Tuesday,
November 20, 2007
Tomorrow's Clean Energy Today
Meeting Overview
The clean energy business is massive both in the
scope, scale and diversity of the opportunities it provides.
However, achieving these opportunities can be extraordinarily
difficult. At stake are not only straightforward matters of
energy supply and usage, but related matters of national security,
interfacing with an aging infrastructure, working with a regulatory
environment that is often decades old, and competition from fierce
and massive incumbent players. The academic infrastructure of
the Boston area has led to local leadership in the development of
many cutting edge Clean Energy technologies, and the EntreTech Forum
will engage some of those local leaders to understand how industry
leadership is evolving in this vast and challenging space.
The Entretech Forum's Clean Energy panel
discussion will focus on unraveling and simplifying the highly
complex business and regulatory opportunities and challenges faced
by academic researchers and would-be entrepreneurs as they seek to
deliver their cutting edge ideas into the marketplace.
Keynote:
Paul Afonso -
Former Chairman Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and
Energy; Partner – Brown Rudnick
Mr. Afonso is currently Co-Practice Leader of Brown Rudnick’s Boston
Government Law & Strategies Group. With 20 years of energy,
legislative and regulatory experience and a strong background in
international trade law, Mr. Afonso is noted for his expertise in
regulatory policies and legislation related to electricity, gas,
water, cable television, telecommunications, pipeline engineering
and safety, railway, trucking and bus services.
Mr. Afonso served as Chairman of the
Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Energy (DTE) from
2003 to 2005, and remained on the DTE board as a commissioner until
joining Brown Rudnick in June 2006. While at the DTE, Mr. Afonso
also served as Chairman of the Energy Facilities Siting Board, the
agency charged with reviewing major generation, electric
transmission, gas storage facilities and certain gas pipelines. This
agency also represents the Commonwealth before the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission on projects within Massachusetts that are
subject to that agency's jurisdiction. As Chairman, he oversaw the
review of a key petition for the Cape Wind project, the nation's
first major off-shore wind project. He also led the review of a
major infrastructure project with a 345 kV electric transmission
line into the greater Boston area.
Mr. Afonso is also the former General Counsel for the Massachusetts
DTE, where he acted as chief legal and policy advisor to the
chairman and commissioners. In this role, he helped oversee state
regulatory policies, governing rates and quality of service for
electric generation, gas supply, telecommunications, cable
television and transportation.
Complementing his background in state matters, Mr. Afonso brings
extensive experience in federal regulatory issues. He has served as
legislative liaison to federal regulatory agencies, including the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC). Assisting the Office of the Attorney
General, he has also defended DTE orders on appeal before the
Supreme Judicial Court and federal courts.
Mr. Afonso received his JV from Georgetown University after completing
his undergraduate degree in Finance at Boston College’s Carroll
School of Management.
Moderator:
Mark A. Barnett – Attorney – Foley Hoag
As Co-Chair of Foley
Hoag’s Energy Technology and Renewables Practice, Mark Barnett has a
business law practice with a special focus on renewable and advanced
energy technology companies and projects. He represents advanced and
renewable energy technology companies in general corporate matters,
venture capital and other equity and debt financings, merger and
acquisition activity, intellectual property transactions, joint
ventures and partnerships and energy-specific regulatory matters.
His client and industry experience includes companies involved in
biofuels, solar photovoltaics, wind energy, wave energy, biomass
gasification, anaerobic digesters, hydrogen generation and fuel
cells. Mark also advises on the commercial application of efficiency
technologies, advanced lighting, alternative vehicles and other
emerging technologies.
Mark also advises project developers in all
aspects of development, including debt and equity financing, joint
ventures and partnerships, supply and off-take agreements,
and regulatory matters. His work includes helping clients contract
for the purchase and sale of renewable energy credits and other
attributes associated with renewable energy generation. Mark also
represents investors with respect to fund formation and closings and
company-specific transactions that focus on the energy industry.
Mark also has substantial
background and experience in assisting non-profit organizations.
Much of this work involves organizations with an environmentally
responsible emphasis. His pro bono clients include the Energy Access
Foundation; Green Markets International; Occupational Knowledge
International; Root Capital; Red Tomato; and Oke USA Fruit Company.
Immediately prior to his time at Foley Hoag, Mark
served as Counsel to the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund, a
quasi-public agency receiving $20 million per year to invest
and support clean energy projects, technologies, and education.
Prior to that, Mark was Strategy Group Director for 4charity.com, a
provider of web-based charitable giving solutions for internet
portals and non-profit organizations. Mark also co-founded and
served as lead consultant for Nesta Advisors & Capital, an
international strategic consultancy in the areas of environmental
technology, aquaculture, and marine biotechnology, and worked in
Israel as a researcher and project liaison for a USAID-sponsored
Joint Israeli-Palestinian Water Research Project.
Mark has both his BA degree and JD from Yale
University.
Panelists:
Abigail Barrow,
Ph.D. - Founding Director - Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center
Dr. Abigail Barrow is the Founding Director of the
Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center (MTTC). She is responsible
for the overall management of the MTTC and the development of its
programs. Prior to joining the MTTC, Dr. Barrow served as managing
director of William J. von Liebig Center at the University of
California San Diego (UCSD). The von Liebig Center was created in
2001 to support the commercialization of research being performed in
the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering. She has also served as a
member of the board of directors of the Center for the
Commercialization of Advanced Technologies Consortium (CCAT), which
assisted in the identification and commercialization of technologies
in the area of crisis and consequence management and received more
than $25 million in federal funding from the Office of Naval
Research.
Dr. Barrow worked in a variety of roles at UCSD CONNECT from 1990 to
2001. At CONNECT, she developed and expanded many of its programs to
support early-stage company formation and technology
commercialization. The CONNECT program is now internationally
recognized and has been successfully replicated in other regions of
North America and in Europe.
Dr. Barrow is on the board and is Chair of the Massachusetts Office
of International Trade and Investment (MOITI) and is on the board of
the National Collegiate Inventors and innovators Alliance (NCIIA).
In addition, she is a Fellow of the Beyster Institute at the Rady
School of Management at UCSD.
Dr. Barrow received her Ph.D. from the Science Studies Unit and a
B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Edinburgh.
David Berry - MD, PhD, Principal – Flagship
Ventures
David Berry is a Principal at Flagship Ventures. He joined Flagship
in 2005 while completing his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. David
was previously awarded a Ph.D. through the MIT Biological
Engineering Division, where he studied the biological effects of
complex sugars with advisors Professor Ram Sasisekharan and
Professor Robert Langer. David also did his undergraduate work at
MIT, graduating in 2000 Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi, with a degree
in brain and cognitive sciences. David was named as a member of the
MIT Corporation - its Board of Trustees - in 2006.
David's work has led to 11 peer-reviewed publications, over 20
patents and applications, as well as over twenty-five awards and
honors including the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Student Prize in 2005
for invention and innovation. David was also named as the Innovator
of the Year by Technology Review in its 2007 TR35 list of world’s
top 35 innovators under the age of 35.
At Flagship, David focuses on investing in and founding early stage
life science and cleantech ventures.
G. Bickley Stevens – Partner – Ardour
Capital
Bic has over 30 years experience in both
venture capital and corporate finance and has been active in the
venture capital industry as a member of three venture firms; first
as a Vice President with Paine Webber’s Ampersand Funds, then as the
President of Eastech Management Company, as most recently as a
Managing Director of Zero Stage Capital where he directed the Firm's
clean technology investments. Bic has been a director of 28 high
technology companies, including Konarka Technologies where he was
the initial seed investor.
John Palmer – CEO Vanguard Solar
John is CEO of Vanguard Solar, an early stage
firm based in Sudbury, MA with a proprietary process to eliminate
the high-heat furnaces needed for traditional, silicon-based solar
cells, as well as the weight of traditional solar panels. The
firm’s manufactured flexible solar material -- using carbon
nanotubes – is “grown” in such a way that its thin-film material can
be manufactured in almost any roll-to-roll printing plant. Vanguard
believes its program will change the cost structure of producing
solar materials, thereby making solar a much cheaper source of
energy for commercial and residential buildings.
John was formerly a senior executive at Biogen
where he served in a wide range of roles, including Marketing &
Business Development, Operations, Cardiovascular Program management,
and finally Senior Vice President of Program Management, overseeing
all Biogen Development Programs. John has also worked at
General Foods Corporation, Caribbean Emergency Medical Air
Transport, Inc., and Strategic Planning Associates in Washington,
D.C.
John received his MBA from The Wharton School,
a BA in International Finance and Psychology and a AS degree in
Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Santa
Barbara. From 1972-1977 he served as an infantry officer in
the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division.
Bill Davis – CEO Ze-Gen
Bill has served as Ze-Gen’s CEO and President and
as a Director since its founding in July, 2004. Ze-gen is a
leading developer and integrator of waste gasification technology
which converts construction and demolition waste (C&D) and municipal
solid waste (MSW) into near zero-emissions synthetic natural gas (syngas)
and electrical energy.
Prior to founding ZE-gen, LLC, Mr. Davis’
career in business has included launching numerous companies,
Database Marketing Corporation in 1986, Holland Mark Advertising in
1997, Jump Jot Authentication Technologies in 2001, and Cambridge
Brand Analytics in 2003. Additionally, Mr. Davis was founder and CEO
of INSTIGO, a firm launched in 2001 to provide marketing and
business strategy advice to senior management and leveraging his 25
years of business and marketing strategy work with category leaders
such as WW Grainger, Coca Cola, IBM, Sam's Club, Dreyfus, and
Fidelity Investments. Mr. Davis serves on the Board of Directors of
the International Institute of Boston and the Boston Harbor Islands
National Park.
Bill graduated from Connecticut College in
1979.
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