Clean Technology Panel
Leading the global Green Economy
In the State of the Union Address, President Obama stated that “the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy.”
Our hypothesis: Will China become the leader in the Green Economy, propelling its leadership in global economy?
A February analysis by HSBC Global Research in Hong Kong projects that nearly 40 percent of China’s proposed $586 billion stimulus plan—$221 billion over two years—is going toward public investment in renewable energy, low-carbon vehicles, high-speed rail, an advanced electric grid, efficiency improvements, and other water-treatment and pollution controls. This stimulus is on top of historic levels of government spending and private investment in renewable technology, energy efficiency, and low-carbon growth all across China. The upshot: China, according to a recent analysis, is “the largest alternative energy producer in the world in terms of installed generating capacity.”
In the Clean Tech Panel, we can structure our discussions about Asia around the following aspects:
- Government policy, regulations, investments, tax incentives
- Huge market potential, growth, and strategic imperatives for governments and companies to foster clean energy development
- Scientific research and technological breakthroughs
- Venture financing on startups and growth companies, and project financing for large scale power generation and infrastructure projects
- What are challenges, difficulties and roadblocks for clean energy development in Asia
- How do Asian countries collaborate with developed countries in regulation coordination, technological transfer, and financing?
Panelists
David Li Gong, Venture Partner, Tsing Capital
Mr. David Li Gong is the Venture Partner of Tsing Capital, the first cleantech capital management firm in China with a serial of China Environment Funds under management.
Mr. Gong has over ten years of technology business creation and operational experience in the high tech, retail and clean tech sectors. Prior to CEF, David is the Secretary General and a board member of US-China Green Energy Council and the Managing Director of Terraza Venture, a CleanTech business and financial advisory firm in both the US and China. Prior to that, David was a founding partner and VP of Business Development for Hoosier Genetic Engineering, a CleanTech/Alternative Energy company providing technologies to produce ethanol from cellulosic biomass. He was also the founder and CEO of JudoSoft, a startup providing intelligent outsourcing value management services to global companies.
James Zhang, Ph.D., Entrepreneur in Residence, Khosla Ventures
Dr James Zhang is an Entrepreneur in Residence at Khosla Ventures, a VC firm famed for its investments in cleantech. James was born and raised in China and attended the University of Science and Technology of China. He came to the US in 1986 and earned a PhD in Plant Genetics from the University of California Davis. After completing his postdoctoral research at Stanford University, he became one of the founding members of Mendel Biotechnology, a successful plant biotechnology and bioenergy company based in the San Francisco Bay Aare. Before leaving Mendel Biotechnology in August of 2009 to join Khosla Ventures, James was Mendel’s Vice President of Business Development and a member of its executive management team. James also received executive education at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.
Fred M. Greguras, Partner, K&L Gates, LLP
Mr. Greguras is a partner in the Palo Alto office of K&L Gates who focuses his practice on strategic issues for global software, internet, clean technology, media and life sciences companies - with an emphasis on the start-up and emerging company stages. This includes, in particular, financings of various types, M&A and a full range of other transactions in both domestic and international marketplaces.
In the international arena, Mr. Greguras has substantial experience representing companies with a market focus on or operations in China, Vietnam and India, and in supporting investors from those countries. During his 25-plus year tenure in the Silicon Valley, Mr. Greguras has also been a venture capitalist and a general counsel and CFO for a startup. Mr. Greguras completed his J.D. from the University of Nebraska College of Law, M.S. from the University of Nebraska, and B.A. from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
James F. Hines, Research Director, Gartner
James Hines is a research director at Gartner, where he is a member of the semiconductors research team. He is responsible for worldwide research in photovoltaic (PV) solar energy, including solar cell technology and manufacturing, solar inverters, PV applications, and PV supply and demand trends.
Mr. Hines has been with Gartner since 1997. Prior to joining Gartner, Mr. Hines worked at capital equipment makers Applied Materials and Genus, where he was in product management and marketing. Before this, he was a semiconductor sales engineer at Texas Instruments.
Mr. Hines completed his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Moderator
Dallas Kachan, Managing Director of the Cleantech Group
Dallas is executive editor of the content published by the Cleantech Group, including its research publications and news coverage, one of the most widely-read sources of trade news covering daily business and technology developments in clean technology.
Dallas had a fifteen year career in high tech, including VP marketing jobs at enterprise software and networking companies, and was a senior marketing strategy consultant to dozens of companies, including Oracle, Fujitsu, Nortel, Genuity, Attachmate and Interval Research with Silicon Valley's Regis McKenna and his own practice. He has served on the boards of publicly-traded Centrinity (TSX) and other private companies.
Dallas was most recently founder, publisher and acting editor of Inside Greentech, acquired by the Cleantech Group in August, 2007. Previously, Dallas was editor, reporter and national anchor for Canada's news service the Canadian Press, with a background covering science, environmental and business issues in print and broadcast.
Dallas has authored hundreds of articles on cleantech sector developments, serves on the board of the U.C. Berkeley Haas School of Business Cleantech Institute and is a frequent speaker at industry events.