Top 20 Cleantech Investors… Who Are Women

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11. Susan Preston
General Partner, CalCEF Clean Energy Angel Fund (CALCEF)

Susan Preston has spent most of her career in senior management positions, from general counsel to CEO, in public and private companies. She has also been a partner in two national law-firms and is a patent attorney. Preston is a world-recognized expert in angel financing and is the author of numerous articles, white papers, and books on the subject.

Before her work at the California Clean Energy Fund, Preston founded Seraph Capital Forum in 1999. In 2012 she told Opportunist Magazine, “the forum came out of the frustration I saw with women not getting into deals as investors. Even though they were very experienced professionals capable of making intelligent investment decisions, women were being excluded from the club. So we decided to start our own club. The forum is still around today.”

On the topic of her clean energy investment work, Susan continued on to say the sector has received undue attention and an unfair magnifying glass, “because of Solyndra and other large, public clean tech failures, but this is an amazing opportunity at this time. We must be counter-intuitive in our investing and think differently about it and look at the specifics and realize that when everybody else takes their eye off the ball, this is the best time to invest.”

Susan received her JD, cum laude, from Seattle University and her BS, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, in Microbiology and Public Health from Washington State University.

Rohini Chakravarthy12. Rohini Chakravarthy
Partner, New Enterprise Associates
@rohini_c

Rohini Chakravarthy focuses on information and energy technology investments at her position at NEA. She is on the boards of cleantech firms of EnVerv and Pinnacle Engines, and works closely with other NEA portfolio companies.

Interviewed by Bloomberg Business Week on the question of success of a new engine with better fuel efficiency, Chakravarthy dodged some of the political rhetoric of the interviewer by emphasizing that going greener often is just the better financial option. “We go to countries where markets are demanding better fuel efficiency. People in Indonesia and India who are buying their first cars, fuel efficiency is more of a pocket book issue. Just like people went from no phones to cell phones. People will go from little energy consumption to clean energy consumption.”

Chakravarthy received her MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, an MSEE from Case Western Reserve University, and a BTech. from the Indian Institute of Technology–Madras, also in electrical engineering.

Whitney Rockley13. Whitney Rockley
Co-founder & Managing Partner, McRock Capital

Rockley brings over 15 years of investment, operating and strategic planning experience in large, established industries such as power, water and oil & gas.

Prior to co-founding McRock Capital, Rockley was a Partner with Emerald Technology Ventures and Nomura New Energy Ventures. At Nomura, Rockley focused on investments for growing expansion stage companies who want to develop energy and water solutions. Before becoming a partner at Emerald Technology, Rockley spent a decade managing cleantech capital funds for an international bank, a large Canadian power and water company (EPCOR), and Canada’s largest oil and gas company.

While working at EPCOR, Rockley took the initiative to establish an energy and water venture fund. Moreover, thanks to her efforts, the company’s greenhouse gas emission reduction portfolio was built. A graduate with an MBA from the University of Calgary, Rockley has worked for over a decade making large strides in the investment side of the cleantech field.

http://www.angelenogroup.com/ViewImage.aspx?f=UXIN_BioImg_MeganGuy.jpg14. Megan Guy
Vice President, Angeleno Group

Guy is a Vice President at Angeleno Group and focuses on the firm’s investments in Australia and the U.S. across sectors including carbon, energy and efficiency finance, intelligent transportation, water and agriculture. Prior to joining Angeleno Group, Guy spent several years at Goldman Sachs in New York and Sydney, Australia, where she was a member of the natural resources investment banking team and was a founding member of the firm’s environmental markets and strategy group. In 2009, she served as a Recovery Act Fellow at the U.S. Department of Energy. She holds an AB from Harvard College in Environmental Science and Public Policy, an MS in Environment and Resources (with a focus on nuclear and clean energy technologies) from Stanford University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she was an Arjay Miller Scholar.

kim15. Kim Stevenson
Associate Director, Technology Innovation, Connecticut Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority

Kim Stevenson has over 15 years of experience working with the senior management of Fortune 500 corporations, as well as smaller organizations to conceptualize new products and services that serve the energy, industrial, and automotive markets.

In her role as Associate Director of Technology Innovation, Stevenson is responsible for advising the development and commercialization of new clean energy technologies. The Connecticut Clean Energy Fund, created in 2000 to invest in clean energy projects, capitalizes on Connecticut’s clean energy industry, which, in 2010, was “estimated to represent approximately 1 percent of total employment in the state and more than $780 million in direct revenues” according to Stevenson in The Hartford Business Journal. As she mentioned to The Hartford Courant in 2009, “Connecticut has a number of things going for it that has placed us ahead of other states in renewable energy.”

Ms. Stevenson received her MCP in Urban Planning as well as her BS in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to working at The Connecticut Clean Energy Fund, Stevenson acted as the Principal of Stevenson Consulting Group where she specialized in the development and commercialization of energy conservation and cleantech products and services.

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16. Alexa Leon-Prado
Managing Director, CleanTech and Electronics Supply Chain Investment Banking at Citi

Alexa Leon-Prado is Managing Director in Citi’s Global Technology Investment Banking Group and Global Head of Citi’s CleanTech practice. While she has worked in London and New York, Ms. Leon-Prado is currently based in Palo Alto, California.

At Citi, she works with different public and private companies in the area of cleantech, hardware, supply chain, test and measurement, and industrial sectors. In terms of cleantech, Ms. Leon-Prado covers solar, energy storage, electric vehicles, smart grid, and energy efficiency. Also, she has worked with the alternative energy teams of corporate clients involved in industrial energy and power.

Ms. Leon-Prado received her MBA from Harvard Business School and her BA in International Relations from Tufts University. Before working for Citi, her fluency in Spanish enabled her to work in Caracas, Venezuela for Markets at the Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF). Prior to CAF, Ms Leon-Prado participated in the executive program at Banco Industrial, S.A. in La Paz Bolivia.

17. Candice Eggerss
Managing Director, Firelake Capital Management

Candice Eggerss joined Firelake Capital Management in 2003 as the managing director. At Firelake Capital Management, each individual works as a separate entity doing individual research, analysis, and portfolio management to create a detail-oriented team. Firelake Capital Management invests in companies that capture opportunities and develop sustainable energy sources to help them become cost leaders in their markets. With investments in solar, carbon, and global food supply, Firelake Capital Management has emerged as a cleantech-minded investment management firm.

Eggeress is a member of the board of EOS Climate and the Berkeley Public Education Foundation and a member of the Advisory Committee of the Berkeley Startup Cluster. She is also a board observer of Solexant and ZeaChem. Eggerss began her financial career in 1985 at Morgan Stanley and has a BS in Biology from Stanford University and an MBA from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business.

18. Moonkyung (Moon) Kim
Founder, Managing Director, Peony Investments
Senior Advisor, SOW Asia Foundation
Cleantech Venture Partner, Spring Capital Asia
Independent Director, China Hydroelectric Corporation

Moonkyung Kim is the Founder and Managing Director of Peony Investments (Hong Kong) Limited where she provides investment, advisory, and board leadership to green businesses in Asia Pacific. Kim is also a Senior Adviser to SOW Asia Foundation, a non-profit venture philanthropic organization in Hong Kong where she provides advisory support in fundraising, investment opportunity sourcing and execution, and portfolio management. She also serves as a cleantech Venture Partner at Spring Capital Asia, where she does early growth equity investment in Chinese cleantech companies. Kim has been an Independent Director at China Hydroelectric Corporation since September 2012. Kim earned her BS in Environmental Engineering from Harvard University and an MBA, with a major in Finance, from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Kelsey Lynn19. Kelsey Lynn
Director at Imperial Innovations
@kelsey_innovate

Kelsey Lynn joined Imperial Innovation in 2011. She has worked in energy technology since 2003 and previously worked as partner at Firelake Capital Management, where she focused on private investments in the cleantech sector.

While at Firelake Capital Management, Lynn mentioned to zoomforth.com, “Our thesis is to recognize that the world and the infrastructure that was built for a population of 1 billion people will not support a population of 10 billion people.”

Today, Lynn works passionately on new technology innovations and investments. She specializes particularly on materials and resource productivity.

“I think you should find a job like mine if you love tracking innovative change and trends and going deep into a variety of sub-sectors and helping to build billion dollar companies.”

Lynn graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with a BS in mechanical engineering. At Stanford she joined the Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP) and played on the women’s Rugby team. In 2011, Lynn was featured in Forbes 30 Professional Under 30 in Energy.

Andrea Bolger20. Andrea Bolger
Head of Business Financial Services for RBC’s Canadian Banking division

At RBC, Andrea Bolger helps invest in sustainability in Canada and the United States. A major part of her role at RBC is setting the direction and leading lines of business to serve small businesses and commercial clients. In fact, one investment from RBC was towards the Farm & Foodcare Foundation, which develops and supports communication with Canadians helping to build confidence and trust in Canadian food and farming.

Bolger recently participated in the 2013 GLOBE Series of Conferences and Trade Fairs, a conference that gathers sustainability experts from around the world. Her particular participation was a roundtable entitled “Is Sustainable Retail an oxy-moron?” where members explored sustainability as key to ensuring the long-term success of businesses.

In a report by RBC and the Farm & Food Care Foundation, Bolger noted, “Canadian farmers have an established track record as leaders in sustainable farm management. With continued investment in innovative technology and energy efficient equipment; farmers can capitalize on the many productivity benefits of sustainable business, while ensuring access to global markets, now and in the future.”

If you know any other women in this critical field, please send us their names, and we would be happy to add them to our next list.

Lisa Ann Pinkerton is Founder of Women In Cleantech & Sustainability, a San Francisco Bay Area group dedicated to the advancement of women in various environmental and technology sectors. She is also Founder and President of Technica Communications, where she handles marketing and public relations strategies for cleantech and biotech companies. Pinkerton is a former award-winning broadcast journalist who reported for National Public Radio, PBS Television, WPXI-NBC, American Public Media, and Free Speech TV.


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