Judges
You can learn more about our judges by clicking on the pictures.
Dave Aitken
New Ventures Manager, The Carbon Trust
David Aitken is a New Ventures Manager at the Carbon Trust with a focus on incubating clean technology start-up ventures. David manages work on the Carbon Trust’s $5m incubation partnership with General Electric, which was launched earlier this year to find, assess and incubate clean technology start-up businesses across Europe. David also manages the Entrepreneurs Fast Track, which supports an existing portfolio of technology development grant projects in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.Prior to joining the Carbon Trust, David worked at CarbonAided, a start-up venture established to develop carbon offset projects, and worked on a range of infrastructure projects in Asia Pacific as a lawyer for Beca Engineering. David holds an MSc in Environmental Change and Management from Oxford University and a law degree from Canterbury University.
Robert Bahns
Investment Director, Imperial Innovations
Robert Bahns has over twenty years experience in industry and finance. Previously, he was a director in the technology investment team at Nomura International plc where he led investments in the semiconductor and wireless space. He is trained as an electronics engineer and worked in Japan for Pioneer Electronics, both in R&D and in the establishment of the company’s first UK manufacturing facility. Robert currently sits on the board of Group technology company Evo Electric Limited. He has an MBA from Insead and an Electrical Sciences degree from Cambridge University.Oliver Bailey
Relationship Director, Barclays
Oliver is a Relationship Director in Barclays Technology, Media & Telecoms Team, heading Barclays’ specialist coverage of Cleantech clients. His portfolio includes publically and privately held firms, with clients active across the industry sub-sectors.Oliver previously worked with the Infrastructure and Structured Project Finance Team, assisting with social infrastructure and renewable energy financings.
Oliver joined Barclays as a Graduate Trainee in 2005. He graduated with a BA (Hons) in Philosophy from the University of Bristol before completing an MSc in International Relations from the same school. He is currently completing his MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Alex Betts
Partner, Climate Change Capital Private Equity Fund
Formerly Head of Corporate Venture Capital at Royal Dutch Shell and a Partner of Montagu Private Equity. Alex has 20 years experience in private equity and 8 years in cleantech. He has invested in a range of industries, geographies and stages. Board member with Climate Energy, Orège and Soltecture.Richard Brass
Director, Berenberg
Richard Brass joined Berenberg in June 2011 as a Director, as part of the management committee. Richard brings Berenberg’s Entrepreneurs and Family Office cap! abilities to London. He trained as a chartered account at KPMG and previously co-founded the European office for an international corporate finance firm. Most recently, Richard worked at Schroders Private Banking. He is a Director of the Montpelier Foundation and co-founder of Impact Ventures UK.Benoit Charpentier
Senior VP Investments, Total Energy Ventures
Benoit Charpentier has been co-heading Total's Corporate Venture activity since its inception in 2008. From 2005 to 2008, he was part of M&A Department within Total’s Finance Division, in charge of number of acquisitions by Total, in particular in E&P. His previous assignments during his 20+ years with Total were mostly in business development related activities. He is a graduate of ESSEC/Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales.Dr. Anton Daubner
CEO, agri.capital Luxembourg S.à r.l.
Anton is CEO of agri.capital Luxembourg S.à r.l., one of Europe’s leading companies in creation of biogas from renewable feedstock.agri.capital owns and operates nearly 100 sites in Germany, Italy and Austria with over 60 MW installed capacity. A refinancing of the company in April 2011 secured the equity to grow the biz further.
Anton joined agri.capital in November 2009.
Till 2009 he was member of the extended board of GEA Group AG, followed by 5 years of private investments in companies in Germany and the USA.
He holds a PhD in Process Engineering from University in Bochum, Germany, and was trained in Business and Administration at Duke University, NC, USA
Daniel Ishag
Founder, Chairman and CEO, Bluewater Bio
Daniel is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Bluewater Bio, a pioneering UK based, global water and wastewater treatment technology company. In the twelve months to 23rd March 2012, Daniel successfully raised more than £27.5 million in private equity funding, accounting for 20% of total venture capital investment in the water sector over the same period. In keeping with Daniel’s vision to build a leading, stand-alone water technology company, Bluewater Bio increased their product portfolio through the acquisitions of Water Innovate Ltd, from the leading water sciences institution Cranfield University, in 2010, and FilterClear™ in 2011. Daniel also led the global commercialisation strategy resulting in 5 major contract wins over 3 years, worth just under £20 million. He is continuing to increase the company’s client base and develop cost effective water and wastewater treatment solutions through global industrial and municipal partnerships and mergers and acquisitions.
Prior to Bluewater Bio, Daniel founded Espotting which pioneered search marketing in Europe in 2000 and supplied pay-per-click ads to Yahoo!, Lycos, Alta Vista and Ask. Espotting grew into a pan-European company in 4 years that had 240 employees, operated in 8 languages, 5 currencies, and serviced 23,000 clients. The Financial Times hailed Espotting as one of the Top 50 creative businesses. In February 2004 Espotting merged with NASDAQ FindWhat.com (NASDAQ: FWHT) and was valued at just under US$200m.
Daniel also has experience in B2B ecommerce ventures including leading strategic change in clean technology, planning and hiring management teams for Europe's largest food infomediary and a leading development and software house. His ventures have exposed him to markets in China, USA, Africa, Middle East, Indonesia, India and Europe.
Ian Jenkins
Managing Director, Miles Partnership
Ian has extensive experience in executive and Board level search globally within the alternative energy and clean technology sector. This has involved working with early stage companies right through to large corporates transitioning to a lower carbon economy.Before joining The Miles Partnership Ian was Managing Director of Ruston Wheb, Europe’s leading renewable and sustainability search firm. Previously Ian had over 18 years of Board experience, 13 years as a CEO for both private and publicly quoted companies. He has led on an IPO and 2 trade sales and lived and worked in North America, Europe and Asia.
Ian read Materials Science at Sussex University for both his B.Sc. and D.Phil.
Alain Keppens
Head, Sustainable Cities
Alain Keppens started his career with Gimv already in 1992. He has been involved in many small and midmarket buy-out and development capital transactions in Belgium.
Currently Alain is Head of Sustainable Cities, Gimv’s investment platform for investments in clean energy, utilities, infrastructure and logistics.
The geographical focus areas of the Sustainable Cities platform are Benelux, France and Germany.
Alain Keppens holds a Master in Applied Economics (University of Antwerp) and followed the Advanced Management Program at Chicago Booth.
Cédric Latessa
Investment Manager, Aster Capital
Prior to joining Aster Capital in 2010, Cédric has been active in Venture Capital for almost 10 years.He first held long term internships in early stage VC funds like Mangrove (Luxembourg), Mileno Capital (Spain) and FCJE (France). He also worked for a year at the EIF, Europe’s leading fund of funds. Cédric started his career at BIP (Luxembourg) where he was responsible for investing in early and later stage technology funds and made 8 co-investments with them as well as 2 direct investments with several exits already. He subsequently joined DFJ Esprit (UK) as an Investment Manager where he led the fundraising efforts and deal flow sourcing activities in Cleantech and tech related companies in Europe. He also co-founded or has been closely involved with three Cleantech companies.
Cédric has 3 master degrees including 2 from Sciences Po Paris in Finance and European politics and is fluent in Spanish and English.
Recently, Cédric lead the investment for Aster in Avantium and was responsible for managing the exit of OST.
Bart Markus
Partner, Wellington Partners
Apart from being a veteran VC, Bart is a seasoned and passionate entrepreneur and is renowned for his relentless drive (and lack of patience therein) to internationalise companies and help them become successful beyond Europe by conquering the US or Asia. A Dutch native, he has been a General Partner at Wellington since 2000. He primarily focuses on process technologies, in particular in the resource efficiency area.Bart manages an impressive collection of companies located in Europe and the US. Many have already made the successful leap to the US or are successfully opening up new foreign markets. Past investments include Navteq (NASDAQ: NVT; sold to Nokia in 2007), Meiosys (sold to IBM in 2005), Nawotec (sold to Carl Zeiss in 2005) and Q-Layer (sold to Sun Microsystems in 2009).
Prior to the past twelve years which he has spent as an investor in Tech companies, Bart co-founded three companies including the MRI Centre, now a highly successful chain of private medical diagnostic clinics. He also set up and acted as CEO for ePearle, a pan-European B2B eCommerce start-up.
Before Wellington, Bart was an investment professional at HAL Investments and an Associate at McKinsey, working in Holland and South Africa. He started his career as a process control system and project engineer with Shell in Norway. Bart holds an MSc in Applied Physics from Twente University of Technology in the Netherlands and an MBA (with distinction) from INSEAD in France.
Sophie McGrath
Of Counsel Lawyer, Morrison and Foerster
Sophie McGrath is Of Counsel in the London office of Morrison & Foerster and is a member of the Corporate Group. Ms. McGrath advises on a wide range of matters, including private and public financings, mergers and acquisitions, public offerings, restructurings, and general corporate and governance issues. A strong focus of her practice is in the venture and growth capital sector, acting for companies seeking growth through financings involving combinations of both debt and equity. Ms. McGrath also acts in traditional exit scenarios for such companies, including trade sales and listings. Ms. McGrath's practice covers a range of industries, although she has a particular expertise in the cleantech, technology and life sciences sectors.
Ms. McGrath graduated from the University of Sydney in 1998 with bachelor degrees in both Commerce and Law. She qualified as a solicitor in Australia in 1999 and was also admitted to practice in England & Wales in 2004. Ms. McGrath is recommended as a leading lawyer by Legal 500 UK 2012.
Prof. Dr. Ferdinand Panik
Professor at University of Applied Science in Esslingen, Germany
26.7.1942 Born in Berlin
1961- 1967 Studying Electrical Engineering at the Technical University Berlin (TUB)
1967- 1972 Scientific Assistant at the Institute of Technical Mechanics of the TUB
1972 Engineering Doctorate TUB
1972 - 2002 Daimler- Benz
1972 - 1989 Daimler - Benz Research Group
1986 Appointed Director and Head of the Daimler - Benz Research Group
1989 - 1996 Mercedes- Benz do Brasil (MBBras)
Member of the Management Board of MBBras responsible for Truck and Bus Devel-opment.
1996 - 2002 Vice- President of DaimlerChrysler (DC) and Head of the Group` s strategic Fuel Cell Project
1997 President and CEO of the DC/Ford/Ballard Joint Venture Xcellsys and Member of the Boards of Ballard Power Systems in Vancouver and Ecostar in Detroit.
2003 - today University of Applied Science (50%) and Independent Engineering Services (50%) Professor of Alternative Vehicles Member of the Technical Advisory Board of Michelin Challenge Bibendum . Member of the Board of the Venture Capital Company Conduit Venture in London. Member of the Board of the Danish Start - up company Amminex. Contracted since 2002 by the Electric Power Research Institute in Californian for vari-ous projects on Alternative Vehicles. Consultant of the European Union` s Research Programs. Business and Product Development Programs with various companies and groups (Mahle, ebmpabst, EuroEngineering, Powertech Labs in Canada, Ministerium of Transportation and Environment Baden- Württemberg)
Special Awards:
1997 Hon. Professor of the University of Applied Science Esslingen
2001 Selected by Business Week as one of the 50 European Leaders at the "Forefront of Change".
2002 Honored by the British Industry with the "Grove- Medal" for Leadership in advancing Fuel Cell Technology
2010 Honored by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) as SAE Fellow for " Exceptional Professional Distinction by reason of outstanding and extraordinary Qualification, Experience and sustained Accomplishment in the Field of Mobility Engineering".
Patrick Sheehan
Partner, Environmental Technologies Fund
Patrick is a Partner and founder of ETF. He focuses on the growth and development of the investment portfolio and represents the firm on the Boards of Metalysis, Nujira, Industrial Origami, Novel Polymer Solutions and TAG Energy Solutions.
Patrick has worked in venture capital since 1985, when he joined 3i. He was instrumental in founding 3i's venture capital practice, and later became the founding Managing Director of its Silicon Valley operation. Before this, he was a research engineer for GEC and Marconi Space Systems.
Patrick chairs the European Venture Capital Association’s Environmental task force. He was also a member of the Executive Committee and Board of the EVCA from 2007 to 2010 during which time he also chaired the Venture Capital Committee.
Patrick has a Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering from UCL, London.
Andre Shortell
Partner, GP Bullhound
Andre joined GP Bullhound as a Partner in 2010. Prior to joining, Andre was an independent adviser to companies and investment funds in the clean tech sector. Andre also spent 26 years in a number of senior roles in Citigroup including MNC Corporate Banking Head for CEEMEA, India Corporate Head, Global Autos Specialist and New Issues Head in London. He also ran Merchant Acquiring for Citibank and led the sale of that business in 2005. Andre brings to the team 10 years of involvement in renewable energy as well as experience in Corporate Finance, M&A and Emerging Markets. He also brings a broad international experience having spent much of his career in Europe and Asia as well as close personal ties to Brazil. Andre has a MA degree in International History from the London School of Economics.Mossadiq Umedaly
Executive Chairman, Enecsys
Mossadiq S. Umedaly, current Executive Chairman of Enecsys, has over 22 years of experience growing cleantech businesses. In April 2010, Umedaly became a Venture Partner with Wellington Partners, a pan-European venture capital firm. Prior to that, from 2007 to 2009, he was the chairman of BC Hydro, a $5 billion electric utility. From 1999 to 2008, as Chairman and CEO of power electronics company, Xantrex Technology Inc., he transformed the $10 million test and measurement Company into a world leader in renewable power markets, took it public and ultimately sold it in 2008 to strategic acquirers for $500 million. From 1990 to 1998, he drove the growth of fuel cell pioneer Ballard Power systems as VP and CFO; during his tenure, the company went public and increased its market capitalization from $10 million to $6 billion.
Umedaly started his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers and subsequently held senior positions in the Aga Khan Development Network. He is a member of several important university, non-profit, and government advisory boards focused on cleantech, education and the environment. He has a B.Com, FCA, and a LL.D (hon).
Richard Youngman
Managing Director Europe and Asia & VP, Global Research, Cleantech Group
Richard Youngman is responsible for driving the growth of the Cleantech Group’s activities outside North America, especially in Europe and Israel, and China. He is based in Cleantech Group’s office in London.
Richard has more than five years’ experience researching cleantech innovation, venture capital markets, and start-ups across Europe and Globally. He is a regular keynote speaker at major cleantech events and is the driving force behind the annual Global Cleantech 100, a list of the World’s most promising private cleantech companies. He authors periodic reports, such as The Rise of the Corporation in Cleantech, A Barometer of the Changing Face of Global Cleantech Innovation, and The Global Cleantech Innovation Index.
Markus Ziegler
Executive Director, Innogy Venture Capital
Marcus has more than a decade of experience in venture capital, M&A and board directorships. He has been a start-up company co-founder and investor himself and has spent several years advising private equity funds. Prior to joining Innogy Venture Capital Marcus was a partner at eCapital and at SIEMENS Venture (smac GmbH) where he executed 10 venture capital investments and realised three trade sale exits. In parallel to his Siemens engagement, Marcus was Managing Director of Jentro GmbH. Previously, Marcus was head of M&A and Business Development for O2 Germany where he led several strategy and M&A transactions.Marcus holds a Masters in Business Administration from the RWTH Aachen, and a Masters in Computer Science from the Technical University in Karlsruhe. He is a German national.
