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“Getting a Grasp on Customer Financing”

Date:

April 12, 2011

Time:

8:00-8:30am – Breakfast and Networking

8:30-10:00am – Panel Discussion

Cost:

Council Members and Sponsors: FREE

Non-members: $40.00

Location: 

Bingham McCutchen, 1 Federal Street, Boston, MA 02110

Topic Description: 

A challenge faced by many clean energy companies is the capital constraints of the buyer.  The ability to offer a long-term financing solution, in conjunction with an ROI analysis, can be very important in the sales process.  The panel discussion will cover these challenges from the perspective of clean energy executives and financial solution providers.   After the panel provides an overview on the challenges and possible solutions with customer financing, there will be time for questions from the audience.  Come join our experts for this timely, dynamic, and interactive discussion.

Moderator: 

• Peter Rothstein, President, New England Clean Energy Council

Peter is President of the New England Clean Energy Council and has many years of venture, entrepreneurial, executive and deal experience across the cleantech venture market. Previously, Peter was part of the Flagship Ventures team, a leading seed and early stage venture capital firm in Cambridge Massachusetts, and founder of Allegro Strategy, a consultant, advisor and interim executive with early-stage cleantech start-ups. Peter has been in early-stage deal or executive roles with a number of cleantech companies, including Mascoma, Planar Energy Devices, Ze-gen, Novomer, Boston-Power, and Mechanology. Peter is actively involved in a range of leading cleantech and entrepreneurial organizations, including the National Renewable Energy Lab’s VC Advisory Board, catalyst to MIT Deshpande Center solar and energy storage MIT projects, and a Board member of the Cleantech Open. 

Panelists include:

• Sanjeev Choudhary, Vice President, Global Marketing and Business Development, Northern Power

Sanjeev Choudhary joined Northern Power Systems in May 2010 with over 20 years experience leading growth and strategy initiatives in both clean technology ventures and industry-leading power systems businesses. Most recently Mr. Choudhary was General Manager, PHEV Systems at lithium-ion battery startup A123 Systems (IPO September 2009) where he led the development and commercialization of the world’s first plug in hybrid electric vehicle available to retail consumers. Previously in his career he was Vice President of Corporate Development at American Power Conversion Corporation (NASDAQ 100) and held roles in marketing, general management and business development at GE Power Systems.

• Eric S. Graber-Lopez, Director, Renewable Energy, BlueWave Strategies

As Director of BlueWave's renewable energy practice Mr. Graber-Lopez is deeply involved in the management of BlueWave Strategies and BlueWave Capital's renewable energy activities. He also serves as a Principal with HeliaVentures a project development venture partnering with BlueWave on numerous renewable energy projects, with a particular focus on solar photovoltaic. Mr. Graber-Lopez advises early stage clean energy companies and entrepreneurs in the areas of finance, strategy, due diligence and market analysis.

Prior to joining BlueWave Mr. Graber-Lopez served as Vice President and Senior Equity Analyst on the Specialty Equity Growth Team at Putnam Investments. He was a member of a team that managed $8 billion in U.S. mid- and large-cap growth equity portfolios. Mr. Graber-Lopez key areas of focus have been the Energy, Alternative Energy, Materials, and Utilities sectors. He was responsible for the team's investments in those sectors both within the public and private markets. Previously, Mr. Graber-Lopez was Senior Equity Analyst within Putnam's Global Equity Research Group and was a member of the Natural Resources and Utilities fund teams. Mr. Graber-Lopez, joined Putnam in 2002, and has been in the investment industry for over 15 years. During his years on Wall Street, Mr. Graber-Lopez focused on the Energy and Utilities industries working both as an advisor on investment banking transactions and a research analyst. During his years on the sell-side as an investment analyst, Mr. Graber-Lopez was ranked as being among the top analysts in his areas of focus by several leading industry surveys. Mr. Graber-Lopez has extensive experience in firm valuation, project development and financing, mergers & acquisitions advisory, private equity transactions, and portfolio management. 

• Jon Guerster, Chief Executive Officer, Groom Energy

As CEO of Groom Energy Solutions, Jonathan is responsible for strategy and daily operations, He taps his extensive experience leading and advising growth companies with emerging technology based services.  Prior to co-founding Groom Energy Solutions, Jonathan was a general partner at Charles River Ventures (CRV), a leading venture capital firm with $1.5 billion under management. At CRV, Jonathan was an active lead investor, advisor or board member for high profile software and service companies such as BeFree (acquired by ValueClick), eDocs (acquired by Siebel Systems), Vignette (VIGN), Virtusa (VRTU) and Xign Corporation (acquired by JP Morgan Chase).  

Before CRV, Jonathan held senior management positions at Open Market, a start up ecommerce software company that went public in 1996. Prior to joining the early Open Market team, Jonathan served in a variety of senior product marketing and sales management roles with Hewlett Packard and J.P. Morgan.

• William S. Perkins, Partner, Bingham McCutchen 

Will Perkins concentrates his practice on general corporate matters and licensing matters, with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, structuring and financing new ventures, and public and private offerings of securities, including representation of both financial and strategic acquirors.  Prior to joining the firm, William consulted for Arthur D. Little Inc. in its earth sciences and engineering group.