Venture – Advisors Downstate

Zach Nies is the Founder of Growing Lean and the former Managing Director at Techstars for the Boulder program. In addition he is a member of the faculty at the University of Colorado at Boulder. His whole career has been dedicated to entrepreneurship at startups and inside large companies. He is using that experience guided by his core value of Learn, Do, Teach, Learn to help companies of all sizes successfully bring new products and services to market. At CU, he is an Advisory Board Member for the Silicon Flatirons Center and an Executive Advisory Board Member for the College of Engineering and Applied Science. Before joining Techstars, Zach was Chief Technologist at Rally Software.

As Director of Investments for Clean Energy Ventures, Lou brings more than twenty years of experience as a technologist in large and small companies and investing in early and growth stage companies. In his investing role, Lou works with deal teams to source, screen, and diligence new investments, as well as support portfolio companies on technology, markets, strategy, and commercialization.

Prior to joining Clean Energy Ventures, Lou was co-founder, partner, and CTO at NewWorld Capital, which focused on investments in later stage clean energy companies. Notable investments at NewWorld included a pre-IPO round with Solar Edge and growth round with Astrum Solar.

Prior to NewWorld, Lou served as a Managing Director at Ritchie Capital, a hedge fund, where he oversaw a legacy portfolio of energy and environmental businesses. Prior to Ritchie, he also ran the high-power product line of direct methanol fuel cells for MTI micro overseeing a team of engineers developing battery replacement technologies for military and civilian application.

From 1997 to 2005, Lou held a variety of positions at General Electric’s Corporate Research and Energy groups. Lou facilitated GE’s entrance into both solar and wind energy. He also led GE’s solid oxide fuel cell program which developed novel cathode materials, hybrid cycles, and unique deposition-based manufacturing processes. In his role as head of the solid oxide fuel cell program, Lou led a team with more than 100 scientists and researchers in five facilities and participated in strategic partnership negotiations, mergers and acquisitions, and government relations.

Lou currently serves on the advisory committee for National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine Climate Communications Initiative and has participated in expert panels and the assessment of ARPAe awards. Lou is an active speaker at energy and technology conferences and has established a strong network of relationships with national labs and university technology and TLOs to help commercialize innovative technologies.

Lou was trained as a physicist and co-authored papers in accelerator physics, space physics, and biophysics as well as earning ten granted US patents. He holds a B.S. in Physics from Union College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, and an M.S. in Physics from Cornell University.

Ramsay is a Partner at Earthshot Ventures, a new venture capital fund launched to support entrepreneurs tackling climate change. The fund is designed to bring together new and existing networks in the climate tech space to more rapidly scale critical solutions. Previously, Ramsay worked as the managing director Elemental’s accelerator. She looked after core accelerator functions: the portfolio of 117 companies, the accelerator curriculum, dealflow e ngine, and the selection process.

Ramsay has worked in climate tech commercialization. She supported the growth of Sequoia and DBL-backed smart metering startup eMeter which was acquired by Siemens AG. Following the acquisitions, she supported the international expansion of eMeter’s software technology through channel partners in the Asia Pacific region. Prior to that, she developed solar PV projects for public sector clients in Northern California.

Ramsay graduated with a Bachelor of Policy, Management and Planning with a Minor in Architecture from the University of Southern California. She also holds a Master of Planning and Design from the University of Melbourne with a graduate research thesis on smart grid planning and communication.

Outside of the office, she is an artist, traveler, and data enthusiast.

Alex is currently Global Head of Retail Energy Solutions Business at Volvo Cars. He is also an active board member and advisor, investing in and engaging with organisations in different sectors driving entrepreneurship, sustainable growth and positive impact. He brings 20 years of executive leadership experience that ranges from heading business units and global functions for top multinationals in several industries, to scaling impactful start-ups across sectors. Previous roles include Global Head of New Business & Innovation Area at IKEA, were he led the creation, incubation, and deployment of new business platforms and innovative solutions in strategic areas (eg. circular & digital transformation, secondhand marketplace, b2b services). And Global Head of IKEA Energy Services, delivering a new growth engine and business area for the Group. Making key contributions to the strategic corporate development agenda, and strengthening the position of IKEA as a global leader in sustainability, innovation and cleantech solutions.

Before IKEA, he held various global leadership roles in Supply Chain, R&D and Engineering functions, delivering positive impact for leading multinationals in Food Processing & Packaging (Tetra Pak), Medical Device & Healthcare (Coloplast) and Automotive (Rotrex – Maersk) industries. And co-founded a leader in Industrial Insulation in Central America (Intermica).

Alex holds Mechanical and Industrial Engineering degrees from Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (Spain) and Danmarks Tekniske Universitet (Denmark), an Executive MBA with specializations in sustainability and innovation from University of Reading, University of Cambridge and Harvard Business School respectively (UK & US). He has Guatemalan, Spanish and Swedish nationalities and lives with his family in Malmö, Sweden.

Pulakesh is Managing Partner at Imperative Ventures. Before Imperative, Pulakesh spent ten years at BASF Venture Capital sourcing and executing investments in the energy, agriculture, chemical, and industrial sectors. During that time he served as a director or observer on the boards of early stage technology companies. Prior to his role in venture capital, Pulakesh gained over ten years of experience in international business development, sales, marketing, and chemical process scale-up while working at BASF. He serves on the NREL Investor Advisory Board and is an advisor and mentor at Cyclotron Road and Creative Destruction Lab.

Pulakesh has a PhD from Stanford University and a M.Sc. from IIT Kanpur, India. He has published in peer-reviewed journals and has co-authored more than 15 patents.

Rasha is the Chief Product and Sustainability Officer at Aspen Technology. She is a seasoned executive and innovation leader with a proven track record in product management, product marketing, engineering, strategy, planning, and lean thinking. Over a series of leadership roles for Trane Technologies, GE, SAP, Hitatchi, Lucent Technologies, and GM, Rasha developed a keen sense of transforming the customer experience through data-driven solutions. Throughout her career, she has consistently leveraged her technical and business background to bridge the gap between market expectations and technology solutions in engineering-driven companies.

Rasha is also Executive Director of Trane Technologies’ Center for Healthy and Efficient Spaces (CHES). The center serves as a convening resource to unify and scale strategies and solutions to create safer, healthier, and more efficient environments across the breadth of the company’s business portfolio – including spaces in homes, buildings, and transportation. As executive director, she leads engagement with integrated internal and external advisory councils and technology partners. In leading both innovation and CHES, she is the focal point for Trane Technologies on the topics of indoor environmental quality, bringing innovative thinking and a customer focused approach to this critical topic.