Please note that individuals named in this section are listed as representing the company they spoke on behalf of; they may no longer be with that company.
Rolf Adam
Director Business Development EMEA, Energy & Smart Grid, Cisco Systems
Spoke at 'Investing in Energy Efficiency' (30 September 2011)
Rolf is a Director with Cisco. He is responsible on a global basis for the solutions development for the utilities industry and leads the Energy & Smart Grid Sales Business Development in EMEA. In addition to his responsibilities at Cisco, he is an industry advisor to WHEB Partners (Cleantech fund), sits on the Advisory Board of Entelios AG (Demand Response start-up), and is an expert to the European Commission on Smart Grid. Prior to joining Cisco he was a Principal at Booz Allen Hamilton where he had built and managed the European Smart Grid Practice and an Associate at A.T. Kearney. He holds a Masters Degree in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Eichstaett and a MBA from Webster University.
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. The vision for Cisco’s Smart Grid Business Unit is for networking technology to transform how the world manages its energy and environmental challenges, and believes that anything connected to the network can be made greener. Cisco is building an extensive product and services portfolio, based on a smarter, connected power grid, designed to meet the needs of global utilities and energy companies, business, and consumers transitioning to a new and more sustainable economy. Cisco’s solutions will address critical points in the energy infrastructure and establish a complete communications fabric from generation to consumption based on Internet-Protocol (IP) standards; enabling intelligence, resiliency and two-way communications into the currently static electricity distribution system.
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Andrew Affleck
Spoke at 'Investing in UK Renewables' (24 April 2009)
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Adam Baddeley
Spoke at 'Investing in Resource Recovery' (28 October 2011)
Adam Baddeley has 12 years consulting experience, largely in the waste and thermal energy generation sectors. His expertise includes market analysis, bid management, financial modelling, project management and negotiation of commercial partnerships. Adam has also worked extensively with the financial community, undertaking market and technical due diligence for a range of lenders and equity investors. Prior to joining Eunomia in 2006, he was both an Associate at SLR Consulting, and a consultant at Juniper Consultancy. He also spent four years advising blue-chip clients on digital media strategies during the dot-com boom years. Adam has an MSc in Environmental Management from the University of Nottingham.
Eunomia is a Bristol-based, employee-owned consultancy, which has been providing strategic and technical advice in the energy and waste sectors since 2001. Eunomia’s client base spans all levels of government, from local authorities (over 120 in the UK), through to national government departments and agencies (including Defra, WRAP, OFGEM, DCLG, DECC and the Environment Agency) the European Commission, OECD and Department for International Development (DFID). We have also worked for a large number of private sector clients, including major waste management companies such as SITA and Cory, technology suppliers such as INEOS Bio, New Earth Solutions and Advanced Plasma Power, investors including Goldman Sachs, Nord LB, Cooperative Bank and Balfour Beatty Capital, and utility companies such as DONG Energy, RWE Npower, Centrica and Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE).
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Asher Bennett
CEO & Co-Founder, EVida
Spoke at 'Investing in British Low Carbon Power' (11 February 2011)
Asher entered the world of Electric Vehicles as a deputy commander of an Israeli Navy diesel-electric submarine. Asher has had multiple entrepreneurial experiences, including as a founding shareholder of Cyota, an online anti-fraud software company that was acquired by RSA for $145M. Asher is responsible for developing EVida’s vision and is heavily focused on cultivating innovative ideas and putting them into action. Asher has a deep understanding of the technical and commercial aspects of Lithium-ion battery systems and electric vehicles and, coupled with his out-of-the-box thinking and deep understanding of Sino-Western business relations, has devised and implemented a high value-added production/supply solution for EVs. His tenacity and creativity have been key to EVida landing its first multi-$100m deal. Asher graduated first in his class at the Israeli Naval Academy and he received his MBA from IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland.
EVida Power is a provider of energy solutions for the electric vehicle (EV) market, with a presence in Europe, China, the United States and Israel. EVida supports its mission to enable the proliferation of Electric Vehicles through the design, development and production of custom battery packs for the EV market. Evida is developing a complete EV fleet transformation solution, coupling battery pack design and production with full EV integration services. Focusing on the commercial fleet sector, Evida will enable fleet operators to seamlessly migrate to electric vehicles using today’s technology, thereby enabling clients to enjoy the simultaneous benefits of zero tailpipe emissions and lower operating costs.
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David Boorman
Business Development Director, Enval
Spoke at 'Investing in Resource Recovery' (28 October 2011)
David Boorman is a member of Enval's board of directors and looks after Business Development. He joined Enval in 2009 to look after commercial and business development activities. Coming from a background in hi-tech electronics, David has broad experience of brokering major deals between early stage companies and large, established businesses.
With a fully operational, continuous process pilot plant, Enval has established a leading position in recycling and environmental technologies. The Company is dedicated to the development and commercialization of these technologies: specifically, unique processes such as microwave-induced pyrolysis that provide financially attractive and environmentally beneficial alternatives to landfilling. Enval’s patented process is a method for fully recycling flexible laminate packaging and is the result of extensive research carried out at the University of Cambridge, UK. We have developed a continuous process for the complete recycling of flexible laminate packaging, recovering 100% of the aluminium present in the laminate, clean and ready to reuse, whilst producing oils and gases suitable for fuel for heat/electricity production or to be used as chemical feedstock in other processes. It is a robust technology, capable of handling both relatively clean production scrap (from the production and filling of the packaging) and also the contamination challenges presented by post-consumer waste. The company also offers consultancy services in Life Cycle Assessment, compliant to ISO 14040 and 14044 as implemented in UK PAS 2050.
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Prof. Annie Brooking
Spoke at 'Investing in Water' (11 March 2011)
An experienced executive and non-executive Director, CEO and leader of academic, research teams, engineering teams and teams of marketers in high technology and software companies. A visionary, mentor to marketing professionals and creative analytic, with vast experience of business development, technology licensing working with both academics, business professionals and researchers. Annie founded an Artificial Intelligence Research Laboratory raising funding and running it for three years, after which she was recruited by Eric Schmidt (now CEO of Google) to Sun Microsystems in Silicon Valley as a software strategist, later working at Symbolics Corp. in Boston as Director of Marketing. Annie is an honorary research fellow at the Open University’s Knowledge Media Institute, Partner Emeritus at ET Capital, a Cambridge, UK based venture capital company and a visiting Professor to the School of Computing at Newcastle University. She has been an active participant in all of the EEC’s Framework Programmes and is an expert advisor to the European Commission on high technology issues. Annie was CEO of Astron Clinica for 6 years, raising over £13 million. Annie is an author and public speaker. She wrote the first book on Intellectual Capital, specifically to put in place a methodology for looking at the potential for, and value of, high technology companies and their assets. Her second book, “Corporate Memory” deals with the ways we can manage knowledge in a knowledge-based economy. Annie is Professor at Anglia Ruskin Cambridge.
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Steve Brosnan
Commercial Director and Head of Risk, Cumulus Funds
Spoke at 'Investing in Environmental Funds' (6 November 2009)
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Jo Butlin
Spoke at 'Investing in UK Renewables' (24 April 2009)
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Luís Castro Henriques
Spoke at 'Investing in the Smart Grid' (15 October 2010)
Luís is an Advisor to the Board of Directors and is responsible for a diversified portfolio of projects such as fund Investments or technological partnerships. He also coordinates innovation activities within the EDP Group. Prior to joining EDP Inovação, Luís has worked as a Consultant with McKinsey and Company where he dealt with various clients, ranging from major publicly traded companies to the Portuguese Government. He has also advised the Minister of Economic Affairs and the Secretary of State for Housing of Portugal on topics such as structural investments, house rental laws and economic diplomacy. Additionally, he has several years of experience in academia, both teaching and doing research. His main research interests are industrial organization and macroeconomics.
Energias de Portugal (EDP) is a Portuguese based utility with activities in Iberia, Europe, USA and Brazil, whose current market value is around € 10,000M. Through its subsidiary, EDP Renováveis, EDP is the third largest renewable power producer worldwide. EDP Inovação promotes innovative projects within the EDP Group, assuming responsibility for engineering development and research of new concepts and technologies. Besides developing R&D / innovation projects, EDP Inovação is also responsible for the development and management of the Corporate Venture Capital fund of the EDP Group.
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Piers Clark
(Former Managing Director, Mouchel)
Spoke at:
'Investing in Water' (11 March 2011)
'Investing in Water' (8 July 2009)
Piers Clark (PhD) is a technical and industry expert with more than 20 years’ experience in the water, waste and utilities sectors. He is the Founder and Chairman of Isle Utilities, a niche management consultancy, and is currently Asset Management director at Thames Water, one of Europe's largest water and wastewater companies. Piers started his career with NorthWest Water and then moved to Atkins where he became the Managing Director of Atkins Water. More recently he served as Managing Director for Mouchel’s Regulated Industries division and was a Management Board Member of parent group Mouchel plc, an engineering consultancy firm. During his five years at Mouchel, primary achievements included the coordination of key acquisitions and driving innovation across the utilities sector. Piers holds a non-executive director position at Empire Water in California, amongst other NED roles, and is also active within the sector’s financial community, where he advises the Emerald cleantech fund. He has published over 30 technical papers and several patent applications.
Isle is a specialist cleantech consultancy with a focus on technology and innovation across the utilities sector. Isle has an impressive track record in accelerating the commercialisation and market uptake of emerging technologies, and supports this through its Technology Approval Group (TAG). TAG is an innovation forum that brings only the most promising new technologies to industry, creating a market pull for these products. Isle’s extensive technical and market expertise enables them to work with various stakeholders including innovators, industry end users and investors.
Duncan Collins
Spoke at 'Investing in Water' (11 March 2011)
Duncan Collins is MD of Zeropex UK ltd and has spent the last 12 years working at Director Level in the water industry, developing the route-to-market and subsequent sales structures for capital equipment to the municipal sector. He was a founder of Quay Technologies/MicroDynamics, a microwave-powered UV disinfection company that was sold to Severn Trent in 2007; this was one of the first successful water technology VC funded start-ups operating in the CleanTech space.
Zeropex has developed the Difgen, a patented micro-hydro generator, sold to water companies, that fits into the water distribution network and converts excess pressure into electricity. The Difgen acts like a pressure-reducing valve, but controls pressure and flow through a rotary lobe turbine linked to a generator; this in turn is controlled through a variable frequency drive. Electricity is generated and converted to suitable frequency and voltage, whilst the utility has better control of pressure to reduce leakage. The electricity is either renewable energy, when under a natural flow, or recovered energy, when a pumped flow. A typical Water Utility can reduce its energy bill by up to 20% once a network of Difgens is installed. The DIFGEN qualifies as: water efficiency, leakage management, energy efficiency, energy conservation, distributed energy, in-conduit hydro, micro hydro, renewable energy, alternative energy, regenerative energy, clean energy, carbon credit reduction, and clean tech.
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Christopher Cox
Spoke at 'Investing in Environmental Funds' (6 November 2009)
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Mark Cropper
Spoke at 'Investing in British Low Carbon Power' (11 February 2011)
Mark founded Ellergreen Hydro in 2008. following a career in the energy and environmental sectors embracing both industry and finance, latterly in corporate finance with Turquoise Associates. Following a seed funding stage which saw UK hydro leaders Gilkes (www.gilkes.com) joining as partners and investors, Ellergreen has focused on developing schemes in North West England. It commissioned its first schemes in 2010 and has a growing pipeline of schemes under development, primarily in the Lake District but also further afield. Mark is also chairman of James Cropper plc, the AIM listed paper and advanced materials group, and a family business since 1845.
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Juliet Davenport
Spoke at 'Investing in UK Renewables' (24 April 2009)
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Cédriane de Boucaud
Spoke at 'Investing in Waste and Resource Recovery' (3 December 2010)
Cédriane has over 14 years of experience in venture capital and corporate finance working in the US, Europe, Russia and Asia to fund and build businesses with a focus on energy and infrastructure. She has been involved in funding and growth for more than 20 technology companies. Cédriane has been part of the Sustainable Technology Fund from the beginning, assisted with the raising and closing of the fund and was part of the team that spun out into Curzon Park Capital.
Curzon Park Capital was set up to provide Private Equity and Venture Capital funding to support the growth of businesses across the Cleantech sector in Europe. The team has over 70 years of investment experience and has access to £200m of equity commitments. Its key investment criteria are as follows: companies that address resource efficiency, roll-out of proven technology or industry consolidation and an equity range per investment of £5m to £50m. Curzon Park Capital has been actively investing in this sector since 2007 through its first Venture Fund, The Sustainable Technology Fund. Future investments will come from pools of Private Equity funds which are drawn down on a deal-specific basis. During the last 12 months, Curzon Park Capital has structured transactions totalling £68m.
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Xavier de Nazelle
Aloe Private Equity (on behalf of Polygenta, BSE: POLTC, an Aloe portfolio company)
Spoke at 'Investing in Asian Cleantech' (6 May 2011)
Polygenta Technologies is a unique sustainable manufacturer of polyester yarn based in India. The company focuses on the deployment of a proprietary breakthrough technology, which allows the replacement of petrochemical raw materials used in the manufacturing of PET by waste PET plastic bottles. The technology is unique not only in the sense that it is a sustainable chemical technology (current recyclers use mechanical technologies which require large investments and carry other limitations), but also because it can recycle any type of PET bottles (i.e. mix coloured bottles) and because it can be integrated seamlessly into existing PET plants. The process is also more profitable than virgin plants selling PET at virgin prices due to lower operating and raw material costs. Polygenta’s strategy is to commercialise the technology to manufacture high-quality sustainable yarn as the sector is experiencing high demand, which mechanical recyclers cannot meet leading to the availability of premium prices. The Company’s first site is operational in Nashik, India.
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Jack Elliott
Spoke at:
'Investing in Water' (11 March 2011)
'Investing in Water' (8 July 2009)
John (Jack) Elliott is a professional engineer with a degree in civil engineering from National University of Ireland (Cork). Mr. Elliott joined Pure Technologies in 1996 as Vice President and since that time has been critical member of the Senior Management team, most specifically responsible for business development, sales and operations. Prior to joining Pure Technologies Mr. Elliott was General Manager of Structural Diagnostics Limited, Operations Manager and General Manager of CCD Western Limited and Operations Manager for Cana Construction Limited. Mr. Elliott is a Past President of the American Concrete Institute (Alberta Chapter), and is a member of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Engineers (IABSE) and the Federation Internationale du Beton.
Pure Technologies is a world leader in the development and application of innovative technologies for inspection, monitoring and management of physical infrastructure including water and hydrocarbon pipelines, bridges and structures. From its headquarters in Calgary, Alberta, and through regional offices around the world, Pure has developed numerous patented technologies to provide infrastructure owners with comprehensive, state-of-the-art information.
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Tim Evans
Managing Director, Renewable Zukunft
Spoke at 'Investing in UK Renewables' (24 April 2009)
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Wayne Evans
Spoke at 'Investing in Water' (11 March 2011)
Wayne Evans is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers. He has spent most of his career with blue chip companies in the field of water treatment, covering the municipal, nuclear, food & beverage, chemicals and oil & gas industries. In his position as VP Industrial Technology at Veolia Water Solutions and Technologies, Wayne manages the selection, industrialisation and commercialisation of innovative technologies and services for the global water industry.
Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies (VWS) is the technical subsidiary of Veolia Water, the leading global operator of water services. Veolia Water is a division of Veolia Environnement (Paris Euronext: VIE and NYSE: VE), the worldwide reference in environmental services. With more than 310,000 employees the company has operations all around the world and provides tailored solutions to meet the needs of municipal and industrial customers in four complementary segments: water management, waste management, energy management and passenger transportation. Veolia Environnement recorded revenue of €34.5 billion in 2009.
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Chris Every
Spoke at 'Investing in Water' (11 March 2011)
Chris comes from a sales and marketing background to Board level management and new technology development in engineered and technical products, for companies including Wiggins Teape Paper, Courtauld International Marine Paints, National Starch, and Williams Holdings. Moving from corporate management to consulting twenty years ago Chris has worked with major organisations including Michelin, Powergen, TXU Energy and national and local government on business development and strategic assignments. He also has extensive experience in building new businesses, including US based early stage pharma Enhance Biotech Inc., sweetener and water filtration specialist Brimac Ltd and early stage clean technology developer Nviro Cleantech plc. Currently Chris serves as Non-Executive Director of SEG plc, a UK based international supplier of fossil and nuclear power generation equipment and specialised offshore oil and gas industry pumping equipment. He is involved in the development of other environmental clean technology businesses in non-competing areas of energy and recycling. He became Non Executive Chairman of AlgaeCytes in 2010 and says: “Having looked at many attempts to make commercial sense of the potential in algae over recent years I finally found a technology and team who have a real and viable ability to create a successful and sustainable business in this embryo marketplace”.
AlgaeCytes uses its unique algae technology in an integrated bio refining process to produce clean biofuels, clean water, high value food additives and to grow plants sustainably. Our strategy is to utilize industrial carbon dioxide emissions and waste process waters as primary feedstocks to grow the algae. Our goal is to become a key producer of competitive, secure and environmentally sound algae products from an array of sources by creating strategic alliances and joint ventures partnerships.
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David Faulkner
Development Director, Dalkia
Spoke at 'Investing in Energy Efficiency' (30 September 2011)
Since graduating in Thermal and Power Engineering at Cambridge, David has held a number of engineering roles in manufacturing and energy industries. David joined Dalkia in 1987 and has held senior management roles in contracting, sales, projects and energy procurement. As Development Director, David is responsible for driving innovation and managing the major projects, energy, and marketing teams in the UK.
Dalkia is part of Veolia Environnement, the world leader in environmental services. With operations on every continent and more than 317,034 employees, Veolia provide customised solutions to meet the needs of municipal and industrial customers in four complementary segments: energy, water, environmental services, and passenger transportation. Veolia Environnement recorded revenue of €34.8bn in 2010.Across 40 countries, Dalkia delivers customised, end-to-end solutions for efficient energy supply and use, including the management of heating networks and energy generation plants and maintenance and technical services for commercial and industrial buildings.By the numbers: €8.6 billion managed revenue in 2010; 53,457 employees in 40 countries; 119,600 facilities worldwide including over 10,000 healthcare institutions and industrial sites and services to 5.8 million housing units.
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Albert Fischer
Spoke at:
'Investing in Energy Efficiency' (30 September 2011)
'Investing in the Smart Grid' (15 October 2010)
Albert has 23 years of experience in venture capital and management in the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Switzerland. Over the course of his career he has invested in 22 companies focusing on sustainability and clean energy, two of which have gone public (AIM and NASDAQ). Albert is Managing Director of Yellow&Blue and a Board member for portfolio companies Tri-O-Gen and Entelios. Albert is also Chairman for Locamation and Cuculus. Albert was previously Chairman of Plant Health Care plc, a leading provider of natural products for plant and soil. He was also Managing Director and co-founder of venture development firm Planet Capital and a General Partner with GreenPartners (Pymwymic), an investment firm focused on social and environmental sustainability. Albert held various senior positions in industry including Head of Development at Elsevier Science. Albert holds a PhD degree in Physics from Leyden University and followed executive education programmes at the Amsterdam Institute of Finance and IMD Lausanne.
Yellow&Blue Investment Management B.V. is an independent venture capital firm specializing in development stage clean energy investments. Yellow&Blue was founded in 2008 by Nuon, a major energy company (part of the Vattenfall group of companies) and is based in Utrecht in the Netherlands. Its primary focus is on smart grid, energy efficiency and biomass.
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Nicholas Morley
Co-Founder & Director of Sustainable Innovation, Oakdene Hollins
Spoke at 'Investing in Resource Recovery' (28 October 2011)
Nicholas Morley has led the development of the company’s business in a number of diverse areas including techno-economic assessment; supply chain risk and materials security; sustainable textiles; remanufacturing. His prior industrial experience includes business development roles in the metallurgical and chemical industries.
Oakdene Hollins is a research and consulting company helping business develop more sustainable and less carbon-intensive products, processes, services and supply chains. The business sectors we work with include food and drink, textiles and clothing, metals and mining, wastes management, chemicals and materials. We provide high quality research on technologies, markets and industries to help assessment of the case for investment.
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Alan Gooding
Spoke at 'Investing in the Smart Grid' (15 October 2010)
Alan Gooding is the Managing Director and a Founder of Smarter Grid Solutions (SGS). Within two years SGS has developed into a leading provider of Smart Grid products and services in the UK with a client list including major European utilities such as Iberdrola, EON, EDF, Elia and Scottish and Southern Energy. SGS deliver Active Network Management products supported by analysis, systems integration and support services that allow electricity network operators to connect low carbon generation and demand customers to the electricity network faster and more cheaply by avoiding expensive network reinforcements. By managing devices connected to the network, our SGCore product can release real-time grid capacity and take advantage of conservative planning standards and customer diversity to vastly improve network utilisation.
SGS’ Smart Grid products are already in use in the UK today. SGS, in collaboration with Scottish and Southern Energy, were responsible in 2009 for implementing the world’s first Smart Grid capable of managing multiple renewable generators against multiple network constraints. This Smart Grid, implemented on the Orkney Isles situated just off of the north coast of Scotland, allowed the connection of additional renewable generators to a network previously considered to be operating at full capacity. This saved Scottish and Southern Energy £30m in avoided network reinforcement costs. In the UK electricity network, operators have been identified as a key enabler to the low carbon transition; Ofgem having recently made available £500m over the next few years for the deployment of Smart Grid solutions, such as those provided by SGS, to help connect low carbon technologies to the electricity network. SGS are working with a number of utilities to design their Smart Grid deployments around our proven SGCore product.
Simon Gottelier
Spoke at 'Investing in Water' (11 March 2011)
Simon has worked at Impax for six years and co-manages the Environmental Leaders and Water strategies, as well as selected clients’ SRI/ESG products. Simon joined Impax from Veolia (formerly Vivendi) Environment, where he was a Financial Analyst. His responsibilities included the analysis and modeling of potential investments and financing issues on the part of the Group's water businesses. Simon began his career in Investment Banking in 1998 at NM Rothschild and subsequently moved to Deutsche Bank where he provided strategic, M&A and financing advice to European and US clients across a broad range of industrial sub-sectors. He has an honours degree in Modern Languages from the University of Bristol.
Impax Asset Management is a leading specialist investment manager dedicated to the environmental sector. Founded in 1994, Impax now manages c. £2.3 billion across a range of closed end funds, open ended funds and segregated accounts on behalf of institutional and private investors. Impax has a track record of delivering excellent returns across long only, private equity and hedge fund strategies. Key investment team members have been working together at Impax for over a decade and have spent the majority of their careers in the environmental sector. Impax manages a range of specialist own brand and white label funds. Impax Environmental Markets plc (IEM) is the UK’s largest environmental markets fund and in the FTSE 250 index.
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Ed Guinness
Spoke at 'Investing in Environmental Funds' (6 November 2009)
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Juergen Habichler
Spoke at:
'Investing in Resource Recovery' (28 October 2011)
'Investing in Energy Efficiency' (30 September 2011)
'Investing in Environmental Funds' (6 November 2009)
Juergen Habichler has been a company founder, entrepreneur and financier for over 12 years. In 1995 he founded the “Ooe Datenhighway Entwicklungs GmbH”, one of the first alternative telecommunication and internet service providers in Austria. Alongside expert engagement with the European Commission in Brussels, Juergen worked in the investment department of Morgan Stanley. After receiving his MBA in 2001 from Wharton Business School in Pennsylvania, Juergen joined Siebel Systems in their Silicon Valley office where he was ultimately selected as a recipient of the "Siebel Product Marketing Star Award" and the “Siebel CEO Award”. From 2004 Juergen worked for Atlas Venture's Technology team, where he spearheaded the establishment of Atlas' Cleantech division. In January of 2009 Juergen Habichler was awarded as one of 30 “Green Heroes 2009“ by the renowned magazine CNBC European Business.
Having managed its first Fund ‘Cleantech Invest AG’ since 2007, Mountain Cleantech has recently launched ‘Mountain Cleantech Fund II’ (‘MCF II’), a closed-end structure for institutional investors and family offices. Limited Partners, including a reputable strategic cornerstone investor, have thus far made hard commitments totaling EUR 23m to MCF II (AUM Target: 100m EUR). The Fund targets growth capital investments in privately held European Cleantech companies, with a particular focus on the German-speaking and Nordic regions.
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Russell Haggar
Co-Founder & VP, Business Development, Xsilon
Spoke at 'Investing in Energy Efficiency' (30 September 2011)
Russell Haggar is a technology executive with 24 years of board-level, operational and consulting experience in the ICT sector. He has also spent six years as a partner with Prelude Ventures, one of the UK’s leading early-stage technology venture capital firms. Prior to Prelude, Russell was with Element 14 – a venture-backed broadband startup that exited in a $650m trade sale. Russell has since built up a strong consulting practice in the smart home domain, and now Xsilon is his fourth startup.
Xsilon is a UK-based startup, funded by its team and several angel investors, with a global market opportunity. It has created the world’s first M2M comms capability for use within the home; it has developed the only solution that can serve the needs of mass market roll-outs. The first target application is for linking household appliances for home energy management solutions, working with utilities and other service providers to connect the monitoring and control devices supplied by hardware vendors. Seeing the severe limitations inherent in using radio technologies to connect devices within the home, Xsilon has created proprietary technology that uses the electrical wiring already present throughout the dwelling. Its experienced founding team has been involved with many of the UK’s well-known technology startups over the past 15 years, has detailed knowledge of this sector, and has established a strong intellectual property position around Xsilon’s offering. With strong traction within its target customer base, it is now raising funds to take the product to market.
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Andrew Hamilton
Spoke at 'Investing in Waste and Resource Recovery' (3 December 2010)
Andrew joined PyroPure Ltd in early 2010. Prior to this he was CEO of Advanced Plasma Power Ltd. from its formation in December 2005 before leaving APP in 2009. He has over 25 years of corporate finance and corporate development experience in the UK and internationally. While at APP, the Gasplasma Process was developed from an initial concept to a fully engineered solution ready for commercial deployment and some £13m was raised in funding. Prior to joining APP, he worked with InvestSelect from 2004 to develop its activities in the waste sector. From 2001 until 2004, Andrew was the Corporate Development Director of Jarvis Plc. Prior to joining Jarvis he worked for 18 years with Hambros Bank Limited (acquired by SG in 1998) where he was a senior corporate finance director gaining extensive experience of the full range of corporate finance transactions. Andrew gained a Bachelor's degree in Law from Warwick University in 1981 and was called to the Bar in 1982.
PyroPure Ltd is a specialist waste technology company based in Bordon, Hampshire, UK, where itsadministration, research, development and testing facilities are located. The Company has invented, patented and developed a novel, micro-scale thermal technology that enables a wide range of solid wastes to be disposed of on site, overcoming the need for storing and transporting them to larger scale disposal facilities. Energy can be recovered in the process and is expected to qualify for subsidy under the Renewable Heat Incentive from April 2011. The product has received environmental awards from the Carbon Trust and very recently from The Chartered Institute of Waste Management. Prototypes have been tested successfully at prospective customer premises and the system is now ready for commercial demonstration, with manufacturing partners and key customers in place.
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Simon Hombersley
Business Development Director, Lontra
Spoke at 'Investing in Water' (8 July 2009)
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Andy Honey
Spoke at 'Investing in British Low Carbon Power' (11 February 2011)
Andy is an engineer and business man with more than 30 years international business experience predominantly in the energy sector. His hands-on experience of oil, gas, nuclear and waste management have given him unique insight into the future of energy and the business demands that are coming from climate change. His business experience includes building and leading teams with clients such as Tesco, Boots, Diageo, ExxonMobil, Conoco, MyTravel, HM Customs and Excise, United Utilities and BG Transco. Andy is a member of the inaugural UK Climate Leadership Programme and is an ambassador for Cornwall’s Low Carbon economic development and recently chaired the Microgeneration Skills Working Group for DECC.
Microgeneration was founded by Andrew Honey in 2006 and has grown to over 50 people and delivered over 200 renewable energy projects across all technologies. Microgeneration is fully MCS accredited and both ISO 9001 & 14001 registered.
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Eddie Hyams
Spoke at 'Investing in UK Renewables' (24 April 2009)
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Bruce Jenkyn-Jones
Spoke at 'Investing in Water' (8 July 2009)
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Adrian Jones
Spoke at 'Investing in Waste and Resource Recovery' (27 March 2009)
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Laurence Kemball-Cook
Spoke at 'Investing in Energy Efficiency' (30 September 2011)
Laurence Kemball-Cook, a Loughborough engineering graduate, designed a technology which converts the kinetic energy from footfall to renewable energy, and in 2009, founded Pavegen Systems Ltd. Pavegen has since seen an exciting growth path – the company went from early prototypes to recently securing contracts to install their technology at Westfield Stratford City on the site of the 2012 Olympic Games. As well as winning some exciting, high-profile contracts, Laurence has also successfully secured the company's second round of funding. Thanks to Laurence's continued innovation, Pavegen won the 'Big Idea' category as part of the Observer Ethical Awards 2011, was shortlisted for Product of the Year in the Brit Insurance Designs Awards and won support and awards from the Technology Strategy Board.
Pavegen is a flexible paving slab that generates electricity from the kinetic energy of people’s footsteps. Energy is generated every time a footstep hits the slab. Wherever there is a high footfall there is an opportunity to harvest the wasted energy for other applications. The paving units provide an interactive and educational way for people to engage directly with renewable energy generation and are suited for areas with pedestrian traffic. Key areas for the Pavegen technology include Retail spaces and the technology is set to be installed at the Westfield Stratford City Olympics site, public transport hubs, academic institutions and other new developments. Pavegen was founded in 2009 and has since successfully completed two fund-raising rounds and is backed by Renaissance Capital Partners Ltd.
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Peter Mills
Spoke at 'Investing in Waste and Resource Recovery' (27 March 2009)
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Johanna L. Klein
Investment Officer, Capital Markets and Financial Sectors Division, Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Spoke at 'Investing in Asian Cleantech' (6 May 2011)
Ms Klein is an investment officer in the capital markets and financial sectors division at the Asian Development Bank in Manila, Philippines. She works in the group's fund of funds, where she is responsible for making investments into private equity funds, and helping to monitor a portfolio of 40+ funds, representing about $800 million of commitments, across Asian emerging markets. She has helped ADB to select and incubate new fund managers in the clean energy sector. Her prior work experience included working in equity private placements at Credit Suisse First Boston, and for the global social investment funds unit of the Deutsche Bank Community Development Group. Ms. Klein has an AB from Harvard College, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
ADB is an international development finance institution whose mission is to help its developing member countries reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of their people. ADB's main partners are governments, the private sector, nongovernment organizations, development agencies, community-based organizations, and foundations. Under Strategy 2020, ADB will follow three complementary strategic agendas: inclusive growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration. In pursuing its vision, ADB's main instruments comprise loans, technical assistance, grants, advice, and knowledge. Although most lending is in the public sector - and to governments - ADB also provides direct assistance to private enterprises of developing countries through equity investments, guarantees, and loans.
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Chandra Shekhar Kundur
Spoke at 'Investing in Asian Cleantech' (6 May 2011)
Shekhar Kundur leads seminal deals in the life science portfolio including India’s first organic food retail chain, the first pharmacy retail chain with a focus towards under developed regions. Shekhar has extensive cross-continent education, business and entrepreneurial experience. He has been actively involved in the venture capital arena as a member of the Board of Directors of the APIDC Venture Capital from 1995 until 2004. Prior to that, as an Assistant Brand Manager for the Procter & Gamble Company in Cincinnati, Ohio. Shekhar keeps a keen eye on early stage technologies by chairing an incubator at the eminent Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT). He has leveraged his relationship here for the benefit of our portfolio companies as well. Shekhar is a serial entrepreneur and an active angel investor in life sciences. His academic background includes degrees in engineering (REC, Warangal) and business administration (MBA, IIM- Bangalore and MBA, Kellogg-Northwestern University).
VenturEast is one of the highly experienced fund managers in India, now onto its “third” generation of funds, with close to $300 million under management. We are a fund manager that is entrepreneurial in our origins, not affiliated to or sponsored by an institution either Indian or overseas. Ventureast is one of the handful of teams in india that have been investing through the last economic downturn, and one of even fewer partnerships that have stayed together from before that period. We are a stage agnostic fund manager but with a penchant for venture style investing. Our funds are focused on market based themes rather than on specific industry verticals.
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Petri Kuusisto
Spoke at 'Investing in Environmental Funds' (6 November 2009)
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Eytan Levy
Spoke at 'Investing in Water' (11 March 2011)
Eytan began his career as a sales manager at Ormat, Israel’s most successful alternative energy company. He continued his work in the power generation sector as Vice President of Infrastructure at Delta, a supplier of capital equipment for the power generation and environmental industries. While at Delta, Eytan worked closely with the Israel Electric Corporation on acquisition and integration of new power generation systems. In 2000 he joined his college classmate Ronen Schechter to found AqWise, leading that company from inception stage to its position as a recognized leader in advanced biological wastewater treatment. Eytan is a Venture Partner at Israel Cleantech Ventures, Israel’s first cleantech focused venture capital fund. Eytan holds a BSc (cum laude) in Chemical Engineering from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, and an MBA in International Marketing from Bar-Ilan University.
Emefcy was founded in 2007 with a vision of fundamentally changing the energy economics of wastewater treatment. The systems developed by Emefcy produce electricity directly from the treatment of different types of wastewater. This conversion is made possible by use of microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology. Emefcy’s mission is to become a global leader in Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) implementation for wastewater treatment. This goal was sparked by the ever growing need for energy efficient wastewater treatment, accompanied by the revelation of technological feasibilty of MFC. Microbial fuel cells feeding on wastewater will produce free, renewable, green energy.
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David Lloyd Owen
Spoke at 'Investing in Water' (8 July 2009)
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Dr Steve Mahon
Spoke at 'Investing in the Smart Grid' (15 October 2010)
Dr Steve Mahon is the co-founder of Low Carbon Accelerator and has had a successful career in commercialising low carbon technologies with over 15 years in the sector and a track record in selecting and managing high growth low carbon companies, both in the private and public markets.
Low Carbon Accelerator Limited is a closed ended investment company created to invest in a portfolio of fast-growing low carbon businesses. The Company invests principally in companies that provide low carbon products and services across the following sectors:
• Energy efficiency (reductions in energy inputs at source, improved conversion and reductions at point of use)
• Energy generation (sustainable and clean energy, micro and distributed generation)
LCA's investment strategy is to target trading businesses with patentable technologies and products with a clear commercial application and the opportunity to gain a large market share of a new or expanding market. The Company focuses on businesses with experienced management teams who have developed commercially viable products providing easily adoptable solutions which deliver immediate reductions in carbon dioxide emissions.
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Dr Nigel Meir
Spoke at 'Investing in Environmental Funds' (6 November 2009)
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William Morgan
Spoke at 'Investing in Water' (8 July 2009)
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Michel Morvan
VP Strategic Intelligence and Innovation, Veolia Environnement
Spoke at 'Investing in Waste and Resource Recovery' (3 December 2010)
Michel Morvan, Ph.D joined the group Veolia Environnement, the world’s largest environmental services company, in January 2009 as its Vice President for Strategic Intelligence and Innovation. He is also External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute (Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA) and an Eisenhower Fellow (2009). Prior to joining Veolia Environnement, Dr Morvan was Professor of Computer Science at the Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon and Research Director at the School of High Studies in Social Sciences in Paris (chair "Modelling of Complex Systems"). He has held many high level scientific responsibilities. Among others, in his last years in the academic world:
• he founded and led the Rhône-Alpes Complex Systems Institute (IXXI)
• he was Chair of the Steering Committee of the European Conference on Complex Systems
• he was Chair of the Information Technology Scientific Committee of the French National Research Agency
Veolia Environnement is the world leader in environmental services. With operations on every continent and more than 312,590 employees, Veolia Environnement provides customized solutions to meet the needs of municipal and industrial customers in four complementary segments: water, environmental services, energy services and passenger transportation. Veolia Environnement recorded revenue of €34.6b in 2009.
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Andrew Newman
Spoke at:
'Investing in Asian Cleantech' (6 May 2011)
'Investing in British Low Carbon Power' (11 February 2011)
'Investing in Environmental Funds' (6 November 2009)
Andrew is the Chief Financial Officer for LCI. He joined LCI in 2006 from Deloitte, where he had worked in the Project Finance team within their Corporate Finance group. At Deloitte, Andrew worked on a number of power and infrastructure projects. He was a member of the team advising on the financing of the next generation of nuclear power plants in the UK. Prior to joining Deloitte he was a Senior Investment Officer for the international fund management team of Triodos Bank in the Netherlands, with specific responsibility for leading the team investing in renewables in emerging market economies in Asia.
Established in 2006, Low Carbon Investors Limited (LCI) manages the Low Carbon Accelerator Limited (LCA) fund. LCA is an early stage technology venture fund, and has invested in some of the leading emerging renewable energy companies, including Proven Energy, one of the world's leading manufacturers of small wind turbines, and Sterling Planet, the leading supplier of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) in the US. In addition to LCA, LCI has also focused on the funding of renewable infrastructure. It has an investment in a Spanish solar developer that recently purchased its first power plants, and has successfully launched with Downing Corporate Finance Limited (Downing) the Downing Low Carbon EIS fund, raising £13 million to finance UK feed-in-tariff (FIT) projects. The company is currently working with Downing to launch a VCT and a second EIS fund, both again focused on UK FIT projects.
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Will Oulton
Director of Responsible Investment, FTSE Group
Spoke at 'Investing in Environmental Funds' (6 November 2009)
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Etienne Pollard
Spoke at 'Investing in the Smart Grid' (15 October 2010)
Etienne Pollard is a member of the venture capital team, based in London and focusing particularly on investments in the Smart Grid, IT, transportation and energy efficiency sectors. Etienne supports portfolio companies and works on new deals throughout European and North America, and is a board observer of Alertme. He joined Good Energies in 2007 from McKinsey & Company, where he advised clients in the high technology, logistics and energy sectors.
Good Energies is a leading global investor in renewable energy and energy efficiency industries. The firm is well known for being the lead investor in Q-Cells and REC, the two most successful cleantech VC investments in European history. Good Energies continues to make VC, growth and project equity investments in cleantech and renewable energy companies, and is planning to expand its VC team in Europe and California over the coming months.
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Keith Riley
Spoke at 'Investing in Resource Recovery' (28 October 2011)
Keith Riley studied Nuclear Engineering at Queen Mary College, London, and had a successful career in design and construction of power generation projects around the world. Since 1993 Keith has held senior posts in the waste management industry, and is currently Managing Director, Technology of Veolia Environmental Services UK, the largest resource management and waste disposal company in the UK. He is also on the Board of a number of other companies including the Veolia Environmental Trust, Resource Recovery Forum, the Institute for Sustainability, and the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA). Keith is Visiting Professor within the School of Civil Engineering and Environment at the University of Southampton, and a member of an Industrial Advisory Panel at Imperial College.
Veolia Environmental Services is the UK’s leading recycling and waste management company, employing over 12,000 people, enjoying a UK presence since 1990 and recording revenues in 2010 above £1.2 billion. Its parent company, Veolia Environnement, recorded revenue of 34.8 billion Euros in 2010. Veolia Environmental Services UK promotes the use of sustainable waste treatment methods to recover valuable raw materials and has invested over £1 billion in the UK’s recycling and waste infrastructure. Over a third of the UK’s population benefit from its services including refuse, recycling, street cleansing and grounds maintenance. Its numerous commercial and industrial customers can take advantage of recycling and waste collection, treatment, recovery and disposal services for dry, liquid and hazardous waste. It also provides on-site industrial services, decommissioning and emergency response as well as a range of compliance services.
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Arijan Sauer
Managing Director, Tri-O-Gen
Spoke at 'Investing in Waste and Resource Recovery' (3 December 2010)
Arijan Sauer was appointed managing director of Tri-O-Gen B.V. in January 2006, and also became a shareholder. Prior to this role, Arijan worked as a change manager and supervised the downsizing, restructuring and refinancing of multiple companies. During 2004 and 2005, he was responsible for building the largest waste water plant in Holland. Arijan participates in multiple companies.
Tri-O-Gen has developed best-in-class ORC technology combining turbine, high speed generator and pump on one shaft. An ORC generates electricity from useless (waste) heat. The Tri-O-Gen ORC converts worthless heat into valuable electricity without the use of fuels and without the emission of CO2 and therefore makes for an excellent profit model. Examples of suitable heat sources include natural/bio gas engines, gas turbines, (bio) diesel engines, landfill gas flares, industrial wasted heat etc. The technology was developed and optimised with support from Delft (NL) and Lappeenranta (FI) Universities of Technology, various other knowledge institutions and in cooperation with Aan de Stegge Civil and Mechanical construction company. The company sold its first ORC in 2007 and since then has grown internationally by focusing on establishing its credentials in the market place. For several years now, a number of commercial applications, including natural gas engines, biogas engines, diesel engines and flares, have been fully operational, feasible and adapted to the market. Currently, Tri-O-Gen is active in the Netherlands, France and Portugal. In recent years, Tri-O-Gen successfully completed the technology, standardised the equipment and started serial production. The company is in the process of creating a network of sales partners in other European countries. The future looks bright. Double digit growth is foreseen.
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Rene Savelsberg
Spoke at 'Investing in the Smart Grid' (15 October 2010)
Before becoming SET Venture Partners CEO and MD, Rene held several executive positions with Philips Electronics NV, including responsibility for its Corporate Venturing program (1997-2005) and its semiconductor related M&A activities (2005-2007).
SET Venture Partners is the management company of the Sustainable Energy Technology (SET) Fund. Based in Amsterdam, the fund's key objective is to invest in innovative European companies actively developing new technologies for the production of clean energy, alternative fuels, CO2 reduction and energy savings. Founded in 2007, SET VP secured €50 million from investors Delta N.V. and Essent N.V. (now Energy Resources Holding), two major utility companies in the Netherlands. SET VP has a consulting relationship with both Canada-based VC firm Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital and Netherlands-based Robeco Institutional Asset Management.
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Gerard Schouten
Spoke at 'Investing in Water' (11 March 2011)
Gerard is an experienced top executive with prior hands on involvement in developing business for innovative technology start-ups in the water sector. Previously, Gerard served in sales and business development capacity at Paques for about 11 years. Paques is a successful international technology firm with revenue exceeding €50 M and operations worldwide. Paques builds high quality purification systems for cleaning water, gases, air and oil. At Paques, Gerard was extensively involved in building the business from its initial stages and in managing strategic technology & business alliances. Prior to that, he served in several international management and business development functions all in the field of innovative water technologies for large multinational companies.
Dutch Rainmaker is a young technology driven innovative company. We are working on new and revolutionary concepts for the production of fresh water. Located in Leeuwarden Dutch Rainmaker forms a consortium with several institutes and companies and is constantly working on the further expansion of this consortium in order to facilitate the fast and broad introduction of the Dutch Rainmaker concept worldwide.
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Tom Shields
Spoke at:
'Investing in Resource Recovery' (28 October 2011)
'Investing in Waste and Resource Recovery' (3 December 2010)
Tom Shields joined Sterecycle as CEO in January 2010. He was previously Managing Director of KemFine UK Ltd, a specialty chemicals business with £45m of turnover and 262 staff. Prior to KemFine, Tom led the spin-off of Avecia’s Fine Chemicals business to join the KemFine Group. Tom had previously been Vice President of the Fine Chemicals business at Avecia, a global company with sales of £442m and which was backed by private equity funds Investcorp and Cinven. Tom was also Head of Zeneca Engineering in Delaware in the United States and prior to this spent 16 years with ICI, one of the world’s largest chemical businesses. Public appointments include past Chairman of the Scottish Enterprise Forth Valley Board and he is currently Chair of the Chemical Sciences Scotland Investment group. Tom graduated from Queens University, Belfast with a BSc in Engineering.
Sterecycle is a UK-based waste treatment and renewable power company. It uses patented autoclave technology to steam process black bag household and industrial waste. Recyclates are sterilised and recovered by mechanical separation while the organic portion of the waste is transformed into a biomass rich fibre, known as ‘Sterefibre’. Sterefibre can be used to generate clean energy in a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant, or for land restoration. Sterecycle’s Rotherham plant, which began operating in June 2008, is the world’s first commercial autoclave waste treatment facility. It is currently treating 100,000 tonnes of waste per annum (tpa), and is achieving landfill diversion rates of around 70%. Works are now underway to increase the capacity to 240,000tpa by mid 2011. Sterecycle also has plans for a 200,000tpa Cardiff plant which is expected to be operational by 2012 and was recently granted planning permission for a facility at Harlow in Essex. A planning application is in progress for a fourth site in South London. Biomass CHP or combined Anaerobic Digestion (AD) and CHP generation plants are planned for all sites. The company intends to have a total of six sites operational across the UK by 2016. Sterecycle has raised £34m in equity and convertible debt to date. Its existing investors include Impax Environmental, Fidelity and Aston Hill. It is considering an IPO in 2011.
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Kjartan V. Skaugvoll
Spoke at 'Investing in the Smart Grid' (15 October 2010)
Kjartan V. Skaugvoll joined Cuculus in September 2010 as CEO and Managing Director. He is joining the founders of the company to form the management team. Prior to this, he worked for Nuon, the market leader among Dutch utilities, where he was Managing Director of the Marketing & Sales Division for the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Under his leadership, Nuon developed a sizeable business selling and implementing measures to help customers reduce their energy consumption. Mr. Skaugvoll joined Nuon in 2001 from KPN where he was Vice President Businessline Residential Market. Mr. Skaugvoll joined KPN, after having worked as a management consultant – mainly focusing on the telecommunications industry - for Monitor Company in Cambridge (USA) & in Amsterdam. He has also held various positions working Aker Engineering, one of Norway's largest off-shore oil rig engineering companies.
Cuculus helps utilities deliver smart metering by connecting electric, gas and water meters to ZONOS, a robust IT platform that can be integrated with utilities’ existing back-end systems. The company has also developed the infrastructure and products required to support the management of home appliances (“Home Control”) for utilities and Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The ZONOS platform is open and vendor independent thus making it possible to work with the meters and communication structure of choice. The system is scalable and can be implemented as a managed service or running in a company’s system environment. This creates the opportunity for simple and cost effective roll out of services. The integration of smart metering and home control furthermore provides opportunities for demand management and other advanced services.
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Jon Slowe
Jon Slowe has twelve years experience in the decentralised energy and low carbon sectors. A founding director of Delta, he leads Delta’s work with utilities, helping them develop decentralised energy and low carbon strategies and tactics. Jon’s expertise spans the decentralised energy space, with a particular interest in microgeneration, low carbon strategies and the integration of decentralised resources into energy systems. Previously Jon worked for Platts, managing E Source’s distributed energy research, and the UK’s Energy Saving Trust.
Delta Energy & Environment is a unique research and consulting company focusing upon the energy technologies, products and services on the ‘customer side of the meter’. We help our clients – utilities, manufacturers, investors and policy makers – understand these growing decentralised energy markets across Europe within the global context, and to develop their strategy & tactics to capture value. Delta has deep knowledge of decentralised energy generation and energy efficiency measures both in the domestic and commercial sector, covering a wide range of technologies including heat pumps, micro-CHP, mini and small scale CHP, small wind, electric vehicle recharging infrastructure, solar PV and home energy management systems (HEMs). Please see www.delta-ee.com for more information.
Selected clients include: Energy Companies: EDF, Electrabel, Endesa, E.ON, ESB, GDF, Iberdrola, RWE, Scottish & Southern EnergyManufacturers: Ariston Thermo Group, Baxi, Bosch, GE Jenbacher, Siemens, ViessmannFinance Sector: Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, KBC Peel Hunt, NomuraPolicy Makers: Carbon Trust, Energy Saving Trust, EBRD, IEA, OECD
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Bill Staby
Spoke at 'Investing in Water' (11 March 2011)
Bill Staby is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Boston-based Resolute Marine Energy, Inc. (RME). Bill is an experienced manager of early-stage technology companies. His entrepreneurial career started in 1997 when he was co-founder of an Internet business-to-consumer commerce company that subsequently went public. Bill then helped start two companies in media technology and business process automation before founding RME in 2006. Earlier in his career, Bill was an investment banker at Credit Suisse in the Electric Utility Corporate Finance Group and later he was co-head of the North American mergers & acquisitions team at Rabobank International. Bill received his undergraduate degree in accounting and finance from the City University of New York. He went on to earn his MBA from New York University in 1987. Bill has recently been a featured speaker at a TED conference.
Resolute Marine Energy Inc. (RME) is developing wave energy converters (WEC) that generate clean energy from ocean waves. Its near-term goal is to complete development and commercialization of a wave-driven seawater desalination system that operates completely “off-grid” and fills a huge gap in the market for seawater desalination systems. It is also in the early stages of identifying opportunities to cost-effectively supply electricity to near-shore communities that currently rely upon diesel generators. RME’s business model is to target maritime commercial activities that would be enabled or greatly improved by the availability of an on-site renewable energy supply; identify specific industry leaders, customers or partners for a joint research/pilot project; and, use industry leaders, customers or partners to sell jointly-developed products into the targeted market.
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Oliver Stahl
Spoke at 'Investing in Energy Efficiency' (30 September 2011)
Oliver Stahl is an electrical engineer in the area of industrial automation with deep expertise implementing Demand Response programs. He studied business administration at the University of Mannheim, then Loyola and Northwestern University, Chicago/USA. 2008 he was Sloan Fellow with an MBA degree at MIT Sloan School of Management and HBS. He is also a board member at the Smart Energy Demand Coalition (SEDC).
Entelios is a European energy and smart grid company. Established in 2010, Munich based Entelios is the first nationwide Demand Response aggregator and service provider. It has since taken a market leading position. Entelios is partnering with industrial, commercial and institutional (ICI) electricity consumers, aggregating their capability to reduce and/or shift energy consumption during certain times. This helps utilities, grid and system operators to reduce peak power demands, balance intermittent power generation from renewable sources, avoid grid congestions and reduce the need for fossil fuel power plants. Utilities and grid operators pay Entelios for providing Demand Response capacity (MW under management) by managing the consumption patterns of ICI end-use electricity consumers.
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Graham Stowell
Managing Director, Bronzeoak
Spoke at 'Investing in UK Renewables' (24 April 2009)
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Vivek Tandon
Spoke at 'Investing in Asian Cleantech' (6 May 2011)
Vivek is an experienced international entrepreneur with an extensive background in building technology start-up companies. During his career, Vivek co-founded a number of technology companies and has held several senior executive management positions including Managing Director (UK) of Viventures (a USD$700m Venture Capital Fund), CIENA, Kymata, British Telecommunications PLC and Motorola. He has a PhD from University College London and a BSc in Physics from Imperial College. He has published numerous papers, has several patents and is a regular speaker at conferences. In addition to a strong interest in the environment, Vivek has a personal passion for Africa and supports organizations such as Pambazuka and Fahamu, platforms and publishing houses with a focus on social justice in Africa.
Aloe is recognised as an entrepreneurial and successful alpha investor who proactively seeks out investment opportunities based on independent thinking and sometimes contrarian analysis. With offices in Mumbai, Beijing, London and Paris, Aloe is the international high-integrity partner that delivers global expansion. The Group excels at fostering portfolio companies’ growth and driving proven technology into new markets, whether that is companies targeting the high-growth Asian markets, or Asian companies seeking to expand in developed markets. Aloe’s portfolio covers clean energy, waste recycling and eco-processes. The Group is committed to growing profitable asset based businesses by forming long-term strategic relationships with management teams, and encourages prospective portfolio companies to meet with the founders of existing portfolio companies to truly understand the value that Aloe generates and the transparent manner in which Aloe operates.
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Nigel Taunt
Spoke at: 'Investing in Waste and Resource Recovery' (3 December 2010)
Nigel has over 25 years experience in M&A and fund raising since qualifying as a chartered accountant in 1977. After seven year spells at BOC and as Finance Director of Christie Group, from 1992 to 1998 he was Finance Director of Yorkshire Environmental, owned by Kelda Group plc, and played a leading role in the ten-fold growth of that business to £100 million turnover. He managed a large number of acquisitions and divestments in waste management, water treatment, renewable energy and environmental laboratories.
Impax Asset Management Group plc is the parent company of Impax Asset Management Ltd, a leading investment manager dedicated to the environmental sector, with a focus on alternative energy, water and waste. Impax Asset Management as at October 2010 has assets under management and advisory of over £1.9 billion for institutional and private investors, across a range of listed and private equity funds. Impax Capital Limited has a long history of financial advisory and M&A transactions within the environmental sector, but now focuses primarily on providing venture capital services internally to Impax Asset Management.
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Nigel Traill
European Manager, Phoslock
Spoke at 'Investing in Water' (8 July 2009)
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Mary Turner
Spoke at 'Investing in the Smart Grid' (15 October 2010)
Mary Turner was appointed CEO of AlertMe.com Ltd. in February 2010. Prior to this role, she was CEO of broadband company Tiscali UK from 2001, growing the company from less than half a million dial-up customers to the third largest DSL provider in the UK with 1.8m broadband customers and a revenue of €608m by 2008. During her time in the ISP space, Mary was also General Manager UK (ISP and Portal) and Vice-President Marketing Europe for AOL Bertelsmann/CompuServe Information Services. In 1999, she became CEO of LineOne, a joint venture between BT and United Media, leading the sale of this business to Tiscali SpA, the Milan listed company in 2001. Mary also has extensive consumer retail experience through senior management roles at Elizabeth Arden, Avon and the Innovations Group and is on the board of ASOS PLC.
AlertMe provides simple and affordable home energy management and connected home services both directly to consumers and indirectly through channel partners, such as utilities, telecommunications companies and OEMs. Based on a single Home Area Network (HAN) platform, AlertMe allows consumers to monitor, control and automate a wide range of services in the home, such as energy use, heating, Solar PV, security and telecare, online and via their smart phone anywhere, anytime. AlertMe allows partners to provide their customers with new services that enhance the customer relationship, improve customer loyalty and increase revenue. The company provides consumers with the tools to reduce their energy consumption and bills by 15-20% and to participate in meeting Government targets and objectives for energy conservation and carbon emissions reduction. AlertMe is private and venture backed by Good Energies, Index Ventures, SET Venture Partners and VantagePoint Venture Partners.
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James Vaccaro
MD of Investment Banking & Renewables (UK), Triodos Renewables
Spoke at 'Investing in British Low Carbon Power' (11 February 2011)
James has worked for Triodos since 1998 and is a specialist in environmental and social finance. He heads the Investment Banking team, is Managing Director for Triodos Renewables plc, investing equity in a range of renewable energy projects, and manages a portfolio of venture capital investments. During his tenure at Triodos, he has advised on public share issues for companies including the Ethical Property Company and Cafédirect; managed project finance facilities for renewable energy projects in the UK; set up the UK’s first ethical business angels service, Triodos Match; and managed investments into microfinance institutions in Asia and Africa.
Triodos Bank is a global leader in, and pioneer of, sustainable and ethical banking. Triodos connects savers and investors who want to change the world for the better with entrepreneurs and sustainable companies doing just that. Triodos has branches in the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Germany - and through its pioneering microfinance funds, is active in 40 countries in the developing world. It has over £4.8 billion under management and lends to over 12,500 ethical organisations, including 700 in the UK. In a time of global financial crisis, Triodos Bank has continued to grow at an average rate of 20 per cent each year, demonstrating that you can marry a sustainable approach with commercial success.
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Martijn van Glabbeek
Spoke at 'Investing in the Smart Grid' (15 October 2010)
Martijn van Glabbeek is a Strategy Consultant in the field of Smart Grids and Enterprise Architecture. He joined the CIO office of Nuon in 2009, after 12 years of management consultancy in the Utilities and Telecommunications industries. Martijn has extensive experience in the development and implementation of smart metering and smart grid solutions, as well as in the transformation of business processes and information technology. Within Vattenfall he is currently active in the Taskforce for Smart Grids, as well as the Demand Council for Smart Metering. Martijn is also the Co-chair of the Extended ACCU Workgroup on Smart Grids, and is a contributing member of the EU Taskforce WG3 on Metering & Demand. Recent publications include a vision for data exchange in the smart energy ecosystem and an overview of business principles for the smart grid.
Nuon produces and supplies gas, electricity, heat and cooling for 2.6 million consumers, businesses and organisations in the Netherlands and Belgium, and offers them a range of energy-saving products and services. Nuon seeks to provide reliable, sustainable and affordable energy and is establishing a leading position for itself in the field of sustainable entrepreneurship, where it aspires to achieve balanced growth for all its stakeholders: customers, employees, shareholders, the environment and society. Since 1 July 2009, Nuon is part of the Vattenfall Group, Europe's fifth largest generator of electricity and its largest supplier of heat. The company currently has operations in Denmark, Finland, Germany, United Kingdom, Poland, the Netherlands and Sweden, where it is active in all stages of the electricity value chain: generation, transmission, distribution and sales. With the inclusion of Nuon, Vattenfall is also leading in offshore wind generation in Europe.
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Kris Wadrop
Spoke at 'Investing in Resource Recovery' (28 October 2011)
Kris Wadrop is an internationally experienced Fellow of the Institute of Chemical Engineers and has worked from China to the USA implementing strategic site and technology development programs that sustained or improved revenues. At Uniqema, ICI’s specialty chemical business, Kris was a chemical engineer whose work included supporting operations in Asia as well as taking a long term secondment as Plant Manager in the USA. Having spent 14 years with ICI Plc, Kris is experienced at managing high-value chemical manufacturing businesses. In July 2010, after extensive stress testing, Kris formed Solvert to capitalise on opportunities in two extensive markets: waste management and renewable chemical supply.
Solvert is a technology licensing and chemical production company. Solvert’s technology converts biodegradable waste streams, such as mixed green and food waste, into high-value commodity liquid and gaseous chemicals. Solvert proposes to license technology to a number of local waste authorities and waste management companies within the UK and manage the facilities on their behalf. Solvert will emphasize the renewable aspect in order to maximize the value of the chemicals it produces.
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Dr Eric Wang
Spoke at 'Investing in Asian Cleantech' (6 May 2011)
Eric is a venture capitalist with 16 years of experience in VC fund management, investment banking, equity research and technology product marketing in China, Taiwan and the Silicon Valley. Prior to joining Grand River Capital (GRC), Eric was a Managing Director at WK Technology Fund with US$500 million under management. Previously, he worked at ABN AMRO Bank and KLA-Tencor. He holds a PhD from Stanford University and a BS from Tsing Hua University.
The SinoGreen Fund, a dedicated cleantech fund and a follow-up fund to Grand River Capital (GRC) Fund I and Fund II, is seeking capital commitments of US$100 million. The SinoGreen Fund is primarily dedicated to investments in early-stage companies in Greater China that are active in any aspect of climate change mitigation and adaptation. Through its vast variety of networks backed by a highly experienced management team, the SinoGreen Fund has a significant pipeline of high-quality companies with cutting edge technologies, innovation and substantial growth potential in areas of energy infrastructure, energy efficiency, alternative energy generation, energy storage, transportation efficiency, recycling/waste treatment, and neo-agriculture. With the Chinese government’s strong commitment to reduce the fast-growing economy’s energy intensity, and the 12th Five-Year Development Plan’s emphasis on new energy and environmental protection, the SinoGreen Fund is well positioned as the long-term, value-added investor of choice for quality innovative start-ups who are ready to contribute to environmental and economic sustainability in China while achieving commercial success.
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Jeff Weeks
Technical Executive, EnvironCom
Spoke at 'Investing in Waste and Resource Recovery' (27 March 2009)
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Andrew Woollett
Spoke at 'Investing in Resource Recovery' (28 October 2011)
As Executive Chairman, Andrew Woollett has special responsibility for strategy, new business development, and investor relations. Andrew is a geologist with over 30 years of international experience in mineral exploration and development. He began his career with RTZ in Saudi Arabia and then worked in Greenland for the EU. Upon completion of an MSc in mineral exploration from the Royal School of Mines in 1981 he joined Cluff Resources plc and worked in the UK, Eire, Zimbabwe, and Shanghai. He was a founder director of Ivernia West plc and in 1989 set up Reunion Mining plc where he was Executive Chairman until the company was taken over by Anglo American plc. In 1996 he set up ZincOx with Noel Masson and joined the company as managing director in May 1999.
ZincOx‘s business is recycling EAFD, a hazardous waste generated by the recycling of steel scrap. Its long term objective is to operate a network of recycling plants covering each of the major steel recycling regions of the world. ZincOx has carried out ten years of research and development to find the best way of processing EAFD. It has selected an existing iron making technology that has been optimized for the recovery of zinc. The ZincOx approach is energy efficient and with very high metal recovery into two products without the generation of any waste, as such the process represents a technically, economically and environmentally superior solution to the problem of EAFD.
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Yoav Zingher
Director & Co-founder, KiWi Power
Spoke at 'Investing in the Smart Grid' (15 October 2010)
Before co-founding KiWi, Yoav Zingher was a founding partner of 4rae Renewable and Alternative Energy Investments, a private equity group with €200 million under management, where he specialised in smart energy. Prior to this, Yoav spearheaded Singapore-based Tanker Pacific’s entry into the ultra-deepwater oil drilling sector. Previously, Yoav worked at a New York-based hedge fund, specialising in long/short investments and merger arbitrage and at an Israeli Venture Capital firm based in Tel Aviv.
KiWi Power Ltd is a leading smart grid and demand management company in the UK. Founded in 2009, KiWi works with the National Grid to help its commercial and industrial clients become greener and earn a new revenue stream by actively and intelligently managing their electricity consumption.
