Dr. Jay Amarasekera is a Senior Manager in SABIC Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation which is one of the world's top diversified chemical companies. Prior to this role, he served as the Technology Manager for Performance Chemicals and Innovative Plastics business units of the company. Before SABIC, Jay served in many managerial positions in General Electric's former Plastics and Silicones businesses both in USA and China. Prior to joining GE, Jay worked in BASF Corporation's Colorant & Coatings and Performance Chemicals divisions. Jay holds a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, USA.

David Berokoff is the Director of the Energy Practice at Larta. David has over 38 years of experience in the energy industry, covering a wide range of disciplines including C-level suite executive support, business strategy and the development and commercialization of emerging technologies. David was lead developer and manager of Sempra Energy's uniquely successful emerging technology investment portfolio. Throughout his career. He has ample experience with the identification of customer needs and related business opportunities, design of innovative solutions, implementation of project plans, contract negotiations, construction and commissioning activities. David holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from California State University Los Angeles with post-graduate studies in energy systems analysis and economics at UCLA and the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Jason Blumberg Jason is a Managing Director at Energy Foundry, a leading early stage venture capital fund that builds groundbreaking energy companies. Jason sets the firm's vision, leads investments, and coaches entrepreneurs. Energy Foundry has backed some of the top entrepreneurs and companies in the energy space. Jason is also Executive Director of ISEIF, the nation's largest independent smart grid education fund. He is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where he leads its energy and cleantech lab. Jason is also a Board member of multiple high growth companies and is on the Advisory Boards of a number of leading industry organizations. Jason and his work have been featured by numerous media outlets. He was named by NBC as one its top "Eco-preneurs" and WGN as their "Entrepreneur of the Week". He received a MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, receiving the Dean's Award of Distinction and a BA from Michigan State University.

Adam Duran is the co-director of the Shell GameChangerTM Accelerator Powered by NREL (GCxN) a unique public-private partnership between Shell and the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) focused on discovering and advancing emerging clean technologies. Targeting companies with a novel early-stage technology idea, a provable concept, and demonstrable value, GCxN aims to provide start-ups with the support necessary to move from an idea on a chalk board to a commercial product deployed in the marketplace. Prior to serving as GCxN co-director, Adam spent over a decade performing transportation research at NREL working with a range of companies to develop, validate, and deploy emerging technology. Adam holds a M.S. in Engineering and Technology Management, and B.S./M.S degrees in Mechanical Engineering all from the Colorado School of Mines.

Marcos Gonzales Harsha
Deputy Director, Partnerships & Investment
Marcos serves as the Deputy Director for Partnerships and Investment at the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Technology Transitions. In conjunction with the Director, Marcos works with program offices within DOE as well as with DOE's National Labs with the objective of enhancing private sector investment for DOE-funded projects.
Prior to joining the Office of Technology Transitions in November 2017, he served in roles of increasing responsibility in the erstwhile Office of the Undersecretary for Science and Energy (S4), starting in 2013 as a budget advisor and departing as the Deputy Chief of Staff. During his time with S4, Marcos led an effort to stand up six interdisciplinary crosscutting teams covering topics ranging from the energy-water nexus to grid modernization; these teams have a budget footprint of nearly $1 billion of DOE's R&D portfolio. In his capacity with S4, Marcos also helped to stand up both the Office of Technology Transitions and the Energy Investor Center. Marcos has also served as a voting member of the Project Review Committee tasked with reviewing all new loan guarantees recommended for approval by the DOE Loan Programs Office.
Over the course of his career, Marcos has worked on impact evaluations of microfinance programs in Peru and Bolivia, served as an energy and trade analyst with the Council of the Americas in New York City, and survived a bout of the entrepreneurial bug while living in Lima, Peru for a year. He also spent some time in the finance industry in 2008 with a mortgage insurer (wrong industry, wrong time).
Marcos holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Princeton University and a master's degree in international affairs with a focus on international finance from The Fletcher School at Tufts University.

Diane Hickey-Davis As a Principal Advisor for Larta's Commercialization Assistance Programs, Diane Hickey-Davis is a commercialization expert with over 20 years of experience translating technology into products and revenue. In addition to strong communication skills, Diane has deep technical expertise in the microscopy, semiconductor, photonics, and material sciences industries. Her business expertise lies in commercialization, sales strategy, new products introduction, start-ups, and strategic marketing with a proven track record of quickly growing revenue for established companies and start-ups. Diane holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Auburn University, an M.S. in Materials Science & Engineering, a partial-M.S. in Science Communication from the University of Florida, and a Ph. D. in Materials Science & Engineering from the University of Florida.

Roger London
CEO Corporate Links
Our speaker, Roger London has worked with startups and F500 companies as a principal, investor or strategic/business planning advisor in almost a one billion dollars of transactions and awards. He has over 25 years of experience working with corporations, as well as being an entrepreneur, merchant banker, security incubator manager, technology scout for the defense and intelligence community, corporate venture capitalist, angel investor and entrepreneur mentor.

Ryan Riebau leads custom development commercialization at Air Squared, an innovator in scroll compressor, vacuum pump, and expander manufacturing out of Broomfield, Colorado. As a business to business specialist, Ryan has supported successful lab to market transition for Phase II SBIR Project under the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-e), NASA, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and DOE. In two years at Air Squared, he has directed commercialization and grant writing efforts that helped Air Squared raise over $4 million in non-dilutive funding for 10 different SBIR projects. Ryan received his bachelor's in business economics from Fort Lewis College and earned his master's in Mineral and Energy Economics from the Colorado School of Mines

Dr. Sanjiv Malhotra is the CEO of PLUS and AUI Ventures as well as the Founder and CEO of a stealth-mode battery technology company called SPARKZ. He has raised almost $150 Million from Venture Capital, Public Equity, Pension Funds and Family Offices for his 2 ventures (Oorja Protonics and H Power Corp). He also led an IPO for H Power on NASDAQ and raised $100 million in August 2000. This capital has been deployed for converting science and early-stage technology into commercial products globally in various markets. As the First Director of the Clean Energy Investment Center at the US Department of Energy he led the activity to establish and scale-up the Investment Center.

John McKenna, a career energy-technologies investment and commercial banker, is the CEO of Hamilton Clark Sustainable Capital, Inc., a FINRA-member investment bank and SEC broker dealer. He originally formed HamiltonClark in 1990, sold it to Price Waterhouse in 1997, and restarted the firm in 2003. During the interim period he was CFO of STM Power, a venture-financed energy technologies company. Prior to STM, he spent 21 years as a Managing Director with PricewaterhouseCooper's Securities, Lehman Brothers, and Dean Witter Reynolds in New York, Houston, and Washington, DC. Prior to that he spent 10 years as a Vice President in the Energy Group at Citibank in New York. He has served on the boards of Equus Corporation, a business development company (now NYSE: EQS), Proler International Corp., the world's largest scrap steel recycler (formerly NYSE: PS), and numerous charitable and civic organizations including the Technical Advisory Committee of the joint DOE/USDA Biomass Research and Development Initiative. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service degree from the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and has served as an Adjunct Professor at the McDonough Graduate School of Business at Georgetown where he taught the course titled Project Finance.

John Meissner is the Managing Director of MXV Ventures, and has spent his career as an entrepreneur, business consultant, and technology advisor focused on the renewable energy and sustainability sectors. His clients and projects have included the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the California Sustainable Energy Entrepreneur Development Initiative (CalSEED), New Energy Nexus, Cleantech Open West, the World Bank, national research organizations, and several clean energy startups. MXV is the brainchild of John and the founders of Momentum (formerly Grant Farm), a consulting firm with over a decade of experience developing successful public/private partnerships in cleantech. Momentum has helped create over $1B in project value through it successful campaigns, and MXV leverages this unique capability to help early stage startups navigate the notorious cleantech Valley of Death. John is based in Oakland, CA and has B.S. and M.S. degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the University of California, San Diego.

Rohit Shukla is the CEO and Founder of Larta, and is an established thought leader and respected practitioner on innovation, commercialization, and enterprise and technology-led economic development. He has advised governments, multilateral organizations, communities and enterprises throughout the world, creating initiatives that expand entrepreneurship, and enhance the competitiveness of regions across many parts of the globe. Rohit's knowledge of key issues in several industries has led to a unique career. He directed a prominent group of CEOs of Fortune 500 companies in the defense, electronics and aerospace industries, which included Peter Drucker, Bill Perry (former U.S. Secretary of Defense), and Malcolm Currie, CEO of Hughes. Rohit has a Master's in Social and Political Sciences from Cambridge University, England, and a Master's in Communications Arts and Sciences from Loyola Marymount University, LA.

Bill Staby is co-founder and CEO of Resolute Marine Energy which is developing a technology that harnesses ocean wave energy to produce clean water and electricity for off-grid communities in developing countries and islands. Bill is a director of the World Ocean Council and U.S. Head of Delegation to IEC TC-114 which is developing international standards for the marine renewable energy industry. Bill is also actively involved with the Marine Energy Operational Management Committee of the IECRE which is building conformity assessment (certification) protocols for the marine renewable energy industry.
He is a member of the Technical Advisory Committee of the North Carolina Renewable Ocean Energy Project and of the Humanitarian Committee of the Caribbean Desalination Association.
Previously, Bill was an investment banker at First Boston, Rabobank International and Prudential Securities and he earned his MBA from New York University.

Dr. Diana Bauer is currently senior technical manager for strategy at DOE's Advanced Manufacturing Office. Among her responsibilities is providing leadership and coordination for the Water Security Grand Challenge. Prior to joining AMO, she directed the Office of Energy Systems Integration Analysis within the Department of Energy (DOE)'s Office of Policy, where she and her staff analyzed and addressed complex, urgent systems issues in technology, policy, and markets. She was the lead author of The Water-Energy Nexus: Challenges and Opportunities, which was published by DOE in 2014. Before coming to DOE, Dr. Bauer led the extramural sustainability research program at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which focused on green engineering, green chemistry, green buildings, and transportation systems. Dr. Bauer received her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from U.C. Berkeley and her undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from Princeton University.

Claudia Cantoni has served as the Commercialization Program Manager for the DOE SBIR/STTR Programs since 2016. She manages the Commercialization Assistance Program implemented by Larta, and the Phase I PI Meetings, which she introduced in 2017. Claudia focuses on improving SBIR/STTR commercialization outcomes and working with the DOE National Laboratories for technology transfer. Prior to joining DOE, Claudia was a materials scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for 16 years. Her research resulted in 5 R&D 100 Awards, 3 U.S. patents and 150 technical publications. Claudia holds a masters' degree in Physics from The University of Naples Federico II, Italy, and a Ph.D. in Physics from The University of Salerno, Italy.

Mike Dobbs is the Deputy Chief Counsel for Intellectual Property at DOE, Office of Science - Integrated Support Center in Chicago. Mike leads the Department's Center of Excellence in Intellectual Property Law, which is responsible for over $5B in R&D efforts, including 9 of the 17 DOE Laboratories and a yearly workload including over 1,600 inventions reports, 2,000 award closeouts, 100 Cooperative Research and Development reviews and 250 Strategic Partnership Project reviews. Mike drafted and prosecuted over seventy-five patent applications, drafted the intellectual property provisions for the SBIR/STTR awards and worked with the Small Business Association (SBA) on changes to the SBA's Policy Directive. Mike earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Valparaiso University and his Juris Doctor from Valparaiso University Law School.

As the Eastern Regional Outreach Director for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Elizabeth Dougherty carries out the strategic direction of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO, and is responsible for leading the USPTO's East Coast stakeholder engagement. Focusing on the region and actively engaging with the community, Ms. Dougherty ensures the USPTO's initiatives and programs are tailored to the region's unique ecosystem of industries and stakeholders.

A career employee of the USPTO, Ms. Dougherty has held a number of previous positions at the Agency including Senior Advisor to the Director of the USPTO. She began her career at the USPTO as a patent examiner after graduating with a bachelor's degree in physics. While a patent examiner, Ms. Dougherty went on to obtain her J.D. and served as a Senior Legal Advisor in the Office of Patent Legal Administration for a significant part of her career. Over the years, she has also served in the USPTO's Office of Petitions, the Office of Innovation Development, and the Office of Government Affairs.

Dr. Chris Fall serves as Director of the Department of Energy's Office of Science, the lead federal agency supporting fundamental scientific research for energy and the nation's largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences. The Office of Science also is responsible for stewardship of 10 of the Department's 17 national laboratories. Before joining the Office of Science, Fall served as a Senior Advisor to the Undersecretary for Energy and as Acting Director of DOE's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). Fall came to DOE from the Office of Naval Research (ONR), where he served for more than seven years in a variety of roles. While on loan from ONR, Fall served for three years in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as Assistant Director for Defense Programs and then as Acting Lead for the National Security and International Affairs Division. Before government service, Fall was a faculty member at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Fall earned a Ph.D. in Neuroscience and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Virginia. He also holds an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

Special Agent David Gadren has served at the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Inspector General since October 2008, during which time he has successfully investigated and prosecuted a variety of offenses related to DOE's operations, including: money laundering, extortion, criminal conflicts of interest, bribery and embezzlement, export control and other national security violations, and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). SA Gadren has been assigned to various task forces with partner agencies, including five years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation working national security and corruption matters, and is regularly consulted by other government agencies on matters pertaining to the international nuclear industry. Prior to his time at DOE SA Gadren worked for the Executive Office of the U.S. Attorneys, Department of Justice, in New York and San Francisco, assisting in investigations involving violent crimes/federal firearms offenses, public corruption, and securities fraud.

Jennifer Garson is a Senior Advisor in the Water Power Technologies Office at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), focused on utilizing prizes and other financing mechanisms to support R&D in hydropower and marine renewable energy. She has spent 10+ years at DOE in multiple roles, including as the Chief of Staff for the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Renewable Power in EERE, a Senior Open Innovation Advisor for the DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions, and a Program Manager in EERE’s Technology to Market office. Her work has primarily focused on increasing the DOE’s use of prizes, challenges and ecosystem support programs. This has supported hundreds of startups across the country through novel training programs, competitions, challenges linking solutions to major corporate partners, helping validate companies' technologies, and establishing new national and regional networks. Jennifer earned her B.A. in Anthropology and Environmental Studies Concentration at Kenyon College and her Master of Public Policy at George Washington University.

Dr. Tina Marie Kaarsberg is Technology Manager in the Energy Department's Advanced Manufacturing Office within Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy where she serves as AMO's SBIR Portfolio Manager, as an SBIR Technical Topic Manager and as an Technology Manager for non-SBIR projects. Immediately prior to AMO, she served as the EERE program office Portfolio Manager and National Laboratory Planning Advisor in the EERE's Office of Strategic Programs. Prior to her EERE role, she held numerous positions throughout EERE (industrial technologies, distributed and renewable power, bioenergy, geothermal and buildings technologies) and the DOE Policy Office where she often managed SBIR projects and coordinated office SBIR portfolios. Prior to DOE she served on the Professional Staff on the House of Representatives Science Committee where she had oversight over most DOE non-defense R&D programs. She also held positions with Sandia National Laboratories, Vista Technologies and the Northeast-Midwest Institute as a Senior Scientist and Policy Advisor. Dr. Kaarsberg came to Washington from a faculty position in UCLA's Physics Department when she was selected as an American Physical Society Congressional Science fellow and served in the Office of Pete V Domenici (R-NM). Previously she conducted particle physics research at UCLA, Brookhaven National Laboratory and Cornell University. Tina was graduated from Yale University with a BA in physics and received her doctorate in Physics from Stonybrook University. Dr. Kaarsberg is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and has published more than 60 articles on a wide range of topics including energy efficiency, renewable energy, physics and R&D policy.

Dan Miller directs Innovation Crossroads, a fellowship program based at Oak Ridge National Laboratory that matches aspiring energy entrepreneurs with the experts, mentors, and networks in technology-related fields to take their world-changing ideas from R&D to the marketplace. Before Innovation Crossroads, Dan started and led several public-private partnerships focused on commercializing ORNL technologies. Prior to ORNL, Dan was a licensing associate at Rice University and a mechanical design engineer at Wright Industries. Dan has an MS and MBA from the University of Tennessee and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Kettering University.

Manny Oliver has served as the Director of the SBIR/STTR Programs Office within the Department of Energy since 2010. He manages a portfolio of approximately 800 early stage R&D projects that encompass the diverse mission areas of the Department of Energy. Manny has focused on improving outreach to under-represented groups, streamlining the operation of the programs, working with the DOE National Laboratories, and improving commercialization outcomes. Prior to joining DOE, Manny spent 16 years leading applied R&D and commercialization efforts at Motorola where he received 18 U.S. patents. Manny held positions as an Assistant Professor at MIT and as a Member of Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories. He received both his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Materials Science from MIT.

Mark Sojka is one of two Department of Energy, Integrated Support Center – Chicago Office SBIR/STTR Team Leaders, and has been since May 2012. Mark currently manages a team of five specialists who evaluate, negotiate, award and administer over 500 grants annually under the DOE Office of Science's SBIR/STTR Program. Mark has 27 years of Federal Government experience in the procurement field including 9 years with the Department of Veteran Affairs, 4 years with the General Services Administration and 14 years with the Department of Energy.