Meet our Directors

Wayne G. Thomson

Chairman

Wayne G. Thomson currently serves as a Director of the following public companies: Cenovus Energy, a NYSE- and TSE-listed $16 billion market cap oil company, and TVI Pacific, a TSE-listed international mining company. Wayne is Chairman of the following private companies; Maha Energy and Enviro Valve. His technology background includes having led a company providing pollution abatement for coal-fired power stations and currently chairing a company that has developed patented pressure relief valves for large industrial processes.

Dr. Steven Chu

Nobel Laureate and Former US Secretary of Energy

Dr. Steven Chu is currently the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Physics and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University. He served as Secretary of Energy in the first Obama administration. Before serving as Energy Secretary, Dr. Chu was Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Chu won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997 for “development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light.”

Steven Berkenfeld

Founder and Principal of Ecotopia Consulting

Steven Berkenfeld , founder and principal of Ecotopia Consulting, recently retired as a Managing Director in Investment Banking at Barclays where he served as senior sponsor of the Environmental and Social Impact Banking Initiative, was co head of the firm’s Cleantech Initiative and led the banking effort for Emerging Industrial Technology companies Former chair of the board of the Sierra Club Foundation, and sponsor and board member of several projects and organizations focused on social impact and sustainability

Pratima Rangarajan

CEO of OGCI Climate Investments

As CEO of OGCI Climate Investments, Dr. Pratima Rangarajan is responsible for the delivery of the OGCI Climate Investments mission – creating positive outcomes in the reduction of climate change. Before joining OGCI Climate Investments, Pratima was the General Manager for GE’s Onshore Wind Product Line and the General Manager for GE’s Energy Storage startup. She had previously held the role of Deputy Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President, Emerging Technology and Research at Vestas Wind Systems. Pratima has a PhD in chemical engineering from Princeton University and a BS in chemical engineering from MIT.

Roger Strauch

Chairman of The Roda Group

Roger Strauch is chairman of The Roda Group, an early stage venture capital group, based in Berkeley, California. Roger co-founded the firm with Dan Miller in 1997. The firm is focused on investment opportunities that address the consequences of climate change, stress on the Earth’s natural resources and the increased demand for low carbon energy. The Roda Group is lead or co-lead investors in: mOasis, Inventys, Gridtential Energy, Inc., which has developed an advanced lead acid battery that incorporates semiconductor wafers inside the battery to greatly increase performance in energy storage applications; and Axine Water Technologies, which has developed a low cost and chemical-free solution for treating industrial wastewater.

Claude Letourneau

President and CEO of Svante

Claude Letourneau is an industrial projects veteran who brings a rare range of experience leading large world-class projects and scaling-up of advanced manufacturing processes to Svante. Previously, Claude held senior management roles with Canam Group Inc., SNC-Lavalin Inc., and Kontron Embedded Computers AG. He also founded two technology companies, Vaperma, Inc. (membrane-based gas separation) and Avestor Inc. (thin-film lithium polymer battery). Claude received a Bachelor of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering and a Masters in Chemical Engineering from University Laval, Quebec.

Brett Henkel

Co-Founder & VP, Strategic Accounts & Government Affairs of Svante

Brett Henkel was instrumental in creating the process and the hardware used to prove the technology’s effectiveness as well as mobilizing external support throughout the path to becoming a successful innovation. Prior to launching Inventys, he was the program manager for QuestAir Technologies’ fuel cell compact hydrogen production system with its partner, ExxonMobil. Brett received his Bachelor of Science in Physics, with distinction, and a Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Victoria.