Bigger Than Us

Dr. Graciela Chichilnisky is the co-founder and CEO of Global Thermostat, and co-creator of a carbon removal technology that can reverse climate change. Under Dr. Chichilnisky’s leadership, the company was awarded a Silver designation on Pepperdine Graziadio Business School’s 2020 Most Fundable Companies List, and its technology was chosen by MIT Technology Review as one of the Ten Breakthrough Technologies of 2019, a list curated by Bill Gates. In addition to her role at Global Thermostat, Dr. Chichilnisky is a Professor of Economics and Mathematical Statistics at Columbia University, and Director of the Columbia Consortium for Risk Management. Dr. Chichilnisky acted as the lead U.S. author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which received the 2007 Nobel Prize for its work in deciding world policy with respect to climate change, and she worked extensively on the Kyoto Protocol, creating and designing the carbon market that became international law in 2005. Dr. Chichilnisky is the author of more than 300 scientific articles and more than 15 books, including the recently published Reversing Climate Change and the award-winning Saving Kyoto, which won the American Library Association’s 2010 Outstanding Academic Title of the Year and the American Geographical Society’s Book of the Month Award in October 2009. She holds two Ph.D. degrees, in Mathematics and Economics, and her graduate studies were at MIT and the University of California, Berkeley. https://globalthermostat.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Jason is a longtime entrepreneur, most recently as founder of Runkeeper, one of the largest fitness apps, which was acquired by ASICS in 2016. He felt compelled to make his next chapter about purpose, and is over 2 yrs into focusing on helping address climate change full-time, via a podcast called My Climate Journey, a vibrant community of thousands of members that former organically around the podcast, and a fund that backs several new climate tech startups every quarter, across many geographies and sectors. https://www.myclimatejourney.co/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Josh Kaufman is currently the President of Nexus Dev, a platform investing development capital in renewable and circular economy projects. Previously he was an energy investor at the Australian fund QIC, and prior to that was on the GE Power M&A team. Josh has a BA in math and economics from Williams College. https://nexusdevcap.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

H.G. Chissell is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Energy Group.  Previously, H.G Chissell served as Chief Commercial Officer at GridMarket and Senior Vice President of Strategic Accounts for Viridity Energy, a software/service firm focused on virtual power generation and advanced energy optimization. Mr. Chissell was with Viridity Energy from its beginning in 2009, leading the company’s growth of MWs under management and strategic expansion throughout PJM, NYISO and ERCOT across all key verticals. Key accomplishments include the first behind-the-meter frequency regulation battery project in PJM, first 1 MW behind-the-meter battery project in Chicago, first full spectrum DR battery project in New York City and multi-site EV2Grid project with the Pentagon in PJM and ERCOT. https://goadvancedenergy.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Lauren Robinson is currently an educator going on her 7thyear of teaching in the greater Houston area.  With a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Science from Texas Tech University, Lauren found a love for teaching during her time being a graduate assistant.  She combined both her loves of teaching and science to become a high school teacher.  Lauren is not only an educator, but is married with two young children that she is excited to share this journey with.   She is super enthusiastic to grow her reach of educating children on Science, Math, and Technology.  She is very active in the education field, and can’t wait to continue to inspire students to love all the fields that the STEAM programs influence. https://nexuspmg.com/category/mira-nexi/

Joshua is a certified Data Scientist and the Founder & CEO of SparkCharge. His experience in entrepreneurship and startups spans over 6 years and he is a dynamic figure in the cleantech community. Joshua is also the most recent winner of the world’s largest pitch competition, 43North. Joshua holds a B.A. in Economics and a Masters Degree in Information Management and Data Science from Syracuse University. https://www.sparkcharge.io/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Ralph Chami is currently Assistant Director in the Institute for Capacity Development (ICD), International Monetary Fund, where he oversaw the development and implementation of the internal economics training program for all IMF economists as well as the revamping of the Institute’s  external training program for officials from member countries. Most recently, he was Assistant Director and Division Chief in the Middle East and Central Asia Department where he oversaw surveillance and program work on fragile states: Egypt, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, and Yemen, and was Mission Chief for Libya and Somalia. He is the recipient of the 2014 IMF Operational Excellence Award for his work on Libya. Previously, he was the Chief of the Regional Studies Division, where he oversaw regional surveillance of 32 countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia regions, and the production of the Regional Economic Outlook. Prior to that, he was the Chief of the Middle Eastern Division of the IMF Institute where he oversaw capacity development in that region. He joined the IMF in 1999. From 1991 till 1999, he was on the faculty of Finance in the Department of Finance, University of Notre Dame in Indiana. He also served as a consultant to the World Bank, and to the private sector in the US. Ralph Chami has a BS from the American University of Beirut, an MBA in Finance and Statistics from the University of Kansas, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the Johns Hopkins University. His areas of specialization are: banking regulation and supervision, financial markets, and remittances. His hobbies include music and yoga. Ralph was a semi- professional guitarist for over 40 years. https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/11/04/living-whales-are-worth-an-enormous-amount-money/ https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2019/12/natures-solution-to-climate-change-chami.htm https://nexuspmg.com

Ralph Chami is currently Assistant Director in the Institute for Capacity Development (ICD), International Monetary Fund, where he oversaw the development and implementation of the internal economics training program for all IMF economists as well as the revamping of the Institute’s  external training program for officials from member countries.  Most recently, he was Assistant Director and Division Chief in the Middle East and Central Asia Department where he oversaw surveillance and program work on fragile states: Egypt, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, and Yemen, and was Mission Chief for Libya and Somalia. He is the recipient of the 2014 IMF Operational Excellence Award for his work on Libya.  Previously, he was the Chief of the Regional Studies Division, where he oversaw regional surveillance of 32 countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia regions, and the production of the Regional Economic Outlook. Prior to that, he was the Chief of the Middle Eastern Division of the IMF Institute where he oversaw capacity development in that region. He joined the IMF in 1999. From 1991 till 1999, he was on the faculty of Finance in the Department of Finance, University of Notre Dame in Indiana.  He also served as a consultant to the World Bank, and to the private sector in the US. Ralph Chami has a BS from the American University of Beirut, an MBA in Finance and Statistics from the University of Kansas, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the Johns Hopkins University. His areas of specialization are: banking regulation and supervision, financial markets, and remittances. His hobbies include music and yoga. Ralph was a semi- professional guitarist for over 40 years. https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/11/04/living-whales-are-worth-an-enormous-amount-money/ https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2019/12/natures-solution-to-climate-change-chami.htm https://nexuspmg.com

Dr. Caye Drapcho is an Associate Professor in the Biosystems Engineering program at Clemson University in the Department of Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences. She is the past Chair of the Clemson University Sustainability Commission. Dr. Drapcho teaches courses at the undergraduate and graduate level in biological kinetics and reactor modeling, heat and mass transfer in biological systems, and sustainable engineering design. Her research focuses on modeling, design and optimization of biological reactor systems for the production of sustainable biofuels, capture and sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide using phytoplankton, and treatment of organic wastewaters. She is co-author of the textbook Biofuels Process Engineering Technology (Drapcho, Nghiem and Walker, McGraw-Hill 2008, 2020) Dr. Terry Walker is a Professor and graduate student coordinator of Biosystems Engineering at Clemson University with over 20 years of experience in sustainable bioprocessing. He obtained his Ph.D. in Biosystems Engineering in 1997 at the University of Tennessee in cooperation with Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He was an assistant professor at LSU before arriving at Clemson as an associate professor in 2002. His research focuses on biofuels and co-products from fungal and algal fermentation and bioproduct separations, publishing over 40 peer-reviewed journal articles and co-authoring a book entitled "Biofuels Engineering Process Technology" with the 2ndedition planned for release in June, 2020. With great concerns for our current global climate crisis, he strongly advocates the immediate switch to renewable energy and sustainable food systems to draw down carbon from the atmosphere in balance with the oceans. He formed Resilient Biosystems, LLC for production of biodiesel from food waste with hopes to fuel the local economy. He also helped establish GreenLight SC, an umbrella non-profit organization under GreenLight New Orleans directed by musician Andreas Hoffman that addresses energy efficiency, sustainable food and poverty through installing efficient light bulbs and building raised-bed organic gardens with rain-water capture. http://www.greenlightneworleans.org/index.html https://nexuspmg.com/

Brad is CEO and co-founder of Linear Labs, a smarter energy company designing ultra-high efficiency motors and generators. Linear Labs’ patented breakthroughs lead to double the torque of competitive motors, increased range, and significantly lowered power consumption. Prior to founding Linear Labs, Brad served as CEO and founder of Ustream, a global enterprise software company. Under his leadership, Ustream powered the top global Fortune 500 companies, scaling to $40M in revenue. In 2016, Ustream was acquired by IBM for $150M and became the foundation of the IBM Cloud Video division. In 2020, Brad won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® Southwest Award and was named Top Private CEO by the Fort Worth Business Press. The San Francisco Business Times honored him as an influential young leader in their 40 Under 40 list, he was ranked among the 50 Digital Power Players by the Hollywood Reporter, and honored as Variety’s Producers Guild of America’s Digital 25: Visionaries, Innovators and Producers. Brad is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and holds an MBA from The Ohio State University where he received the 2017 Entrepreneur and Innovation Alumni Award. Linear Labs Bigger Than Us is a Nexus PMG production.