2025 Speakers

Chris Sacca is the co-founder of Lowercarbon Capital and an accomplished venture investor, company advisor, and entrepreneur, managing a portfolio of countless technology, communication, and consumer product startups through his firm Lowercase Capital. Alongside his wife Crystal, Chris grew Lowercase — primarily known for its investments in very early-stage technology companies like Twitter, Uber, Instagram, Twilio, Docker, Optimizely, Blue Bottle Coffee, and Stripe — into one of history’s most successful funds ever. The performance of the Lowercase funds made Chris one of the then youngest members of the Forbes Midas List in 2011 and vaulted him to the number two spot as well as earned him a spot on Vanity Fair’s New Establishment list before his retirement from broad-based venture capital in 2017 to focus on healing the climate, restoring American democracy, promoting diversity within technology and venture capital, and reforming the criminal justice system among other activist, political, and philanthropic pursuits. These days, Chris heads a science and investing team at Lowercarbon Capital pursuing the world’s most ambitious solutions to the climate crisis that is threatening all life on the planet. Across the realms of energy, building materials, transportation, food, industrial chemicals, reforestation, and all of the underlying logistics, Lowercarbon is showing the world that focusing on climate solutions is just good business. In parallel with this work, Chris and Crystal have become some of the nation’s most prolific supporters of non-profit climate research.

Mike Schroepfer is a Founder and Partner at Gigascale Capital. He brings a 25-year track record in technology and science as an executive, entrepreneur, and investor to backing early-stage climate technology companies that are modernizing the world’s biggest sectors and making clean options a no-brainer choice.

As Meta's CTO, he scaled products to billions of users, shipped millions of units of consumer hardware, constructed tens of millions of square feet of data centers, built teams of up to 35,000, and made breakthroughs in artificial intelligence. He’s currently a Senior Fellow focused on AI and developing technical talent.

Schrep’s philanthropic work includes Additional Ventures, the Carbon-to-Sea Initiative, and Outlier Projects, which funds grants aimed at accelerating climate science and policy responses to the climate crisis. He’s a Stanford computer science graduate, led engineering at Mozilla, founded a company acquired by Sun Microsystems, and is a decent skier and mediocre surfer.

Emily A. Carter is a world-renowned scholar and educator (Princeton University’s Inaugural Andlinger Professor in Energy and the Environment) and visionary administrative leader (Princeton’s Andlinger Center for Energy and Environment Founding Director, Princeton’s Dean of Engineering and Applied Science, UCLA’s Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, now Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory’s Senior Strategic Advisor and Associate Laboratory Director for Applied Materials and Sustainability Sciences) with a research career spanning chemistry, materials science, mechanical and aerospace engineering, and applied/computational mathematics/physics. She pioneered development and application of quantum simulation techniques enabling design of materials and processes for sustainable energy and carbon mitigation. She has co-authored over 475 publications, patents, and codes; mentored nearly 100 postdoctoral fellows and Ph.D. students; and delivered over 600 invited, keynote, and plenary lectures worldwide. Her many honors include election to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, U.S. National Academy of Inventors, U.S. National Academy of Engineering, European Academy of Sciences, and as Foreign Member of Great Britain’s Royal Society. She strategically lends her expertise to various entities, from the U.S. National Academies (e.g., chairing a three-year Congressionally mandated study on carbon utilization) to private science foundations (launching the Simons Foundation initiative on solar radiation management science and serving on the Kavli Foundation’s board of directors) to the federal government (member of multiple national lab advisory and review boards) to advising companies (e.g., chairing a scientific advisory board for a direct ocean capture startup company).

Vinod Khosla is an entrepreneur, investor, and technology fan. He is the founder of Khosla Ventures, focused on impactful technology investments in software, AI, robotics, 3D printing, healthcare and more. Mr. Khosla was a co-founder of Daisy systems and founding CEO of Sun Microsystems where he pioneered open systems and commercial RISC processors. One of Mr. Khosla’s greatest passions is being a mentor to entrepreneurs, assisting entrepreneurs and helping them build technology-based businesses. Mr. Khosla is driven by the desire to make a positive impact through using technology to reinvent societal infrastructure and multiply resources. He is also passionate about Social Entrepreneurship. Vinod holds a Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering from IIT, New Delhi, a Master's in Biomedical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Shannon Miller is CEO and Founder of Mainspring Energy, the leading manufacturer of fuel-flexible, local power generators. Mainspring began commercial deployments of its linear generators in 2020 and today has hundreds of megawatts in field operations and advanced development for leading Fortune 500 companies, data centers, and utilities across the U.S. A former National Science Foundation Fellow, Shannon was awarded the U.S. Department of Energy C3E Award 2022 in the Entrepreneurship category and named Energy Central “Champion in Innovation” in 2023 in recognition for her energy industry leadership. She holds B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.

Brian Sheng is the CEO and Co-Founder of 6, a climate technology company pioneering a new form of accessible, resilient, and abundant clean water infrastructure by harvesting water from the air. Just as solar and batteries transformed energy into a distributed and secure resource, Aquaria is doing the same for water. The company currently supplies homes and communities in Texas, California, Florida, and Hawaii with on-site atmospheric water systems. Aquaria is building the first community of its kind, 1,000 homes, where the water is supplied from the sky. Aquaria is backed by SoftBank Mistletoe, Ciri Ventures, Soma Capital, HF0, and former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt. Brian is a graduate of Princeton University.

Sean James runs Microsoft’s datacenter research and development program within the Cloud Operations + Innovation. CO+I provide the foundational cloud infrastructure for over 1,000,000,000 Customers, 20,000,000 Businesses, 200+ Microsoft online services, in 90 Markets. Sean drives new datacenter technology for Microsoft’s next generation data centers including evaluation, development, and testing.  Sean joined Microsoft in 2006 to manage operations at one of Microsoft’s datacenters. Later, he joined the construction team and oversaw the design and building of new Microsoft datacenters.  Prior to joining Microsoft, Sean worked in datacenter management overseeing the day-to-day maintenance and repair operations for both IT hardware and critical infrastructure, such as electrical infrastructure and cooling equipment. Prior to joining Microsoft, Sean served in the US Navy Submarine Fleet as an electrician.  Sean is a father of 3 sons, holds many patents related to datacenters and energy, and a degree in Information Technology.

Jason Bordoff is the Founding Director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where he is a Professor of Professional Practice. He is also on the faculty of the Columbia Climate School, where he is Co-Founding Dean Emeritus.

He previously served as Special Assistant to President Barack Obama and Senior Director for Energy and Climate Change on the Staff of the National Security Council. Prior to that appointment, he held senior policy positions on the White House’s National Economic Council and Council on Environmental Quality. Earlier in his career, he was a scholar at the Brookings Institution, served in the Treasury Department during the Clinton Administration, and was a consultant with McKinsey & Company. One of the world’s leading energy and climate policy experts, Bordoff’s research and policy interests lie at the intersection of economics, energy, environment, and national security. As a member of the Columbia SIPA faculty since 2013, he teaches and mentors the world’s future energy and climate leaders in government, business and civil society.

In 2013, Bordoff created the Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP), which is now widely recognized as among the world’s leading energy policy research institutes, advancing evidence-based and actionable energy and climate solutions through research, dialogue, and education. In addition to serving as CGEP’s Founding Director, Bordoff co-led and created the nation’s first graduate school devoted to tackling climate change, the Columbia Climate School, from 2021 to 2023. Bordoff is a columnist for Foreign Policy Magazine and has authored numerous essays and articles for Foreign Affairs. He frequently publishes articles in leading outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Economist, and appears on NPR, CNN, NBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, CBS, and the BBC as a commentator. his Foreign Affairs article with Meghan O’Sullivan, “Green Upheaval: The New Geopolitics of Energy,” was selected as one of the “Top Ten” print articles published in that journal in 2022.

Bordoff also has extensive experience advising the private sector and non-profit organizations. He is a Senior Advisor at Macro Advisory Partners, a geostrategic advisory firm. He chairs the Aspen Institute-Columbia Global Energy Forum and serves on numerous advisory boards and leadership councils, including the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Sustainable Energy for All at the United Nations, The Nature Conservancy of New York, Foreign Policy 4 America, the New York Energy Forum, and the World Economic Forum’s “Future of Energy Stewardship” and “Mobilizing Investment for Clean Energy in Emerging Economies” programs. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the Oxford Energy Club, and the National Petroleum Council (a federally chartered advisory committee to the Secretary of Energy).

Bordoff graduated with honors from Harvard Law School, where he was Treasurer of the Harvard Law Review, and clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He also holds an MLitt degree from Oxford University, where he studied as a Marshall Scholar, and a BA magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University.

Nick Myers is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Phoenix Tailings. Prior to co-founding Phoenix Tailings, Nick served as a C-suite level executive at a genomics sequencing company and an EV charging startup, where he gained deep experience in scaling complex technologies and navigating regulatory and commercial landscapes.

Nick holds a bachelor’s degree in Physics from Saint Michael’s College and an MBA from Northeastern University. His background spans technical development, operational leadership, and public-private collaboration, making him a frequent speaker on topics related to supply chain resilience, cleantech innovation, and U.S. industrial competitiveness. With a focus on reshoring advanced manufacturing and building the infrastructure needed for a low-carbon economy, Nick brings a systems-level approach to solving some of the most urgent challenges in the energy transition.

A Partner at Khosla Ventures, Rajesh has two decades of experience assisting and investing in deep tech startups. He manages many of the firm’s investments across renewables generation, storage, hydrogen, industrial decarbonization, plastics, foodtech, healthcare and advanced manufacturing.

Previously, Rajesh was the head of Applied Ventures LLC, the venture capital arm of Applied Materials, where he managed a portfolio of 85 deep-tech startups globally, as well as two deep-tech funds in Korea and Taiwan. He led investments and helped build companies, many of which had strong exits, including Enphase Energy, Solid Energy, Rockley, Infinite Power Solutions, Adaptive3D, Tango, Inpria and Norsk Ti. Rajesh was recognized amongst the top 100 global CVCs, on the Global Corporate Venture (GCV) Powerlist.

Earlier, he worked at Third Point Ventures and at Lucent’s Bell Labs, where he drove technical assessments and partnerships for several optical, MEMS, and RF device startups, and also led DFR programs for the successful deployment of Lucent’s 10Gb/s and 40Gb/s systems.

While pursuing his MBA at Harvard Business School, he worked on Deutsche Bank’s cleantech banking team, and also worked with KV on companies in solar and water. Previously, Rajesh earned a master of science degree from the University of Maryland and a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, where he was awarded the Shankar Dayal Sharma (President of India) Medal for overall excellence.

Tove Larsson is a founding General Partner at Norrsken VC, Europe's largest early stage impact VC. Tove brings extensive experience from Bain & Company, where she advised PE firms across the Nordics. She's a trailblazer in impact investing, with early roles at impact accelerator Inkludera and the World Childhood Foundation. Larsson's leadership is driven by her commitment to a world benefiting both people and the planet.

Milo plays a leading role in DCVC’s climate investments, identifying and nurturing breakthrough deep tech ventures that address the world’s pressing climate challenges. She focuses on solutions that go beyond emissions reduction to revolutionize value chains, decarbonize high-emitting industries, and advance both mitigation and adaptation efforts.

Milo’s blend of investment insight and hands-on industry experience equips her to effectively identify promising climate technologies and guide them from concept to commercialization. Her investment background includes partner positions at MIT’s The Engine, Ajax Strategies, and Khosla Ventures, while her operational experience is highlighted by her tenure at Tesla, where she contributed to bringing innovative electric vehicles to market, and at Zola, a solar-battery startup providing distributed energy to over a million families in Africa. She holds a bachelor’s degree in geology and civil & environmental engineering from the University of Vermont, and a master’s degree in civil engineering and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Leveraging her extensive industrial experience, Milo founded The NextGen Industry Group to support companies commercializing advanced manufacturing technologies. The group brings together leaders, operators, industry experts, and capital providers to develop thought leadership and best practices in manufacturing strategy, capital stack construction, industrial policy, and strategic partnerships.

David Garcia is an accomplished executive and serial entrepreneur with a career distinguished by a powerful combination of technical expertise, strategic vision, and a proven ability to turn innovative ideas into successful, high-growth companies. Holding an industrial engineering degree from Barcelona Tech and an MBA from ESADE Business School, his professional journey is marked by his leadership in deep-tech and impact-driven ventures.

He is currently the Co-Founder and CEO of YPlasma, a spin-off from the Spanish National Institute of Aerospace Technology, where he is pioneering plasma actuator technology with applications in energy, aerospace, and health. This follows a successful tenure as CEO of Kiin, a VR company, where he orchestrated a remarkable turnaround, growing revenue to $1 million in eight months. David also founded Quimera Energy, an energy efficiency company that achieved €3 million in revenue in 3 years and a €30 million valuation, earning a spot on the Financial Times Fast Growing Companies index. His expertise in the e-mobility sector is further highlighted by his role as a co-founder of QEV Technologies, where he was instrumental in developing disruptive electric powertrain technology.

David's foundational experience includes significant corporate and advisory roles. As Chief of Staff to the VP of Corporate Services at Suez, he managed major real estate and financial projects, including the Agbar Tower in Barcelona. He also served as a Board Member at GLS Spain and held key operational and strategic roles at Crown Holdings and in consulting at everis and SDG Group. His background in these diverse fields, combined with his entrepreneurial success, underscores his dynamic leadership and global perspective.

Dr. Gilliam is a serial entrepreneur who has founded three companies dedicated to solving climate issues, specifically decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors like cement, energy, and petrochemicals. In 2019, Dr. Gilliam co-founded Fortera, where he serves as CEO. Dr. Gilliam also founded and serves on the Board of Directors of Verdagy, a company that has developed a novel green hydrogen technology and is currently building its first gigafactory in California, as well as Chemetry, a company focused on reducing the energy requirements and CO2 emissions associated with the production of essential chemicals. Dr. Gilliam has also worked as a Venture Partner at 1955 Capital, a venture capital firm dedicated to investing in technologies that solve global challenges in areas such as energy, food safety, health, and sustainable manufacturing. Dr. Gilliam received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Toronto. On his work in materials and chemical development, Dr. Gilliam has 10+ peer-reviewed publications resulting in over 3000 citations of his work, and has been an invited speaker at multiple international conferences. He is an inventor with 100+ patents in energy, sustainability, products, and materials spaces.

Dr. Tim Heidel is Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer at VEIR. Tim served as VEIR’s first Chief Technology Officer from January 2020 when the company was founded until February 2023.

Prior to VEIR, Tim was a member of the investments team at Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), investing in companies that leverage innovative technologies to significantly address climate change. Prior to BEV, Tim served as Deputy Chief Scientist at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), where he helped lead NRECA’s technology scouting and research and development activities on behalf of NRECA’s 900 non-profit, member-owned electric utility members. Prior to NRECA, Tim served as a Fellow and Program Director at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), where he led the development of 3 new programs and managed a portfolio of over 75 research projects. His focus at ARPA-E included new approaches for controlling and optimizing the transmission and delivery of electric power. Dr. Heidel also managed programs focused on high-efficiency power electronics, including new magnetic materials, new capacitor technologies, and wide band gap semiconductor devices.

​Prior to joining ARPA-E, Dr. Heidel was a Postdoctoral Associate at MIT and served as the Research Director for MIT’s 2011 “Future of the Electric Grid” study. Dr. Heidel holds S.B., M.Eng., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and an M.S. in Technology and Policy from MIT.

Dan Wang is a research fellow at the Hoover History Lab at Stanford University. He was previously a fellow at the Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center, and, from 2017 to 2023, he worked in China as the technology analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics. He is the author of Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future (W. W. Norton, 2025). Dan’s essays have appeared in the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, The Financial Times, New York Magazine, Bloomberg Opinion, and The Atlantic.

Mollie Wilkinson is an Investor at Orion Industrial Ventures, the venture strategy of Orion Resource Partners, an ~$8B global alternative investment firm dedicated to metals and materials. Mollie has varied and deep expertise in materials R&D, engineering, and technical consulting, working with both early-stage startups (Syzygy Plasmonics, AeroShield Materials) and larger corporations (SpaceX), as well as frontier tech investing at Anzu Partners. Mollie is a member of Orion's Responsible Investment Committee and is a Board Observer at SiTration. Mollie has a Bachelors in Materials Science and Engineering and a Masters in Civil and Environmental Engineering, both from MIT.

Tito Jankowski is a pioneering leader in the carbon removal industry, dedicated to reversing climate change by fostering innovation and supporting startups. As a prominent figure in the community, Tito has given impactful public talks, including TED.com’s “Take Carbon Out of the Air and Make Useful Things with It,” and has shared his insights on podcasts like “Invested in Climate” and “Nori Reversing Climate Change.” Co-founder and CEO of AirMiners, Tito has been instrumental in building a vibrant community of entrepreneurs, scientists, and investors committed to scalable carbon removal solutions.

As the managing partner of Energize Capital, John oversees all investment and Limited Partner responsibilities. He is also a member of the Energize Investment Committee.

John brings over 20 years of experience in finance, investing and operational roles. His career and investment interests follow the ongoing integration of new technologies into the critical infrastructure and resource industries. John is integral to all aspects of the Fund’s operations, including network engagement, developing investment theses, driving diligence of potential investments, and supporting and monitoring portfolio companies.

Most recently, John was one of the first employees and ultimately scaled into the Chief Revenue Officer at Choose Energy, the largest online energy marketplace in North America. At Choose Energy, he led all operations and growth and raised over $30 million in capital. In 2017, John managed the successful sale of the company to Red Ventures. Previously, John was an investor at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, where he focused on platform investments at the intersection of technology and energy.

John holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BS from Duke University. John currently sits on the Board of Directors for DroneDeploy, Nozomi Networks, Matroid, PVcase, ZEDEDA and 5.

Lucia Tian leads Google’s Advanced Energy Technologies team, focused on unlocking and scaling technologies such as next generation geothermal, nuclear, CCS, long duration energy storage, and grid technologies. The team develops innovative partnerships through pilots, strategic investments, and offtake, to meet Google’s AI & data center energy needs while accelerating the deployment of advanced energy technologies across power grids worldwide. Prior to Google, Lucia served as Senior Advisor to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Chief Commercialization Officer, and as Chief Strategist for the Loan Programs Office, driving commercial strategy & diligence to inform DOE’s IIJA and IRA investments and the Liftoff reports. Lucia previously served infrastructure, transportation, and aerospace clients at McKinsey & Co., and has built strategy and analytics functions across public, private, and non-profit organizations. She holds a dual B.S. in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and B.S. in Economics from MIT, and an M.A. in Economics from Harvard.

Mateo Jaramillo is co-founder and CEO of Form Energy. He was formerly Vice President of Products and Programs for Tesla’s stationary energy storage program, an effort he started. In that role, he was responsible for Tesla Energy’s product line and business model definition, as well as global policy and business development. Mateo joined Tesla in 2009 as the Director of Powertrain Business Development, serving as commercial lead on over $100M in new development and $500M in production contracts signed for electric powertrain sales. Prior to Tesla, Mateo was Chief Operating Officer and part of the founding team at Gaia Power Technologies, a pioneering distributed energy storage firm. Mateo earned his A.B. in Economics from Harvard and a Masters in Theology from Yale Divinity School.

Scott recently accepted the role of Fusion Partner at Lowercarbon Capital, where he focuses on supporting Lowercarbon’s portfolio fusion companies, helps source and deploy new fusion investments, and works to build partnerships and forge an enabling environment for the entire fusion-commercialization ecosystem. Prior to joining Lowercarbon, Scott worked at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). From 2022–2025, he was Senior Advisor and Lead Fusion Coordinator in the DOE Office of the Under Secretary for Science and Innovation, where he led a crosscutting DOE team in developing a DOE-wide strategy to accelerate fusion commercialization. During this time, Scott was also the key DOE point-of-contact working with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in advancing U.S. Government interagency fusion policy, as well as the chief architect of the DOE Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program. From 2018–2022, Scott was a Program Director at ARPA-E, where he launched and managed over $100 million of fusion R&D programs and projects. Prior to DOE, Scott was a research scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory (2002–2019), where he led experimental research spanning magnetic, magneto-inertial, and inertial confinement fusion. Scott is author or co-author of 85+ peer-reviewed publications, a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), and a co-recipient of the 2002 APS Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research. Scott has testified as an expert witness in three Congressional hearings on fusion energy (2016, 2022, 2023). Scott earned a Ph.D. in Astrophysical Sciences (Program in Plasma Physics) from Princeton University and a B.S summa cum laude in Electrical Engineering from UCLA.

David Keith has worked near the interface between climate science, energy technology, and public policy since 1990. He took first in Canada’s national physics prize exam, won MIT’s prize for excellence in experimental physics, and was one of TIME Magazine’s Heroes of the Environment. David is Professor of Geophysical Sciences and founding faculty director of the Climate Systems Engineering initiative at the University of Chicago.

Best known for his work on the science, technology, and public policy of solar geoengineering, David led the development of Harvard’s Solar Geoengineering Research Program before moving to Chicago in 2023. His policy work has ranged from analysis of electricity markets and carbon prices to research on public and expert perceptions of risky technologies. David’s hardware work includes the first interferometer for atoms, a high-accuracy infrared spectrometer for NASA’s ER-2, the development of Carbon Engineering’s air contactor, and the development of a stratospheric propelled balloon experiment for solar geoengineering.

David founded of Carbon Engineering, a Canadian company developing technology to capture CO from ambient air. David teaches science and technology policy, climate science, and solar geoengineering. He has reached >150,000 students worldwide with an edX energy course. David is author of >200 academic publications with total citation count of >20,000. He has written for the public in op-eds and A Case for Climate Engineering. For more details, please visit David’s website here.

Hampus Jakobsson is the General Partner of Pale blue dot, an early-stage investor in climate companies in Europe and the US. Prior to being an investor, Hampus built and scaled two startups. He prefers to read fiction, but is too social to doing that all the time.

Tim Latimer is the CEO of Fervo Energy. Fervo delivers 24/7 carbon free energy through development of next-generation geothermal power. Fervo's technology incorporates proven, cost-effective technologies, such as horizontal drilling and fiber optic sensing, to unlock the potential of geothermal energy. Tim began his career as a Drilling Engineer with BHP Billiton where he worked in the Permian and Eagle Ford basins. With a growing appreciation of the urgency and importance of climate change, Tim left the oil and gas industry in 2015 to pursue an MBA and an MS in Environment and Resources from Stanford University where he co-founded Fervo. Tim has also worked as a Consultant for the Boston Consulting Group and as a consultant for startups Biota Technology and McClure Geomechanics. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tulsa.

Julia leads Sightline’s research team. She manages a team of analysts writing research on clean firm power, low-carbon fuels, industry, carbon, and grid tech, and sets the company’s research strategy.

Prior to joining Sightline Julia led BNEF’s Industrial Decarbonization research. While at BNEF, she built cost models, forecasts, and analysed technologies across industrial decarbonization, batteries, EVs, digital and grid tech and advanced materials.

Julia has undergraduate degrees in Mechanical Engineering and a PhD in Materials Engineering, both from the University of Cambridge.

Jonathan Vardner completed his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at Columbia University where he was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow. He developed and co-invented technologies that enable the sustainable production of copper. He continued his postdoctoral studies at Columbia to realize the potential of his process. Now, he is driven to bring his technology to market to help facilitate the global transition to renewables.

Akshat Rathi is an award-winning senior climate reporter for Bloomberg News. He is the host of Zero, a weekly climate podcast for Bloomberg Green and writes a weekly newsletter on climate solutions.

He has a PhD in chemistry from the University of Oxford, and a BTech in chemical engineering from the Institute of Chemical Technology in Mumbai. He has worked for Quartz and The Economist. His work has been cited in widely read global publications, including New York Times, Washington Post, New Yorker, The Guardian, Wall Street Journal and Financial Times.

Akshat lives with his wife in London, UK. You can follow him on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram.

Cody Finke is the co-founder and CEO of Brimstone, a climate-tech company on a mission to decarbonize cement production. He holds a BA with distinction in Chemistry from Carleton College and a Ph.D. from Caltech, where he focused on electrochemistry and industrial decarbonization. Following his Ph.D., Cody conducted postdoctoral research at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab as a DOE-funded Cyclotron Road entrepreneurial fellow.

Cody co-founded the Oakland, California-based Brimstone to decarbonize an industry that today accounts for 5.5% of global GHG emissions. Brimstone is developing a technology to produce ordinary Portland cement using calcium silicate rock which at scale would be cost parity or better and lower emissions even with least-cost energy. Its innovative solution has been recognized by the International Energy Agency, the Global Cleantech 100, Norrsken’s Impact 100 list, and Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies in Energy and Sustainability. Brimstone's, and the MIT Technology review, which named Cody as a top innovator under 35. Brimstone's investors include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, DCVC, Collab Fund, Amazon Climate Pledge, and Fifth Wall.

Laurie Menoud holds a Master's degree in biotechnology from the École Supérieure d'Ingénieurs de Luminy in France, where she studied genetic engineering, biochemistry, and microbiology. Through her work with The French National Center for Scientific Research, she got involved in the characterization of the first "giant" virus ever discovered, which later shed new light on the origins of life. Driven by the desire to apply biotechnologies toward environmental health, she later joined Bluewater Bio in the UK, focused on optimizing the company's new biological process for wastewater treatment. Laurie then decided to get a Post-Master of Business Innovation from the EM Lyon Business School to study technology and innovation management. This led her to join the Corporate Research & Innovation group of Solvay, a large chemical company, where she supported strategy for long-term R&D programs, startup investments, and acquisitions. She worked on various sustainability topics such as bio-based materials, energy-efficient lighting, renewable energy, and radioactive waste recycling. After leaving Solvay, Laurie moved to the US to join SRI International. She built her operational experience by commercializing next-generation technologies funded by DoD, DoE, and NSF programs. She mentored over 50 entrepreneurs and built a dozen ventures related to computer vision, natural language processing, diagnostics, and robotics. More recently, at BASF Venture Capital, Laurie led equity investments in early-stage companies and funds in North America. She was responsible for the overall investment process from deal sourcing to due diligence, deal execution, and active portfolio management as a board observer. She focused on deep technologies transforming the chemical industry, such as 3D printing, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and robotics. Today, Laurie is a Partner at At One Ventures, where she is responsible for finding, funding, and growing teams that catalyze planet-positive industries. She led a dozen investments for the firm and holds board of director and observer positions in 4 portfolio companies. She is an advocate for bioethics and respect for life beyond animals.

Khorcheska Batyrova (PhD in biotechnology) is the CEO of Ozonebio. From 2016-2021 she worked at University of Toronto on different complex enzymes for industrial applications. In 2021, she and her co-founder Anna Khusnutdinova decided to start OzoneBio and developed novel "Zombie cells" biocatalysis to upcycle toxic feedstocks into to high value bio-products.

Dr. Melissa Ball is a Director of Technology at Energy Impact Partners (EIP). She focuses on technical diligence, assessing technologies and companies for deep decarbonization potential.

Prior to joining EIP, she was a Ph.D. Fellow at Goldman Sachs in New York City, focusing on power electronics. She spent three years at Princeton University as a Presidential Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. Her research has spanned chemical synthesis and device fabrication with an emphasis on designing complementary technologies to silicon photovoltaics. Melissa worked on building-integrated photovoltaics, where she pioneered the development of transparent, color-neutral devices for integration into color-sensitive applications. She also developed broadband solar technology using perovskite materials and studied the impact of molecular design on both the material properties and device performance on these systems. She has co-authored sixteen peer-reviewed articles on chemical synthesis, light-matter interactions, and solar technology.

Melissa holds a MSc in European Political Economy from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Columbia University.

Zachary’s belief that the systems-level thinking integral to envi­ron­mental science coupled with Deep Tech can help tackle many of our urgent real-world challenges led him to co-found DCVC in 2010. He brings to bear over 20 years in Silicon Valley as an entre­pre­neur, venture capitalist, adviser, and angel investor.

Zachary is Co-Founder of DCVC and Co-Managing Partner across its family of funds, and his current investments on behalf of the firm span compu­ta­tional drug discovery, nuclear energy, algorithmic finance, synthetic biology, geospatial informatics platforms, and applied AI for global-scale climate impact, including areas like methane abatement and carbon transformation.

The World Economic Forum has named Zachary a Young Global Leader in recognition of his leadership at the inter­sec­tion of trans­for­ma­tive technology and urgent global issues, and he is active in the Davos community, including his annual ​“Deep Tech in Davos” event. Zachary’s previous venture investments include Square (SQ), AngelList, and Uber (UBER). Zachary received a bachelor’s degree with honors in envi­ron­mental science and public policy from Harvard University and a JD with honors from Georgetown University’s law school, where he was executive editor for The Tax Lawyer. Zachary serves on the non-profit boards of the East Palo Alto Charter School and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Dr. Jennifer Holmgren is CEO of revolutionary carbon recycling company, LanzaTech. Prior to joining LanzaTech, Dr. Holmgren was VP and General Manager of the Renewable Energy and Chemicals business unit at UOP LLC, a Honeywell Company. She was one of the key drivers of UOP’s leadership in low carbon aviation biofuels, and under her management, UOP technology became instrumental in producing nearly all of the initial fuels used by commercial airlines and the military for testing and certification of alternative aviation fuel. Today, under Dr. Holmgren’s guidance, LanzaTech is working towards developing a variety of platform chemicals and fuels, including the world’s first alternative jet fuel derived from industrial waste gases. Jennifer is also the Director and Chair of the LanzaJet Board of Directors. LanzaJet, Inc., is a new company that will produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for a sector requiring climate friendly fuel options.

Dr. Holmgren is the author or co-author of 50 US patents and more than 30 scientific publications and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. In 2003, she was the first woman awarded the Malcolm E. Pruitt Award from the Council for Chemical Research (CCR). In 2010, she was the recipient of the Leadership Award from the Civil Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI) for her work in establishing the technical and commercial viability of sustainable aviation biofuels. In 2015 Dr. Holmgren and her team at LanzaTech were awarded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Presidential Green Chemistry Award and she was awarded the BIO Rosalind Franklin Award for Leadership in Industrial Biotechnology. Sustainability magazine, Salt, named Dr. Holmgren as the world’s most compassionate businesswoman in 2015. In October 2015, Dr. Holmgren was awarded the Outstanding Leader Award in Corporate Social Innovation from the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago. Dr. Holmgren was named as #1 of the 100 most influential leaders in the Bioeconomy in 2017 and received a Global Bioenergy Leadership Award in 2018 and the 2020 William C. Holmberg Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Advanced Bioeconomy by the Digest, the most widely read online bioeconomy journal. A TEDx Chicago speaker, Jennifer is also the 2018 recipient of the AIChE Fuels & Petrochemicals Division Award as well as the Biofuels Digest Global Bioenergy Leadership Award. In 2021 Jennifer received the Edison Achievement Award for making a significant and lasting contribution to the world of innovation.

Kim is the CEO and Co-founder of Sightline Climate, the market intelligence platform bringing clarity to the new climate economy. Sightline Climate provides data, tools, and frameworks to help investors, corporates, and governments build and finance the new climate economy and powers CTVC, the industry-leading free newsletter trusted by 60,000 climate leaders. She was previously a climate tech investor at Energy Impact Partners, a $3B AUM venture capital firm investing in a sustainable future backed by a coalition of 40+ energy & industrial companies. Prior to joining EIP, Kim was an investment banker at JPMorgan and graduated from Johns Hopkins University.

Cindy Taff has over 35 years in the O&G industry, most recently as VP of Shell's global Unconventional Wells operations. She led a team of over 350 Shell staff and 1200 contractors across five countries, accountable for an annual spend of $1 billion. Cindy is the CEO of Sage Geosystems, a growing company based in Houston providing solutions for both energy storage and geothermal base production deep in the earth.

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.

Etosha Cave is the Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer of Twelve, the carbon transformation company creating a future through the science of electrochemistry. At Twelve, Etosha leads efforts applying her research skills in electrocatalysis to convert captured carbon dioxide into valuable chemicals, fuels and other essential products typically made from fossil fuels. Her discoveries in electrochemistry have led to groundbreaking technology with applications that can disrupt traditional supply chain models across a variety of global industries including automotive, aviation, fashion and consumer-packaged goods, among others.

Etosha has been recognized as a visionary by the Smithsonian Institution and the U.S. Department of Energy, as well as media like Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair. She has spoken at summits including the Jeff Bezos-hosted MARS Conference, Fortune Brainstorm, and Aspen Ideas Festival. Most recently, CNBC ranked her as a notable woman transforming business on their 2024 Changemakers list. Etosha is a graduate at Stanford University with both a Masters in Engineering and a Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering.

Will is the co-founder of Cocoon, a start up aiming to decarbonise two heavily emitting foundation industries. Steel and cement. Previously, Will read for a PhD at the University of Cambridge, and during that time published papers on large scale carbon removal technologies, tracing carbon in natural systems and utilizing industrial waste streams for decarbonisation. Will joined HAX with Cocoon in Nov '23, and during the 6 months in NJ developed POC prototypes and closed a successful funding round. Cocoon and Will are now based in London, working toward deploying a demonstrator plant for their technology.

Vijay is the Global Energy & Climate Innovation Editor of The Economist. He has produced numerous cover stories and won awards for his reporting. He is an accomplished public speaker and his three books have created a stir, with accolades ranging from lengthy reviews in The New Yorker to shortlisting for the FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year prize. The Financial Times has declared him to be “a writer to whom it is worth paying attention.”

From 2017 to 2021, he served as the New York-based US Business Editor. He opened the magazine’s first Shanghai bureau in 2012 and served as its China Business Editor until mid-2017. Prior to that, he covered biotechnology, healthcare and global innovation. He also opened the Mexico City bureau, the publication’s first in Latin America.

His opinion pieces have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The New York Times and Foreign Policy, and his commentaries on CNBC and Bloomberg. He has addressed groups ranging from the US National Governors’ Association and the UN General Assembly to the TED and Aspen Ideas conferences. He also serves as chairman of sustainability & innovation summits organised by The Economist, held annually in New York, London, Bangkok and Cape Town.

Vijay is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He serves as an advisor on innovation to the World Economic Forum/Davos, and has taught at NYU Stern Business School and Northwestern University. Vijay is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In 2018, Candice Ammori transitioned from statistics and ethics of AI to climate, starting On Deck Climate Tech and Climate Vine to help diverse experts meet, connect, and build together. Through both organizations, she has brought together 1100+ people across the climate ecosystem in multiple cohorts. Members have raised over $500M+ in venture funding, more than two dozen companies emerged, and hundreds of emerging contributors transitioned to the climate innovation space. She maintains deep vertical knowledge as an active investor and advisor to emerging climate tech companies, especially in the distributed infrastructure space.

Cat Clifford is a climate and energy journalist. Most recently, she was Cipher News's senior science and economics correspondent, based in New York City. Before joining Cipher, Cat helped launch the climate desk at CNBC.com, where she was the climate technology and innovation reporter. In 2023, Cat received the Darlene Schmidt Science News Award, given to her by the American Nuclear Society, for her leading coverage of the nuclear industry, both fission and fusion.

Maria Gallucci is a senior clean energy reporter at Canary Media, where she covers hard-to-decarbonize sectors and efforts to make the energy transition more affordable and equitable. She was most recently a contributing writer for Grist and IEEE Spectrum, and was previously a staff reporter for InsideClimate News, Mashable, and Mexico City newspapers. Her reporting has taken her across the Americas and inside cargo ships, power plants, and nuclear waste facilities. She was the 2017-2018 Energy Journalism Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin and a 2021 TED speaker. Maria now resides in Brooklyn, New York.

Kirsten Korosec is a reporter and editor who has covered the future of transportation from EVs and autonomous vehicles to urban air mobility and in-car tech for more than a decade. She is currently the transportation editor at TechCrunch and co-host of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast. She is also co-founder and co-host of the podcast, “The Autonocast.” She previously wrote for Fortune, The Verge, Bloomberg, MIT Technology Review and CBS Interactive, among others.

Katie Fehrenbacher has been a journalist covering climate tech for over 15 years and is currently the climate tech deals reporter for Axios. She formerly worked for Fortune, Gigaom, Red Herring and GreenBiz.

Alex Wilhelm is a journalist who covers technology and business. He co-hosts the popular This Week in Startups podcast, and is the founder of Cautious Optimism, a new publication focus on tech, money, and power.

Sophie Purdom is the Managing Partner of Planeteer Capital, where she invests in and supports early-stage founders from Planeteer's $55M Fund I. Sophie is the co-founder of CTVC and Sightline Climate, a newsletter and strategic data platform with 75,000+ subscribers, widely recognized as climate tech's source of record and featured in the Financial Times, New York Times, Bloomberg and other major outlets. Previously, Sophie launched an ESG investment fund at a major endowment, published a book on sustainable investing, worked at Bain & Company, and helped found and raise $65M at Kula Bio to develop carbon-negative fertilizer.

Connie Loizos has been reporting on Silicon Valley since the late '90s, when she joined the original Red Herring magazine. She is currently the Silicon Valley Editor of TechCrunch. She's also the founder of StrictlyVC, a daily e-newsletter and lecture series.

James Temple is the senior editor for climate and energy at MIT Technology Review, where he focuses on the transition to clean energy and the use of technology to combat climate change. Previously, James was a senior director at the Verge, deputy managing editor at Recode, and columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle. His investigative work on carbon offsets was featured in the “Best American Science and Nature Writing” book series in 2022.

Matthew Zeitlin is a correspondent for Heatmap where he covers energy and economics. He's written about policy and economics for the New York Times, New York, Barron's, and The Guardian.

Danny Crichton analyzes technology, growth and power as Editor-in-Chief of "Securities" and Head of Editorial at Lux Capital. Prior to Lux, he was managing editor at TechCrunch as well as previously a foreign correspondent based in Seoul, South Korea. While there, he wrote more than 1,000 news stories and longform analyses chronicling U.S.-Asia technology relations, semiconductors, data infrastructure, fintech, disaster and climate tech, venture finance, product development, and a wide number of other complex subjects with technical and policy intersections.

In addition to his reporting and analysis at TechCrunch, he co-hosted its leading podcast Equity; co-programmed stages at its flagship Disrupt SF and Berlin conferences as well as its Sessions and Early Stage events; launched the premium news service Extra Crunch and grew it to seven figures of revenue; co-managed a multi-million dollar freelance budget; developed the TC-1 series of deep startup profiles and The TechCrunch List; and contributed broadly to the organization’s news, operational, and talent development strategy.

He’s also published research on semiconductors, technology and economic development with the Foreign Policy Research Institute, Manhattan Institute’s City Journal, and the National Review. Formerly, he was an early-stage venture capitalist with General Catalyst in Palo Alto and Charles River Ventures in Boston and New York.

He was awarded a Fulbright research scholarship to South Korea, where he studied the development of Korea’s startup ecosystem. He’s an honors graduate of Stanford University, where he studied mathematical and computational sciences and wrote a thesis on the development of computer science as an academic discipline, which won the school’s Firestone Medal for Excellence in Undergraduate Research.

Danny is based in Brooklyn, New York.

Casey Crownhart is a senior climate reporter for MIT Technology Review, where she covers topics from renewable energy and transportation to food and climate policy. She is the author of The Spark , a weekly climate technology newsletter. Her work has also appeared in outlets including Popular Science and Atlas Obscura, and she is a regular contributor to Science Friday.

Tim De Chant is a senior climate reporter at TechCrunch and the founder of Future Proof, a publication covering climate and energy. He is also a lecturer in MIT’s Graduate Program in Science Writing and has written for Wired magazine, The Wire China, the Chicago Tribune, and NOVA Next, among others. De Chant was awarded a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT in 2018, and he received his doctorate in environmental science, policy, and management from the University of California, Berkeley, and his bachelor’s degree in environmental studies, English, and biology from St. Olaf College.

Entrepreneur, venture capitalist. Vision is scary. Cyril is a General Partner at SOSV and the founder and co-Managing Director of HAX. He is a board member and advisor to a few startups, including Formlabs, Angel List, Collaborate (ACQ: CISCO), Hackster (ACQ: AVNET), and Adoreme. He is an experienced investor in deep tech (250+) and has invested globally. Cyril is a frequent speaker at global events (TechCrunch Disrupt, Collision, Pioneers, MIT Forum, etc.) and universities (Stanford, UC Berkeley, etc.), has written dozens of articles and publishes regularly on topics such as technology, robotics, health, and crowdfunding. He has been featured in The Economist, Popular Mechanics, The New York Times, Bloomberg, Huffington Post, Wired, BBC, and more.

After Sean O’Sullivan’s first startup went public in 1994, he founded SOSV in 1995 as a “super angel”. In 2007, based off the success of two dozen investments that had done remarkably well, Sean began aggressively expanding SOSV, transitioning it from a personal investment vehicle into an organization which today has over 110 staff supporting investments in over 120 new startups every year. In 2022, SOSV has 12 general partners operating globally, with SOSV’s major offices in San Francisco, New York City, Newark, Taipei, Cork and Tokyo.

Sean got his entrepreneurial start in 1985 as a founder of MapInfo, bringing street mapping technology to personal computers. MapInfo went on to become a $200 million revenue public company with over 1,000 employees worldwide. In 1996, while at the helm of his second company, NetCentric, he created “software for inside the Internet” and is credited with co-creating the term “cloud computing” alongside George Favaloro from Compaq.

Sean continued as an entrepreneur and investor, creating and supporting a range of business, humanitarian and educational endeavors. A major promoter of economic and social development, he founded JumpStart International in 2003. JumpStart was a leading humanitarian engineering organization based in Baghdad and which operated throughout Iraq during the post-war period of 2003-2006. He spent a few years running JumpStart, which for a time had a staff of over 3000, running up to 80 projects at a time in Baghdad, Fallujah, and Najaf. As benefactor of the O’Sullivan Foundation, Sean has also been a primary funder of organizations such as the Khan Academy, Mathletes and CoderDojo.

As the founding Chairman of the Irish Entrepreneurship Forum and founder of Open Ireland, he was a leader and influencer of Irish government policy in fueling economic growth and recovery in the technology sector. Sean was a regular investment panelist on the popular RTÉ TV show Dragon’s Den, and an occasional columnist for Ireland’s Sunday Business Post.

Sean holds a Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Masters of Fine Arts in Film Production from the University of Southern California.

Po is passionate about reconceptualizing complex challenges into more elegant forms, to broaden understanding and highlight priorities. He’s been at IndieBio SF since 2018. Po is a longtime science journalist honored with nine national awards, and author of seven bestselling books that are available in 28 languages worldwide. His work has been cited in 185 academic journals and 503 books. His background is in Economics. He learned finance at Credit Suisse and consulting at a division of Arthur Andersen. Prior to IndieBio he spent four years as a Futurist with Attention Span Media, consulting corporate innovation efforts for globally-recognized brands. Most recently, Po is the author of Decoding the World: A Roadmap for the Questioner, published by Twelve Books, a division of the Hachette Publishing Group.

Benjamin Joffe is a Senior Partner at SOSV, a global deep tech fund focused on planetary and human health. SOSV has been the most active investor in climate tech since 2017 with over 150 startups backed. Benjamin works on deal flow, strategy and the annual SOSV Climate Tech Summit  (www.sosvclimatetech.com - Sept 26-27), a virtual and free event featuring top VCs and founders like Bill Gates and Chris Sacca, that attracts thousands every year. Born in France, Benjamin graduated with two MSc in Engineering, and worked in consulting, telecom, gaming for over a decade in China, Japan, South Korea and more, and was the founder of a cross-border consultancy on digital innovation. He is an angel investor in 20 startups including one unicorn. He has lectured at top universities including Berkely Haas, National University of Singapore and Zhejiang University where he gave a course on Deep Tech Ventures. He has written for TechCrunch, Forbes, VentureBeat and IEEE Spectrum, been featured on Bloomberg TV, WSJ, The Economist, Nature, Wired and spoke at tech events in over 30 countries.

Duncan is a General Partner at SOSV, and the Global Managing Director of HAX, the world’s first and largest VC-backed program for hard tech, based in Newark, NJ. He has invested in over 100 hard tech companies and serves on multiple boards in the climate, industrial and healthcare sectors.

Duncan has an extensive entrepreneurial background and deep experience fundraising and growing businesses across the globe. He has taken numerous technologies to market in various industries. Before joining SOSV, he led design and engineering strategy projects for Fortune 500 companies at the global innovation firm IDEO.

Duncan obtained his Master’s from the Royal College of Art & Imperial College. His design and engineering work has won multiple awards and is included in the permanent collection at The Museum of Modern Art. He has a deep passion for new technologies and engineering breakthroughs that can benefit our planet.