Nobel Laureate Stanley Whittingham is Board Chairman and the Acting Vice-Chair of Academics. Stan is a SUNY distinguished professor of chemistry and materials science and engineering at SUNY Binghamton. He has been active in Li-batteries since 1971 and returned to academia in 1988 to initiate a program in materials chemistry at SUNY Binghamton. He is presently Director of the NECCES EFRC based at Binghamton and Vice-Chair, Board of Directors of the New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium (NYBEST).

Dr. Odessa N. Petzold is the business technology director of the Precision Glass Solutions business, Corning Incorporated. She is responsible for delivery of innovation programs in the PGS portfolio and the technology strategy that supports the business’ needs. She is also the program director responsible for the technical, commercial and manufacturing work streams associated with the Through Glass Via program. Previously, she was the research director of the Thin Films and Surfaces directorate, Corning Research and Development Corporation, where she led research for thin films, functional coatings, and surface innovations in support of Corning’s businesses and to deliver products such as Gorilla Glass SR+. She has extended Corning’s capabilities in thin film and surface engineering for display glasses, Corning® Gorilla® Glass and Corning® Willow® Glass. Her experiences include program management that has led the delivery of technology and launch of new Corning products, such as Antimicrobial Gorilla Glass. Dr. Petzold’s responsibilities also include innovation management, and collaborations with other industrial partners, universities, and government laboratories. She represents Corning Incorporated on multiple occasions as an invited panelist as well as serves as a panelist for the National Science Foundation on invitation. In addition, she serves on the advisory board of COACh focused on assisting in the success and impact of women scientists and engineers.

Leveraging a 30 year career in the international energy business to advise and build startups and small businesses of all kinds with a special focus on energy innovation. A passionate, decisive, and intellectually agile business leader whose record of accomplishments includes the transformation of BP’s operational capability worldwide, global leadership of businesses in upstream, midstream, natural gas, and chemicals, including leading mobilization of 15,000 people as Incident Commander during the 2010 Macondo Oil Spill in the US Gulf.

Rachel Pierson has her roots in the clean energy ecosystem. She currently serves as a contractor for NYSERDA. Previously, she worked for Beacon Policy Advisors, an independent policy research firm that analyzes regulatory, legislative, political, and geopolitical events to inform investment decisions, as a managing director and head of research. As a consultant for the Central Appalachin Network, she collaborated with members of the Clean Energy Leadership Institute's Just Transition Working group to develop policy inventories, roadmaps, and a toolkit to help clean energy practitioners and advocates think strategically about how to grow the industry in the Appalachian region (Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia).

Per Stromhaug is the Assistant Vice President for Innovation & Economic Development at Binghamton University. Stromhaug oversees the office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Partnerships including tech transfer activities, the start-up suite, entrepreneurial support and economic growth initiatives. He is also overseeing the new High Technology Incubator in downtown Binghamton and is the lead contact for the Start-up NY initiative at Binghamton University.

Dr. William Acker currently serves as the first Executive Director of NY-BEST, the New York Battery and Energy Storage Consortium, where he has grown the organization to more than 150 member companies, created the BEST Test and Commercialization Center and new battery prototyping capabilities, and performed pioneering work in advancing markets, policy, technology and product development. He is a serial entrepreneur who has been instrumental in founding and growing several energy-related businesses, including Optiwind Corporation, MTI MicroFuel Cells, Taconic Energy, and Plug Power. He received a Ph.D, in Applied Physics and Engineering from Yale University and a B.S. in Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic University.

Jennifer De Souza is senior director for corporate procurement and strategic alliances for The Raymond Corporation. De Souza has over 15 years of supply chain and strategic sourcing experience supporting world leading companies including Amphenol Aerospace and Endicott Interconnect Technologies.

Alistair Pim has extensive experience in the Energy technology industry initiating and developing strategic relationships regionally and globally with IT industry leaders and City Government. He has pioneered new routes to market and built teams to leverage these relationships for mutual business benefit and customer value. Pim is motivated by the challenge to use our resources more efficiently to avert the threat of climate change and optimistic about our ability as a human race to harness renewable and clean energy technology blended with state of the art IT to enable a more sustainable future.

Nancy Kirby became the Executive Director of IncubatorWorks in 2017 after joining as CFO in 2012. Before joining IncubatorWorks, she founded her own CPA firm and built it to a firm of 14 professionals serving a wide range of businesses for more than 25 years. During that time, she acted as contract CFO for a wide range of startup businesses, assisting them in their growth; helping them from initial startup to gross sales of up to $20 million. She has also served as CFO in various nonprofit organizations with the goal of turning around the financial position of these agencies.

Rajinder Rai is the Engineering Director for Innovation and Growth and has been with BAE since February 2015. Raj started his career in Endicott with IBM Microelectronics and prior to his current role, Raj was the Chief Technology Officer of Endicott Interconnect Technologies. Raj has 22 years of experience in the high-tech electronics industry and has held a variety of Senior Design and Development Engineering as well as various Senior Management and Executive roles and possesses particular expertise in driving new business opportunities through his sound knowledge of electronic packaging. He has 5 US Issued Patents and authored/co-authored numerous technical papers.

Zach Shulman has been a Managing Partner at Cayuga Venture Fund since 2004 and Director of Entrepreneurship at Cornell since October 2013. Prior to his current roles, Zach was a Senior Lecturer at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management and headed up many entrepreneurship-related programmatic activities there. Prior to that, Zach was a corporate lawyer in Boston and Ithaca and also General Counsel at a tech company that raised boatloads of venture capital in 1999 and 2000; ultimately, Zach took that company through bankruptcy. Zach earned a Bachelor of Science from the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations and graduated from Cornell University Law School, magna cum laude.

Michael DeAngelo is Program Manager � Non Wires Alternatives for AVANGRID. In this role, Michael manages both the Non-Wires Alternatives and Non-Pipes Alternatives programs for AVANGRID�s subsidiaries; New York State Electric & Gas (NYSEG), Rochester Gas and Electric (RG&E), Central Maine Power (CMP) and United Illuminating (UI). The Non-Wires Alternatives and Non-Pipes Alternatives programs seek new innovative alternative approaches to address electric and natural gas system needs through non-traditional solutions. Mike has over 12 years of experience working in both the electric and gas utility industry and the power generation industry.

With over 19 years of experience developing clean energy products, Shailesh Upreti works on the board of multiple tech companies producing lithium ion batteries. Shailesh is also the president of Charge CCCV, an SCI company specializing in lithium-ion battery production and optimization. His previous experiences include founding a multi-million dollar valued recycling startup, publishing research alongside Stanley Whittingham, and working as a tech advisor for a consulting firm.