov

Mr. Aviran Yaacov is the CEO and Co-founder of EcoPlant, a revolutionary company providing an Artificial Intelligence cloud-based platform that saves energy and optimizes peripheral equipment operations.

In the past 12 years, Mr. Yaacov led to complex and long B2B sale cycles in the IT industry. Before joining EcoPlant, Mr. Yaacov served as a consultant in the field of Information Systems, ERP and business development for SAP as a B1 Gold Partner. As a former captain of a basketball team, he believes that the path to success depends on many aspects in building a winning team. Mr. Yaacov holds an Executive MBA from Colman.

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.

Sukhwan Yun

Dr. Sukhwan Yun is in charge of strategic investment in corporate venture capital (CVC) team of Hyundai Motor Company. Particularly, he is specialized in hydrogen and fuel cell area. Dr. Yun majored in Chemical Engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology and joined Hyundai Motor Company in 2014. He has research experiences in polymer electrolyte membranes, fuel cells and redox flow batteries. He participated in the NEXO project (the second hydrogen fuel cell vehicles manufactured from Hyundai Motor) as a research engineer and moved to CVC team after NEXO was launched. He is focusing on the strategic investment for funds and startups in energy, environment and material fields.

Leo Zhang

At Cleantech Group, Leo’s work revolves around the company’s core mission in accelerating sustainable innovation. Specifically, Leo supports a broad range of clients across the entire cleantech innovation ecosystem on technology scouting, market research, and advisory services. In addition, he also supports the company’s activities in China, including the company’s annual Cleantech China Tour, which convenes a select group of leading Western investors and start-ups in China for a week of meetings and network-building.

Leo earned a B.S. in Biotechnology with a minor in Technology Management from the University of California, Davis and a M.S. in Bioenergy from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His graduate work focused on the interdisciplinary challenges in implementing and commercializing bioenergy solutions.