LAGUNA BEACH, CA — November 1, 2007
With global warming breathing down our necks, energy is hot! Green ideas are teaming up with that other green: Money. Hear how University of California’s energy venture will radically reshape the university, California and the world.
Young Company co-sponsored a panel discussion with UC Berkeley Haas Professor Severin Borenstein, UC Irvine alternative fuel expert Jack Brauwer and venture capitalist Walter Schindler.
BIOGRAPHIES:
SEVERIN BORENSTEIN is E.T. Grether Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy at the Haas School of Business, Director of the University of California Energy Institute, and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge , MA . He is also an affiliated professor in the Agricultural and Resource Economics department and the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley. He received his A.B. from U.C. Berkeley in 1978 and Ph.D. from M.I.T. in 1983. His research focuses on business competition, strategy, and regulation. He has published extensively on the airline, oil and gasoline, and electricity markets, as well as on insurance, e-commerce, mining, natural gas and other industries. Borenstein was a member of the Governing Board of the California Power Exchange from 1997 until 2003 and served on the California Attorney General’s gasoline price taskforce in 1999-2000. During 1999-2002, he was co-director of NBER’s research project on e-commerce. Most recently, his research has focused on the evolving airline industry, real-time retail electricity pricing, and the economics of renewable energy and climate change.
WALTER SCHINDLER is the Managing Partner of SAIL Venture Partners, L.P., a national venture capital firm with offices in Southern California and Washington DC that invests primarily in early stage companies in the Energy / CleanTech sector. Mr. Schindler is the former Managing Partner of the Orange County office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and he founded SAIL’s predecessor partnership in 2000. He served as interim Chairman and CEO of ORYXE Energy International and is the Co-founding Director of the Southern California Entrepreneurship Academy. Mr. Schindler is also a board member for several banks and non-profit institutions. He received B.A. and PhD degrees from Yale and his law degree from Harvard University.
JACK BROUWER is Associate Director of the National Fuel Cell Research Center and an expert in energy systems and fuel cell technology. He developed the first graduate level fuel cell course at UCI in 2002. Dr. Brouwer is leading research and development efforts in hydrogen refueling, fuel cell vehicle testing, hybrid fuel cell gas turbine systems and the advancement of reformation technologies for gaseous, liquid, and solid hydrocarbon fuels. At UCI he is Assistant Adjunct Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering. He has served as a Senior Engineer at Reaction Engineering International and as a Staff Scientist at Sandia National laboratories. Dr. Brouwer completed his doctoral studies at MIT.