TC Sessions: Climate 2022
June 14 – 16, 2022 — Berkeley
Speakers
David Ackerly
Dean UC Berkeley, Rausser College of Natural Resources
Brandon Alexander
Co-Founder & CEO Iron Ox
Carlos Araque
Co-founder & CEO Quaise Energy
Andrew Beebe
Managing Director Obvious Ventures
Patrick Brown
Co-Founder & CEO Impossible Foods
Carol M. Browner
Advisor, Lime Former Administrator, EPA
Amy Burr
President JetBlue Technology Ventures
Jamey Butcher
CEO & President Chemonics International
Matt Caspari
Managing Partner Strawberry Creek Ventures / Alumni Ventures
Carol T. Christ
Chancellor University of California, Berkeley
Caroline Cochran
Co-founder & COO Oklo Inc.
William Collins
Professor in Residence, Earth & Planetary Science; Director, Climate & Ecosystem Sciences Division Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Doug Davenport
Founder, Executive Director ProspectSV
Essam Elsahwi
CEO Pulsenics
Beth Esponnette
Co-founder & Chair unspun
Peter Gajdoš
Partner – Co Leads the Climate Technology Investment Team Fifth Wall
Christian Garcia
Partner Breakthrough Energy Ventures
Bill Gates
Founder Breakthrough Energy
Secretary Jennifer Granholm
Secretary of Energy U.S. Department of Energy
Philipp Gruener
Partner & Head of Direct Tech Decisive Capital Management SA
Matanya Horowitz
Founder & CEO AMP Robotics
Kentaro Kawamori
Co-founder & CEO PERSEFONI
Suleman Khan
CEO Swell Energy
Alex Kopelyan
Partner & Senior Director IndieBio & SOSV
Mark Kroese
General Manager, Sustainability Solutions Microsoft
Jeffrey R. Long
Professor of Chemistry and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering UC Berkeley
Andre Lorenceau
CEO & Co-Founder DiviGas
Cassie Meigs
Director of Account Management DroneSeed
Jared Moore
Founder and CEO Solid Ox Motors
Christine Moseley
Founder & CEO Full Harvest
Megan O'Connor
Co-founder & CEO Nth Cycle
Fred Plais
Co-Founder & CEO Platform.sh
Kamil Saeid
Partner & Creation Lead Defy.vc
Susan Schofer
Partner & Chief Science Officer SOSV HAX
Parikshit Sharma
Partner SOSV SF
Victoria Slivkoff
Executive Managing Director Extreme Tech Challenge
Young Sohn
Founding Managing Partner, Walden Catalyst Ventures; Former Corporate President & Chief Strategy Officer, Samsung Electronics; Co-Founder, Extreme Tech Challenge; Chairman of the Board, HARMAN International Walden Catalyst Ventures
Kiersten Stead
Managing Partner DCVC
Rajesh Swaminathan
Partner Khosla Ventures
Bill Tai
Founding Chairman HUT8 Corp
Wayne Ting
CEO Lime
Miranda Wang
Co-founder & CEO Novoloop
Garrett Winther
Partner SOSV HAX
Pae Wu
General Partner & CTO SOSV SF
Kathy Yelick
Vice Chancellor for Research UC Berkeley
Michelle Zhu
CEO Huue
David Ackerly is the Dean of the Rausser College of Natural Resources and has a joint appointment in the departments of Integrative Biology and Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at the University of California Berkeley. Current research in his lab examines drought tolerance of native tree species, potential impacts of climate change on plant communities, and post-fire forest dynamics at sites that burned in the 2017 and 2019 northern California wildfires. His research is used to inform strategies of biodiversity conservation in the face of climate change, with a focus on California parks and open space. Ackerly received his B.A. in Biological Sciences from Yale University in 1984 and his Ph.D. in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology from Harvard University in 1993. He taught at Stanford from 1996-2004 and joined the faculty at UC Berkeley in 2005.
David's Sessions
Accelerating Climate Solutions from Discovery to Deployment with UC Berkeley @ Table 3 – MLK Jr. Student Union, Level 4, Pauley Ballroom West
What role should universities play in developing and transferring innovative and equitable solutions to the climate crisis?
Brandon Alexander is the CEO of Iron Ox, a company that is pioneering sustainable and precise growing techniques including AI, robotics and plant science, to reduce agriculture’s impact on global climate. He took his experience of growing up on his family farm and combined that with his career in robotics at Willow Garage and then Google to inspire him to found Iron Ox with the goal of solving global climate through food.
Brandon's Sessions
Building a Food System for the Next 1,000 Years with Iron Ox @ Table 2 – MLK Jr. Student Union, Level 4, Pauley Ballroom West
Join Brandon Alexander, CEO & co-founder of Iron Ox, to discuss how his team is revolutionizing the future of farming using A.I. and robotics to make the next generation of our global food system more sustainable, scalable and delicious.
Carlos Araque is the co-founder and CEO of Quaise Energy. He leads a team that intends to unlock the heat beneath our feet, a feat that could ultimately power the world with clean energy. To make that energy — supercritical geothermal power — available to all, Carlos is leveraging his considerable experience solving difficult technical challenges in the oil industry for Schlumberger and as technical director for The Engine, MIT’s groundbreaking fund and platform to commercialize world-changing technologies. Carlos believes that supercritical geothermal power has the potential to replace fossil fuels as the world’s dominant energy source.
Carlos's Sessions
Our Reliance on Docile Fuels
The world is going electric, but the energy has to come from somewhere. As we are reducing our reliance on oil, coal and natural gas, this panel takes a look at what else we’ve got going for us to keep our cars rolling, our laundry spinning, and our factories doing whatever factories do.
Andrew helps build companies with category-creating entrepreneurs that are decarbonizing the global economy, electrifying all modes of transportation, and upgrading urban environments. He leads Obvious’ investments that scale renewable energy adoption with Mosaic, Sighten (acquired), Inspire (acquired), and Enbala (acquired); positively transform and electrify transportation with Proterra (IPO), Lilium (IPO), LightshipRV, Forum Mobility, and Amply (acquired); elevate cities with Plant Prefab, RenoRun, and Canvas; and help companies decarbonize with SINAI Technologies. Before joining Obvious, Andrew led Distributed Generation for Nextera Energy, the largest clean energy developer in the United States. Previously he was at Suntech, which became the largest solar company in the world under his tenure as Chief Commercial Officer. Andrew joined Suntech after the company acquired Energy Innovations, a major solar developer that he founded in 2003. Before his clean tech career, Andrew spent a decade building “Web 1.0” companies like Bigstep.com, an e-commerce platform designed to serve the needs of small businesses entering the Internet age. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College. Andrew also supports purpose-driven founders via organizations like The Elemental Excelerator, NREL, and Women Who Tech. Andrew was born in New York City and spent his formative years on an avocado ranch in Ojai, California. He is a woodworker in his spare time, building wooden boats and furniture.
Andrew's Sessions
Planting the Pre-Seeds: Investing Early In Climate Tech with Obvious Ventures @ Table 2- MLK Jr. Student Union, Level 4, Pauley Ballroom West
We have seen a surge in investors and entrepreneurs building companies that address the climate crisis. The solutions, however, are far-reaching: cold fusion, electrified transportation, carbon-free cement, and emissions accounting software. How are top investors in the space defining climate tech? What are they looking for in entrepreneurs and ideas at the earliest stages? What is their decision-making process? What trends are they seeing in this space?
Patrick O. Brown is Chief Visionary Officer and founder of Impossible Foods, a company at the forefront of making nutritious, delicious meat and dairy products from plants to satisfy meat lovers and address the environmental impact of animal farming. The idea for Impossible Foods came to Pat while he was on sabbatical from his position as an HHMI investigator and professor of biochemistry at the Stanford University School of Medicine. In reflecting on how he could use his training and experience to make the largest positive impact on the world, he realized there was a way to make delicious, affordable meat and dairy products, directly from plants – that would be better for the environment and for consumers. In 2011, Pat chose to devote himself full time to Impossible Foods. After receiving his BA, MD and PhD (in Biochemistry) at the University of Chicago, Pat completed a residency in pediatrics at Chicago’s Children’s Memorial Hospital. As a fellow with Mike Bishop and Harold Varmus, he defined the mechanism by which HIV and other retroviruses incorporate their genes into the genomes of the cells they infect. At Stanford, Pat and colleagues developed DNA microarrays – a new technology that made it possible to monitor the activity of all the genes in a genome – along with the first methods for analyzing, visualizing and interpreting global gene expression programs. He pioneered the use of gene expression patterns to classify cancers and improve prediction of their clinical course. He has also been a leader in making scientific and medical research results freely available to scientists, physicians and the public. With Harold Varmus, then Director of the National Institutes of Health, and Berkeley professor Michael Eisen, he founded the Public Library of Science, a nonprofit scientific publisher that has transformed the publishing industry by making scientific and medical research results freely available to the public. Pat is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine and recipient of the American Cancer Society Medal of Honor.
Patrick's Sessions
Kitchen Consequential
Patrick Brown founded Impossible Foods back in 2011, with the goal of offering customers an ethical and environmental responsible alternative to meat. An innovative approach to developing its product has propelled the company into restaurants and homes across the world. Brown, who recently transitioned from CEO to Chief Innovation Office, will discuss the the present – and future – of fake meat.
Carol M. Browner brings nearly four decades of experience advising on environmental and energy policies affecting global energy, environmental, public health, and business matters. Carol served as Assistant to President Barack Obama and Director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, where she oversaw the coordination of environmental, energy, climate, transport, and related policy across the U.S. federal government. During her tenure, the White House secured the largest investment ever in clean energy and established the cleaner cars standards that included both new automobile fuel efficiency standards and first ever greenhouse gas reduction standards. Carol is the longest serving Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. As Administrator, she adopted the most stringent air pollution standards in U.S. history; set the first fine particle clean air standard; and spearheaded the reauthorization of the Safe Drinking Water Act as well as the Food Quality Protection Act. Carol was known for working with both environmentalists and industry to find solutions and focusing on protecting vulnerable populations and promote environmental equity. Carol is Senior of Counsel at Covington where she provides counsel to industry leaders in the energy, transportation, and consumer product sectors on regulatory matters, environmental impact issues, corporate sustainability, and strategic partnership development to advance clean energy, ESG, and other business priorities. Additionally, Carol serves as Chair of the Board of the League of Conservation Voters, as Chair of the Sustainability Committee of the Board of Directors for Bunge Limited, and as an Advisor to Lime.
Carol M.'s Sessions
The Road to Zero-Emissions
In spite of increasingly strict regulations in some states and the rise of electric bikes, scooters, mopeds, buses and cars, the vast majority of vehicles on roads today have tailpipe emissions.Lime CEO Wayne Ting and Carol Browner, former director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy and administrator of the EPA, will talk about where the U.S. is on the road to zero-emissions. The pair will dig into the challenges the remain and the role that innovation, policy and investment can play in greening up transportation.
Amy Burr is the President of JetBlue Technology Ventures (JTV), the venture capital arm of JetBlue Airways. As President, Amy shapes the strategic venture investment direction of JetBlue and facilitates integration of successful startup programs into the airline’s overall corporate innovation initiatives. She has been with JTV since 2018 as the Managing Director of Operations and Partnerships, where she built an ecosystem of partners and deployment opportunities for the many technologies of JTV’s portfolio companies. Prior to JTV Amy led the Virgin America merger with Alaska Airlines. Amy earned her MBA from Moore School of Business at University of South Carolina.
Amy's Sessions
How Corporations Can Be Better Citizens
As corporations become more and more powerful, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) encompasses a breadth of programs on how they can take a leadership role in society. On this panel, we discuss how corporations can flex their muscles for good across financial, economic, societal and environmental issues.
Since joining Chemonics in 1998, President and CEO Jamey Butcher has served across a variety of roles and regions. Most recently, Mr. Butcher oversaw Chemonics’ global health and supply chain portfolio. In that capacity, he led efforts to implement sustainable supply chains, improve health service delivery, and scale up innovative approaches in developing country environments. He also championed the development of Chemonics’ knowledge sharing and learning hub that provides continual learning opportunities for Chemonics’ global network of more than 5,000 employees. Previously, Mr. Butcher served as senior vice president of the Europe and Eurasia, Global Health, Africa, and then East Africa business units. In addition to diversifying and expanding the company’s portfolio, he developed a quality assurance approach to new business and trained staff in innovative enterprise development methods. While providing strategic management and operational oversight of Chemonics, Mr. Butcher draws from experience as a private sector development specialist with more than 20 years of experience in Eurasia, Latin America, and Asia. He has conducted technical assignments on international trade, competitiveness, and micro-, small, and medium enterprise development. He also served as chief of party of the Armenia Micro Enterprise Development Initiative (MEDI). Mr. Butcher received an M.A. from American University in international political economy and a B.A. in political science from Colorado State University.
Jamey's Sessions
Powering the Future Through Transformative Tech
This panel jumps into the breakthrough tech innovations that are transforming industries to build a radically better world. How can business, government, philanthropy, and the startup community come together to create a better tomorrow? Hear from these seasoned investors and industry veterans about how technology can not only shape the future, but also where the biggest opportunities lie.
Matt Caspari is the Managing Partner of Strawberry Creek Ventures, an Alumni Ventures Fund that invests on behalf of Berkeley alumni, community members and friends. Alumni Ventures was recognized as the #3 most active venture firm in the world (Pitchbook, 2021). Matt has had a long-term passion for sustainable innovation. He was the founder/CEO of Aurora Biofuels (raised $100m+, acq. by Reliance Industries) which converted CO2 emissions into transportation fuel, and he was a leader of the sustainability team at Nike. He’s invested in many sustainability/ climate companies including Mainspring Energy, New Culture, Nitricity, Sepion Technologies and The Better Meat Co. Matt holds an MBA with a Certificate in Entrepreneurship from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and a BS in Biochemistry from Georgetown University.
Matt's Sessions
Climate Investing Insights with Alumni Ventures @ Table 2 – MLK Jr. Student Union, Level 4, Pauley Ballroom West
Intimate discussion on investing in climate. Topics: Lessons from Climate 1.0; Current trends; Macro financial impact; Zones of opportunity.
Carol Christ began her term as the 11th chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley on July 1, 2017. A celebrated scholar of Victorian literature, Christ is also well known as an advocate for quality, accessible public higher education, a proponent of the value of a broad education in the liberal arts and sciences, and a champion of women’s issues and diversity on college campuses. Christ spent more than three decades as a professor and administrator at UC Berkeley before serving as president of Smith College, one of the country’s most distinguished liberal arts colleges, from 2002 to 2013. She returned to Berkeley in January 2015 to direct the campus’s Center for Studies in Higher Education, and was appointed interim executive vice chancellor and provost in April 2016 before being named chancellor in March 2017. Since her return to Berkeley, she has worked to foster community and improve the campus climate for people of all backgrounds, celebrate the institution’s longstanding commitment to free speech, strengthen Berkeley’s financial position, address a housing shortage, and develop a ten-year strategic plan for the campus. As president of Smith for more than a decade, Christ supervised the development of the nation’s only accredited engineering program at a women’s college, oversaw a significant rise in student diversity, expanded Smith’s global activities and reach, managed a major campus capital planning program, and shepherded the college through strategic planning exercises designed to improve its academic and financial models within the context of changing trends in higher education. Prior to joining Smith, Christ served as UC Berkeley’s executive vice chancellor and provost from 1994 until 2000. During her six years as the campus’s top academic officer, she sharpened Berkeley’s intellectual focus, strengthening many of the institution’s top-rated departments in the humanities and sciences as well as advancing major initiatives in areas including neuroscience and bioengineering. Christ received her B.A. (1966) from Douglass College, and her M.Ph. (1969) and Ph.D. (1970) from Yale University. She joined the Berkeley English faculty in 1970, and in addition to her other roles, has served as chair of that department, dean of the Division of Humanities, and provost for the College of Letters and Science. Christ has authored two books, The Finer Optic: The Aesthetic of Particularity in Victorian Poetry (1975) and Victorian and Modern Poetics (1994), and has edited or co-edited several others, including The Norton Anthology of English Literature. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. Christ was married for 21 years to Paul Alpers, a professor of English and founding director of UC Berkeley’s Townsend Center for the Humanities, until his death in 2013. She has two grown children, Jonathan and Elizabeth Sklute, from a previous marriage, as well as two grandchildren. She lives in Berkeley.
Carol's Sessions
Opening Remarks
Caroline Cochran is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Oklo Inc., a company developing advanced fission clean technology. As the co-founder and COO of Oklo, Caroline is working to build emission-free power plants with advanced fission, powered by nuclear waste. She has been a founder in multiple organizations, and she was one of the youngest recipients of the University of Oklahoma Regent’s Alumni Award. Caroline is a former member of the U.S. Department of Energy Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee and was a panel member at the 9th Clean Energy Ministerial. Caroline received a B.A. in Economics and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Oklahoma, and her S.M. in Nuclear Engineering from MIT.
Caroline's Sessions
Our Reliance on Docile Fuels
The world is going electric, but the energy has to come from somewhere. As we are reducing our reliance on oil, coal and natural gas, this panel takes a look at what else we’ve got going for us to keep our cars rolling, our laundry spinning, and our factories doing whatever factories do.
William Collins is an internationally recognized expert in climate modeling and climate change science. His personal research concerns the interactions among greenhouse gases and aerosols, the coupled climate system, and global environmental change. Dr. Collins’s is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Physical Society (APS), and the American Geophysical Union (AGU). He was awarded the AGU’s Tyndall History of Global Environmental Change Lectureship in 2019. He was a Lead Author on the Fourth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), for which the IPCC was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize and has also served as Lead Author on the Fifth and upcoming Sixth Assessments. His role as Chief Scientist in launching the Department of Energy’s Accelerated Climate Model for Energy (ACME) program was awarded the U.S. Department of Energy Secretary’s Achievement Award on May 7, 2015.
William's Sessions
The Climate Crisis Is Real—The Solutions Should Be, Too
Let’s talk hot air. This level-setting panel will explore climate tech hype, hope and reality, as the sector scours the Earth for solutions and the powers that be (politicians) stubbornly cling to the outdated, fossil-fueled tech that got us in this mess in the first place.
Doug Davenport is the Founder of Prospect Silicon Valley, a nonprofit organization focused on supporting innovative startups in the transportation, energy, and infrastructure sectors. Since its beginnings in 2013, ProspectSV has grown to engage more than 65 high-impact startups and corporate partners and has implemented $30M in grant funding and $80M in public financing to improve the lives and surroundings of people in the Bay Area. Doug is an active member of the Bay Area Council and is a founding member of both the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator Program and the Innovate Energy Network. He holds master’s degrees in civil engineering and business from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Doug's Sessions
The Future of Green Buildings – Flexible, Smart, Carbon-Free with ProspectSV @ Table 1 – MLK Jr. Student Union, Level 4, Pauley Ballroom West
Commercial real estate is evolving quickly, from the rise of vehicle charging and renewable energy, to a new focus on indoor environments. Let’s have a talk about the opportunities coming to build and manage buildings that are adaptive to new demands, responsive to needs, cost-effective, and sustainable. We’ll also discuss the big frontier – building portfolios ripe for new solutions and services.
Essam Elsahwi is co-founder and CEO at Pulsenics, which introduces capabilities to monitor and manage the efficiencies of clean energy processes at scale. Their mission is to change how energy for industrial processes that make up 15% of the world’s GDP is being used. Previously, he was the co-founder of an industrial electrochemical water treatment company and a hardware engineer at Advanced Micro Devices. He holds a B.A.Sc. in engineering and economics and a Ph.D. in optimization of electrochemical systems from the University of Toronto.
Essam's Sessions
Scaling Deep Tech Startups in Climate with SOSV's HAX Program @ Table 1 – MLK Jr. Student Union, Level 4, Pauley Ballroom West
Discussion of some of the challenges / hurdles and approaches to overcome scaling & early commercialization of diverse climate tech companies.
Beth Esponnette is the co-founder and executive chair of unspun, a startup that makes custom-fit jeans from a body scan using machine learning and 3D weaving.
Beth's Sessions
Scaling Deep Tech Startups in Climate with SOSV's HAX Program @ Table 1 – MLK Jr. Student Union, Level 4, Pauley Ballroom West
Discussion of some of the challenges / hurdles and approaches to overcome scaling & early commercialization of diverse climate tech companies.
Peter Gajdoš is a partner at Fifth Wall, where he co-leads the Climate Technology Investment team.
Peter's Sessions
Why the Next Big Entrepreneur Must Come from Climate Tech with Fifth Wall @ Table 2 – MLK Jr. Student Union, Level 4, Pauley Ballroom West
We have arrived at a time where climate change is finally being acknowledged as a true climate crisis. From historic fires in Europe and Australia, record-breaking hurricanes to the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef, nearly every region in the world has been heavily affected. As a result, it is now a financial and moral imperative to make climate technology a main priority of humanity, and for this reason, we need to encourage and support young entrepreneurs developing these technologies. We need the brightest scientists, entrepreneurs and lawyers and financiers involved to make a significant difference to the future.
Christian is a Partner at Breakthrough Energy Ventures (“BEV”), a multi-billion dollar venture fund focused on climate change. Christian was the first of two team members at BEV and helped build out the platform that has since invested in ~100 companies tackling some of the world’s hardest problems in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Christian has worked in climate venture capital for over a decade, and prior to BEV helped manage venture investments at Cascade, the Gates family investment office. Christian began his career at Boeing Phantom Works, where he worked on next generation spacecraft, and has served in engineering or operating roles at industry leaders Honeywell and Schlumberger. Christian holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. Christian grew up in the border town of Laredo, Texas – the son of Mexican immigrant parents. He spends his free timing in the mountains – mostly hiking and paddling in the summers, and ice climbing and mountaineering in the winters.
Christian's Sessions
Ground Floor Green: Early Stage Climate VC
Climate tech is a hot area for investment once again, but the money going in this time around is a lot smarter on the subject than it has been in the past. Balancing hope and hype is still a major challenge, however, especially at the earliest stages, and we’ll dive into how the best and the brightest on the investment side are picking their winners.
After transitioning from his day-to-day work at Microsoft, which he co-founded with Paul Allen in 1975, Bill Gates has focused on the global health and education work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and climate change efforts of Breakthrough Energy. At Breakthrough Energy, he’s putting his experience as an innovator and problem-solver to work to address climate change by supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs, big thinkers, and clean technologies. Bill uses his experience partnering with global leaders across sectors to help drive the policy, market, and technological changes required for a clean energy transition.
Bill's Sessions
Bill Gates on How to Deploy Billions in Clean Tech
Earlier this year, Breakthrough Energy revealed an intention to deploy as much as $15 billion in search of innovation solutions to minimize and reverse our combined carbon output across the global economy. Breakthrough Energy, founded by Bill Gates in 2015 to work through public-private partnerships with the goal of achieving net-zero global emissions. We’ll hear from Gates about what he thinks are the top priorities in climate technology investment.
Jennifer M. Granholm was sworn in as the 16th Secretary of Energy on February 25, 2021, becoming just the second woman to lead the U.S. Department of Energy. Secretary Granholm will lead the Department in helping America achieve President Biden’s goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 by advancing cutting-edge clean energy technologies, creating millions of good-paying union clean energy jobs, and building an equitable clean energy future. Secretary Granholm will also oversee DOE’s core missions of promoting American leadership in scientific discovery, maintaining the nuclear deterrent and reducing nuclear danger, and remediating the environmental harms caused by legacy defense programs.
Secretary Jennifer's Sessions
The Grid Needs Willpower with Secretary Jennifer Granholm
To ditch fossil fuels and slash emissions, we’ll need political will. U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm will discuss her efforts to shore up renewables despite the increasingly gridlocked political landscape, and how your startup can access capital from the Department of Energy.
Philipp is the Head of Private Markets Due Diligence at Decisive. He leads the build-up of the Direct Tech Investment Team. Philipp brings experience in venture capital and private equity investments. He has advised a diverse client portfolio including family offices, venture capital and private equity funds. He has previously worked for Morgan Stanley as well as Bain & Company. He holds a Bachelor in Business from WHU from Otto Beisheim School of Management in Vallendar in Germany. Philipp speaks English and German fluently.
Philipp's Sessions
Powering the Future Through Transformative Tech
This panel jumps into the breakthrough tech innovations that are transforming industries to build a radically better world. How can business, government, philanthropy, and the startup community come together to create a better tomorrow? Hear from these seasoned investors and industry veterans about how technology can not only shape the future, but also where the biggest opportunities lie.
Dr. Matanya Horowitz is the founder and CEO of AMP Robotics, an industrial artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics company applying automation to modernize recycling and enable a world without waste. Horowitz developed and commercialized AMP’s breakthrough AI platform, AMP Neuron™, and robotics system, AMP Cortex™, which automates the identification and sorting of recyclables from mixed material streams. AMP’s AI platform continuously trains itself by recognizing different colors, textures, shapes, sizes, patterns, and even brand labels to identify materials and their recyclability. Neuron then guides robots to pick and place the material to be recycled. AMP’s technology recovers recyclables from municipal waste, precious commodities from electronic waste, and high-value materials from construction and demolition debris at superhuman speeds with extremely high accuracy. Horowitz earned four bachelor’s degrees, in electrical engineering, computer science, applied mathematics, and economics, along with a master’s degree in electrical engineering, from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He holds a doctorate in control and dynamical systems from the California Institute of Technology, with publications and research in control theory, path planning, and computer vision.
Matanya's Sessions
Wasting Away
Recycling has been an environmental buzzword for decades, but the reality of reusing waste products hasn’t always lived up to its potential. A trio of startups on the cutting edge of the industry will discuss recent breakthroughs and what the future looks like for recycling, from sorting robots to ocean plastics and batteries.
Kentaro Kawamori, the CEO and Co-founder of Persefoni, was the youngest Chief Digital Officer ever at a Fortune 500 energy company. His career has focused on the software space and includes time spent as a Cloud strategy consultant at Accenture, and a Venture Partner focused on early-stage SaaS companies. Kentaro is also a Co-Founder & Board Director at Umbrage. In 2020, Kentaro was recognized by Forbes on its 30 Under 30 list. Affiliations: Co-Founder & Board Director at Umbrage Advisor, Forbes 30 under 30.
Kentaro's Sessions
How Corporations Can Be Better Citizens
As corporations become more and more powerful, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) encompasses a breadth of programs on how they can take a leadership role in society. On this panel, we discuss how corporations can flex their muscles for good across financial, economic, societal and environmental issues.
As CEO of Swell Energy, an energy and grid services company, Suleman directs Swell’s project development, project finance and grid services efforts. In the decade prior to launching Swell, Suleman worked within renewable energy and structured finance, productizing solar and energy storage applications for the residential and commercial markets. Suleman helped establish new energy divisions within various companies including Tesla, NRG and FirstSolar, and assisted in launching a number of renewable energy and consumer finance startups. Suleman previously worked on the structured credit products desk at Citigroup, as well as within Citigroup’s investment banking division and Prudential’s alternative investments group. Suleman also served as Senior Advisor to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission under the Obama administration’s safeguard initiatives. Prior to his capital markets work, Suleman worked within the microfinance sector with global and regional organizations including the UNDP and the Zimbabwe Association of Microfinance Institutions. Suleman has an academic background in financial engineering and political science and has served as advisor to various energy access and water reclamation initiatives.
Suleman's Sessions
Our Reliance on Docile Fuels
The world is going electric, but the energy has to come from somewhere. As we are reducing our reliance on oil, coal and natural gas, this panel takes a look at what else we’ve got going for us to keep our cars rolling, our laundry spinning, and our factories doing whatever factories do.
At IndieBio Alex focuses on finding, funding, and supporting science-based startups solving for human and planetary health.
Alex's Sessions
CAPEX CAPEX CAPEX with SOSV's IndieBio @ Table 1 – MLK Jr. Student Union, Level 4, Pauley Ballroom West
Will burdensome balance sheets and long pay-back cycles of infrastructure keep the cleantech industry behind?
Mark Kroese is the General Manager for Sustainability Solutions in Microsoft’s Environmental Sustainability team. His team oversees Microsoft’s sustainability product strategy, customer and partner engagements, and the $1 billion Climate Innovation Fund. Mark is a 22-year Microsoft veteran and believes that technology will play a critical role in the world’s journey to net zero. Outside of Microsoft, Mark has been instrumental in several forest preservation projects, including the creation of the Central Suriname Conservation Corridor and a REDD project in the Orientale Provence of the DRC. When he’s not working, Mark enjoys climbing and skiing in the mountains. Mark served as board President for the American Alpine Club—a nonprofit climber’s advocacy organization and is a 2016 Harvard Advanced Leadership Fellow.
Mark's Sessions
How Corporations Can Be Better Citizens
As corporations become more and more powerful, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) encompasses a breadth of programs on how they can take a leadership role in society. On this panel, we discuss how corporations can flex their muscles for good across financial, economic, societal and environmental issues.
Jeffrey R. Long is a Professor of Chemistry and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley and a Faculty Senior Scientist in the Materials Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He served as Chair of the Division of Inorganic Chemistry of the American Chemical Society in 2012 and as a founding Associate Editor of the journal Chemical Science. He co-founded two companies: Mosaic Materials, which was recently acquired by Baker Hughes and is developing metal–organic frameworks for low-energy carbon dioxide capture, and Flux Technology, which is producing high-performance polymer membranes for gas purification. His 375 publications have received more than 83,000 citations, and his recent awards include election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the 2019 American Chemical Society F. Albert Cotton Award in Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry, and the 2020 Royal Society of Chemistry Ludwig Mond Award.
Jeffrey R.'s Sessions
Accelerating Climate Solutions from Discovery to Deployment with UC Berkeley @ Table 3 – MLK Jr. Student Union, Level 4, Pauley Ballroom West
What role should universities play in developing and transferring innovative and equitable solutions to the climate crisis?
Andre Lorenceau is the CEO & Founder of DiviGas. A serial company-builder and a Forbes 30under30 listmaker. He has founded and advanced startups to beyond series B with millions of users, revenue and has raised over $20m throughout his career. Andre has worked in a variety of sector such as media software, consumer products and now heavy industrial hardware.
Cassie Meigs is the Director of Account Management for Seattle-based startup DroneSeed, a vertically-integrated reforestation company that combines proven practices with new technology to regrow healthy, resilient, climate-adapted forests that have been lost to wildfires. She is the DroneSeed Sales Lead helping to build a future where seed, seedlings, and drone operations are used to conduct reforestation and afforestation practices throughout the world as a crucial method of carbon sequestration. Cassie is experienced with the use of remote sensing/geospatial technologies and helps lead DroneSeed’s efforts in selling forward-looking carbon offsets that lock in CO2 removal for at least 100 years.
Cassie's Sessions
Building Trust with Forward-looking Reforestation Carbon Offsets with DroneSeed @ Table 2 – MLK Jr. Student Union, Level 4, Pauley Ballroom West
With overall demand for carbon offsets increasing and buyers getting more sophisticated, high-quality removal offsets with tangible, verifiable benefits for the climate and local ecosystems are in short supply. At the same time, wildfires are getting bigger, hotter, and more frequent, leaving many forested lands struggling to recover naturally. A new approach to forestry-based offsets that focuses on planting trees and the CO2 they will capture as they grow offers a solution to both challenges. Learn about ex-ante (forward-looking) forestry-based carbon offsets, why they represent new, promising approaches to post-fire forest recovery, and how they provide a better supply of high-quality carbon removal offsets in the marketplace.
Jared Moore is a research fellow at the Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Mumbai and was recently an instructor of computer ethics at the University of Washington.
Jared's Sessions
CAPEX CAPEX CAPEX with SOSV's IndieBio @ Table 1 – MLK Jr. Student Union, Level 4, Pauley Ballroom West
Will burdensome balance sheets and long pay-back cycles of infrastructure keep the cleantech industry behind?
Christine Moseley, Full Harvest Founder + CEO, is a passionate serial social entrepreneur. Currently, at Full Harvest, she is solving the massive food waste problem at the farm level. Full Harvest is the first B2B platform for surplus and imperfect produce, connecting large farms directly to food & beverage companies. Christine has more than 15 years of experience in the logistics and food industries at both Fortune 100 companies (Maersk, P&G) as well as high-growth food start-ups. In her last corporate role, she assisted Organic Avenue, an NYC healthy food + juice start-up, in doubling in size as Head of Strategic Projects and Business Development. Christine holds an MBA from Wharton Business School and a BA from the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill. She was recently recognized as Inc.’s Top 100 Female Founders and Fortune’s #2 Most Innovative Woman in Food & Drink and a World Economic Forum SDG Champion. You can learn more at www.christinemoseley.com.
Christine's Sessions
How to Solve the #1 Contributor to Climate Change- Food Waste with Full Harvest @ Table 1- MLK Jr. Student Union, Level 4, Pauley Ballroom West
Every year, 1/3 of all edible produce is wasted on farms in the U.S. simply because of cosmetic or surplus reasons, contributing to food waste as the #1 contributor to climate change globally. Join Christine Moseley as she discusses how to solve the massive food waste problem at the farm level with technology and innovation.
Megan O’Connor is co-founder and CEO of Nth Cycle, a metal processing company that has developed technology to enable a clean, domestic, and streamlined supply of critical minerals for the clean energy transition. Dr. O’Connor leverages years of experience working on sustainable technology in many of America’s top research labs, where she helped develop the electro-extraction processes she and her team are commercializing at Nth Cycle. Prior to founding Nth Cycle, Dr. O’Connor was an Entrepreneurial Fellow in the Innovation Crossroads program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and was a visiting researcher at Yale University’s Center for Green Chemistry & Green Engineering. Dr. O’Connor received her PhD in environmental engineering from Duke University and was recognized by Forbes on its “30 under 30” energy list in 2019. Nth Cycle is based in Boston, Massachusetts, and is supported by a world-class team of investors including Clean Energy Ventures, VoLo Earth Venture Fund, the Department of Energy, and Elemental Excelerator.
Megan's Sessions
Wasting Away
Recycling has been an environmental buzzword for decades, but the reality of reusing waste products hasn’t always lived up to its potential. A trio of startups on the cutting edge of the industry will discuss recent breakthroughs and what the future looks like for recycling, from sorting robots to ocean plastics and batteries.
Co-founder and CEO of Platform.sh, Fred is a serial entrepreneur who has been building and running digital products and teams since 2000. Fred is passionate about startups, and around building and managing international teams and impactful projects. Startups are a marathon, not a sprint, and it’s all about the journey!
Fred's Sessions
Reducing your Cloud Computing Climate Impact
Making the choice to deploy to the cloud is clearly the better choice for the climate, but you can further reduce your emissions by taking a couple of key steps. You are invited to attend this session to learn more about how the tech community is helping to mitigate climate change and a simple strategy to reduce your carbon footprint in the cloud.
Kamil is a Partner and Creation Lead at Defy.vc where he has led deals in companies such as Bazaar and Greenwork and others yet to be announced. He started his venture career on the ground floor at Aspect Ventures where he was the first hire and was most recently a Principal at Ridge Ventures. Originally from Sudan, Kamil is a believer in the potential of technology to aid in the social, economic, and political development of emerging markets and leads the frontier market investing effort at Defy. He’s extremely excited by companies that provide a societal benefit and has previously invested in such companies including Chime, The Mom Project and OhmConnect.
Kamil's Sessions
TechCrunch Climate Pitch-off
Join us to see three companies pitching at TC Sessions Climate. Hailing from around the United States and the globe, founders will pitch for four minutes, followed by an intense Q&A with our expert panel of judges. Founders will learn some key tips to incorporate into your own pitches.
Susan Schofer is a Partner at SOSV and Chief Science Officer at SOSV HAX, the world’s premier venture program accelerating early stage hard tech startups. She works with new startups via early stage investment, defining key milestones and go-to-market strategies, and is responsible for scientific oversight and building capabilities to support portfolio companies. Prior to joining SOSV, Susan served as SVP Business Development for Modern Meadow and a member of the executive leadership team for over 7 years, developing new sustainable materials inspired by leather without any animals, where she led product, partnership, and go-to-market strategy and execution from early ideation through to commercialization. Before that, Susan spent 10 years in Silicon Valley working in roles spanning R&D, product development, product management, and business development for Amyris, a pioneer in synthetic biology, and Symyx Technologies, utilizing proprietary high-throughput robotic workflows to accelerate polymer and material discovery and development. Susan also worked as an analyst for management consulting company Mitchell Madison Group. Her passion is working closely with scientific and technical innovation to craft product and business strategy and partnering with founders and the broader ecosystem to implement and commercialize solutions to make a positive impact on people and planet. Susan was an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at Stockholm and Uppsala Universities, where she worked to develop catalyst systems for artificial photosynthesis. She holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from Caltech and an Sc.B. in chemistry from Brown.
Susan's Sessions
Scaling Deep Tech Startups in Climate with SOSV's HAX Program @ Table 1 – MLK Jr. Student Union, Level 4, Pauley Ballroom West
Discussion of some of the challenges / hurdles and approaches to overcome scaling & early commercialization of diverse climate tech companies.
As a Partner at SOSV SF, Parikshit is engaged in investments and operations at all stages of the fund, from sourcing to growth. Parikshit started his career at SOSV SF and has seen firsthand what it takes to build a deep tech startup, sitting right next to the founders, in the trenches. Observing recurring dichotomies, the hard decisions, and human costs when it comes to prototyping, company building, and market discovery at the earliest stages has been foundational in defining his investment and operational lenses. To that end, he works in high resolution with founders on milestone mapping, building data rooms, indication selection, and techno-economic modeling. Parikshit actively tracks the latest in artificial intelligence and machine learning, with a deep interest in novel computation architectures and foundation models for deep tech startups. He is fascinated by value, volume, and velocity tradeoffs in markets and researches how different capital and corporate structures can be exploited to fine-tune the means of production and distribution. Parikshit is a graduate of Bowdoin College where he studied Mathematics and Economics and attended the General Course at the London School of Economics.
Parikshit's Sessions
CAPEX CAPEX CAPEX with SOSV's IndieBio @ Table 1 – MLK Jr. Student Union, Level 4, Pauley Ballroom West
Will burdensome balance sheets and long pay-back cycles of infrastructure keep the cleantech industry behind?
Victoria Slivkoff is the Executive Managing Director of Extreme Tech Challenge, the world’s largest startup competition and ecosystem for founders building tech innovations to improve the world, as inspired by the UN Sustainable Development Goals. She also serves as the Head of Ecosystem at Walden Catalyst Ventures, a VC firm helping early-stage companies in the U.S., Europe, and Israel build the next generation of category-defining businesses in deep tech, with a focus on AI and data. Victoria is passionate about driving high-impact vision, strategy, and operations to transform complex innovation ecosystems at scale, and serving as a trusted partner for entrepreneurs with breakthrough technologies creating future-defining companies. Victoria comes from a multidisciplinary background in corporate development, investment, investor relations, business strategy & operations, and management consulting. She’s experienced in forming public-private partnerships to drive investments and scale innovative technologies in the U.S., Middle East, Latin America, Asia, and Europe.
Victoria's Sessions
Extreme Tech Challenge 2022 Global Finals: Pitch Session #1
Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) Category and Special Award Winners to pitch their innovative startups with the potential to radically improve the world.
Powering the Future Through Transformative Tech
This panel jumps into the breakthrough tech innovations that are transforming industries to build a radically better world. How can business, government, philanthropy, and the startup community come together to create a better tomorrow? Hear from these seasoned investors and industry veterans about how technology can not only shape the future, but also where the biggest opportunities lie.
Extreme Tech Challenge 2022 Global Finals: Pitch Session #2 & Winner Announcement
Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) Category and Special Award Winners to pitch their innovative startups with the potential to radically improve the world.
Young Sohn is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur whose passion is building businesses and fostering emerging technologies that have the potential to transform the world for the better. Currently, he serves as Chairman of the Board of HARMAN and is a Founding Managing Partner at Walden Catalyst Ventures. He most recently was Corporate President and Chief Strategy Officer of Samsung Electronics, where he led strategy for global innovation, investment, new business creation, and spearheaded the company’s $8 billion acquisition of HARMAN. Young served as CEO of two successful, public Silicon Valley companies and on the boards of Arm, Cymer (ASML), and others. Under his leadership as CEO and board member, he took PLX Technologies, Synnex Technologies, and Inphi public. He was also a seed investor in some of the industry’s most innovative companies including Berkeley Lights, Fungible, Zoom, Graphcore, and TTTech Auto. Young co-founded the Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC), a global startup competition inspired by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He also serves as a senior advisor to the private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, is a member of the board of directors at Cadence, and is an advisor for the University of California Innovation Council.
Young's Sessions
Extreme Tech Challenge Global Finals Opening Remarks
Extreme Tech Challenge Co-Founder, Young Sohn, introduces the Extreme Tech Challenge 2022 Global Finals. Young will share the mission of the organization and how the fifth wave of technology evolution we are in now represents a massive opportunity for founders and investors.
Extreme Tech Challenge 2022 Global Finals: Pitch Session #1
Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) Category and Special Award Winners to pitch their innovative startups with the potential to radically improve the world.
Extreme Tech Challenge 2022 Global Finals: Pitch Session #2 & Winner Announcement
Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) Category and Special Award Winners to pitch their innovative startups with the potential to radically improve the world.
Kiersten is a Managing Partner at DCVC Bio, a Venture Capital Fund that supports companies that have a deep-tech advantage and are building products for life science industries: therapeutics, agriculture and synthetic biology. Previously, Kiersten was a Scientist and holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology & Genetics and an MBA in Finance. She is a lead investor in companies like Abcellera ($ABCL), Blue River Technology (ac John Deere), Umoja, Mycoworks, Novome, Plexium, and others, as well as serving as a director for a few not-for -profit scientific organizations.
Kiersten's Sessions
Ground Floor Green: Early Stage Climate VC
Climate tech is a hot area for investment once again, but the money going in this time around is a lot smarter on the subject than it has been in the past. Balancing hope and hype is still a major challenge, however, especially at the earliest stages, and we’ll dive into how the best and the brightest on the investment side are picking their winners.
Rajesh is a Partner at Khosla Ventures and brings with him two decades of experience assisting and investing in deeptech startups. At KV, Rajesh assists entrepreneurs and manages investments across batteries, hydrogen, solar, sustainable plastics, carbon capture, foodtech, healthcare – focusing on materials science driven innovations that have a large societal impact. Before joining Khosla Ventures, Rajesh served as the Head of Applied Ventures (AV), the VC arm of Applied Materials (AMAT) and at Third Point Ventures. At AV, Rajesh managed a portfolio of 85 deeptech startups. Previously, at Lucent’s Bell Labs, he drove technology partnerships with several Optical, MEMS, RF device startups. During his MBA at the Harvard Business School, he worked at Deutsche Bank’s cleantech banking team, and with Khosla Ventures. Rajesh pursued an M.S. from the University of Maryland at College Park, and received his Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras.
Rajesh's Sessions
Climatech – How to Make it Different This Time? with Khosla Ventures @ Table 1 – MLK Jr. Student Union, Level 4, Pauley Ballroom West
What can startups learn from the successes and failures of Cleantech 1.0? How do we ensure a lot more successful outcome this time?
TechCrunch Climate Pitch-off
Join us to see three companies pitching at TC Sessions Climate. Hailing from around the United States and the globe, founders will pitch for four minutes, followed by an intense Q&A with our expert panel of judges. Founders will learn some key tips to incorporate into your own pitches.
Bill Tai has been funding startups as a Venture Capitalist since 1991 and has had 23 of his startups become listed companies. He is among the first investors in Bitfury, Canva, Color Health, Dyad.net, Tweetdeck/Twitter, Wish.com and Zoom Video, where he was the first backer to commit at the company’s formation. Operationally he is Founding Chairman of Hut8 Mining (NASDAQ: HUT), an energy infrastructure company with subsidiaries HighriseAI (GPU cloud) and American Bitcoin (NASDAQ ABTC) operating BItcoin mining data centers. He was also Founding Chairman & CEO of iAsiaWorks (IPO via Goldman Sachs & Morgan Stanley) a builder / operator of data center infrastructure in 10 countries through Asia, Founding Chairman of Data Sciemce pioneer Treasure Data (acquired by SOFTBANK) and Founding Chairman of IPinfusion (Tokyo:4813). Originally trained as a chip designer, he joined LSI Logic, a seminal Silicon Valley startup formed by the CEO of Fairchild Semiconductor after earning a BSEE with Honors from University of Illinois. After an MBA at Harvard he was issued Badge #A001 during the formation of TSMC (NYSE:TSM), now among the world’s 10 most valuable companies (~$2.5 Trillion USD market value as of 2026. ) He has served as Board Director of 8 publicly listed companies (AWRD EGHT HUT8 IAWK NPIX TMTA TUNE and IMGO) that grew from startups he funded at their formative stages. He is founding Chairman of ACTAI Global 501(c)3, a community of Athletes Conservationists Technologists Artists & Innovators supporting 1) environmental conservation and 2) economic empowerment via entrepreneurship.
Bill's Sessions
Extreme Tech Challenge 2022 Global Finals: Pitch Session #1
Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) Category and Special Award Winners to pitch their innovative startups with the potential to radically improve the world.
Powering the Future Through Transformative Tech
This panel jumps into the breakthrough tech innovations that are transforming industries to build a radically better world. How can business, government, philanthropy, and the startup community come together to create a better tomorrow? Hear from these seasoned investors and industry veterans about how technology can not only shape the future, but also where the biggest opportunities lie.
Extreme Tech Challenge 2022 Global Finals: Pitch Session #2 & Winner Announcement
Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) Category and Special Award Winners to pitch their innovative startups with the potential to radically improve the world.
Wayne Ting is Lime’s Chief Executive Officer, a role he has held since May 2020. Wayne joined Lime in 2018 as Global Head of Operations and Strategy and has been instrumental in driving the company toward its mission to build a future for transportation that is shared, affordable and carbon-free. Over the past year, Wayne has focused the company on its relentless pursuit toward operational excellence and keeping it on a path to profitability. Before joining Lime, Wayne spent four years at Uber in various roles, including Chief of Staff to CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, and General Manager of Uber’s Northern California business. Wayne previously served as a Senior Policy Advisor on the White House’s National Economic Council under President Obama. Prior to the White House, Wayne worked at Bain Capital and at McKinsey & Company. In college, he co-founded CampusNetwork.com, the first college-based social networking site (started about 6 months before Facebook). Wayne is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Business School.
Wayne's Sessions
The Road to Zero-Emissions
In spite of increasingly strict regulations in some states and the rise of electric bikes, scooters, mopeds, buses and cars, the vast majority of vehicles on roads today have tailpipe emissions.Lime CEO Wayne Ting and Carol Browner, former director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy and administrator of the EPA, will talk about where the U.S. is on the road to zero-emissions. The pair will dig into the challenges the remain and the role that innovation, policy and investment can play in greening up transportation.
Miranda Wang is a venture-backed climate tech entrepreneur building the most innovative plastic transformation company. She is the Co-founder and CEO of Novoloop, a low-carbon advanced upcycling and sustainable materials provider that upgrades common plastic waste into performance materials. Miranda’s dream is to build healthy organizations that make our world a better place. For the majority of her life, she has led, founded, and volunteered for community and entrepreneurial projects. Miranda graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was introduced to engineering entrepreneurship. Over the years, Miranda has channeled her love for creating and desire to do good into leading Novoloop through technology development, growth, and financing. Outside of company-building, Miranda is an avid gardener with plans for establishing a botanical garden later in her life.
Miranda's Sessions
Wasting Away
Recycling has been an environmental buzzword for decades, but the reality of reusing waste products hasn’t always lived up to its potential. A trio of startups on the cutting edge of the industry will discuss recent breakthroughs and what the future looks like for recycling, from sorting robots to ocean plastics and batteries.
Garrett Winther is a partner and program director at HAX, SOSV’s venture program for hard tech. An engineer by training, venture builder by trade, he is bringing hard-tech ventures to life at SOSV, IDEO and MIT.
Garrett's Sessions
Scaling Deep Tech Startups in Climate with SOSV's HAX Program @ Table 1 – MLK Jr. Student Union, Level 4, Pauley Ballroom West
Discussion of some of the challenges / hurdles and approaches to overcome scaling & early commercialization of diverse climate tech companies.
Pae Wu is a General Partner at SOSV and Chief Technology Officer at SOSV SF. Her portfolio includes companies destroying forever chemicals in our water, deploying advanced sensors to keep the public safe, and dramatically reducing our dependence on petroleum. Pushing technology’s limits to address intractable problems is the common thread in Dr. Wu’s work over 15 years as a technologist and investor in U.S. government and corporate settings. At SOSV, her rigorous training as an engineer and scientist is on display every day as she works with our founders to make emerging technologies into commercially viable, breakthrough solutions for national security, humanity, and the planet. Prior to joining SOSV, Pae served as the Scientific Director of Telefónica’s moonshot factory – Alpha (Barcelona), Science Director at the US Office of Naval Research – Global (Singapore), and technical consultant at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). She holds degrees in Electrical Engineering from Duke (PhD) and Princeton (BS).
Pae's Sessions
Ground Floor Green: Early Stage Climate VC
Climate tech is a hot area for investment once again, but the money going in this time around is a lot smarter on the subject than it has been in the past. Balancing hope and hype is still a major challenge, however, especially at the earliest stages, and we’ll dive into how the best and the brightest on the investment side are picking their winners.
Kathy Yelick is the Robert S. Pepper Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences and the Vice Chancellor for Research at UC Berkeley. She is also a Senior Faculty Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Her research is in high performance computing, programming languages, compilers, parallel algorithms, and automatic performance tuning. She previously held leadership positions at LBNL and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC). Yelick earned her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT and has been a professor at UC Berkeley since 1991 with a joint research appointment at LBNL since 1996. Yelick is a member of National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and she is a Fellow of both the Association for Computing Machinery and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Kathy's Sessions
Accelerating Climate Solutions from Discovery to Deployment with UC Berkeley @ Table 3 – MLK Jr. Student Union, Level 4, Pauley Ballroom West
What role should universities play in developing and transferring innovative and equitable solutions to the climate crisis?
Michelle Zhu is CEO & Co-founder of Huue, a biotechnology company creating the world’s most sustainable dyes for the industries that are shaping the future of the Earth, starting with the indigo in your jeans. Its mission is to minimize the amount of toxic chemicals used in the dye production and application process. With a family background in fashion and a career in business operations and strategy, Michelle currently manages all aspects of Huue’s operations, fundraising, and sales efforts. Michelle received her BSBA from Washington University in St. Louis. Michelle has been named an 2021 Inc Female Founder and a 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 in Manufacturing.
Michelle's Sessions
CAPEX CAPEX CAPEX with SOSV's IndieBio @ Table 1 – MLK Jr. Student Union, Level 4, Pauley Ballroom West
Will burdensome balance sheets and long pay-back cycles of infrastructure keep the cleantech industry behind?