Executive Committee
Executive Judging Committee
Tod Hynes
Citizens Energy, Director of Alternative Energy
Tod Hynes is the Director of Alternative Energy for Citizens Energy and is focused on building a wind development business within Citizens. Over the last four years, he successfully developed and sold 232.3 MW of wind projects, and expanded Citizens’ wind business to include over 750 MW of projects in active development and an extended pipeline of over 2,000 MW. He directs project acquisition, development and management activities and assists in company strategy and operations. Tod also reviews and develops new alternative energy business opportunities for Citizens Energy in energy efficiency, CDM, biofuels, gasification, solar, transmission and other sectors of the energy space.
Prior to joining Citizens Energy, Tod was the Principal Director and Co-Founder of Strategic Energy Systems, a consulting and engineering services firm focused on distributed power generation. He was also the Co-Chair of the Energy Committee for CERC, the organization that “greened” the 2004 Democratic and Republican National Conventions. Tod is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he received his Bachelor of Science in Management Science.
Brian Curtis
Entrepreneur In Residence, Qiming Ventures
Brian is an Entrepreneur in Residence with Qiming Ventures in Shanghai and its sister fund Ignition Partners in Seattle. He focuses on energy, environment and resource investments. Brian also acts as an independent consultant and advisor to clean energy start-ups and the US Department of Energy. Recent cases include cellulosic ethanol, electrification of cars, synthetic biology for biofuels, nano-materials for clean catalysts and food/air/water quality. Brian came to Qiming from Shanghai New Margin Ventures where he was a Venture Partner.
Brian first came to China in 2003 as founding General Manager for Heritage Technologies Asia, which operates a series of environmental protection joint ventures in South China. Under his management, the company structured its partnerships, built a chemical plant and established a Chinese distribution network. Brian works from a foundation of 2 formative experiences early his career: first, as a hydrogen and alternative fuels engineer for Chevron and, then, as an IT entrepreneur whose company was acquired in pre-bubble popping 2000.
Brian holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and remains active in the global MIT community. He is a judge for the MIT Clean Energy Entrepreneurship Prize and recently co-founded the Shanghai chapter of the MIT Enterprise Forum. During school, he was the Lead Organizer for the MIT $100K Business Plan Competition and dedicated much of his time to developing entrepreneurial programs across campus. He received the Patrick J McGovern, Jr Award for outstanding contribution to entrepreneurship at MIT and the Sloan Senate Award for leadership in the MIT Sloan community. Brian holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from UCLA.
Brian is a native Californian splitting time between Shanghai and San Francisco.
David Danielson
Senior Associate, General Catalyst Partners
David is a Senior Associate with General Catalyst Partners, where he focuses on early stage company creation and investment in the areas of clean energy and advanced materials. Prior to joining General Catalyst, he performed his doctoral work on clean energy materials at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he created and taught multiple MIT courses on materials for clean energy. David has a background in the semiconductor industry, having worked for Intel, Applied Materials, and IBM. He is the author of 20 scientific articles in the field of advanced materials and is the holder of one U.S. patent, which has been licensed to industry.
David is the founder of the MIT Energy Club and currently sits on its Executive Committee. He is also the co-founder of the MIT Energy Conference and the New England Clean Energy Council, a non-profit collaborative organization focused on bringing together regional thought leaders and experts to apply New England innovation towards solving the world’s energy problems. For his work toward building a strong multidisciplinary energy community at MIT, David was awarded the Karl Taylor Compton Prize, MIT’s highest award presented to a student. He also sits on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Chesonis Family Foundation, a philanthropic organization devoted to supporting fundamental research in the field of clean energy.
David holds a Ph.D in Materials Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, where he graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kapp.
Steve Derezinski
Managing Director, Platform Technology Ventures
Mr. Derezinski is currently Managing Director of Platform Technology Ventures, a venture consulting business, helping universities and other organizations with a portfolio of intellectual property create the right strategy to build successful ventures for long-term growth and economic sustainability. Prior to Platform Technology Ventures, Mr. Derezinski was Founder and Director of Georgia Tech’s VentureLab, and worked closely with faculty members on commercializing their technologies, by helping them focus on specific target markets and drilling down to understand the real strength of their technology. Reviewing over 200 technologies which lead to 8 high-growth startups, raising a combined $43M in VC funding. The Georgia Tech VentureLab program has launched 16 companies that have gone on to raise $189M in capital. Mr. Derezinski received an MBA at MIT Sloan School of Management as an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow; his research focus is on university-based startups. In addition, Mr. Derezinski also holds a S.B. degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and is a past-President of the MIT Alumni Club of Atlanta, and has served on MIT’s National Alumni Association Board of Directors.
Mark Lester
Managing General Partner, Proveance Venture Partners, LLC
Mark A. Lester is Managing General Partner of Provenance Venture Partners, LLC, a venture investment firm targeting pre-seed to mezzanine stage opportunities leveraging technological innovations rooted in the physical sciences. He also serves as Managing Director of Forge Partners, LLC, a technology commercialization services, venture creation and investment management company targeting opportunities involving truly innovative technologies of physical sciences origin, with particular interest and expertise in the nanotechnology-enabled and life science domains. By leveraging its internal capabilities, network of experienced consultants, and access to capital as management company for Provenance Venture Partners, LLC, Forge is able to effectively blend Intellectual, Human, and Financial Capital to develop and implement commercialization strategies for a diverse client and technology base.
Mark has over 24 years of leadership, management, strategic business development and operations experience, including 16 years experience in entrepreneurial services and technology development and delivery in the technology and life sciences industries. He has served as senior executive at two startup ventures based in the Boston area, and played a key role in the founding, development and strategic sale of one of these to a publicly-traded company. He currently serves on the board of two Provenance portfolio companies.
Mark received a B.S.E. in Naval architecture and Marine Engineering from the University of Michigan, a Masters in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, and was certified Chief Engineer of Navy Nuclear Propulsion Plants while serving as a U.S. Navy Nuclear Submarine Officer.