Funding a Cleantech Company Series: Public Money: How and Where to Get It
April 8, 2010 | 3:00pm-6:30pm
Agenda
3:00-3:30: Registration & Networking
3:30-5:30: Panel Discussion and Q&A
5:30-6:30: Networking Reception
The US Government provides billions in grants, loans, tax incentives and more to keep R&D here in the States. The funds are distributed through a variety of agencies such as NSF, ARPA-E, CEC, DOE, DOD, NIST, and SBIR programs; but what can you do to increase your chances of securing government funds and what are some of the strings attached to 'free money'? Join a panel of entrepreneurs and experts who have been successful navigating the public financing process and as well as representatives from government funding agencies that can provide guidance on how to increase your probability for success.
Our Panel discussions are candid, interactive and informal. We want you to walk away with the real story behind how things work so you can make it happen yourself.
Speakers
Cisco DeVries, President, Renewable Funding
Peter Fiske, Vice President of Research and Development, PAX Scientific
Kevin Matthews, Vice President, NSI
Carlos Torrez, Business Manager, SBIR/STTR Program, NASA
[Moderator] Evan Goldman, Entrepreneur in Residence, Environmental Business Cluster (EBC)
Registration
- Regular Price: $45
- Partners' Network: $35
- EBC Clients and Mentors: FREE (RSVP to Chelsea)
- On-site Registration: add $10 to the above
- Space is limited for this event, so early pre-registration is recommended to avoid disappointment on the day!
Venue
Fenwick & West LLP
801 California Street
Mountain View, CA 94041
Click here for Venue Directions>>
Cisco DeVries, President, Renewable Funding
Cisco DeVries has made a career of solving complex policy, political, and communication challenges in both the government and private sectors. He has worked for three members of President Clinton’s cabinet, members of Congress, mayors, state legislators, Fortune 500 corporations, start-up companies, and non-profit organizations. For five years, he served as chief of staff to Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, where he developed innovative environmental and climate policies. During his tenure, Berkeley was consistently named one of the top-ten "greenest" cities in the country. DeVries envisioned and led the initial development of Berkeley FIRST, a nationally recognized city program allowing property owners to pay for solar installations as a voluntary 20-year assessment on their property tax bill. While with the San Francisco firm Staton & Hughes, DeVries provided policy, media, and political assistance for a wide variety of clients including Members of Congress and the California Legislature, non-profit organizations, transportation firms, and renewable energy companies. During the Clinton Administration, DeVries served as an aide to the U.S. Secretary of Transportation and, later, the U.S. Secretary of Energy. DeVries holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego and a Master’s degree from the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He lives in Oakland, California with his wife and son. He also sits on the Board of the Oakland Museum of Children’s Art.
Peter Fiske, Vice President of Research and Development, PAX Scientific
Dr. Peter S. Fiske is the Chief Technology Officer of PAX Mixer Inc. and PAX Water Technologies, VP for Business Development for PAX Streamline, Inc., as well as VP for R&D for parent company PAX Scientific, Inc. In his various roles, Fiske manages day-to-day operations for PAX Water and PAX Mixer, overseeing all aspects of Sales, Marketing and Product Development.
Prior to joining the PAX Companies, Fiske was co-founder of RAPT Industries, Inc., a start-up based on technology from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where Fiske was a staff member for 6 years. RAPT Industries developed a new process for rapidly shaping and polishing optical, semiconductor and photovoltaic materials. Fiske has had a long involvement in science and technology policy making at the Federal level. In 1996, Fiske was selected as a White House Fellow and served one year in the Pentagon as Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Acquisition and Technology (Dr. Paul Kaminski). He has testified several times to Congress and has led advocacy efforts.
Fiske has a track record of success in winning Federal and State R&D and technology demonstration contracts. For RAPT Industries, Fiske won more than $12M in federal funding from the Department of Defense, NASA and the Department of Commerce including a highly competitive Advanced Technology Program award in 2003. At PAX, Fiske has won a second ATP, several California Energy Commission grants and one of the first ARPA-E grants from the Department of Energy. He continues to advise technology companies in the areas of government R&D funding, Congressional advocacy and regulatory strategy.
Fiske is the author of 20 technical articles, most in international peer-reviewed journals including SCIENCE. He served on Rep. Ellen Tauscher’s (CA-10) Small Business Advisory Committee where he worked with other small business owners and Congressional staffers to evaluate and propose legislative initiatives to increase the growth and economic vitality of the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a nationally-recognized author and lecture on the subject of leadership and career development for scientists and engineers and writes a regular column in the journal Nature.
Kevin Matthews, Vice President, NSI
Kevin Matthews is Vice President of Energy and Environment for NSI where he runs the day-to-day sector operations and works with clients on sustainable solutions for interfacing with state and local governments. Prior to joining NSI, Mr. Matthews held various positions with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C. where he worked for Administrator Carol M. Browner and served as both Special Assistant and Senior Congressional Liaison.
Carlos Torrez, Business Manager, SBIR/STTR Program, NASA
Carlos Torrez is the NASA Program Business Manager for the Small Business Innovative Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) Programs. He is responsible for agency level policy and the strategic oversight of these programs.
Mr. Torrez has received over 30 awards for outstanding service to NASA. Most notable is the Exceptional Achievement Medal in which he was recognized by the business community for expanding contract opportunities to small, minority, and women owned businesses. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science and Business and a Masters in Business Management from Notre Dame University.
Evan Goldman, Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Environmental Business Clustser (EBC)
Evan Goldman manages the Environmental Business Cluster (EBC) and serves as its Entrepreneur-in-Residence, providing EBC "start-up" executives with mentoring and strategic counsel on corporate planning, funding and development. In addition, Mr. Goldman supports Prescience International as in-house Strategic Business Counsel. Mr. Goldman is both a California and Israeli attorney who has held numerous legal and business positions for U.S. and Israeli based technology companies and law firms. Prior to joining the EBC and Prescience, Mr. Goldman led the legal department of BrightSource Energy (utility-scale solar thermal power plants), where he negotiated preferred stock financings totaling over $160 million, processed a large DOE loan guarantee application, and was responsible for all strategic and commercial agreements. Before that, he served in corporate development and legal roles for InsureWorx (insurance claims and policy management systems), Virtual Ports (laproscopy systems), Magnolia Broadband (fabless semiconductor wireless solutions), Rainfinity/EMC (firewall and storage software solutions), Heller Ehrman (San Francisco and Silicon Valley based law firm), ViryaNet (mobile field service solutions), Shraga Biran & Co. (Israeli based law firm), Elop/Elbit Systems (electro-optics products and systems), Fried Frank (New York and Washington D.C. based law firm), and Bezeq (Israeli national telecommunications service provider). Mr. Goldman received his Masters in International Business Law from the American University (Washington, D.C.) and his Bachelor of Law from the Hebrew University (Jerusalem).
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