Judges 2010

Richard Brass

Director, Schroders Private Bank

Richard joined Schroders Private Banking in early 2008 having spent much of his career in investment banking. Richard previously worked for Compass Advisers, the international investment banking partnership, where he co-founded the European office. He joined Schroders from Montpelier Asset Management, an emerging markets investment firm. He began his career with KPMG in 1994 where he qualified as a chartered accountant before moving into its corporate finance team. He has a degree in Mathematics from the University of Sussex.

Laurence Naughton

Partner, Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP

Larry Naughton is a partner in the Business Department at the U.S. law firm of Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP. His clients include public and private companies in a wide range of high-growth industries, venture capital firms, private equity firms, and investment banks. A significant portion of his practice involves counseling European-based companies and investors in connection with their activities in the U.S. As counsel to U.S. and European-based companies ranging from early-stage start-ups to publicly-traded companies, he frequently advises on acquisitions, trade sales, equity and debt financings, licensing arrangements, and other similar matters. Mr. Naughton is listed in Chambers USA in successive years, has been recognized on multiple occasions as a SuperLawyer's Rising Star by Boston Magazine, and is listed in the Legal 500 as a leading attorney on the East Coast of the United States for mergers and acquisitions work.

Dr. Detlef Pohl

Partner, Siemens VC

Detlef joined the Munich office of Siemens Venture Capital (SVC) in 2008. His areas of focus include Cleantech investments relevant for the Siemens Industry Sectors consisting of industrial automation solutions, drive technologies, building technologies, lightning and mobility, mainly in Europe.

He is a member of several Boards of Directors including:

• inge watertechnologies - worldwide acting ultrafiltration expert
• EnOcean - world leading batteryless, wireless, energy harvesting sensor modul supplier specializing in green building applications
• Thermosensorik - provides infrared non-destructive in-process testing for gas turbines, photovoltaic production and automotive welding

Prior to joining SVC, Detlef managed worldwide Mergers and Acquisitions for different Siemens entities. From 2004-2006 he acted as Managing Director of Mergers & Acquisitions at Siemens Communication Group, the largest division with EUR 17 bn in sales. Detlef has experience as the Managing Director and CFO of a Russian/German joint venture.

Prior to this, he was manager of strategic planning and has more than 5 years of experience of hands-on project management in operations. In 2000 he was a founding member of the Siemens Business Services (SBS) Venture Capital team.

Detlef obtained his Ph.D. in information technology.

David Ward

Partner, MTI

David heads up the US operations for MTI based in Waltham, MA and also leads the Cleantech/Materials Science investment practice for MTI.

After gaining a BA/MA in Materials Science from Oxford University, David joined Cookson Group PLC. His first venture capital experience was as EVP Sales in an LBO backed by Morgan Grenfell Development Capital. He then became CEO of a technology start-up in the global metals market sector that was part of an additional LBO funded by Granville Baird Private Equity based in the UK. Based on his business accomplishments and management expertise in successfully developing startup companies, David joined MTI where he became the firm's youngest ever Investment Manager subsequently becoming a Partner in 2005 and a Managing Partner in 2008.

Recognized for his expertise in the Cleantech and Materials sector, David has chaired Nanotech panel sessions for the European Venture Capital Association and at the Cleantech focused International Congress of Nano Technology. In addition, he often provides press commentary on the venture capital markets and was selected as a finalist for "VC Personality of the Year Award" by the prestigious Investor Allstars event board.

His current Cleantech portfolio of MTI investments includes Arvia, Datalase and Powerlase MTI is expanding its investments in the sector through its current UPF fund.

David Mott

Partner, Oxford Capital Partners

David Mott, is the co-founder of Oxford Capital and has led over 20 venture capital transactions since 1999 in science and technology companies. His investment experience covers a range of sectors, from new media to renewable energy and from medical devices to novel materials.

In 2006, he was named Young Venture Capital Personality of the Year at the Investor Allstars Venture Capital Awards and has been cited as one of the rising stars of the UK's venture capital industry. Previously, at Result Ventures, he focused on advising technology companies on international expansion. Prior to this he worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers in corporate finance.

His early career was as an equities analyst with Jardine Fleming in Asia and later with Deloitte & Touche in London where he trained as an accountant. David holds a BA in Economics and Japanese from the University of Durham. He has worked across Europe and Asia and speaks French, German and Japanese. David regularly competes in triathlons and is a dedicated contemporary art collector.

Bart Markus

Partner, Wellington Partners

Apart from being a veteran VC, Bart is a seasoned and passionate entrepreneur and is renowned for his relentless drive (and lack of patience therein) to internationalise companies and helping them to become successful beyond Europe by conquering the US or Asia. A Dutch native, he has been a General Partner at Wellington since 2000. He primarily focuses on process technologies, in particular in the Electronics and Cleantech areas.

Bart manages an impressive collection of companies located in Europe and the US. Many have already made the successful leap to the US or are successfully opening up new foreign markets. Past investments include Navteq (NASDAQ: NVT; sold to Nokia in 2007), Meiosys (sold to IBM in 2005), Nawotec (sold to Carl Zeiss in 2005) and Q-Layer (sold to Sun Microsystems in 2009).

Prior to the past ten years which he spent as an investor in Tech companies, Bart has co-founded three companies including the MRI Centre, now a highly successful chain of private medical diagnostic clinics. He also set up and acted as CEO for ePearle, a pan-European B2B eCommerce start-up.

Before Wellington, Bart was an investment professional at HAL Investments and an Associate at McKinsey working in Holland and South Africa. He started his career as a process control system and project engineer with Shell in Norway. Bart holds an MSc in Applied Physics from Twente University of Technology in The Netherlands and an MBA from INSEAD in France.

Josef R Wuensch

Managing Director, BASF Ventures

Josef R. Wuensch has been the CTO of BASF Venture Capital since July 2006. He began his career in 1992 in research and development at BASF.

Following this he had responsibilities in technical services and marketing for Polystyrene (packaging, refrigeration, white goods) and was made market development manager for Special Polymer applications.

In 2000 he moved inside the BASF Group to North America, where he took over as business manager for Special Polymers in the North American headquarters in New Jersey.

He returned to Germany in 2004 where he worked in global innovations as senior manager in strategic planning. Josef R. Wuensch studied Chemistry at the University of Göttingen.

Patrick Sheehan

Partner, ETF

Patrick is a founding partner of ETF - the Environmental Technologies Fund. He has over 20 years experience in Venture Capital, in the UK, mainland Europe, Israel and the USA, where he was the founding MD of 3i's Silicon Valley operation.

Patrick is the current Chairman of the European Venture Capital Association's Venture Capital Committee, and is a member of the EVCA Board and Executive Committee.

Patrick started his career as a research engineer at GEC and as a technical consultant for Marconi Space Systems. He has a PhD in electronic engineering from University College London.

Fergus Munro

Business Development Leader, GE Infra Energy

Fergus Munro is Business Development Leader - Europe for GE Energy. With revenues of $28 billion and activities in over 100 countries, GE Energy is a world leader in the development and manufacture of capital goods for the production and distribution of electricity. GE Energy has a prominent presence in Europe, including manufacturing facilities in Austria, France, Germany, Hungary and the UK.

Fergus is responsible for GE Energy's corporate acquisition strategy in Europe, identifying and executing acquisition opportunities that will strengthen GE's technology portfolio and enhance the company's growth prospects. Since joining GE Energy in 2006, Fergus has led numerous transactions with an aggregate value in excess of $800 million, including the acquisitions of Sondex plc, Kelman Ltd and Novat et Bey SA.

Fergus qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse prior to joining GE's Corporate Audit Staff in 1998. Subsequently, Fergus joined GE Capital's European business development team where he spent 7 years before joining GE Energy.

Soren Hein

Partner, Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures

Soren joined Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures in 2000. His investment interests include hardware (semiconductors, optical components, modules, tools, EDA, materials etc.) as well as cleantech.

Soren is on the boards of Sandbridge Technologies (USA), ForthDD (Scotland), DIS (Germany), M2000 (USA/France) and MBA Polymers USA/UK/Austria). He serves as an observer on the board of Ubidyne (Germany)and was also on the board of Alphamosaic, a fabless semiconductor company that was sold to Broadcom in September 2004 for $123 million.

Soren was previously with Siemens and Infineon Technologies. His most recent position was as Vice-President of Technology and Innovation (CTO) of the Wireless Systems division, covering power, RF and digital chips as well as process technologies for a wide range of wireless products.

Soren holds a Masters degree in electrical engineering from the Technical University of Denmark, a PhD degree in electrical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from INSEAD. He is the author of about ten scientific journal publications, fifteen conference papers, ten patents, and a research monograph. In 2003 he received the Young Personality of the Year award at the Investor All-Stars awards ceremony. In addition to Danish, he speaks English and German fluently and is somewhat proficient in French.

In his spare time, Soren plays competitive bridge.

Alex Hook

Investment Manager, NESTA Investment

Ian Jenkins

Managing Director, RUSTON wheb

Ian joined RUSTON wheb in 2009 following eight years senior executive search experience gained within two global firms: Mercuri Urval and Odgers Ray Berndtson. At the latter, Ian was Partner in the Technology practice where he built and led the firm's global Cleantech practice. Before joining the search industry, Ian had 13 years of board experience, ten of which were at CEO level. During this time he led businesses within the technology sector through IPO and MBI transactions. Ian's former corporate career was within brands marketing and general management for a number of blue chip FMGC multinational corporations including Glaxo and Tambrands. Ian holds a BSc in Materials Science from Sussex University and a DPhil in Engineering.

Markus Ziegler

Innogy Venture Capital

Mr. Ziegler brings more than a decade of experience in all aspects of venture capital, mergers and acquisitions and board directorships. He has also been a start-up company co-founder and investor himself. Prior to Innogy Venture Capital Mr. Ziegler spent several years advising private equity funds and as a Partner at eCapital AG, Münster. Marcus was partner for SIEMENS Venture (smac GmbH) where he executed 10 venture capital investments and realised three trade sale exits. In parallel to his Siemens engagement Ziegler was a board member of several companies and was Managing Director of Jentro GmbH. Previously Marcus was head of M&A and Business Development for O2 Germany where he led several strategy and M&A transactions.

Mr. Ziegler is on the board of Heliatek GmbH (Germany) and StirlingDK ApS (Denmark).

Marcus Ziegler holds a Masters in Business Administration from the RWTH Aachen, and a Masters in Computer Science from the Technical University in Karlsruhe. He is a German national.

Richard Youngman

Managing Director Europe & VP, Global Research, Cleantech Group

Richard Youngman is based in Cleantech Group's office in London and is responsible for the company's global membership offering - its industry-leading data, research, and conferences - as well as driving the growth of the group's activities in Europe, India and the Middle East.

Most recently, he was Vice President of Research & Operations at Library House, where he ran the Library House Research team, which discovered and collected the information about high-growth companies that underpinned that company's data, analytical, and event services.

Before Library House, Richard ran his own advisory firm conducting research and consulting on the measurement and evaluation of intangible assets and intellectual capital for organizations such as the European Commission. This followed nine years building a broad-based finance and research background with leading financial institutions such as ABN AMRO, Barclays Capital and BZW in the City of London. His work was centered on the debt markets and revolved around financing M&A deals and advising clients on achieving alignment between their financial and strategic plans.

Richard has an MA from Cambridge University, and an MBA from Theseus International Management Institute, Sophia Antipolis, France.

Jigar Shah

CEO, Carbon War Room

A renowned visionary, Jigar Shah is committed to renewable energy and sustainable solutions that enable prosperity beyond the carbon economy. As CEO of the Carbon War Room, Jigar is dedicated to indentifying business-as-usual practices and replacing them with low-carbon solutions. Prior to the Carbon War Room, Jigar founded SunEdison in 2003. Under his leadership, SunEdison revolutionized the solar industry by introducing a business model to sell solar as a service. The transformation to solar power service agreements is responsible for turning solar services into a multi-billion dollar industry.

Jigar is also an expert on energy project finance, changing energy policy, working with entrenched stakeholders, and convincing individuals to embrace energy technology. He works closely with entrepreneurs, policymakers, and investors around the world to develop, incubate, and implement sustainable solutions that enable prosperity beyond the carbon economy.

Jigar holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, and an MBA from the University of Maryland. Jigar sits on the boards of the Prometheus Institute for Sustainable Development, SB NOW, and Greenpeace USA.