The Clean Tech Gold Rush: Where to place your bets in your Investments and in your Career.

Clean Tech is one of the few industries growing in the Bay Area right now.  The Clean Tech industry is poised for explosive growth across Solar, Wind, Natural Gas, Electric Vehicles, Biofuels, and even Nuclear. 

We've assembled a world-class panel of Clean Tech Investment Analysts / Journalist, Clean Tech Venture Capitalists, Clean Tech Retained Executive Recruiters and CEOs.

Join us at Club AutoSport's gorgeous automotive enthusiast club in San Jose to ferret out where to invest in the Clean Tech industry and how to position your next career move to capitalize on this exciting opportunity!

 Panelists:

    Andrew Friendly - Advanced Tech. Ventures - Clean Tech Practice

Please join us for our 1st Clean Tech panel discussion, featuring Kellogg alumnus, Andrew Friendly, and other industry rock stars.

Andrew joined venture capital firm, Advanced Technology Ventures, in 2007 and focuses on investments in clean technology companies in the firm's Waltham, MA office.  He represents the firm on the boards of AltaRock Energy and Solar Junction, and is an observer on the boards of Rive Technology and Wakonda Technologies.

Andrew co-leads the Renewable Energy Business Network (www.rebn.org), and also co-leads the New England Clean Energy Council's Clean Energy Fellowship Program (www.necec.org).

Previously, Andrew was a director at Idealab in Pasadena, CA, where he evaluated energy and clean technologies for possible investment and company creation.  He focused on various areas including solar PV and thermal, fuel cells, hydrogen generation, flywheels, small-scale wind, advanced batteries, and new transportation concepts.  He played an active role with Idealab companies, serving on Boards, assisting with strategy, developing partner and customer relationships, and securing venture capital.  

Prior to Idealab, Andrew was a Partner at Clean Edge, a strategic consulting practice for the cleantech sector and senior manager of Business Development & Strategy at Zambeel, Inc.  Andrew also spent five years at The White House in a variety of positions including Personal Aide to President Clinton and Senior Advisor to the Special Envoy for the Americas where he worked with Congress to design trade legislation and assisted U.S. companies in gaining access to Latin American markets.

Andrew holds an M.B.A. from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a B.A. from Middlebury College.

Representative Investments:

AltaRock Energy, Rive Technology, Solar Junction, Wakonda Technologies

   Kelsey Lynn - Principal, Firelake Capital Mgmt-Clean Tech Practice

Kelsey is a principal at Firelake Capital Management, where she focuses on private investments in the clean tech sector.

Kelsey leads Firelake’s efforts in the energy storage, smart grid and carbon mitigation sectors, among others.

She serves on the board of EOS Climate and is a board observer with EnerG2, Simbol, Zeachem, and Thin Silicon. As part of her investment strategy, she looks for game-changing technologies backed by smart, savvy entrepreneurs dedicated to improving the status quo.

Kelsey has worked in the energy sector since 2003, when she joined the Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP) at Stanford University. As a technical researcher at GCEP, Kelsey focused on large-scale energy storage technologies and their potential to mitigate carbon emissions.

She also worked at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and in Google’s green energy strategy group. She has served on the judging committee for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s venture competition and is the co-president for the Bay Area chapter of Young Professionals in Energy (YPE).

Kelsey graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with her bachelor’s in mechanical engineering. She also played women’s rugby while at Stanford, leading her team to the national championship as MVP. She returned to Stanford for a master’s degree in engineering focused on energy systems analysis. Kelsey holds an MBA from Stanford, where she was president of the GSB Energy Club and she currently serves as an external career advisor for Stanford MBA students. Originally from Colorado, Kelsey’s favorite activities include hiking in the mountains, playing pickup basketball, trying to outrun her dog (always unsuccessful), funny costume parties, and anything else that makes her laugh.

  Michael Lynch - Clean Tech Practice Leader, Spencer Stuart

Based in Silicon Valley, Mike Lynch co-leads our global Clean Technology Practice and is a member of the Technology, Communications & Media Practice and the Supply Chain Practice. A technophile at heart, he focuses on senior general management assignments in a variety of technology sectors, including solar, wind, semiconductors, electronics manufacturing services and computing. From a functional perspective, Mike has deep expertise in operations and quality searches, and has successfully completed assignments in general management, sales, finance, human resources and R&D. His clients range in size from large multinationals such as First Solar, SunPower, SanDisk, and NVIDIA, to early-stage businesses such as Nordic Windpower and Teradici Semiconductors. A firm quality officer, Mike takes a hands-on approach to his search work and drives thorough, consistent results.

As a result of his client-side experience in technology-based companies, Mike brings firsthand understanding of the leadership and cultural issues that feed world-class management teams. He began his career as a systems engineer with IBM Labs in Toronto, where he worked on early-stage distributed computing services. After completing his M.B.A., Mike moved into management consulting with EDS and Accenture, where he focused on technology strategy and services design and delivery. Prior to joining Spencer Stuart, Mike held the position of vice president of operations at two early-stage startups, one in the eMarketing field and the other in India-based offshore systems development. His broad industry experience includes high tech, financial services, travel, transportation and public safety.

Mike earned a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Victoria (Canada) and is a former registered professional engineer in the province of Ontario. He holds an M.B.A. from the UCLA Anderson School of Business Management and is a member of APICS.

     Bob Garzee - Clean Tech Pioneer and Entrepreneur

Bob founded Synergy EV, Inc. in 1994 and the Electronic Transportation Development Center (ETDC) in 2003.  He became the Senior Board Member of the Silicon Valley Clean Cities Coalition in 2005. He founded and has managed the ETDC since it inception and considers it the Silicon Valley’s “Center of Excellence of Green Transportation”. He recently incorporated Silicon Valley Edition, Inc. that will be the ETDC’s investment arm into Silicon Valley Green Transportation firms.

Bob earned a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from California State University in Arcata and a Masters of Business Administration from Cal State one year later. He then joined the IBM Corporation as a Systems Engineer and went on to hold the positions of Marketing Representative, National Industry Consultant and Silicon Valley Area Manager in Palo Alto.

Bob has over 40 years experience in executive management in the technical and transportation and engineering fields. He became the CEO of a $70M firm in the Bay Area and then the founder of two Silicon Valley software development firms. He was Congressman Richard Pombo’s Technical Advisor in Silicon Valley and received the American Lung Association and Breathe California Clean Industry Transportation Leadership awards. 

Bob has participated in numerous radio and television programs on why Silicon Valley can be the Americas Leader is Alternative Fuel Development and after 6 years in downtown San Jose recently opened a new ETDC Business Support Center at Club Auto Sport. His ETDC organization has been patterned after the Center of Excellence structure including Public-Private groups including Technology companies, Health Organizations, Clean Cities Coalitions, major Municipalities, Order Financing Firms, San Jose State University, and major prototyping facilities, etc.

Bob is the Silicon Valley HD Project Manager for the California Energy Commission Grant proposal and will run the Proterra, AAraya-Optony and Energy Sales shop location at the current Electronic Transportation Development Center in San Jose.  He is the HD Grants Silicon Valley Industry Interface to the General Services Fleet (Box Truck), School Bus Districts and Refuse Truck Operators project. He is the Manager of the Center of Excellence facility.

Moderator:

     Eric Wesoff - Chief Analyst at Greentech Media

Eric Wesoff is the Chief Analyst at Greentech Media and Author of the Greentech Innovations Report.

Prior to joining Greentech Media, Eric founded Sage Marketing Partners in 2000 to provide sales and marketing – consulting services to venture – capital firms and their portfolio companies in the alternative energy and telecommunications sectors.

Eric Wesoff has become a well – known, respected authority and speaker in these fields. He also was the publisher of the Venture Power newsletter, a subscription – only newsletter covering venture – capital investment in renewable energy.

Eric Wesoff’s expertise covers solar power, fuel cells, biofuels and advanced batteries. His strengths are in market research and analysis, business development and due diligence for investors. He frequently consults for energy startups and Silicon Valley’s premier venture capitalists.

He has consulted for Merck, JDSU, Coherent, IBM and scores of other firms, governments and organizations.

Thursday, April 1st

5:30-7:00pm Check In, Networking, Complimentary Hors D'Oeuvres and Cash Bar

7:00-8:30pm Panel Discussion

8:30-9:00pm Networking and Wrap-Up

Co-Produced by:

Alex Kent, Events Chair & Treasurer

Bert Taube, Clean Tech/Energy Affinity Chair

Generously Sponsored by:

Club Auto Sport
521 Charcot Avenue
San Jose, CA 95131
408.521.7123

A unique commercial condominium
car facility and club, purpose-built
for racing and car enthusiasts.

http://www.clubautosport.net