Guest Speakers

Richard Ashby
Chief Financial Office & Treasurer
Renewable Energy Systems Americas Inc.

Richard A. Ashby is the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of Renewable Energy Systems Americas Inc, one of North America’s leading renewable energy development, construction, operations and maintenance firms. RES Americas has constructed over 4,100 MW of wind capacity and has successfully developed 2,000 MW of projects in the US and Canada. The company holds a development portfolio in excess of 12,500 MW and ownership in 235 MW of projects.

Mr. Ashby, who joined RES Americas in June 2007 has over twenty years of U.S. and international financial structuring, mergers & acquisitions, strategic advisory and project development experience covering the renewable energy, power generation, electric and gas transmission, LNG, water and solid waste sectors involving over US$ 30 billion in transaction activity.

Mr. Ashby holds an undergraduate degree in Finance and Accounting from the Georgia Institute of Technology, an MBA in Corporate Finance from SUNY-Buffalo and a certificate from the Executive Leadership Acceleration Program at the University of Notre Dame.

Marvin Burchfield
Vice President
Decker Energy International, Inc. (DEI).

Marvin Burchfield holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Engineering from Clemson University.  His expertise and ability have energized a professional career encompassing roles ranging from operations and maintenance to acquisitions and executive management.  His career spans experience with both small and large organizations.  He currently serves as a vice president of Decker Energy International, Inc. (DEI).

Since 1982, DEI has developed or acquired fourteen diverse energy projects totaling nearly 1,000 megawatts of electrical generating capacity and over $800 million in total investment.  With current ownership of 88 MW’s in two separate biomass fueled projects, prior involvement with other biomass projects exceeding 200’s MW, and late stage developments of another 210’s MW of biomass to electrical energy capacity, DEI is one of the most experienced independent developer / owners of biomass fueled electric generation in North America.

Mr. Burchfield and Decker Energy’s extensive experience in both the technical and commercial aspects of transforming the energy in biomass into a profitable enterprise offers considerable credibility when considering the market opportunities in the renewable energy marketplace.

Michael F. Burz
President
carV3 Inc.

Michael Burz is President and CEO of carV3 Inc. an-all electric car startup that is taking a 21st century view of personal transportation.

Michael brings over 35 years of experience from the aerospace, automotive, and computer industries. He was the designer of several cruise missiles and fighter aircraft and was the program manager for a cruise missile variant at General Dynamics. He was the program manager for Nissan’s all-carbon composite high tech Group C car to race at Le Mans and worked at Nissan’s Design Studio in the US on the Maxima and an eco-car for the Tokyo Auto Show. As an executive with Computer Science Corporation he helped develop business/technical strategies and manage the BAE Systems, Pratt & Whitney, and Lockheed Martin accounts (including the F35 Joint Strike Fighter), as well as the corporation’s Manufacturing Vertical. He led teams to win over $2 billion in contracts in the government and aerospace/defense arenas.

Michael has his Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and his Masters of Science Degree in Aerospace Engineering from San Diego State University. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers.

Peter Bryant
President
TransTech USA LLC

Peter Bryant is the Founder of the boutique strategy firm TransTech USA and is a Senior Fellow at The Kellogg School of Management’s Innovation Network. He is an executive business strategist with more than 30 years of experience developing and driving  high growth strategies for companies in the US, Asia Pacific and Europe. He has advised executive teams at a range of enterprises, from emerging businesses through to Global Fortune 500 companies. He has expertise in a broad range of sectors including resources, energy, CPG, defense  & technology. He has held leadership roles at companies that included GE and Computer Associates. He founded the boutique strategy consulting firm TransTech USA in 2005.

He has completed extensive strategy work in the global energy sector (carbon and clean tech). This work included the design and launch of a $100m Corporate Venture fund focused on clean tech investments for a major energy company.  In 2008 Peter was invited to the White House to present the firm’s views on Clean Tech to a 20 plus team of policy makers and environment/technology advisors.

Mr. Bryant holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Administration from Victoria University in New Zealand and is an alumnus of the Kellogg School of Management. Peter is also a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Chartered Accountant of the NZ Institute of Chartered Accountants. He is a Senior Advisor to the investment bank Q Advisors and is on the Public Policy Committee of the CCIA.  He also holds numerous board positions including a directorship at a nonprofit for under privileged children.

Mark Townsend Cox
Managing Member
New Energy Fund LP

Mark Townsend Cox is the managing member of New Energy Fund LP, which he founded in 2003. The fund is a hedge fund designed to invest n the emerging sustainable energy technology market. His initial experience of renewable energy came as a teacher in Nigeria in 1979 when his class of 8 year olds made solar ovens.

In 1982, he was a platoon commander in the British Army’s Parachute Regiment, and was awarded a Mention in Dispatches (MID) in the Falklands conflict for his role in the battle of Mt. Longdon. After working as a teacher and translator from 1983 to 1985, he joined a stockbroker in the city of London.

Mark came to the US in 1987 and worked on the international equity sell side as a salesman, analyst and head of desk for European institutions. After obtaining an MBA from Columbia in 1992 Mark formed a strategy to be on the buy side. In 1998, he became a portfolio manager at Pinnacle International Management LLC, in New York. In 2003 he founded New Energy Fund LP as the very first pure play renewable energy hedge fund. The fund has just celebrated 5 years running assets.

John R Grizz Deal
CEO
Hyperion Power Generation Inc.

John R Grizz Deal is CEO of Hyperion Power Generation. Grizz has over twenty years of experience in technology commercialization and fast growing ventures, in both product development and chief executive roles.  Grizz was previously  the managing director at Purple Mountain Ventures (PMV), serving a dozen international firms on product development, capital expansion, and marketing. Grizz also serves as a director of the U.S. National Lab Seed Fund, a venture capital fund focused on innovations developed by the U.S. Department of Energy laboratory complex. Grizz is the former TVC entrepreneur in residence with the U.S. Department of Energy/NNSA, visiting entrepreneur at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), chief marketing officer for Space Imaging, the founder and former CEO of LizardTech, and a consulting scientist at LANL.

Grizz is a frequent speaker and writer on energy technology and policy, starting and growing advanced technology-based ventures, and issues in raising capital for such ventures. He is a member of the board of directors for the International Clean Energy Alliance, and serves on the boards of several PMV portfolio firms. Grizz holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in geography from Texas A&M University.

Dr. Robert K. Dixon
Leader Climate & Chemical Investments
Global Environment Facility, The World Bank

Dr. Robert K. Dixon is a senior statesmen, scholar and entrepreneur with distinguished careers in government, academia, and the private sector.

He currently is Leader of the Climate Change and Chemicals Investments at the Global Environment Facility, The World Bank Group. Dr. Dixon was Senior Coordinator, White House Task Force on Energy Security and Climate Change, Executive Office of the U.S. President, 2007-2008. He led the Energy Technology Policy Division, International Energy Agency, Paris, France, in 2005-2007. In 2007, Dr. Dixon and other members of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Dr. Dixon served as Associate Director, Council on Environmental Quality, Executive Office of the U.S. President, The White House, 2004-2005. In 2004 President Bush honored Dixon with the U.S. government Senior Executive Service Gold Award for service to the nation. He served President Clinton as U.S. Department of Energy Deputy Assistant Secretary, 1999-2002. Earlier in his career, Dr. Dixon distinguished himself in a number of senior U.S. diplomatic assignments and served at US Agency for International Development and US Environmental Protection Agency. Dr. Dixon is cofounder Plant Health Care, Inc., a biotechnology research and development firm, markets or licenses processes and products worldwide. He serves as a board member on a number of philanthropic organizations, the US National Academy of Sciences and US National Academy of Engineering. Dixon is the author of a number of books on energy, environment and economic policy. He lectures at the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced and International Studies (SAIS), Columbia University and Georgetown University.

Eric Drummond
Chair Alternative Energy and CleanTech Practice
Sherman & Howard LLC

Mr. Drummond is the Chair of Sherman & Howard’s Alternative Energy and CleanTech Practice group and his legal expertise is in administrative law and complex administrative litigation, focusing primarily on alternative energy issues, electric utility and telecommunications law. In this capacity, Mr. Drummond represents Smart Grid, Solar, Wind, Biofuels, and Distributive Energy Services Companies and assists various start up clean tech enterprises, including electric drive vehicles, waste-to-energy projects and hydrogen technology. As the immediate past Mayor of Manitou Springs, Mr. Drummond participated in all aspects of the Governor’s Energy Office initiatives to implement energy efficiency strategies on behalf of the City. Mr. Drummond supported efforts to measure the City of Manitou Springs’ carbon footprint and define and implement a greenhouse gas emissions reduction program.

Mr. Drummond’s electric utility law experience includes representation of one of the three largest publicly-owned electric utility holding companies in the country, involving multi-state/multi-jurisdictional transactions and regulatory proceedings, including transmission and distribution issues, merger and acquisition, and rate cases, with significant work addressing nuclear reactors and nuclear fuel contracts. In addition, Mr. Drummond has represented cities, other governmental entities and private land owners in electric transmission siting cases.

Matt Farwell
Vice President of Institutional Research
Imperial Capital, LLC

Matt Farwell is a Vice President in the Institutional Research Group of Imperial Capital, LLC, a full-service Investment Banking and Institutional Securities Firm. At Imperial Capital, Matt is responsible for coverage of equity and debt securities in the Clean Energy sector and for publishing the Clean Energy Industry Monitor. Matt has followed publicly traded companies for the past six years; prior to Imperial we worked at Credit Suisse Securities in its equity research department out of New York. Before joining Credit Suisse in 2007, he worked as a Senior Research Analyst at Apollo Capital Management, and before that, at Connective Capital Management, two hedge funds located in the San Francisco Bay Area. At both funds he managed long-short energy portfolio construction and research.

Before his career on Wall Street, he worked in the technology industry in Silicon Valley at companies focused on the utilities and energy space, including Powel ASA, a European software firm. He began his career in economic consulting at LECG Corporation.

Matt is a graduate of Tufts University with a B.A. in International Relations and Economics, and is a CFA charterholder.

Robert Glennon
Morris K. Udall Professor of Law and Public Policy
University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law

Robert Glennon is the Morris K. Udall Professor of Law and Public Policy in the Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona. A recipient of two National Science Foundation grants, he serves as Water Policy Advisor to Pima County, Arizona; as a member of American Rivers’ Science and Technical Advisory Committee; and as a commentator and analyst for various television and radio programs. He is also a Huffington Post blogger.

His new book, Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What To Do About It, was published in April 2009. Since then, he has been a guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Diane Rehm Show, C-SPAN2’s Book TV, and National Public Radio shows in New York City, Chicago, Phoenix, and Cleveland. He’s also published pieces in the Washington Post, the Arizona Republic, and the Arizona Daily Star. In 2009, his speaking schedule will take him to Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Canada, and 17 U.S. states.

Glennon’s best-known publication is Water Follies: Groundwater Pumping and the Fate of America’s Fresh Waters (Island Press, 2002), which received accolades from Scientific American, The Washington Post, and The New York Review of Books.

Glennon received a J.D. from Boston College Law School and an M.A. and Ph.D. in American History from Brandeis University. He is also a member of the bars of Arizona and Massachusetts.

Jeff Granato
President & CEO
Proterra Inc

Before joining Proterra in 2007, Jeff was an experienced executive overseeing growth and strategy for a diverse range of large-scale global businesses, including enabling infrastructure development. Over the last two decades, Mr. Granato has managed business development efforts worth billions of dollars in retail, technology and financial services companies in various executive management roles, including CEO, CFO, COO and President. He also served as Senior Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Co. as a member of their Global Growth Strategy Practice, guiding Fortune 500 companies into high-value growth opportunities.

Mr. Granato has also led the development of global operating and supply chain platforms for leading retail businesses such as Waldo’s Dollar Mart de Mexico, Boston Chicken, Inc. and Einstein Noah Bagel Corp. He has worked as a principal investor from within venture capital and private equity funds and has also represented investors as a Senior Analyst for Ernst & Young’s M&A Advisory Services. Mr. Granato holds a Bachelor of Arts in Finance from DePaul University and a Masters from J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, both in Chicago, Illinois.

Jon Hykawy
Clean Technologies & Materials Analyst
Byron Capital Markets

Dr. Jon Hykawy joined Byron Capital in July of 2009, and is currently focused on resource companies that contribute to vehicle electrification and on related technologies.  His specific interests include lithium, vanadium and rare earths.

Jon holds both a PhD in physics (1991, Manitoba) and an MBA (1997, Queen's) and has been working in capital markets as a clean technologies/alternative energy analyst for the last five years. He began his career in the investment industry in 2000, originally working as a technology analyst.

His current area of focus ranges from electric vehicles to advanced battery technologies. He has extensive experience in the solar, wind, and battery industries, and has done significant research in the areas of rechargeable batteries, ranging from rechargeable alkaline to Lithium-ion to flow batteries.

Wallace Jones, CFA
Portfolio Manager
Virid Capital Management

Wallace is the portfolio manager for Virid Eco Fund, LP. He has 16 years of financial and investment analysis experience, including Portfolio Manager of GreenTech Research, a renewable energy and sustainable investment hedge fund. He began his career at Ernst & Young, LLP as a consultant serving the electric utilities industry. In 2000, he helped launch the alternative energy investment banking practice at Adams, Harkness & Hill (now CanaccordGenuity), raising public and private funding for solar, wind, geo-energy, alternative fuel vehicle, hydrogen storage and power electronics companies. Wally has been a repeat guest on Fox Business Channel’s Money for Breakfast program to discuss wind energy in the United States. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Georgetown University, an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and is a CFA Institute charterholder.

Timothy J. Keating
President
Keating Investments, LLC

Timothy J. Keating is the President of Keating Investments, LLC, a Denver SEC registered investment adviser founded in 1997.  The firm is the investment adviser to Keating Capital, Inc., a business development company that makes investments in private companies seeking to go public.  Previously, he held senior management positions in the equity and equity derivative departments of Bear Stearns, Nomura and Kidder, Peabody in both London and New York.   He is a 1985 cum laude graduate of Harvard College with an A.B. in economics.

Steven Kopits
Managing Director
Douglas Westwood, LLC.

Steven is the Managing Director of Douglas Westwood LLC (USA), our New York affiliate. He has more than 20 years experience in strategic management consulting and investment banking. He has raised capital for oil and gas technologies companies, assisted oil majors in acquisition and disposal projects, and assisted power companies with plant acquisition and divestiture due diligence.  Steven most recently worked for the investment bank of Dahlman Rose & Co. and earlier for New Jersey power developer LS Power.  He worked in Central Europe for many years, including as a Director for Financial Advisory Services at Deloitte & Touche and as a Senior Consultant to the Barents Group, a KPMG subsidiary.

Abigail E. Laufer
CEO
Virid Capital Management

Abigail E. Laufer is the CEO and founder of Virid Capital Management a firm devoted to investments in public cleantech companies. She oversees the investment philosophy and management of the firm. Ms. Laufer has over 27 years of investment experience

Ms. Laufer’s career has spanned a broad cross-section of the institutional investment industry. Following her early days as a securities analyst with the National Bank of Detroit she was appointed Director of Mutual Fund Research for Merrill Lynch in New York. She later worked for the Frank Russell Company as a consultant serving Russell’s Fortune 500 clients, providing strategy and conducting manager research for their pension funds and high net worth clients. In 1997, she co-founded Hanover Square Associates to represent managers and provide marketing consulting services on a contractual basis. Her successful fundraising venture led to her involvement as a partner at the New Energy Fund, a hedge fund devoted to public and private investments in the renewable energy sector. She formed Virid Capital Management in 2009 to focus exclusively on public market investments in the cleantech sector.

She has an A.B. from Princeton University and an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan. She holds a current Series 7 and 63 registration.

Jeff Lyng
Renewable Energy Policy Manager
Colorado Governor’s Energy Office

Jeff Lyng serves as the Renewable Energy Program Manager at the Colorado Governor’s Energy Office (GEO). At GEO he is responsible for developing state policies that promote the implementation of renewable energy in Colorado. Jeff was the administration’s technical policy lead on HB10-1001, the state’s 30% renewable energy standard.

Prior to the joining the GEO, Jeff worked as a technical consultant at Xcel Energy in the company’s demand side management and solar programs. He earned his Master’s degree in Energy Engineering from the University of Colorado where his graduate thesis focused on the implementation of solar energy in the production home market. While at CU Boulder, Jeff was the project manager for the winning 2005 University of Colorado Solar Decathlon Team. Following the Solar Decathlon competition, Jeff testified before the US House of Representatives Committee on Energy and was a guest at the 2006 State of the Union address.

Jeff serves as board member and chair-elect of the American Solar Energy Society (ASES). He is the recipient of John and Barbara Yellot Award given by ASES and the Mark McCray award from the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association.

Michael McGowan
President
Daniel Capital Management Ltd.

Michael McGowan career as a successful entrepreneur in the renewable energy sector is well established and his experience spans from start-ups to large public companies. As the primary founder of Nova Biosource Fuels, Inc. he established himself as one of leaders in renewable energy by developing sustainable biofuel solutions (biodiesel) that do not compete with global food supplies.

Currently his firm, Daniel Capital Management LTD., focuses on starting and developing privately held renewable energy companies throughout the United States, Europe and South America. After spending nearly two decades in banking and finance and serving as an independent director for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle, McGowan combines his passion for sustainable energy with his financial expertise to assist renewable energy companies throughout the world.

McGowan serves on the American Council On Renewable Energy [ACORE] Biomass Coordinating Council in Washington D.C., which is dedicated to bringing renewable energy solutions into mainstream America. McGowan is a sought after speaker on developing new feedstocks (microalgae) for their use in the biofuel sector and as nutritional supplements for humans and animals. He has provided expert commentary on MSN.com, Dow Jones Newsletter’s Clean Technology Investor, The Energy Report and several other financial websites and industry publications.

Jean-Marc O’Brien
Senior Vice President & Partner
Ardour Capital Investments

Jean-Marc O’Brien has been a partner at Ardour Capital since 2005 spearheading Capital Markets activities in Europe, U.S. and LATAM. He has participated in equity placements in over 35 transactions across multiple Clean Tech segments and asset classes. He is a partner and serves on the Board of Ardour Asset Management. Before joining Ardour he was a Director at Medley Advisors providing macro policy advisory research to major global institutional investors. He spent 20 years in institutional banking at Citibank and then in trading and sales of interest rate products at Credit Agricole Indosuez. He is a graduate of The Wharton School and the Moore School of Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.

Robert Peterman
Senior Manager, Global Clean Technology
Toronto Stock Exchange

Robert Peterman is responsible for global strategy efforts for Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV) in the Renewable Power and Clean Technology sector. TSX and TSXV are home to 125 Clean Technology companies representing $18.1B of market capitalization.  These companies raised over $1.5B during 2009, and the sector is attracting increasing interest from the US, Europe and China.

Prior to this role Mr. Peterman worked in Corporate Strategy for a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management , and in Corporate Finance at TSX-V.  He completed his MBA at the Richard Ivey School of Business (London, ON).  And is a council member for the Pierre Morrissette Institute for Entrepreneurship at Ivey.

Jared Schoch
Director of Utility Sales – Western US
SunEdison

Jared Schoch is the Director of Utility Sales for the Western US at SunEdison. Schoch and his team are responsible for developing and managing large-scale solar business with utility clients in Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Arizona. Clients include Investor-owned, municipal owned and cooperative utilities of all shapes and sizes.

Schoch has 13 years of management, consulting and leadership experience in the energy services and high-tech industries. Before his current position at SunEdison, Schoch managed SunEdison’s public sector for the Southwest growing it to more than 20MW of installed solar generation in the Southwest with more than 65MW of solar projects awarded, under contract and/or under construction., Prior to joining SunEdison, Schoch served as the Public Sector Account Manager for Johnson Controls, Inc., a Fortune 100 infrastructure efficiency products and services leader. During his tenure there, he successfully built the public sector energy services business for Johnson Controls in Colorado, Montana and Utah. Prior to that, Schoch was a senior manager with Golin Harris International, where he managed teams that provided business, marketing and public relations consulting services to Fortune 500 high-tech and telecommunications clients.

Schoch holds an MBA from the University of Denver and a BA in Marketing and Public Relations from Loyola University, New Orleans.

Jigar Shah


A renowed visionary committed to renewable energy, Jigar Shah launched SunEdison in 2003 based upon a business plan he originally developed in 1999 for a university class. That plan became the basis of the SunEdison business model: Simplify solar as a service. This model changed the status quo, allowing organizations to purchase solar energy services under long-term predictably priced contracts and avoid the significant capital costs of ownership and operation of solar energy systems.

Under Shah’s guidance, SunEdison pioneered the solar power services agreement (SPSA) model, which served as the foundation for much of the growth of the solar industry in the past five years. SunEdison now has more solar energy systems and megawatts under management than any other company. Customers include Public Utilities, Commercial national Accounts, Municipalities, States and Federal facilities. In the process, Shah became an expert on energy project finance, changing energy policy, working with entrenched stakeholders, convincing different type of customers to embrace energy technology, and hiring over 500 of the most talented people to realize an improbable dream.

Today, Shah works closely with some of the world’s leading influencers and guides policy makers around the globe on key issues surrounding renewable energy, global warming and sustainability. He continuously challenges his colleagues and the industry to move solar forward by creating new markets across the globe.

Prior to launching SunEdison, Shah managed mergers and acquisitions, corporate strategy, and sales effort for BP Solar, specializing in national commercial accounts. He also worked as a contractor for the Department of Energy on alternative vehicles and fuel cell programs.

Shah holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, and an MBA from The University of Maryland. He sits on the boards of the Ready Solar, Prometheus Institute and Greenpeace USA.

Jeff Siegel
Managing Editor
Green Chip Stocks

Jeff Siegel is the managing editor of Green Chip Stocks, an independent investment research service focusing exclusively on renewable energy and organic food markets. Jeff also works as a consultant, and has been a featured guest on Fox, CNBC, and Bloomberg Asia.

For more information please contact Alexis Bogart at alexis@minellc.com.