Berkeley Entrepreneurs Forum

March 22, 2007 Program

Our country is at an energy crossroads and the search is on for the next technology that will redefine our energy future. Nowhere is this search more active than in Northern California where cleantech firms dedicated to energy innovation now sprout from the remnants of the once bourgeoning Dot.com era. With cleantech receiving close to $2 billion of venture capital investment in 2006, the image of our energy future is quickly shifting away from the traditional corporations, to the now well-known face of the Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Innovation, inspiration, and investment are driving the alternative energy revolution, and this month’s Entrepreneur’s Forum hosts two of most well-known energy entrepreneurs in Northern California today: JB Straubel, CTO of Tesla Motors, and John Woolard, CEO of BrightSource Energy, along with a clean technology sector focused venture capitalist, David Dreessen. Join the discussion and learn what it means to be an entrepreneur in energy and the way in which technology startups may offer us a glimpse of our sustainable energy future.

David Dreessen is Partner of Battery Ventures. David joined Battery in 2006 and focuses on investments in the clean technology sector. Before joining Battery, David spent seven years at Nth Power, where he completed 16 clean technology investments including Evergreen Solar (Nasdaq: ESLR), Northern Power [acquired by Distributed Energy (Nasdaq: DESC)], and Lion Cells. David also served in interim senior management positions for three portfolio companies. Before starting his venture capital career, David was a founding member of the Structure Group, which he helped build into a leading consulting and software firm serving the power industry. Prior to that, David worked for Accenture where he focused on strategic, process, and system consulting for the deregulating power markets. Earlier in his career, David was a Naval officer and engineering program manager for the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program Headquarters, which is responsible for all aspects of the design, operation, repair and disposal of U.S. Navy nuclear propulsion plants. David holds bachelor's degrees in chemical engineering and economics from the University of California at Davis, and an MBA from Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley.

JB Straubel is CTO of Tesla Motors. The story of JB Straubel's career started at a junkyard in Wisconsin, where, at the age of fourteen, he discovered a discarded electric golf cart and decided to rebuild it. Thus began a lifelong fascination with energy work and electric vehicles. At Tesla Motors, JB oversees the technical and engineering design of the vehicles, focusing on the battery, motor, power electronics, and high-level software sub-systems. Additionally, he evaluates new technology, manages vehicle systems testing, and handles technical interface with key vendors. Prior to Tesla Motors, JB was the CTO and co-founder of the aerospace firm, Volacom Inc., which designed a specialized high-altitude electric aircraft platform using a novel power plant. At Volacom, JB invented and patented a new long-endurance hybrid electric propulsion concept that was later licensed to Boeing. Before Volacom, JB worked at Rosen Motors as a propulsion engineer developing a new hybrid electric vehicle drivetrain based on a micro turbine and a high-speed flywheel. JB was also part of the early team at Pentadyne, where he designed and built a first-generation 150kW power inverter, motor-generator controls, and magnetic bearing systems. Armed with a BS in energy systems engineering and an MS in energy engineering from Stanford University, JB left the cold winters of Wisconsin for good. He now lives in Menlo Park, where he continues to indulge his passion for electric transportation: he built an electric Porsche 944 that held a world EV racing record, a custom electric bicycle, and a pioneering hybrid trailer system. JB is also an accomplished pilot.

John Woolard is the CEO of BrightSource Energy, a utility-scale provider of solar thermal power. Most recently he was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence in the VantagePoint CleanTech practice and remains a Venture Partner with the Firm. With more than 20 years of experience in clean energy technology, Mr. Woolard was previously an Executive Officer at Itron, Inc, where he was vice president of software solutions and subsequently the vice president of strategy and business development. He co-founded Silicon Energy, a clean energy start-up, and was President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of the Board and led the company’s successful sale. Mr. Woolard held positions previously at PG&E Energy Services, Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, and Alpine Software and is the co-author of a patent for web-based Energy Management Systems. Mr. Woolard is a graduate of the University of Virginia (BA Economics) and the Haas School of Business at University of California at Berkeley. He is on the Board of the California Clean Energy Fund, the Tuolumne River Preservation Trust, the Strategic Advisory Board for Xcel Energy, and is a Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute.

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