CalCEF Clean Energy Fund5 Third St. Suite 1125
San Francisco, CA 94103
P: 415 957 0167 F: 415 957 0177
general info: info@calcef.org
CalCEF is governed by a nine member Board of Directors including public policy makers, investment professionals, and science and technology experts. The Board, after issuing a request for proposals and completing a competitive process, has retained three venture capital firms to serve as its investment managers: Nth Power, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and VantagePoint Venture Partners. These investment managers will make individual investment decisions on behalf of CalCEF.
Board Members
Michael R. Peevey (Chairman)
President, California Public Utilities Commission
Ralph Cavanagh (Vice Chairman)
Senior Attorney & Co-Director of the Energy Program,
Natural Resources Defense Council
Jon Foster
Senior Vice President of Global Operations and Corporate Development,
Atempo Inc.
Tom Jacoby
Chairman of the Board of Directors, Innovation Fuels Inc.
Mark Levine
Group Lead, China Energy Group,
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
Nancy Pfund
Managing Director, DBL Investors
Art Rosenfeld, PhD.
Commissioner, California Energy Commission
Mason Willrich
Chairman of the Board of Governors,
California Independent System Operator
Staff
Dan Adler
President, California Clean Energy Fund
Paul Frankel
Managing Director, CalCEF Innovations
Michael R. Peevey (Chairman) is President of the California Public Utilities Commission. Prior to joining the CPUC, Mr. Peevey was CEO of TruePricing Inc., a technology company enabling companies and government entities to better control their energy costs. Before that he was president of NewEnergy Inc., then the nation’s largest energy service provider, and before that had served as president of Edison International and Southern California Edison. Mr. Peevey holds a B.A and M.A. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.
Ralph Cavanagh (Vice Chairman) is a senior attorney and co-director of the energy program at the Natural Resources Defense Counsel (NRDC), which he joined in 1979. In addition, he has been a Visiting Professor of Law at Stanford and UC Berkeley (Boalt Hall), and served from 1993 to 2003 as a member of the U.S. Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Board. His current board memberships include the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies, and the Northwest Energy Coalition. He is a member of the National Commission on Energy Policy, which the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation established in 2002. Mr. Cavanagh has received the Heinz Award for Public Policy, the Bonneville Power Administration’s Award for Exceptional Public Service, and the Lifetime Achievement in Energy Efficiency Award from California’s Flex Your Power Campaign. He is a graduate of Yale College and the Yale Law School.
Jon Foster is a member of the senior management team of Atempo, a data management software firm headquartered in the US, with significant operations across Europe and Asia. He has spent the last dozen years in leadership roles in entrepreneurial technology companies in the Silicon Valley. Prior to moving to the Silicon Valley, Mr. Foster served in the Clinton Administration as a deputy director of the White House of Science and Technology Policy, and before that in the US Department of Transportation. Mr. Foster was a founding board member of CalCEF and serves on its investment committee. He also serves on the investment committee of the CalCEF Clean Energy Angel Fund. He is a member of the Utilities Advisory Commission in Palo Alto, CA, a leader in the use of renewable energy and a center for innovative energy start-up companies. Mr. Foster holds a mechanical engineering degree from Yale University and a law degree from Harvard Law School.
Tom Jacoby is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Innovation Fuels Inc; a market leading biodiesel company based in New York. Mr. Jacoby is a founding Director of the California Clean Energy Fund, CalCEF, and serves on its investment committee. Additionally, he serves on the investment committee of the California Clean Energy Angel Fund; the first angel stage capital fund formed to focus on the Clean Energy markets. Beyond his work in the clean tech field, Mr. Jacoby is CEO of Tymphany Corporation and a member of the Board of Directors of Klipsch Group Inc. Mr. Jacoby is also the founder of Columbia Consulting Company, a private equity investment and business strategy firm. Columbia Consulting has developed high-level strategies for Arthur Andersen, Ripplewood Holdings and Distributed Energy Systems Corp, a leader in renewable energy integration solutions. Prior to forming Columbia Consulting, Jacoby was president and CEO of the Harman Consumer Group, a Global 1,000 consumer durables company. Mr. Jacoby is also an active member of E2, Environmental Entrepreneurs. He has been an advisor to New Energy Capital and is a director of Homeland Energy Resources Development Corp. He is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University.
Mark D. Levine was director of the Environmental Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) from 1996-2006, a division of 400 people working on energy efficiency policy analysis and R&D. In 1988, he created and has since led the China Energy Group there. He was elected a fellow of the California Council on Science and Technology in 1999. In recent years he has been the recipient of three prestigious awards: the Obayashi Prize for his contributions to sustainable urban development, the Public Service Award of the Federation of American Scientists, for his groundbreaking work on energy efficiency in China, and the highest award of the Japan Institute of Architects. In addition to authoring numerous technical publications, he was the leader of the chapter on CO2 emissions from energy use in buildings for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (that won the Nobel Peace Prize). Dr. Levine graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University, earned a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and has been the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship, a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, and National Institute of Health doctoral awards.
Nancy Pfund is a Managing Partner of DBL Investors, an investment firm focused on delivering strong financial returns together with positive social, environmental, and economic impact. Ms. Pfund currently sponsors or sits on the board of directors of several private companies, including; Tesla Motors, Pandora, BrightSource Energy, SolarCity and eMeter. Originally a regional venture capital group within JPMorgan, DBL Investors spun out as an independent firm in January 2008. Ms. Pfund joined JPMorgan (then Hambrecht & Quist) in 1984 as a securities analyst and later, Managing Director in 1989. Ms. Pfund is a member of the Advisory Board of the UC Davis Center for Energy Efficiency, and is a founding officer and director of ABC2, a foundation aimed at accelerating a cure for brain cancer. Most recently, Ms. Pfund has been appointed as a member of CPUC Commissioner Timothy Simons’ New Directions Program for the Future of California Utilities. Ms. Pfund speaks frequently on subjects relating to environmental investing, environmental policy, and mission-related investing. Ms. Pfund received her BA and MA in anthropology from Stanford University, and her MBA from the Yale School of Management.
Art Rosenfeld, PhD is a Commissioner of the California Energy Commission and Emeritus Professor of Physics and the University of California, Berkeley. At Berkeley, Dr. Rosenfeld focused on particle physics from 1963 to 1973 and on energy thereafter, and served as founder and director of the Center for Building Science at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Dr. Rosenfeld served in the Clinton Administration as senior advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy. He was the co-founder of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. Dr. Rosenfeld has authored 375 publications and holds the distinction of being the
last graduate student to work with Enrico Fermi.
Mason Willrich is an independent consultant, advising clients on energy matters. He is chair of the Board of Governors of the California Independent System Operator and trustee and past chair of the World Affairs Council of Northern California. Mr. Willrich has previously been a partner of Nth Power, a venture capital firm which invests in early stage energy technology companies, and a director of Evergreen Solar, Inc., a manufacturer of solar photovoltaic modules. He was founder and served as chairman of EnergyWorks LLC, a joint venture of PacifiCorp and Bechtel providing combined heat and power to industrial firms located in less developed countries. Previously he served in several executive positions for PG&E and as CEO of PG&E Enterprises, which managed PG&E’s unregulated business. Earlier in his career, Willrich was a law professor at the University of Virginia, assistant general counsel of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and pilot in the U.S. Air Force. Mr. Willrich is author or co-author of nine books and numerous articles on energy policy and security issues. He graduated from Yale University and holds a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.
Dan Adler was a senior analyst in the Division of Strategic Planning at the California Public Utilities Commission, where he was responsible for the design and implementation of California’s Renewables Portfolio Standard and was senior staff for climate change policy. He is a Director of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), serves on the Board of Advisors of the Clean Tech Open, and is a member of California’s Economic and Technology
Advancement Advisory Committee (ETAAC). He has a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.A. in Public Policy from Harvard University.
Before joining in 2008, Paul Frankel was co-founder and Managing Partner of Ecosa Capital providing expansion financing to growth stage companies in the clean energy, green building and sustainable agriculture markets. In 1999, he co-founded the Wi-Fi Alliance and continued to serve as the organization’s vice-chairman after joining 3Com Corporation where he was responsible for M&A, venture capital investments and technology licensing. As a director in the company’s wireless communications business unit, he worked directly with 3Com Ventures, a $200 million strategic investment pool, to make in excess of $62 million worth of new investments and acquisitions in 11 silicon, hardware and software companies. Mr. Frankel is an industry fellow at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology at UC Berkeley and an associate at the Center for the Study of Fiduciary Capitalism at St. Mary’s College. He has held adjunct faculty appointments at UC Berkeley and at Stanford University. Mr. Frankel received a B.A. in political science and economics from the University of Arizona, a MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management and a FINRA Series 7 license.