Expert Panelists

Graham Howes joined BP in 2000 and the BP Ventures team in 2010. Graham is currently in the BP Ventures team and in 2018 took on the role of Ventures Director for Asia and moved to Singapore to grow BP Ventures presence in the Asia region. Prior to relocating to Singapore, Graham was a non-executive director of portfolio companies in UK and USA, and provided commercial support to the BP International Centre for Advanced Materials (BP-ICAM). BP Ventures accelerates innovation across the entire energy spectrum by investing in private, high growth, companies with game-changing technology.

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

Peter Kennedy joined CLSA from Fulcrum Fund, a venture fund focusing on sustainable resources and companies looking to effect improvements in healthcare services for under-served populations, based in San Francisco. Prior to Fulcrum, Mr. Kennedy was a highly ranked senior research analyst at Morgan Stanley for eight years in New York and London, most recently as Executive Director and head of the telecom and media research team where he led 11 IPOs. Mr. Kennedy has significant private market transaction experience, closing over 10 early stage investments at Fulcrum and several later stage telecom infrastructure transactions throughout Asia and Europe while at NYNEX. Mr. Kennedy holds and MBA and BA from the Hagan School of Business, Iona College.

Paul Fox is an investor, strategist, business builder, and technologist. He is a co-founder of both Evie Networks and Blockchain Pacific and an advisor to the Enosi blockchain project. He has held technology investment roles at Corran Toohill, AGL Energy, Southern Cross Ventures, the California Clean Energy Fund and Flex. He was instrumental in creating AGL Energy Limited’s New Energy subsidiary, delivering products including zero-down solar, home batteries, smart air conditioners, virtual power plants, EV charging and blockchain enabled P2P trading. Now based in Sydney Australia he spent 14 years in Silicon Valley including as CEO of a smart grid company, a VP at Flex, and the CEO of a fuel cell company.

John has over 20 years’ experience in the Australian and Asian clean energy and clean technology sectors. Leading Deloitte’s Decarbonisations Solutions in Asia Pacific, he now works with governments and multi-nationals to source and deploy the most effective cleantech solutions that can lead to rapid decarbonisation. John previously founded and ran Australian CleanTech that worked over ten years commercialising the most prospective clean technologies including running accelerator programs for the Australian Government. He has sat on many corporate and advisory boards, including representing South Australia at global climate change conferences. He is widely published including two books on the opportunities emerging from the transition to a low carbon economy. The most recent book, Visions 2100, was launched at the Paris COP21 Climate Conference in 2015.

Hirokazu Yamaguchi is the Managing Director of Energy & Environment Investment (EEI), the only venture capital in Japan focused on the transformation of the energy industry. Prior to EEI, Hirokazu has over 30 years experience with Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the largest electric utility in Japan. He has held various senior management positions at TEPCO including, General Manager of Corporate Strategy. Head of International and also Head of Innovations. He executed 6 startup investments and launched "TRENDE" an online renewable retail startup while he was heading the innovations team. Hirokazu holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from Tokyo University, and MBA from Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University.

Julien is based in Asia and deploys direct investments in early and growth-stage companies in China and in ASEAN for the Smart City venture capital team. Julien also supports Idinvest portfolio companies across digital sectors, to accelerate their expansion to Asian markets. Julien focuses on key technologies in the digitalization of industry and enterprise: artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, cybersecurity, data analytics, new mobility services, and clean energy technologies. He has mainly invested in digital technologies with B2B business models and global reach:WeRide.ai (Driverless taxis, China), DST Car (EV Logistics, China), Grab (Ridesharing, logistics, payments app, Singapore),Neurala Inc. (Deep neural networks, US), TrustInSoft (Automated code analysis and flaw remediation, FR), Enlighted Inc. (IoT networks for buildings, US, acquired by Siemens), First Fuel Software (Energy data analytics, US, acquired by Uplight/Tendril), Organica Water Inc. (Decentralized waste water treatment, US/HK) and Actility (Low power IoT networks, FR). He is a board member and observer of several of these companies. Prior to joining Idinvest in 2011, Julien was based in China where he developed and acquired thermal, hydro, and wind power projects for EDF Group, one of the largest global electric utility companies. He shifted to technology start-ups in 2009, working with entrepreneurs to advise them on their deployments in the Mainland. Julien holds degrees from ESCP Europe, La Sorbonne University, Beijing University and the French School of Oriental Studies. He is a fluent Mandarin, English, French and Spanish speaker and has working capacity in Japanese.

Shailesh Vickram Singh is Managing Partner – Massive Fund and founder – GoMassive incubator which invests in areas related to Climate change, Renewables, Agriculture, Food chains, Water & sanitation. Apart from Massive, Shailesh is also Executive Director with SeedFund (a $54 mn VC fund based in India). Prior to SeedFund, Shailesh was MD of $170 mn PE Fund and have worked in GVFL (VC fund), and UTI in its private investments division. Shailesh regularly writes at his blog Fringenotes, on issues related to policy, economics, tech, environment, venture capital and entrepreneurship and has been regularly published in leading newspapers of India including Economic Times, Times of India, YourStory, Inc42, Huffington Post India, Swarajya Magazine among others.

May leads open innovation for SP Group - seeking cutting edge energy solutions from start-ups and other ecosystem partners, to lead transformational changes in the energy sector for Singapore and regionally. She is on the constant lookout for disruptive technologies from global innovation hubs such as Silicon Valley, Europe and Israel, that will change the future of energy. These efforts range from global accelerator programs, venture capital funds to strategic investments, to bring the best in energy solutions from around the world to Singapore customers and beyond. Prior to SP Group, May was an investment banker with JP Morgan in New York and Hong Kong. Previously, she was an investment manager with Temasek Holdings.

Dr. Xin Ma is the Partner and Managing Director of Asia Platform at Total Ventures (TV). She has set up TV’s activities in China and runs its investment activities in Asia. She has been in charge of negotiating and setting up investment fund in China, as well as direct investment in areas such as smart energy and future mobility. She worked in Deloitte’s London office before she joined Total Group, where she held several posts before TV, including the Group’s Deputy Chief Economist, head of Equity Development in China, as well as the head of Asia for M&A and New Business for the Marketing and Service Branch. Xin was born in China and is fluent in French and English. Total Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of the Group Total, its portfolio companies cover areas such renewable and smart energy, energy storage, energy efficiency, cleantech, IOT, and future mobility. Recent investments of TV include Stem, AutoGrid, Ontruck, G7, Grab, Cosmo, and Sigfox.