Loading Events

« All Events

  • This event has passed.

Investor Speaker Series: Insights from Early-Stage Climatetech Investors

June 12, 2020 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm UTC+0

Free
Join us for the fifth installment of our Investor Speaker Series, taking place virtually on Friday, June 12, 2020 from 12:00 – 1:30 p.m.

Is your climatetech startup in the midst of fundraising or considering raising capital in the coming months? Are you wondering how COVID-19 is affecting the early-stage investment landscape?

If so, please join us for the fifth installment of our Investor speaker series on the theme of early stage investment into climatetech and cleantech. The event will include opportunities to engage with investment professionals from diverse backgrounds with experience providing capital to startups from a wide variety of sources. We will share perspectives on how to build company resilience, manage investor relationships, and approach fundraising in an uncertain economy affected by COVID-19.

Speakers:
  • Nancy Pfund, Founder and Managing Partner of DBL Partners
  • Emily Kirsch, Founder and CEO of Powerhouse and Managing Partner of Powerhouse Ventures
  • Libby Wayman, Investor at Breakthrough Energy Ventures
  • Emily Reichert, CEO of Greentown Labs (Moderator)
Nancy Pfund:

As a pioneer and leading player in impact investing, DBL has helped to reveal the power of venture capital to promote social change and environmental improvement. Nancy writes and speaks frequently on the field of impact investing. She sponsors or sits on the board of directors of several companies, including: Farmers Business Network, The Muse, Advanced Microgrid Solutions, Primus Power, Zola Electric, Andela, Bellwether Coffee, Spatial, and, prior to their public offerings, Tesla and Pandora. She also served on the board of SolarCity, and was on both the audit and compensation committees, and also chair of the corporate governance committee from 2008 until its acquisition by Tesla in December 2016. Nancy was a recipient of The Commonwealth Club 2018 Distinguished Citizen Award and the Earth Day Network 2018 Climate Visionary Award. She was featured #17 in the 2014 FORTUNE Inaugural World’s Top 25 Eco-Innovators and appeared on Fast Company’s 2016 List of Most Creative People in Business.

Nancy serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Geographic Society, where she chairs the Compensation Committee and sits on the Finance, Investment and Governance Committees. She is a member and Chapter Chair of the Silicon Valley Women Corporate Directors Foundation. She is a member and former chair of the Advisory Council of the Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford University; an advisor to the UC Davis Center for Energy Efficiency; and co-chairs the Yale School of Management Program on Entrepreneurship.

She has been a lecturer in management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Yale School of Management and is a C3E Ambassador to the U.S. Clean Energy Education and Empowerment Program, led by the U.S. Department of Energy. From 2001-2019, she was also a founding officer and director of ABC2, a foundation aimed at accelerating a cure for brain cancer. She was also a founding member of the California Clean Energy Fund from 2005 to 2012. Prior to founding DBL, Ms. Pfund was a Managing Director in Venture Capital at JPMorgan, having started her investment career at Hambrecht & Quist in 1984. Previously, Ms. Pfund worked at Intel Corporation, the State of California, Stanford University and the Sierra Club. Nancy received her BA and MA in anthropology from Stanford University, and her MBA from the Yale School of Management.

Emily Kirsch:

Emily Kirsch is the Founder and CEO of Powerhouse and Managing Partner of Powerhouse Ventures, which backs entrepreneurs building the future of energy and mobility. Emily launched and hosts the Greentech Media podcast Watt it Takes and serves on the Investment Advisory Board of NYSERDA. In 2019 Emily was selected as a World Economic Forum Global Leader. Her work has been cited in Bloomberg, The Guardian, TechCrunch, and The New York Times.

Libby Wayman:

Libby Wayman is an investor with Breakthrough Energy Ventures, an investor-led fund created to accelerate the transition to clean energy and a clean economy. Libby has over 15 years of experience in clean energy and technology including multiple startups and executive roles in leading energy companies. In previous roles, Libby led clean technology innovation at GE as the Global Director of Ecomagination Innovation, served as the Director of the Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative at the U.S. Department of Energy, and held several roles in technology development in the solar industry including SunPower and Alion Energy. Libby started her career in entrepreneurship, and holds a BS and MS from MIT.