Cleantech 50 To Watch Expert Panel

Laurie is a founding Partner at At One Ventures, where she backs deep tech startups catalyzing planet-positive industries. She is a board member at Avalo, Ascend Elements, Helios, Noon Energy, Inlyte Energy, Precision AI, Puna Bio, and Simplifyber. Laurie has over a decade of deep tech commercialization, company building, and venture capital experience. She spent several years in the chemical industry (Solvay, BASF) and built a dozen ventures from US Defense research programs (SRI International). Biotech engineer by training, Laurie is an ecological transition advocate.

Iris has worked for innovation and business development within the energy & environment sector across Europe focusing on a wide range of topics from grid optimisation and e-Mobility to environmental management systems and lifecycle assessment. Iris holds a M.Sc. double degree in energy engineering from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

Bennet Barth is the Managing Director at RESPOND and drives the strategic development and implementation of the BMW Foundation’s work around business, innovation and technology. Bennet is also part of the Foundation’s investment team, where he manages an international portfolio of impact investments and supports the foundations programmatic work around Sustainable Finance. Before joining the BMW Foundation, Bennet worked at MAZE in Lisbon, where he, alongside entrepreneurs and investors, sought to scale impactful and effective solutions to social and ecological challenges. As investment associate in a 50-million euro Impact Venture Capital Firm, with offices in London and Lisbon. In this capacity, he supported the set-up and fundraising, advised several impact enterprises and, through various joint publications with international partners, contributed to building the impact investing ecosystem in Europe. Bennet studied industrial engineering and management with a focus on mechanical engineering (B.Sc.) and economics (M.Sc.) in Berlin and Lisbon. In previous roles Bennet worked in development cooperation in renewable energy projects in Asia and West Africa.

Ashley joined the Breakthrough Energy team in 2020 and leads the new global Breakthrough Energy Fellows program. Her deep expertise and passion surrounding early innovators and the commercialization of clean technologies will help to guide the Breakthrough Energy program, designed to find and fund innovators working to bring climate technology solutions to the market. Ashley has spent the entirety of her career working across the sustainability and impact investment landscape, spending 15 years in various capacities at Wells Fargo where she managed a $100 million impact program and was largely involved as a thought leader in the company's overall ESG and sustainable finance strategies and commitments.  During her time at Wells she immersed herself among cleantech entrepreneurs, universities, incubators/accelerators, national labs, and investors - pioneering an award winning cleantech commercialization program, IN2, that focused on speeding up the path to market for clean technologies. The IN2 program’s 72 portfolio companies have gone on to raise $1.8 billion in follow on funding from external sources. She earned a B.A. degree in Economics and Finance from the University of Colorado at Boulder, as a student athlete on the CU NCAA Division One women’s soccer team. She holds a Certified Financial Planning certificate from DePaul University and a Renewable Energy Certificate from CU Boulder. In 2017, Grosh was recognized as a ’40 under 40’ winner in Colorado and also recognized that year as a “Top Women in Energy” in the Denver Business Journal. Ashley is based in Chicago, Illinois. In her free time she enjoys cooking, hiking, and playing pickleball with her husband Michael, their two children, Kenley and Charlie and her bernadoodle Tilly. Ashley is also a sports fanatic – and loves cheering on her Colorado Buffaloes.

Iain is Director of Innovation at the Carbon Trust, where he leads the organisation’s work on low carbon and clean technology innovation activities, working with start-ups and innovators, governments, corporates, development finance institutions, philanthropists around the world to help them lead the way to a net zero economy.

Jonathan is Managing Director & CFO of Carbon13, the Cambridge based climatetech venture builder. Since inception just three years ago, Carbon13 has run eight cohorts with a total of around 1,000 founders participating, and funded and accelerated over 60 ventures across the whole range of verticals. Carbon13 is also now operating in Berlin. Prior to joining Carbon13, Jonathan spent the previous 20 years as the CFO of first a private equity owned cable telecommunications business based in Madrid and then of a global media & entertainment group with headquarters in Barcelona. He was with the cable business from inception to preparation for a $10 billion strategic trade sale and at the media business he led an operational turnaround through to a $2billion change of ownership. Jonathan has extensive experience of growing businesses, acquiring and disposing of businesses and the operational management required to create maximum value. Prior to these roles, Jonathan worked in investment banking. He is a graduate of the University of Cambridge.

Mr. Schick has more than twenty years of experience as a technologist and investor. In his investing role at Clean Energy Ventures, Mr. Schick works with deal teams to source, screen and diligence new investments, as well as support portfolio companies on technology, markets, strategy and commercialization. Prior to joining Clean Energy Ventures, Mr. Schick was co-founder, partner and CTO at NewWorld Capital, and served as a Managing Director at Ritchie Capital. From 1997 to 2005, Mr. Schick held a variety of positions at General Electric’s Corporate Research and Energy groups. Mr. Schick facilitated GE’s entrance into both solar and wind energy, and led GE’s solid oxide fuel cell program. Mr. Schick was trained as a physicist and co-authored papers in accelerator physics, space physics, and biophysics as well as earning ten granted US patents. He holds a BS in Physics from Union College; an MS in Physics from Cornell University.

Anthony manages Cleantech Group’s research team, delivering critical insights on new cleantech innovation and opportunities for engagement to Cleantech Group’s clients in the industrial, investment, and policy communities. He is based in the U.S. Anthony joined Cleantech Group in late 2019 after over 8 years of work in US-China cross-border expansion consulting and start-up venture funding roles, including 5 years living in Shanghai. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from University of Rhode Island, a Masters in Sustainability from the Harvard Extension School, and an MBA at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

Jason is President and CEO of Cleantech San Diego, a business organization that positions the greater San Diego region as a global leader in the cleantech economy. Cleantech San Diego’s members include more than 120 businesses, universities, governments, and nonprofits committed to advancing sustainable solutions for the benefit of the economy, the environment and all members of the community. Before joining Cleantech San Diego in 2010, Jason was Vice President of Business Development for the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation (EDC). Prior to joining EDC, Jason lived in Austin, Texas, where he worked in the State Capitol as Legislative Director for Texas State Senator Frank Madla. Jason holds a degree in Corporate Communications from the University of Texas in Austin. Jason serves on the boards of the San Diego Urban Sustainability Coalition, CONNECT, the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation, the San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative and Equality California, the nation’s largest statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organization. In 2021, Jason was named by The San Diego Business Journal as one of San Diego’s LGBTQ+ Leaders of Influence.

Adam’s career has focused on applied science innovation and new business development, spanning both corporate innovation/R&D and venture-backed startups. He worked in Johnson Matthey’s innovation team and strategic development groups focusing on energy storage and transmission, syngas technologies, alternative fuels, CCU/CCS, carbon dioxide conversion and hydrogen generation. Following this, he led commercial efforts as Chief Commercial Officer at venture-backed start-up LabGenius (machine learning-enabled biotech) where he focused on business development and commercial strategy to secure corporate partnerships and venture capital. He holds a PhD and MSci in Chemistry from the University of Oxford and Imperial College London, respectively.

Olivier joined DEMETER early 2014. He is Partner within the Ventures team, and he is involved in the technological files related to the domains of energy, environment, smart-city, green mobility and more recently sustainable winetech. Before joining DEMETER, Olivier worked about 15 years in the energy and environment sectors in France and abroad (USA & Scotland) into functions in connection with Innovation and Business Development, whether as entrepreneur/co-founder of technological start-ups (Alterg, ITI Energy) or within large industrial groups (Atofina Inc. (Total), ENGIE). Olivier holds a PhD in Materials Physical-Chemistry and a MSc from the University of Bordeaux and a post-graduate diploma in physics and physical chemistry of the University of Metz. He is the author of several scientific papers and patents. Olivier is/was DEMETER’s permanent representative to the Boards of Directors of: Deepki, Kemiwatt, eLichens, Sweetch Energy, BeFC, plan A, Géoflex, ZE-Energy, Lixo, Antofénol, Axioma, My Bacchus, APIX Analytics, Nexdot & Ergosup.

Sara Chamberlain has worked in the energy and environment sector for nearly a decade, with a core focus on helping energy startups develop commercialization strategies. Working at the intersection of technology and entrepreneurship is a personal passion. She currently leads Energy Foundry’s investment activity and maintains an active role with each of the firm’s portfolio companies. Prior to joining Energy Foundry, Sara co-managed the government advisory practice for clean technology startups at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where she successfully led multiple teams through more than two dozen federal and state grant and loan applications, including over $300 million in research grants, loans and guaranteed loan funding. Sara’s previous experience also includes roles with GE Energy, where she developed a solar manufacturing expansion strategy, and with GaiaTech, where she led the environmental due diligence and regulatory compliance process for over industrial and manufacturing transactions across North America. From working with large Fortune 500 companies to startup businesses, Sara has broad and deep industry knowledge of the energy sector and was recognized by Midwest Energy News “40 under 40.” She holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business and a BA in Environmental Studies from Emory University.

Yoachim Haynes is the Vice President of Strategy for EIP’s European Fund where he leads research, innovation, commercialization as well as LP engagement. He works closely with EIP’s global portfolio. Yoachim has 10 years of experience working with startups, corporations and governments in the energy and climate space. He led the corporate innovation programs at Cleantech Group as a consulting manager where he developed the strategy for, launched, and operated multiple corporate venturing programs, including multi-stakeholder pilot project processes and CVCs. He also delivered clean technology market assessments, market entry strategy and other climate impact projects for governments and corporations. His clients in North America, Europe, and Asia operated across a diverse set of industries including heavy industry (e.g., steel, oil and gas, cement), power generation, real estate, agriculture, mobility and FMCG. He has a Bachelor of Science in Earth and Environmental Engineering from Columbia University (Cum Laude, C.P. Davis Scholar, Tau Beta Pi). He now lives in London but has spent most of his life in Trinidad and Tobago where he grew up.

Mr Natharoun NGO SON is the Director of EnergyLab, an independent non-profit organization supporting clean energy development in Cambodia. He holds 18 years of private sector development and sustainable business practice, working with Ernst and Young Consulting and Cap Gemini in Europe early 2000; And relocating in 2005 to Southeast Asia to conduct consultancies for the IFC, The Asia Foundation, and then working in leadership positions for 10 years with the UNDP. Natharoun holds an MBA from Paris XII University and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School. He is a member of the Asia Society.

Jeanette is an experienced CEO and entrepreneur with broad experience in technology, business development, marketing, and operations. As the CEO of Foresight, Jeanette has led rapid growth, transforming a regional organization into Canada’s largest cleantech accelerator.

I am at Formica to help build truly sustainable businesses that are resilient, prosperous and growing over a long period of time. Supporting the creation of beautiful companies that can shine as guiding stars to others while driving required change in society across environmental, social and economic issues is what Formica is all about. As a strategy consultant I did often see companies struggle on this topic due to the lack of interest and focus of its owners. We set clear expectations and give the right support with funds, competence or network to help management teams make their business thrive, drive innovation and speed of change. Background: 15 years as a consultant at Accenture Strategy working with more than 50 large multinationals across industries. I helped build our global circular economy offering and most recently held the Nordic lead role for Sustainability Strategy. I hold a MSc from Chalmers University of Technology and equivalent level studies in Economics at University of Gothenburg School of Business, Economics and Law.

Alyssa Gilbert is the Director of Innovation at the Grantham Institute - Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London where she leads Imperial’s climate change and sustainability innovation activities, linking innovative students, staff and alumni to opportunities to make a difference. She is the Director of Undaunted, a collaborative activity between Imperial and the Royal Institution that is seeking to create a home for climate innovation in London, supporting successful creation and scale up of businesses that tackle climate change. Alyssa is also the co-chair of the UK Universities Climate Network, which brought together academic expertise on climate change ahead of the international negotiations in November 2021. Prior to joining the university, she worked at a specialist energy and climate consultancy for nearly 12 years on a range of climate change mitigation and adaptation topics. Alyssa has worked with the UK and many other national governments and at an international level. She has also been a member of the Natural Environment Council’s Advisory Network.

Tyler Hamilton is Senior Director of Climate at MaRS and guides all climate-specific activities for ventures, corporate partners and investors, including the flagship Mission from MaRS program. Previous to joining MaRS, Tyler spent two decades as a journalist and wrote extensively about Canada’s clean technology sector and global cleantech trends. Most recently he was editor-in-chief of business and sustainability magazine Corporate Knights. He also spent 13 years at the Toronto Star, where he reported on Canada’s energy sector and wrote a popular weekly column on clean energy technologies and trends. In 2011, Tyler authored Mad Like Tesla, a book that examines the various barriers to clean energy innovation and surveys the landscape of some potentially world-changing clean technologies. A recipient of the Cleantech Group’s “Pioneer” award for his early writings on the sector, Tyler was also recognized in 2016 on Canada’s “Clean50” list for his thought leadership on clean energy and climate issues.

Monali Mujumdar leads the startup relations at National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (IEC). In this role, she fosters relations with cleantech startups and provides relevant resources. In her program operations role, Monali assists with technical assistance programs at the IEC. In addition, she is part of the organization team for the Industry Growth Forum – a flagship annual event to connect innovators with investors. In her previous role, Monali worked for E Source, a research and consulting firm in Boulder, CO, as an analyst conducting research on emerging technologies suitable for the utility industry. Monali has a background in electrical engineering and completed her Ph.D. from the University of Wyoming.

Pat Sapinsley is the Managing Director of Cleantech Initiatives at Urban Future Lab/ACRE at NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering. A LEED AP architect, Pat holds a M.Arch from the Harvard GSD. She is past Co-Chair of the Committee on the Environment of the AIANY, a member of the Board of Building Energy Exchange, a board member of Advanced Energy Group, and a frequent lecturer and industry panelist. Prior to joining UFL/ACRE, Pat worked in venture capital at Good Energies and was a Visiting Scholar at Harvard’s Wyss Institute. She was CEO of Watt Not, an LED lighting consultancy, and Build Efficiently, LLC.

Dr Ashwath Sundaresan is an Investment Manager at Pacific Channel, NZ’s oldest deep-tech venture capital fund, and leads the “Future of Environment” and engineering portfolio. Ashwath is a director across multiple NZ cleantech startups that are solving problems in energy storage, waste minimisation and reducing emissions in the built environment. Ashwath has over 10 years’ experience working with deep-tech and technology businesses. Prior to Pacific Channel, Ashwath was involved in university technology transfer and technology consultant with Accenture and Google working with energy and healthcare clients across APAC. Ashwath is passionate about the role of technology and business model innovation and how these can drive changes in our environment.. He holds a PhD in mechanical engineering (University of Canterbury) and an MBA (INSEAD).

Gabriel VanLoozen is a Senior Associate at Powerhouse Ventures, which invests in founding teams building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. Gabriel received his JD/MBA from the University of Michigan and has prior experience in multiple functions at Bosch, ENGIE, Orrick, and Anthesis.

Max is Managing Partner of Rockstart’s Energy Fund, offering early stage startups access to capital, market, expertise and community through a customized accelerator program and follow-on investments up to series B. Max is Dutch and based in Amsterdam. He has been active in renewable energy since 2003, when he helped Essent (currently RWE) to establish their wind business in Germany. As Director at EWT, the largest Dutch wind turbine manufacturer, he was responsible for corporate finance, business development and strategy. Further, he was co-founder and CEO of e-kite, a Dutch start-up which developed kite power systems. Before entering the renewable energy sector, Max worked several years at McKinsey, as Engagement Manager. He holds MSc degrees in Chemical Engineering at Delft University of Technology, Business Administration at Erasmus University Rotterdam and an MBA from INSEAD.

Erki has helped the Estonian cleantech sector develop since its birth. He has a background in Environmental Management Engineering and Business Administration. He is responsible for creating a vast network of stakeholders in Estonia, Europe, and distant parts of the World. In 2014 Erki started his first cleantech startup journey in the Netherlands and pursued it in 2016 back in Estonia. After that moved to the Estonian Renewable Energy Association and started in Cleantech Estonia as the CEO, leading the acceleration programmes for startups, he’s also the Co-Founder of Little Green Fund and one of the region’s first cleantech specialised accelerators, Beamline, combining a portfolio of 78 cleantech startups. Today his responsibilities are expanding in the Baltics region, making sure that innovation opportunities and policy walk the same path, as well as making sure the more significant opportunities in cleantech investments in the New Nordics and CEE are dealt with within a highly specialised manner, always bearing in mind the potential impact of cleantech investments and regulative developments that drive the uptake of innovation.

With almost ten years of experience in the cleantech sector, Victoria Smaniotto now leads the Outreach team at the Solar Impulse Foundation, boosting the adoption of profitable solutions to protect the environment. Victoria left France to study international affairs and social businesses at HEC Montreal in 2010, discovered the cleantech sector thanks to her first job as a market development analyst for a clean refrigeration company from 2012 to 2014, and strengthened her understanding of the sector’s strategic opportunities and challenges while working at the Quebec cleantech cluster, Ecotech Québec, from 2014 to 2020. As one of her mission in that position was to support Québec cleantech SME’s internationalization, she joined the International Cleantech Network as their Head of Secretariat in 2016 and ran CanadaCleantech from 2016 to 2020. In her current position at the Solar Impulse Foundation, her experience in ecosystem building and community management in the cleantech sector allowed the Foundation to create strategic partnerships with cleantech hubs globally, supporting the Foundation in reaching its goal of identifying 1,000 Efficient Solutions around the world.

As one of the founding directors of SOW Asia, Demetrius had the desktop view of young companies that wanted to do good. He is now on the front line as the Director of Programs in helping these young companies directly to grow with the hope that they will continue to make positive impacts to the society in the years to come. He does this by bringing his experience in fundraising, entrepreneurship, board directorship, investor relation, non-profit, restructuring and mergers and acquisitions from various organisations such as start-ups, investment banks, private equities, international and listed corporations. Demetrius graduated from Boston University, the University of Southern California and the Ivey Business School at the Western University, Canada in various degrees and program. He has also been continuing his pursuit of knowledge through online programs at MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, the University of Pennsylvania and Imperial College.

Karl joined Startuplab in December, 2021. He was previously a energy technology focused investment banker, with a diverse professional background including experience in both the information technology and services industries. Strong business development professional with a International Business major from University of Southern California.

Alexander Langguth is a co-founder and managing partner at Übermorgen Ventures. After multiple years at the leading strategy consultancy McKinsey & Company, where Alex primarily worked with clients in the energy, industrial and technology sectors, he has worked exclusively with companies, investors, and governments in the climate tech and sustainability space. Alex is also closely associated with the Center for Sustainable Finance and Private Wealth at the University of Zurich and the Chair of Sustainability and Technology at ETH Zurich.

Since joining UNIDO in 2012, SunYoung designed and implemented sustainable energy projects and programs with a geographic focus in sub-Saharan Africa. Her current areas of work include the promotion of cleantech innovation ecosystems in developing and emerging economies, providing strategic support for international energy and climate initiatives, and coordinating partnership engagements with governments and the private sector. Prior to joining UNIDO, she worked on environmental sustainability and climate change mitigation issues at the Asian Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainability, the Global Climate Finance Project at New York University, and the Korea Environmental Industry and Technology Institute.

Pippa is the Founding Partner of Zero Carbon Capital, investors in early-stage companies in the UK and Europe on a mission to fix climate change. ZCC supports deep science, hard-tech solutions that have the potential to make half gigaton-level reductions of CO2e at scale; and vision-aligned, ambitious teams to go with them. Pippa started angel investing in decarbonisation technologies in California seven years ago, where she was an active member of the impact investing ecosystem. Prior to that, she held a variety of roles in technology companies - general management, business analysis, and consumer-facing interactive user experience research and design. She holds a Masters degree in Manufacturing Engineering from the University of Cambridge.