Expert Panel

David lead's venture investing for AGL Energy, where he focuses on identifying and investing in disruptive growth options across the energy sector. As a former options trader, David brings an analytical approach to developing a portfolio of growth options to create enterprise value for AGL. Prior to joining AGL, David worked with several startups and utilities on go-to-market strategies. David has two decades of experience working across the energy industry, including roles leading analytics, trading and sales teams. David is Australian and holds a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Physics from Flinders University. Specialities: Venture Investing, Energy Industry, Entrepreneurship

Alexandra is a member of the Investment team at Artesian Venture Partners. She invests in companies from pre-Seed to Series B. Alexandra looks after Artesian’s Clean Energy Seed Fund, which is an early-stage venture capital fund set up to invest in startups that support a reduction in carbon emissions. She has made over 50 investments in this fund. Alexandra is a startup mentor and Board Observer for several CleanTech companies. Prior to her work at Artesian, Alexandra was a member of SkyNews’ digital team. Alexandra has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Sydney and a Master of Business Law from the University of New South Wales.

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.

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.

Nakul Naphade is the lead for Energy Efficiency at Ecolabs – Centre of Innovation for Energy where he assists start-ups and SMEs in the energy sector achieve technology development and commercial growth. His expertise is focused on analysis and technical due diligence of technology, project management and business development of sustainable innovation in clean energy systems. He is also experienced in developing technology roadmaps, sustainable development strategies and providing insights on the uptake of new technologies and the changing landscape of the energy sector. Nakul has previously worked on the conceptualization and deployment of high performance building systems in Singapore and as a consultant on green buildings, notably Zero Energy Buildings.

Dr. Eric Wang is a Managing Partner of GRC Fund with over 18 years of experience in venture capital investment, investment banking and equity research. Previously, Dr. Wang was a Managing Director at WK Technology Fund, leading investments in semiconductors, networking and software in Silicon Valley, USA and the greater China. Before becoming a venture capitalist, Dr. Wang was the Global Head of Semiconductor Research at ABN AMRO Bank. Dr. Wang holds a Ph.D. in Engineering-Economic Systems and Operations from Stanford University, a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from University of Hawaii and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from National Tsing Hua University.

Sukhwan Yun is a Senior Investment Manager in the Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) Team of Hyundai Motor Company. Previously, he was a Senior Research Engineer at Hyundai’s Fuel Cell Research Lab and was in charge of developing fuel cell electric vehicles (Tucson ix35 and NEXO). Dr. Yun earned B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. His doctoral research focused on polymer electrolyte membranes for energy conversion in fuel cell and battery applications. As Senior Manager of CVC, Dr. Yun is responsible for sourcing and executing high-potential investments in the automotive and ancillary industries on behalf of Hyundai and its subsidiary companies.

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.

Karthik started Sangam to find a new model to provide early stage support for climate change pioneers. He spends a lot of his time with the portfolio & within the clean technology eco-system in India & globally.

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.

Qi Lu is Strategy & Research Partner at Tsing Capital, where she heads the Research Department and works closely with Managing Partners to set firm development and branding strategy for Tsing Capital. Her work includes: Leading the company’s effort in extensive and in-depth industry research to identify emerging opportunities for investment (10+ sectors per year). Composing and publishing Tsing Capital’s annual investment whitepaper to summarize findings and insights of its focused areas. Establishing and maintaining partnerships with industry experts from research institutes, universities, and think tanks. Hosting forums and workshops to facilitate discussions among start-ups, corporations, investors and policy makers. Speaking or arranging Tsing Capital’s executives’ speaking at world-level conferences or influential workshops. Qi has over seven years’ experience working in energy, environmental protection and sustainable development sectors. Her focus areas include renewable energy, electric vehicle, energy efficiency, power storage, smart cities, etc. Prior to joining Tsing Capital, she worked for Carbon Trust and Azure International, two leading environmental and low carbon consulting firms, where she worked with Chinese national and local governments to give recommendations on sustainability-related policy making. She also advised many western Cleantech companies on their China-entry strategies. Qi also worked at Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s Beijing and New York offices as a research assistant intern on power storage and U.S.’s voluntary carbon markets. Qi holds an M.S. Operations Research from Columbia University and a B.Eng. Industrial Engineering from Tsinghua University.