CUE - Advisors & Strategic Partners

ADVISORS

William Hederman, Co-Founder

William Hederman has been among the United State’s foremost experts in energy technology and energy policy innovation since his work on the RAND Corporation’s pioneering work on demonstration projects for the Department of Commerce and the Office of Technology Assessment. In his graduate work at the University of California Berkeley in 1974, he developed ideas that have blossomed into demand side resources and the decoupling of electric and gas utility rates. He has been a leader at the international level, serving as Executive Director of an IEA technology center in the 1990s and as a speaker at two World Energy Congresses (Rome 2007 & Sydney 2004) and a World Gas Congress (Amsterdam 2005). At the national level, he served as the founding Director of FERC’s Office of Market Oversight & Investigations and as Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Business Development at Columbia Energy Group’s largest business unit. He is a frequent author in Public Utilities Fortnightly and was a member of their original editorial advisory board. Mr. Hederman also currently serves on the IEEE USA Energy Policy Committee. He earned engineering degrees from the University of Notre Dame and MIT.

Gabriel Kra, Board Member

Gabriel Kra is Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer for Elan Management, overseeing Elan’s investments in alternative energy and cleantech companies. Gabriel is a board participant or observer on all of Elan’s investments. Prior to joining Elan, Gabriel was an investment banker with Deutsche Bank in its Solar and cleantech group in San Francisco. Previously, Gabriel held management positions in 3 venture-backed telecommunications and semiconductor startups. Gabriel holds an MBA in finance from the Columbia Business School, a finance degree from Haas, a Master’s degree in atmospheric chemistry from SUNY Stony Brook, and a BA in Philosophy from Columbia College. Elan Management is a private family office which makes and manages investments in early stage renewable energy and clean tech companies. Elan has a broad mandate to coordinate and manage such investments across the clean tech and renewable energy landscape, with patient capital and the ability to fund a portfolio company through its entire life cycle. Examples of existing family investments include green building, energy efficiency, wind, desalination, electric vehicle, algal bio-fuel, battery, solar thin-film and carbon credit origination companies. Elan prefers to make its initial investment in a company at the seed or A-round stage, and has the capacity to invest through mezzanine rounds and provide expansion capital. Because of its family office structure, Elan can invest in projects with return horizons outside the norm for many venture firms. Additionally, Elan principles have experience managing and operating early stage companies that have been spun-out from and have license agreements for intellectual property from academic institutions, which enables them to assist and advise companies effectively at all stages of development.

Jason Matlof, Board Member

Jason Matlof, a partner at Battery Ventures, focuses on investments in the clean technology sector. He has been with the firm for since 2005. Jason is currently a board member at Redwood Systems, SolarBridge Technologies, Qteros, and Ideal Power Converters (Observer). Before joining Battery, Jason spent more than a decade in management roles at leading technology companies. Most recently, he served as Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Neoteris, which was acquired by NetScreen and then subsequently acquired by Juniper Networks. At Neoteris, Jason was responsible for developing and executing the company's product strategy and establishing leadership within the emerging SSL VPN product category.

Prior to Neoteris, Jason spent five years at Cisco Systems, where he led the product management team for the company's multi-billion dollar family of fixed-configuration Catalyst switches. Jason has also held positions with Ford Motor Company, Ericsson Raynet Corporation and MPR Associates. Jason received a BA with honors in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Jason co-authors www.cleanmakesgreen.com, a blog focused on cleantech.

Joshua Ruch, Board Member

Joshua Ruch is a managing partner of Rho Capital Partners and Rho Ventures, co-founder of Rho, and serves on the Investment Committee of Rho Fund Investors.

With more than 30 years in private equity, Joshua has experience in all of Rho's active sectors. His investing philosophy is driven by a perspective that the human factor, common to all investment sectors, is the single most important determinant for successful investment outcomes. He most enjoys interacting with, supporting, and mentoring his investment companies' management teams.

His philanthropic activities include serving on the Board of Visitors of the Duke University School of Medicine and as a trustee of Second Stage Theatre and the American Friends of Beit Issie Shapiro. He received an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School and a B.S.E. from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.

Ed Stein

Ed Stein provides expert knowledge and advice regarding the electric system operations and markets in which CUE technology engages commercial office buildings. He also acts as a liaison to PJM, NERC and other ISO’s. Stein has 39 years of experience encompassing all facets of electric system operations at the national, regional and local control area levels, including unit commitment, transmission system dispatch, transmission congestion, transmission services, ancillary services, control center management, power pooling, system restoration, investigations, wholesale power trading and generation controls. He has also served on the NERC Standards Committee and the ECAR Operating and Compliance Committees, and is a registered professional engineer in the state of Ohio. He earned a bachelor of science in electrical engineering from the University of Akron.

Philip Grone

Philip Grone provides expert advise on the Federal Public Sector market and innovations in real property management practices. He is the Founder of Findlay and Western Strategies, a business transformation and public policy consulting practice. He is currently a member of the Board of Managers of Silver Eagle Distributors, L.P., the largest distributor of Anheuser-Busch products in the United States with operations in Houston and San Antonio, Texas. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Eastern Research Group, Inc., a leading provider of environmental, energy, occupational and environmental health and safety, economic and IT consulting services to public sector clients, headquartered in Lexington, Massachusetts. Previously, Mr. Grone was a Director in the Public Sector practice of the Internet Business Solutions Group of Cisco Systems, Inc. He also brings 23 years of Federal public sector experience to CUE. He served as the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Installations and Environment from 2004 to 2007, having served as the Principal Assistant DUSD(I&E) from 2001 to 2004. Prior to his appointments in the Department of Defense, Mr. Grone served for 16 years as a staff member in the U.S. House of Representatives, including eight years on the House Armed Services Committee during which he was the staff director of the Military Installations and Facilities Subcommittee and Deputy Staff Director of the full committee. Mr. Grone holds a M.A. from the University of Virginia and a B.A., summa cum laude, from Northern Kentucky University. Mr. Grone is active in youth baseball and served two terms as President of Central Springfield Little League in Springfield, Virginia.