Bigger Than Us

NJ Ayuk is the Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber, CEO of pan-African corporate law conglomerate Centurion Law Group, and the author of Big Barrels as well as Amazon and Wall Street Journal’s bestselling Billions at Play: The Future of African Energy and Doing Deals. His experience includes advising major companies and governments on energy issues and investment strategies. NJ graduated from the University of Maryland College Park and earned a Juris Doctor from William Mitchell College of Law and an MBA from the New York Institute of Technology. https://njayuk.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Jennifer has over 20 years of experience in the energy sector, including a proven track record in the development and commercialization of fuels and chemicals technologies. Prior to LanzaTech, Jennifer was VP and General Manager of the Renewable Energy and Chemicals business unit at UOP LLC, a Honeywell Company. Under her management, UOP technology became instrumental in producing nearly all of the initial fuels used by commercial airlines and the military for testing and certification of alternative aviation fuel. Today, under Jennifer’s guidance, LanzaTech is working towards deploying carbon capture and reuse facilities globally to make fuels and chemicals from waste carbon. https://lanzatech.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Josh Brooks is a partner with WayBright, LLC, with office in Jacksonville, FL, Asheville, NC, and Torreon, Mexico. WayBright is a project development, finance, and management platform designed to accelerate the deployment of clean energy, clean water, and other infrastructure services across the U.S. and Mexico. Prior to WayBright, Josh served as aide to Amory Lovins, founder and former Chief Scientist of RMI, a world-leading energy and economy think tank. There, Josh focused on implementing integrative design across the energy-intensive sectors: transportation, industry, buildings, and electricity generation as well as utility business model innovation and energy regulatory reform which resulted in numerous successful legislative initiatives. Prior to RMI, Josh served as Project Developer for NTE Energy, a private sector energy production company, where he directed the company’s renewables development and related wholesale customer programs in multiple national markets. His work with NTE and other regional utilities produced some of North Carolina’s first community solar installations and one of the nation’s most diverse public generation portfolios at Appalachian State University, Josh’s alma mater. Today, along with his work at WayBright, Josh services as an advisor to the Council for New Energy Economics, which participates in electric-utility resource planning processes across the country and sits on the Board of Blue Link Pro, LLC, the first full-service partner for water and sewer utility infrastructure management, monitoring, renovation, and upgrade, including financing as beneficial to the utility. https://waybright.co/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Josh Dorfman is a sustainability entrepreneur and brand builder dedicated to scaling mission-driven ventures. He is co-founder & CEO of Plantd, a carbon-negative building materials company pioneering a new path to reach gigaton-scale carbon capture. Previously, Josh led Vine.com, an Amazon business unit specializing in natural, organic, and sustainable products. He has founded two award-winning modern design sustainable furniture companies: Vivavi, named to Inc. Magazine's "Green 50" as a pioneer accelerating the green economy, and Simbly, recognized by the National Wildlife Federation for its sustainable practices to preserve forest ecosystems. Earlier in his career, Josh was the author and host of The Lazy Environmentalist reality TV series on Sundance Channel, radio show on SiriusXM, and book series designed to make sustainable living easy, convenient, and delightful. Josh served for four years as the national spokesperson for Brita’s FilterForGood campaign to reduce bottled water waste. He currently serves on Governor Roy Cooper’s North Carolina Entrepreneurship Council.  Josh holds an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. https://www.plantdmaterials.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Sanjay Shrestha joined Plug Power as Chief Strategy Officer in 2019. Prior to joining Plug Power, Mr. Shrestha served as the CIO of a global solar IPP and President Sky Capital Americas since 2015.  Under his leadership, Sky Capital America built and acquired over 100MW of operating solar assets and secured pipeline over 100MW.  He also sourced various types of financing solutions to support this growth including project debt, construction equity and long-term equity. He brings almost two decades of experience in the broader clean tech sector to our team. Before global solar IPP, he led the renewables investment banking effort at FBR Capital markets. During 2014, and under his leadership, the firm was ranked among the top renewable energy underwriters in the U.S. Prior to joining FBR, Mr. Shrestha spent seven years as the global head of renewables research coverage at Lazard Capital Markets. During his tenure at Lazard Capital Markets, he was a member of the Institutional Investor All America Research team and was also ranked as one of the top five stock pickers on a global basis. Prior to Lazard Capital Markets, Mr. Shrestha spent seven years at First Albany Capital, where he built the firm’s renewables and industrial research practice. Starmine/Forbes Magazine ranked him the number 1 stock picker and the number 1 earnings estimator during his tenure at First Albany Capital. Mr. Shrestha serves as an independent director on the board of directors of Fusemachines, an AI company. https://www.plugpower.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Peter Kelly-Detwiler has 30 years of experience in the electric energy arena. He writes for Forbes.com and other publications on topics related to disruptive innovation and its impact on the electricity infrastructure. He provides strategic advice to clients and investors, helping them to navigate this transitional period. Peter is also the author of The Energy Switch - a book about how companies and customers are transforming the electrical grid and the future of power. Mr. Kelly-Detwiler has spent much of his career in various areas of competitive power markets. As Senior Vice President at Constellation Energy, he oversaw creation of VirtuWatt – a market leading platform to facilitate real-time awareness of electricity pricing and consumption and bidding of assets into competitive markets. He is currently writing a book on the transformation of electric power markets, to be published by Prometheus Books in the Spring of 2021. https://www.peterkellydetwiler.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Get motivated to step into 2023 with advice from our 2022 guests.  https://nexuspmg.com/

John has over 30 years of experience taking novel solutions from conception to reality across the energy, semiconductor and supercomputer industries. Prior to founding Rondo, John served as co-founder and vice president of development for GlassPoint Solar, the leading provider of solar thermal energy for industry worldwide. He is also the former founder and president of Ausra, Inc., a pioneer in solar thermal and solar electric systems. John launched his career as the lead engineer for Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy national lab, where he designed award-winning technology to support real-time fusion experiments. He is a published author of numerous technical papers and holds more than 20 patents in the U.S. and internationally. John earned a B.Sc. with Special Distinction in Computer Science from Yale University. https://www.rondo.energy/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Dr. Gruber, CEO and Board Member of Gevo, has spent over 30 years developing and commercializing renewable biobased technologies to replace petrochemicals. His teams have developed and commercialized several renewable resource-based products, including organic acids, plastics, fibers, advanced alcohols, hydrocarbon fuels, and the like.  Gruber led the development and commercialization of PLA at Cargill and co-founded Natureworks.  As CEO of Gevo, Dr. Gruber leads the business to commercialize Isobutanol for gasoline blendstock, renewable, low carbon jet fuel, and low carbon renewable gasoline. Dr. Gruber received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and biology from the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota, and a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Minnesota. He also earned a master’s degree in business administration from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Gruber has received numerous awards including: The George Washington Carver Award from BIO, The Presidential Green Chemistry Award, The Discover Award for Environmental Innovation from Discover Magazine, The Lee W. Rivers Innovation Award from CDMA, an Outstanding Achievement Award from the University of MN in 2011,  The Julius Stieglitz Award from the University of Chicago, The Kirkpatrick Award from Chemical Engineering, Design and Engineering Award from Popular Mechanics, Technology of the Year Award from Industry Week, Technology of the Year Award from United States DOE,  and numerous others.  Dr. Gruber was the editor of the two-volume book “Biorefineries—Industrial Processes and Products,” and holds more than 60 US patents, with several others pending. https://gevo.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Dr. Laura Lammers is the founder and CEO of Travertine Technologies, Inc., a start-up working to scale a new technology for carbon dioxide removal and inorganic chemical upcycling. Dr. Lammers obtained a PhD in environmental geochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 2012. Her expertise focuses on carbon mineralization and carbon cycling, as well as selective critical element extraction. She has spent the majority of her postgraduate career as an Assistant Professor in the Environmental Science, Policy, and Management department at the University of California, Berkeley as well as a Faculty Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Since its founding in 2022, Travertine has raised $3M in seed funding led by the Grantham Environmental Trust and Clean Energy Ventures, along with $2M in grant funding from the US Department of Energy ARPA-e program. Travertine was recently recognized as Chemical & Engineering News' Top 10 Start-Ups to Watch for 2022.  https://www.travertinetech.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Jason Salfi is co-founder and CEO of Dimensional Energy, a clean energy company that transforms carbon dioxide into the fuels and products that people use every day. Dimensional Energy’s mission is to replace the use of newly extracted fossil carbon from the supply chains for hydrocarbon-based fuels and products and do so in alignment with globally agreed upon climate justice practices outlined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Salfi has served as an Innovation Advisor for New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) from 2016 - 2019 In 1997 Salfi founded Comet Skateboards, a founding B Corporation, licensed in 2014, with the mission of building and sharing skateboards for space travel in ways that care for the earth and its community. His experience as a manufacturer led him to consult on product design standards and acquisition strategy, building profitable and regenerative business models for a market-leading fortune 500 company from 2015-2017.  He has a BS in Natural Resources Management from Cornell University. https://dimensionalenergy.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/ 

As an efficiency expert, Dan has spent the past 20 years eliminating waste for Fortune 100 Companies in a variety of industries. In 2013, Dan turned his focus to organic waste for his new venture, seizing on an opportunity to repurpose the billions of tons of waste biomass generated annually. In collaboration with Villanova University, he developed and commercialized Hydrothermal Carbonization technology that became the cornerstone of SoMax’s larger Resource Recovery Platform which transforms organic waste into advanced biofuels, carbon negative products, and fertilizers in a closed loop system. In 2021, SoMax’s Resource Recovery Platform was recognized as a grand prize winner of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Resource Recovery Challenge. https://somaxhtc.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

After serving in the United States Marine Corps, Jake dove headfirst into the oil and gas tech scene in 2013 co-founding some of the first cloud-based tech startups and later co-hosting the first podcast in oil and gas. Now, Jake is the co-founder at Digital Wildcatters and spends most of his time at the intersection of O&G and tech. https://digitalwildcatters.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

A mechanical engineer by training, Adam is a seasoned management executive with over 15 years experience building and growing companies across a variety of fields including 3D printing, ocean engineering, real estate, and Bitcoin mining. Prior to co-founding Vespene Energy in 2022, Adam was Director of Manufacturing for Mantle, Inc., a 3D printing company developing a new way to print high-precision metal components. Adam also spent 6 years as CEO of DeepFlight, a marine technology manufacturer that, under Adam’s leadership, expanded to become a global provider of personal and tourism submarines.  Adam has continued the family legacy to pursue and support climate-related causes – his grandfather founded the Oceanic Society, a non-profit dedicated to ocean conservation and research. Adam holds a degree in mechanical engineering from UC Berkeley and speaks fluent Mandarin. https://vespene.energy/ www.nexuspmg.com 

Manik Suri is the Founder and CEO of technology company Therma. Before founding Therma, Manik co-founded the Governance Lab (GovLab), an innovation center at NYU that developed technology solutions to improve government. He is a former Affiliate of Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and has held positions at global investment firm D.E. Shaw & Company and the White House National Economic Council.   Manik holds an A.B. in Government summa cum laude from Harvard College, an M.Phil in International Relations (Highest Honors) from Cambridge University, where he studied as Harvard University’s annual Paul Williams Scholar, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he earned numerous Dean’s Scholar commendations. He is  admitted to the California Bar, has published in leading academic journals, edited volumes, and national media outlets.   THERMA:  Therma° combats climate change by reducing the carbon footprint of one of the least understood and most significant causes of global warming: refrigeration. The global refrigeration system – the cold chain – warms the planet in 3 distinct ways: food waste, energy use, and refrigerant leakage. Therma’s integrated suite of software, IoT sensors, and equipment controls optimize refrigeration to reduce electricity usage and prevent catastrophic food loss. These customer benefits yield substantial energy savings and produce measurable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Therma° enables its customers to simultaneously improve business profitability and advance sustainability. For more information, please visit For more information visit us at www.hellotherma.com.  https://nexuspmg.com/

Dr. Megan O’Connor is the founder and CEO of Nth Cycle, a company that has developed and deployed an electro-extraction technology to recover critical minerals from battery waste. Dr. O’Connor holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Duke University and was previously an entrepreneurial fellow in the Innovation Crossroads program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. https://nthcycle.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Nick Myers is the co-founder and CEO of Phoenix Tailings, a company building a sustainable future by refining metals from mining waste with zero direct carbon emissions or toxic byproducts. Before founding Phoenix Tailings, Nick worked in Venture Capital at Techstars and was the Director of Finance and Partnerships for Meenta, a medical diagnostic testing startup. He also co-founded Huntington Angels, a strategic angel investment group where he now serves as the lead outside adviser. Nick was also a founding member of Tengu, an early Web3 startup that created one of the first stable coins. At Tengu, Nick briefed the IMF about decentralized finance and cryptocurrencies' impact on the world economy. Nick has a Bachelor's Degree from Saint Michael's College, where he was a starting pitcher for the college's baseball team. He also has an MBA from Northeastern University. https://www.phoenixtailings.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Scott is the founder and CEO of ReMo Energy. Scott most recently built and led First Solar’s PV + Storage (“PVS”) team. Reporting directly to the CTO, Scott’s group was tasked with developing this new line of business for the company. These responsibilities included characterizing the unique value proposition offered by PVS, communicating these benefits to both partners and prospective customers, optimizing the designs of prospective PVS projects, and coordinating the technical development and commercial offering of the company’s PVS product line. Scott has led the development of new energy businesses for most of his career. His previous roles included VP of Business Development for GMZ Energy and OsComp Systems. Prior to that, he was the CEO of four venture-backed energy startups. As part of these efforts he raised over $20M in venture capital, negotiated strategic partnerships and licensing agreements, built multiple technology teams, and directly contributed to the development of a number unique technologies. Education Scott holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. https://www.remo.energy/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Jim is a licensed Professional Geologist with 36 years of experience in the environmental field. In addition to his undergraduate degree in Geology, Jim has a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Science in Environmental Policy and Management. He has over 20 years of environmental consulting experience and has been at the Minneapolis Health Department for the past 12 years. Jim spent a year in Afghanistan with the Army National Guard as a Hydrologist on an Agri-Business Development Team. It was during this time that he first looked at biochar to improve soil health. Jim is currently the Carbon Sequestration Program Manager with the City of Minneapolis. https://nexuspmg.com/

Mark Toman is the Founder & President of EggTech, as well as a forward-thinking and mission-driven entrepreneur. Prior to founding EggTech, Mark held several strategic business development roles, focused in the areas of corporate strategy, innovation and partnership cultivation. After being involved in the mining industry, Mark identified the possibility of utilizing a vast wastestream from liquid-egg processing operations, which would otherwise predominantly go to landfill, in the interest of offsetting the need to mine for raw material, and in hopes of being in a position to manufacture a pure form of calcium (as well as other nutritionally advantageous ingredients) for supply into the premium nutritional/ingestible markets. Mark and his team were successful in developing an industrially-scalable and cost-effective process that has been formally patented in the US, Canada, Mexico, the EU, China, and India. Mark was invited to sit on the Innovation Advisory Council of the Canadian Food Innovation Network (CFIN) in order to contribute to the shaping and improvement of the Canadian innovation ecosystem in the FoodTech and AgTech sectors. Mark is a strategically-minded impact entrepreneur who is largely propelled by the desire to innovate, drive change, differentiate, and alter the landscape of an existing marketplace, while having a positive impact on the environment and create value where there previously was none, or very little thereof. Mark holds a B.A from Dalhousie University, is a proud husband and father of 2 children. He resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. https://theshellproject.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Suma is an entrepreneur, organizer and educator committed to solving some of our society's largest systemic challenges. Suma is Co-Founder/CEO of Future Acres, which builds advanced mobility and AI solutions for farms to increase production efficiency, farmworker safety and provide real-time analytics. She is a 3x AgTech + ClimateTech founder, is on the advisory board of Scale for ClimateTech, a Board Member of GrainPro, and teaches the Future of Food and Climate: Just Entrepreneurship at the NYC School of Visual Arts. She has also built and is active in inclusive tech communities, and has been awarded the White House Champion of Change for her Asian & Pacific Islander LGBTQ+ advocacy work. She started her career at a microfinance startup-turned-unicorn in India and was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali. She is a graduate of The Wharton School (MBA). https://www.futureacres.co/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Nicole Johnson-Hoffman is the CEO of Future Meat Technologies, bringing more than 25 years of experience across the agriculture, food manufacturing, food services, and meat production industries. Prior to joining Future Meat, Nicole was the Managing Director of Further Processed Foods for OSI Europe, based in Gersthofen, Germany. She led OSI's European processed foods division across Europe and served as Chief Sustainability Officer and Senior Vice President. OSI is one of the world’s largest privately held food manufacturers and is the brand behind leading food service and retail brands. OSI has been in business for 111 years and operates 57 facilities across 18 countries. Previously, Nicole spent 19 years at Cargill Incorporated, practicing law as in-house counsel, and worked in various leadership roles from financial services to beef plant operations in the US and Asia. From 2010 to 2013, Nicole was the General Manager of Cargill’s Fort Morgan, Colorado beef processing plant, one of the largest beef primary processing plants in the United States. During that time, she worked to increase the industry’s transparency with consumers, including making an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2011. Nicole was the founding Chairperson of the US Roundtable for Sustainable Beef and was elected to two terms as the President of the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef. She also serves on corporate boards as an independent non-executive director. She is a passionate advocate for continuous improvement in the food industry’s ability to feed the world sustainably. Nicole holds a JD from the University of Minnesota Law School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and a BA in International Relations from St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minnesota. https://future-meat.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

John has over 30 years of experience taking novel solutions from conception to reality across the energy, semiconductor and supercomputer industries. Prior to founding Rondo, John served as co-founder and vice president of development for GlassPoint Solar, the leading provider of solar thermal energy for industry worldwide. He is also the former founder and president of Ausra, Inc., a pioneer in solar thermal and solar electric systems. John launched his career as the lead engineer for Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy national lab, where he designed award-winning technology to support real-time fusion experiments. He is a published author of numerous technical papers and holds more than 20 patents in the U.S. and internationally. John earned a B.Sc. with Special Distinction in Computer Science from Yale University. https://www.rondo.energy/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Paul Bunje is the co-founder and CSO of Conservation X Labs, an organization that brings innovation to global conservation threats. Conservation X Labs is a leader in using technology and entrepreneurship to protect biodiversity using a mix of crowdsourcing, open innovation, directed research, and acceleration. Paul was formerly the Chief Scientist at the XPRIZE Foundation, where he led the impact strategy across grand challenge domains at XPRIZE, spanning civil society, environment, energy, health, and exploration. Dr. Bunje is a global thought leader in bringing innovation to solve environmental grand challenges. Paul was formerly the founding Executive Director of the UCLA Center for Climate Change Solutions, the Managing Director of the Los Angeles Regional Collaborative for Climate Action and Sustainability, and served on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council for Oceans. The American Association for the Advancement of Science selected Paul as one of 40 individuals that exemplify the thousands of AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellows who are dedicated to applying science to serve society. Paul is trained in biology, with a B.S. from the University of Southern California and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. https://conservationxlabs.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Curtis has been CEO of Hydrostor since its inception and has led the company through technology development into commercial operations. Prior to Hydrostor, Curtis was Sr. Manager in Deloitte’s Corporate Strategy Consulting Practice where he advised and consulted for some of the top energy companies globally. He has also held positions at nuclear generator Bruce Power and wind developer Environmental Electric Company. https://www.hydrostor.ca/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Jennifer has over 20 years of experience in the energy sector, including a proven track record in the development and commercialization of fuels and chemicals technologies. Prior to LanzaTech, Jennifer was VP and General Manager of the Renewable Energy and Chemicals business unit at UOP LLC, a Honeywell Company. Under her management, UOP technology became instrumental in producing nearly all of the initial fuels used by commercial airlines and the military for testing and certification of alternative aviation fuel. Today, under Jennifer’s guidance, LanzaTech is working towards deploying carbon capture and reuse facilities globally to make fuels and chemicals from waste carbon. https://lanzatech.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Ali Haji is the CEO of ION Energy - a leader in the exploration and development of lithium salars within Mongolia and a strong pioneer in the third wave of the green energy revolution. Since 2019 the company has been aggressively growing its assets in its extensive growth strategy through acquiring new resources and sites. https://www.ionenergy.ca/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Dan White began working in agriculture in high school at a family orchard outside of Gettysburg, PA. After completing his BA at Dickinson College in philosophy and political science, he moved to Italy where he did international business development work for Italian artisans, igniting his passion for business and sales. Prior to Clean Crop, he spent more than a decade working around the world in agricultural development and consulting. He has focused his career on finding novel technologies with the potential to sustainably grow more food with less resources and bring them to market, with experiences across the middle east, southeast asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. https://cleancroptech.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Lacey has a background in civil engineering with a concentration in water resources and environmental engineering. She is the CEO and founder of Olokun Minerals, a startup focused on improving the water quality of brine wastewaters by filtering out metals and minerals that can then be used for more productive applications. She is passionate about finding solutions that improve human-environmental interactions and increase clean water access for vulnerable communities. https://olokunminerals.com/ Bigger Than Us is a Nexus PMG production.

Taj Ahmad Eldridge is a 25+ year investment professional whose career has included high level executive roles in banking, asset management, alternative investments, and entrepreneurship. As General Partner of Include Venture Partners and former Senior Director of Investments at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI), Eldridge has built a longstanding career with expertise in the fields of fintech, media, energy, transportation, and the circular economy. Eldridge is also one of the 70 Black Investors in Bevy.com - a $325 million virtual conference platform as noted in AfroTech. Include Ventures website Bigger Than Us is a Nexus PMG production.

Ed McGinnis is CEO of Curio - a nuclear innovation and technology development company. A 30-year veteran of the Department of Energy, Ed previously served as Assistant Secretary of the Office of Nuclear Energy (Acting) and Executive Director of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.  Curio Bigger Than Us is a Nexus PMG production

Anthony Kane is President & CEO of the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure in Washington, DC where he oversees the organization’s overall operations and leads the development of the Envision framework for sustainable infrastructure. Kane also sits as a commissioner on the Washington DC Commission on Climate Change and Resiliency. Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure Bigger Than Us is a Nexus PMG production.

Jonathan is a founding partner of Intelis Capital and a member of its investment committee. Jonathan serves in all aspects of the firm’s operations, with a particular focus on developing investment theses, creation of internal processes and systems, sourcing potential investments, providing operational and strategic support to portfolio companies. Intelis Capital Bigger Than Us is a Nexus PMG production.

Erin Fitzgerald serves as Chief Executive Officer. She is passionate about encouraging contagious collaboration to build the sustainable food systems of the 21st century. Erin previously worked in dairy where she led a voluntary carbon goal, innovation projects, and sustainable supply chain framework. Erin has been recognized in Chicago’s 40 under 40, a White House Champion of Change for Sustainable and Climate-Smart Agriculture, and an Aspen Institute First Movers Fellow. https://usfarmersandranchers.org/ Bigger Than Us is a Nexus PMG production

A serial entrepreneur and a strategic investor, John has 20 years of experience founding and investing in technology-enabled companies in the communications, healthcare, finance and energy industries. Before co-founding Ample, John was a co-founder, president, and CEO of MedHelp, the largest consumer health platform offering tools, device integrations, and communities to millions of people empowering them to manage their own health. MedHelp’s platform powered online offerings of companies such as Walgreens and GE, until it was acquired by Merck Pharmaceuticals mid 2014. Following the acquisition, John served as the President of the Consumer Health and Healthcare Solutions Division of Aptus Health, a subsidiary of Merck. Prior to MedHelp, John led the Technology Practice of the Private Equity Group at Goldman Sachs, focusing on software and technology companies. Earlier, John co-founded Flash Communications, an Internet startup company that developed real-time two-way messaging systems, which was acquired by Microsoft. Furthermore, he co-founded Smartleaf, a financial software company. John holds a B.S. and an M.S. in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Collège des Ingénieurs in France https://ample.com/ Bigger Than Us is a Nexus PMG production

Roger Sorkin — Founder & Executive Director Roger Sorkin is an award-winning producer, writer, editor, and director of mission-driven films designed to strengthen civilizational security. Prior to founding ARP, Roger consulted with and created documentary and dramatic films for a wide range of nonprofit, academic and government institutions, including the U.S. Global Leadership Campaign, USAID, NATO, Flex Your Rights Foundation, American Cancer Society, and more. He has taught energy and environmental communication at the Fordham University Gabelli School of Business, and he has lectured at NASA, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and at the U.S. Naval Academy. Roger is a fellow with the Truman National Security Project, and he has served on the Climate and Security Working Group at the Center for Climate and Security, and on the Managed Retreat Expert Group with the American Society of Adaptation Professionals. After graduating in anthropology from the Johns Hopkins University in 1993, Roger worked as a public radio journalist and producer, as an English teacher in Spain, and then received a master of communication from Stanford University with a focus in documentary film. https://www.amresproject.org Bigger Than Us is a Nexus PMG production

John Belizaire is the CEO of Soluna Computing, the world’s first utility-scale company developing power plants and combining them with high-performance computing facilities. As a serial entrepreneur, John has successfully founded and scaled multiple industry-leading technology startups that have achieved market leadership and double-digit growth, including FirstBest, an insurance software company acquired by Guidewire, and The Theory Center, a software company acquired by BEA Systems. Before becoming an entrepreneur, John was the lead architect for Intel’s Digital Enterprise Group. About Soluna Soluna Computing builds modular, batchable computing centers for intensive applications like cryptocurrency mining, AI and machine learning. Soluna’s scalable data centers provide a cost-effective alternative to battery storage or transmission lines. Soluna Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: SLNH) is the leading developer of green data centers that convert excess renewable energy into global computing resources. Soluna Holdings was formed when Mechanical Technology, Inc. (MTI) acquired Soluna Computing in 2021. https://www.solunacomputing.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Pat Crowley is the founder and CEO of Chapul Farms, building and scaling modular insect farms. His diverse career path has had a singular focus of ensuring the food and water availability to future generations, with previous positions as a climate modeler, hydrologist, and agronomist in public and private sectors, and has more than 15 years working in the field of sustainable food and agriculture. He is founder of Chapul, LLC (2012), and introduced the first commercial edible insect protein on the US market. As CEO of Chapul Farms, he has helped integrate BSFL technology into operations for multiple Fortune 500 food/ag companies and some of the largest national and international waste management service providers, and regularly collaborates with the leading academic research institutions for insect food and agriculture development. Pat is Board Chair for the Industry Advisory Board for the National Science Foundation’s Center for Environmental Sustainability through Insect Agriculture.  https://www.chapulfarms.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Dr. Chris Wedding is a former environmental private equity investor, 3x entrepreneur, Board member, Duke University and UNC Chapel Hill professor, podcast creator (Climate Torch), newsletter author (ZERO), an occasional monk with 25+ years of meditation practice, and Founder of Entrepreneurs for Impact, which runs Climate Mastermind peer groups for climate change-focused CEOs and cofounders across the US and Canada. He brings $1B+ of investment experience, 50,000 professional students taught, too many mistakes to keep to himself, and an obsession with constant improvement. He’s also a husband, father of three, kayaker, hiker, ax throwing champion, and aspiring polyglot with failing language abilities in Spanish, Japanese, and Creole. https://www.entrepreneursforimpact.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Dr. BJ Johnson is CEO and co-founder of ClearFlame Engine Technologies, a growing startup dedicated to developing clean engine technology for heavy-duty truck, off-highway, and industrial applications. Together with co-founder Dr. Julie Blumreiter, BJ founded ClearFlame to develop solutions that increase the performance of and reduce emissions from internal combustion engines using decarbonized fuel, such as ethanol. BJ was the lead inventor on a patent filed by Stanford University for this work, which now forms the center of ClearFlame’s intellectual property. BJ’s passion and leadership for this work have helped him to secure investors and strategic partners, including the support of multiple industry manufacturers, agencies like the Department of Energy, the Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, and world-class accelerators like StartX, I-Corps, Ameren Accelerator, and WERCBench Labs. In 2021, BJ was named one of the Grist 50—an annual list of emerging leaders from across the US working on fresh, real-world solutions to our world’s biggest challenges—and competed in TechCrunch Startup Battlefield and SXSW Pitch. BJ earned his BS, MS, and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. https://www.clearflameengines.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Peter Kelly-Detwiler has 30 years of experience in the electric energy arena. He writes for Forbes.com and other publications on topics related to disruptive innovation and its impact on the electricity infrastructure. He provides strategic advice to clients and investors, helping them to navigate this transitional period. Peter is also the author of The Energy Switch - a book about how companies and customers are transforming the electrical grid and the future of power. Mr. Kelly-Detwiler has spent much of his career in various areas of competitive power markets. As Senior Vice President at Constellation Energy, he oversaw creation of VirtuWatt – a market leading platform to facilitate real-time awareness of electricity pricing and consumption and bidding of assets into competitive markets. He is currently writing a book on the transformation of electric power markets, to be published by Prometheus Books in the Spring of 2021. https://www.peterkellydetwiler.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Sarah Shanley Hope, Brad Hunstable, Ralph Chami, Joshua Aviv, H.G. Chissel, Jason Jacobs, Dr. Graciela Chichilinsky, Skye D'Almeida Catherine Von Burg, Juan Verde, Marc Conte, Steve Schmida, Azzedine Downes, Kelly Herring, Chante Harris, Catherine McLean, Jon Friedman Venkatesh Kini, Zecca Lehn, Katie Worth, Sharina Perry, Corey Glickman, Nneka Kibuule, Sunny Sanwar, Julia Armstrong D'Agnese

Dr. Graciela Chichilnisky is the co-founder and CEO of Global Thermostat, and co-creator of a carbon removal technology that can reverse climate change. Under Dr. Chichilnisky’s leadership, the company was awarded a Silver designation on Pepperdine Graziadio Business School’s 2020 Most Fundable Companies List, and its technology was chosen by MIT Technology Review as one of the Ten Breakthrough Technologies of 2019, a list curated by Bill Gates. In addition to her role at Global Thermostat, Dr. Chichilnisky is a Professor of Economics and Mathematical Statistics at Columbia University, and Director of the Columbia Consortium for Risk Management. Dr. Chichilnisky acted as the lead U.S. author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which received the 2007 Nobel Prize for its work in deciding world policy with respect to climate change, and she worked extensively on the Kyoto Protocol, creating and designing the carbon market that became international law in 2005. Dr. Chichilnisky is the author of more than 300 scientific articles and more than 15 books, including the recently published Reversing Climate Change and the award-winning Saving Kyoto, which won the American Library Association’s 2010 Outstanding Academic Title of the Year and the American Geographical Society’s Book of the Month Award in October 2009. She holds two Ph.D. degrees, in Mathematics and Economics, and her graduate studies were at MIT and the University of California, Berkeley. https://globalthermostat.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Julia Armstrong D’Agnese is Co-Founder and CEO of Earth Knowledge and is on a mission to provide the most authoritative integrated planetary intelligence, translating the complexity of our Earth Systems into clear actionable impact to help build a more sustainable world. Julia is an experienced leader in transforming businesses into sustainable operations and investments that are more resilient and actively contributing to the restoration of our planet. As Earth Knowledge’s CEO, Julia constructively challenges business and organizational leaders, advocating and driving reinvention through technology to deliver sustainable change. https://earthknowledge.net/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Sanchali founded Joro to empower people to take climate action that matters, starting with how they spend money. Prior to Joro, Sanchali worked on sustainable development in East Africa and South Asia at Dalberg, where she saw firsthand the devastating effects of the climate crisis for vulnerable populations, and at Tesla. Sanchali holds a BA from Princeton and an MBA from Harvard Business School. https://www.joro.app/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Matthew Kleiman is the co-founder and CEO of Cumulus. Prior to co-founding Cumulus, he was the Program Director at Shell TechWorks, Shell’s Skunk Works-style technology center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, focused on developing and deploying new technologies for Shell’s capital projects and operating facilities. Before joining Shell, Matt held various commercial positions in the biomedical and aerospace industries. When he isn’t working, you can find him enjoying time with his family, skiing, and scuba diving. https://www.cumulusds.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Sunny Sanwar is an engineer and entrepreneur who lived through cleantech 1.0 and is building the rails on which climatetech can thrive. He was formerly co-founder and CTO at Verd2GO, an energy storage startup. Currently he is Founder and CEO of Dynamhex, Inc - an intelligence platform for climate action planning for organizations. Sunny holds a bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering, a Masters degree in Public Policy and a PhD based on the clean economy, and was on the Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2019. https://dynmhx.io/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Nneka Kibuule is a Senior Vice President for Aligned Climate Capital LLC. In this role she focuses on investing in growth equity companies in energy, sustainable land use, clean transportation, resilient and efficient infrastructure. Previously, Nneka was the Director of Energy Innovation at Elemental Excelerator and worked at Pacific Gas & Electric and NextEra Energy Resources in several finance and strategy roles. She has experience in capital investments, stakeholder engagement,  customer strategy and experience, innovation, and organizational design. Nneka holds an MBA from Kellogg School of Management, a Masters in Energy Finance from Tulane, and a BS in Finance from Hampton University. She is the founder of GreenTech Noir a collective for elevating Black people working in ClimateTech. https://www.alignedclimatecapital.com/ https://www.greentechnoir.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Heidi Kujawa is the founder and CEO of ByFusion, an innovative manufacturing company on a mission to clean up the planet and block plastic waste for good. ByFusion's modular systems convert all types of plastic waste (including marine debris) into a high-performing, reusable building material made entirely of plastic waste. Heidi's passion for innovation, technology, and sustainability propelled her to embark on a mission to develop a viable, scalable solution to help address the global plastic crisis that threatens our waste management systems and our planet.  She is an accomplished, visionary leader with a 25-year track record of developing, executing, and managing strategic plans that address complex problems across multiple industries including management consulting, technology, construction, and sustainability.  https://www.byfusion.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Matt Prindiville is the CEO and Chief Solutioneer for Upstream®, a norms-disrupting non-profit sparking innovative solutions to plastic pollution and today’s one-way “throw-away” society. In this role, Prindiville works with entrepreneurs, policymakers and culture hackers to ideate and accelerate the transition from single-use to reuse. His responsibilities include content creator, spokesperson, brand strategist, executive leader, fundraiser, and relationship cultivator. Prindiville is a recognized thought leader within the plastic pollution community and helped found the global Break Free from Plastic Movement, the Cradle2 Coalition and the Make It Take It Campaign; and spearheaded the establishment of the Electronics Takeback Coalition, the Multi-State Mercury Campaign, and Safer Chemicals and Healthy Families Coalition, where he worked on dozens of successful legislative policy campaigns. Most recently, he has advised the United Nations Environment Program on their plastic pollution strategies and written for The Guardian, GreenBiz, and Sustainable Brands among other publications. Prindiville’s work has been featured in The Economist, The New York Times, Fast Company, on NPR’s 1A, Jack Johnson’s Smog of the Sea film, and 60 Minutes, among others. For more information visit UpstreamSolutions.org and www.mattprindiville.com. Follow Upstream on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. For a podcast on the story of Upstream listen here. https://upstreamsolutions.org/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Influenced and informed by time spent with the Indigenous in multiple countries, Ragland continues to engage in a long term photographic and film exploration into humanity’s relationship to culture and the wild. Recognizing culture to be an accumulation of ideas where we explore ways of exploring, this infinite play is where she’s found the best terrain to collaborate, listen carefully and recognize expansion due to authoring and co-authoring. Photographs and films have become her best challenge to create imagery that does not cause dispute but rather reconfigure who we are. She intends an aesthetic meant to push boundaries and bridge difference. In addition, Nicol has founded  REGENERATE OKLAHOMA - A state wide soil health initiative that seeks to advance the practices of regenerative agriculture. More of her work can be seen @ www.nicolragland.com https://nexuspmg.com/

Veeral Hardev is VP of Strategy at Ubiquitous Energy. Hardev has over a  decade of experience commercializing novel nano-materials products for the electronics industry. This includes his time at Nanosys, Inc. where he led materials and business development, and product management. Hardev holds an  MBA from the Berkeley Haas School of Business, and a bachelor’s degree in  Materials Science and Economics from UCLA. https://ubiquitous.energy/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Alison Blay-Palmer, the UNESCO Chair on Food Biodiversity and Sustainability Studies, is the founding Director for the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems and a Professor in Geography and Environmental Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University.  Her research and teaching combine her passions for sustainable food systems, biodiversity and community viability through civil society engagement and innovative governance. Alison collaborates with academics and practitioners across Canada and internationally including partners in Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Kenya, South Africa, and the United States . This work gained national recognition in both 2012 and 2019 when her partnership was one of three nominees for a national SSHRC Partnership Impact Award. Alison has been a member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists since 2016. https://www.balsillieschool.ca/alison-blay-palmer/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Corey Glickman is vice president and head of the Infosys Sustainability & Design business, which develops and deploys Smart Space technologies at private and public organizations. Corey has over 35 years of experience in industry consulting, providing advice on technology and business. He is an expert in strategic design, digital transformation, customer experience strategy, and the use of visualization applied to the development of innovative products, processes, and services. Corey specializes in the formation of design and innovation programs, overseeing execution teams, working in a global centers of excellence that creates breakthrough business solutions and technologies. Corey is a member of the World Economic Forum Pioneer Cities working group, and he is also a Singularity University faculty expert guest lecturer. He has served on review boards for publications like the Harvard Business Review, and he has won international design awards, including being named one of the 100 most influential designers of the decade by the American Institute of Graphic Arts. He lives in the Pittsburgh area. https://www.infosys.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Sharina Perry is a serial entrepreneur with a long history of starting and growing new ventures. Sharina perfected a patent-pending plastic alternative formulated into compounded plant- based resins using crops farmers plant in regular crop rotations. Utopia PlastixTM helps solve the problem of plastic waste, carbon emissions and promoting agriculture. Utopia's compounded plant resin allows manufacturers to use their current equipment as they produce the sustainable, alternative plastic products that the world is demanding. Sharina founded Utopia Genetics to distribute products made with Utopia Plastix, as well as Utopia Solutions that makes Utopia PlastixTM. Sharina says she invented Utopia PlastixTM to create solutions, not problems. https://utopiaplastix.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

KATIE WORTH is an investigative journalist who writes about science, politics, and their myriad intersections. She joined FRONTLINE in 2015 as the inaugural FRONTLINE-Columbia Tow Journalism Fellow, and in 2018 was selected as an O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism. She has worked on several FRONTLINE’S enterprise reporting projects and co-produced the cinematic interactive story “The Last Generation,” which won an Emmy for “Outstanding New Approaches: Documentary.” Her work has appeared in Scientific American, National Geographic, Slate, and The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2016. Worth grew up in Chico, California, just a few miles from Paradise, site of one of the worst of the massive fires that, because of climate change, are currently devastating the American West. During her reporting for Miseducation, she returned to her old middle school to find that climate change is being taught there as the subject of an unresolved scientific dispute, not a proven reality. https://www.amazon.com/Miseducation-Climate-Change-Taught-America/dp/1735913642 https://nexuspmg.com/https://nexuspmg.com/

Sara Enright is a Director of Collaboration at BSR (Business for Social Responsibility), where she oversees the design and facilitation of a portfolio of private sector collaborations that contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals.  BSR is an organization of sustainable business experts that works with its global network of the world's leading companies to build a just and sustainable world. Previously, she worked at the Business Call to Action, a multilateral alliance hosted by the UNDP focused on the advancement of inclusive business models that contribute to poverty reduction, and McKinsey & Company, where she consulted for global companies and development organizations on projects related to strategy, corporate social responsibility, and philanthropy. Sara has an MBA from IE Business School, and a Bachelor of Arts in Plan II and Latin American Studies from The University of Texas at Austin. https://www.bsr.org/en/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Brandon is an American broadcast journalist and serial entrepreneur with a social conscience. He is co-host of Southern California's longest running public radio program covering the digital revolution: KPFK 90.7 FM's Digital Village Radio. His segment, DigitalCulture.LA, co-produced and co-hosted with Brittney Gallagher, is on investigation into the history and future of science and technology and how computers and the internet are changing our society. Mr. Barney is a leading researcher on technological disruption and has advised government officials and corporate leaders from around the world on the impacts of emerging technologies. Brandon is committed to the advancement of the Southern California and specifically the innovation ecosystem known as Silicon Beach. Mr. Barney manages the Non-Profit, Intellectual Property, and Startup groups at the Barney Law Firm. He trains students of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds in after school and summer school programs throughout Southern California that provide Americans with real world experience on the front lines of technology working with the most innovative organizations to solve the biggest problems facing humanity. Brandon has made his home in the creative soul of Los Angeles: Venice Beach. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Venice Symphony Orchestra and the Open Temple and he volunteers at the Israel Levin Senior Center helping Los Angeles' most senior citizens live well. Brandon is working now to connect Silicon Beach to the new blue economy and the potential of seaweed to heal the sea, soil and air. They Say It Can't Be Done Move https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GFpvo4nguU https://nexuspmg.com/

Daron Babcock - Founder & CEO, Bonton Farms Disrupter. Social Justice Advocate. Sower of Seeds.   Moved by his personal beliefs, Daron Babcock, couldn’t sit idly by as he encountered his brothers and sisters in  South Dallas ravaged by institutional inequities. He left a  successful corporate career and moved from his home in North Dallas to serve inner-city residents of Bonton with his wife, Theda, for the past nine years. Known for crime, violence, and extreme poverty, Daron knew an intervention at the macro-level was not only necessary but possible in Bonton.  Daron is referred to as a “social entrepreneur,” having started multiple successful social ventures; Bonton Honey Company, The Market at Bonton Farms, a Coffee House, a Farmers  Market, CityBuild Housing, and most notably, Bonton Farms, one of the largest urban farms in the United States. Daron is not only the Founder and CEO, he is the perpetual visionary and re-inventor of what’s possible. Bonton Farms is so much more than a farm, it is the catalyst that is helping to level the playing field; creating the systematic change necessary so the residents of Bonton and as a  model to other marginalized neighborhoods across Dallas and the country can achieve the  “American Dream” that was promised 200 years ago.  “Our goal is not to simply grow food because we’re in a food desert, but to address WHY  Bonton is a food desert. We’re not here to fix broken people, but to be the hands and feet to fix broken systems. https://bontonfarms.org/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Jeff Gold is founder and CEO of Nexus, a plastics-to-oil conversion company utilizing advanced designs and technology to achieve high energy efficiencies, oil yield, and high quality chemical feedstocks. Under Jeff’s leadership, Nexus has advanced quickly to become the global leader in sustainable, circular molecular recycling. Prior to starting Nexus, Jeff founded and is president of a 30-year-old technology-based high-hazard chemical remediation, engineering and management firm currently serving governmental and industrial clients around the globe. Jeff is the named inventor on over 30 patents that helped propel this specialized company to its world-class reputation. Jeff is also the founder and president of an ISO 9001 engineering and manufacturing company specializing in high-pressure containment devices and high-hazard robotic handling systems for the global industrial gas industry. Jeff holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University. https://www.nexusfuels.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Ryan Hunt has degrees in Physics and Bioengineering from the University of Georgia. Ryan has a passion for circular technologies including algae, photosynthesis, and thermoplastic compounding. Ryan co-founded ALGIX that creates sustainable technologies for environmental restoration and biomaterials under the BLOOM brand. His team collaborates with government and corporate partners for cleaning air and water pollution and transforming waste into consumer products. https://algix.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Zecca Lehn is the General Partner of Responsibly Ventures, based in California, backing U.S. PreSeed startups in both Social and Sustainable Tech—using multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a guidepost per investment. Over the past 15+ years, he has worked as an Environmental Economist, Data Scientist, Non-Profit Board Member, and Co-Founder. He grew up in an off-the-grid Japanese-style home, on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest. Through his world travels and living in Scandinavia during his early 20’s, he discovered a deep love for people, planet, and diverse cultures. For the past years, he has produced the podcast posi2ive, on Venture Scale Positive Impacts. He also leads regular community roundtables and interviews on Clubhouse – for posi2ive’s current community base of 4k+ members. He also manages the *VC Impact Capital Community* — an invite only private network of GPs / LPs / Angels / Family Offices focused on positive impacts. He holds a degree in Environmental Economics from Western Washington University, and a Certified Specialization in Data Science from Johns Hopkins University. Additionally, he’s certified under the UN Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). He often speaks on panels, podcasts, and publishes articles on the PreSeed VC impact arena. https://www.responsibly.vc/about https://nexuspmg.com/

Venkatesh Kini is co-founder of Ubuntoo, a global environmental solutions platform that helps scale impactful innovations that address the planet’s biggest challenges. Venkatesh holds 30 years of experience in marketing and general management with some of the world’s most reputable brands and corporations. Prior to founding Ubuntoo, Venkatesh served as President, India and