LocationModerator Wendy Tanaka, Forbes Senior Technology Writer Panelists Richard Lowenthal, Coulomb Technologies, Founder and CEO Jason Wolf, Better Place, North America Gerd Goette, Siemens Venture Capital, Managing Partner Byron Shaw, General Motors, Managing Director - GM Advanced Technology Silicon Valley Event DescriptionElectric vehicles seem to offer a promising value -- they go nearly twice as far as bio-fuel powered vehicles on the same unit of bio-mass, and nearly three times as far as a fuel cell powered vehicles for the same unit of electricity. What innovation is needed for a sustainable Electric Vehicle (EV) transportation model? This panel brings together leaders in EV investing, auto manufacturing, battery technology and charging station infrastructure for an insightful discussion of the necessary new business models, software and services and technological advancements needed to obtain transportation energy independence through electric vehicles. Key topics include:
Bios Wendy Tanaka, Forbes Senior Technology Writer Wendy Tanaka is a Senior Technology Writer at Forbes.com. Wendy has covered technnology and business for 15 years at Forbes.com, Philadelphia Inquirer and other publications. Wendy has a B.A. in history from the University of California, Berkeley Richard Lowenthal, Coulomb Technologies, Founder and CEO From 1998 – 2006 Richard Lowenthal provided business formation consulting services for high-tech startup firms as sole proprietor of Berteleda Consulting. Through his consulting firm, he has been involved in starting several companies, including Lightera, Pipal Systems and Procket Networks. From 1996 to 1997, Mr. Lowenthal was vice president and general manager of Cisco's WAN Access Products Division. From 1990 through 1995, Mr. Lowenthal was vice president of Research and Development for StrataCom, a telecommunications product development and manufacturing company. Prior to StrataCom, Mr. Lowenthal was co-founder and vice president of Engineering for Stardent Computers, a high-performance computer company in Sunnyvale, California. Mr. Lowenthal was also vice president of Engineering for Convergent Technologies in San Jose. Mr. Lowenthal is also a former Mayor of Cupertino, California. He has chaired the boards of several organizations, including the Rotary Club of Cupertino, West Valley Community Services, Fremont Union High Schools Foundation and the Santa Clara County Libraries Joint Powers Authority. He is currently Chair of the Board of the YMCA's of Santa Clara Valley. Mr. Lowenthal has a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from UC Berkeley. Jason Wolf, Better Place, North America Jason Wolf is responsible for business development in North America for Better Place. In this role, he strives to form strategic partnerships with energy companies, automobile manufacturers, investors, governments and other key parties in an effort to create infrastructure for the mass adoption of electric vehicles. Gerd Goette, Siemens Venture Capital, Managing Partner Gerd is Managing Partner, based in Palo Alto , CA . He specializes in investments in energy, communications and industrial solutions. His investments include Broadlight, Dune Networks, IP-Unity Glenayre, Kagoor Networks (acquired by Juniper Networks), Myrio (acquired by Siemens), Reactive NanoTechnologies and Verimatrix. In addition he manages SVC's investments in G2 Microsystems, Prenova and SmartSynch. With more than 20 years of worldwide industry experience, he combines a strong technical background with wide-ranging operational skills. Prior to joining Siemens Venture Capital in September 2000, Gerd held the position of Vice President and Head of CableTV Solutions in Siemens Information and Communication Networks. Additionally, Gerd's managerial and operating expertise stems from earlier focus on R&D, system integration, product line management, technical sales support, project management and general management in the fields of telecommunication equipment and solutions. Gerd received a master's degree in electrical engineering (Dipl. Ing.) from Technical University Darmstadt, Germany. Byron Shaw, General Motors, Managing Director - GM Advanced Technology Silicon Valley Byron is currently responsible for building and developing GM’s advanced technology efforts in Silicon Valley. He began his career in the automotive industry as a GM Scholar with GM’s Harrison Division (Delphi) where he worked on advanced product development and integration, primarily within GM’s Opel vehicle division. He continued his career with Daimler Benz research labs in Stuttgart, Germany as a visiting scientist in Daimler’s combustion flow visualization lab. Byron was instrumental in developing the charter of BMW’s Technology Office in Palo Alto, CA, where he was the Manager of Advanced Technology and technical director of a 30-person engineering and marketing team and a $4 million budget where he oversaw the discovery and implementation of new and advanced technologies into BMW’s vehicle development process. After leaving BMW, Byron was the co-founder and CTO of a Photovoltaic Solar startup where he led the development team in releasing its first product launch and participated in venture fundraising. Byron has consulted for several high-tech Silicon Valley companies in the electronics and software industries and is a founding board member of SmallTech LLC, an IP consultancy focused on MEMS and nanotechnology. Byron holds BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering and a BS in German Language and Literature from MIT. His PhD was completed at the University of California at Berkeley in the Vehicle Dynamics and Control Laboratory where his areas of focus were engine emissions modeling and control, high-speed embedded electronics and digital signal processing. His doctoral research centered on reduction of cold-start emissions of automotive engines using real-time in-cylinder monitoring and feedback. | |||||||||
Nov 12, 2008
The Electric Vehicle Infrastructure: What's It Going To Take to Go Electric?
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