Bigger Than Us

Manik Suri is the Founder and CEO of technology company Therma. Before founding Therma, Manik co-founded the Governance Lab (GovLab), an innovation center at NYU that developed technology solutions to improve government. He is a former Affiliate of Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and has held positions at global investment firm D.E. Shaw & Company and the White House National Economic Council.   Manik holds an A.B. in Government summa cum laude from Harvard College, an M.Phil in International Relations (Highest Honors) from Cambridge University, where he studied as Harvard University’s annual Paul Williams Scholar, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he earned numerous Dean’s Scholar commendations. He is  admitted to the California Bar, has published in leading academic journals, edited volumes, and national media outlets.   THERMA:  Therma° combats climate change by reducing the carbon footprint of one of the least understood and most significant causes of global warming: refrigeration. The global refrigeration system – the cold chain – warms the planet in 3 distinct ways: food waste, energy use, and refrigerant leakage. Therma’s integrated suite of software, IoT sensors, and equipment controls optimize refrigeration to reduce electricity usage and prevent catastrophic food loss. These customer benefits yield substantial energy savings and produce measurable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Therma° enables its customers to simultaneously improve business profitability and advance sustainability. For more information, please visit For more information visit us at www.hellotherma.com.  https://nexuspmg.com/

Dr. Megan O’Connor is the founder and CEO of Nth Cycle, a company that has developed and deployed an electro-extraction technology to recover critical minerals from battery waste. Dr. O’Connor holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Duke University and was previously an entrepreneurial fellow in the Innovation Crossroads program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. https://nthcycle.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Nick Myers is the co-founder and CEO of Phoenix Tailings, a company building a sustainable future by refining metals from mining waste with zero direct carbon emissions or toxic byproducts. Before founding Phoenix Tailings, Nick worked in Venture Capital at Techstars and was the Director of Finance and Partnerships for Meenta, a medical diagnostic testing startup. He also co-founded Huntington Angels, a strategic angel investment group where he now serves as the lead outside adviser. Nick was also a founding member of Tengu, an early Web3 startup that created one of the first stable coins. At Tengu, Nick briefed the IMF about decentralized finance and cryptocurrencies' impact on the world economy. Nick has a Bachelor's Degree from Saint Michael's College, where he was a starting pitcher for the college's baseball team. He also has an MBA from Northeastern University. https://www.phoenixtailings.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Scott is the founder and CEO of ReMo Energy. Scott most recently built and led First Solar’s PV + Storage (“PVS”) team. Reporting directly to the CTO, Scott’s group was tasked with developing this new line of business for the company. These responsibilities included characterizing the unique value proposition offered by PVS, communicating these benefits to both partners and prospective customers, optimizing the designs of prospective PVS projects, and coordinating the technical development and commercial offering of the company’s PVS product line. Scott has led the development of new energy businesses for most of his career. His previous roles included VP of Business Development for GMZ Energy and OsComp Systems. Prior to that, he was the CEO of four venture-backed energy startups. As part of these efforts he raised over $20M in venture capital, negotiated strategic partnerships and licensing agreements, built multiple technology teams, and directly contributed to the development of a number unique technologies. Education Scott holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. https://www.remo.energy/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Jim is a licensed Professional Geologist with 36 years of experience in the environmental field. In addition to his undergraduate degree in Geology, Jim has a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Science in Environmental Policy and Management. He has over 20 years of environmental consulting experience and has been at the Minneapolis Health Department for the past 12 years. Jim spent a year in Afghanistan with the Army National Guard as a Hydrologist on an Agri-Business Development Team. It was during this time that he first looked at biochar to improve soil health. Jim is currently the Carbon Sequestration Program Manager with the City of Minneapolis. https://nexuspmg.com/

Mark Toman is the Founder & President of EggTech, as well as a forward-thinking and mission-driven entrepreneur. Prior to founding EggTech, Mark held several strategic business development roles, focused in the areas of corporate strategy, innovation and partnership cultivation. After being involved in the mining industry, Mark identified the possibility of utilizing a vast wastestream from liquid-egg processing operations, which would otherwise predominantly go to landfill, in the interest of offsetting the need to mine for raw material, and in hopes of being in a position to manufacture a pure form of calcium (as well as other nutritionally advantageous ingredients) for supply into the premium nutritional/ingestible markets. Mark and his team were successful in developing an industrially-scalable and cost-effective process that has been formally patented in the US, Canada, Mexico, the EU, China, and India. Mark was invited to sit on the Innovation Advisory Council of the Canadian Food Innovation Network (CFIN) in order to contribute to the shaping and improvement of the Canadian innovation ecosystem in the FoodTech and AgTech sectors. Mark is a strategically-minded impact entrepreneur who is largely propelled by the desire to innovate, drive change, differentiate, and alter the landscape of an existing marketplace, while having a positive impact on the environment and create value where there previously was none, or very little thereof. Mark holds a B.A from Dalhousie University, is a proud husband and father of 2 children. He resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. https://theshellproject.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Suma is an entrepreneur, organizer and educator committed to solving some of our society's largest systemic challenges. Suma is Co-Founder/CEO of Future Acres, which builds advanced mobility and AI solutions for farms to increase production efficiency, farmworker safety and provide real-time analytics. She is a 3x AgTech + ClimateTech founder, is on the advisory board of Scale for ClimateTech, a Board Member of GrainPro, and teaches the Future of Food and Climate: Just Entrepreneurship at the NYC School of Visual Arts. She has also built and is active in inclusive tech communities, and has been awarded the White House Champion of Change for her Asian & Pacific Islander LGBTQ+ advocacy work. She started her career at a microfinance startup-turned-unicorn in India and was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali. She is a graduate of The Wharton School (MBA). https://www.futureacres.co/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Nicole Johnson-Hoffman is the CEO of Future Meat Technologies, bringing more than 25 years of experience across the agriculture, food manufacturing, food services, and meat production industries. Prior to joining Future Meat, Nicole was the Managing Director of Further Processed Foods for OSI Europe, based in Gersthofen, Germany. She led OSI's European processed foods division across Europe and served as Chief Sustainability Officer and Senior Vice President. OSI is one of the world’s largest privately held food manufacturers and is the brand behind leading food service and retail brands. OSI has been in business for 111 years and operates 57 facilities across 18 countries. Previously, Nicole spent 19 years at Cargill Incorporated, practicing law as in-house counsel, and worked in various leadership roles from financial services to beef plant operations in the US and Asia. From 2010 to 2013, Nicole was the General Manager of Cargill’s Fort Morgan, Colorado beef processing plant, one of the largest beef primary processing plants in the United States. During that time, she worked to increase the industry’s transparency with consumers, including making an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2011. Nicole was the founding Chairperson of the US Roundtable for Sustainable Beef and was elected to two terms as the President of the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef. She also serves on corporate boards as an independent non-executive director. She is a passionate advocate for continuous improvement in the food industry’s ability to feed the world sustainably. Nicole holds a JD from the University of Minnesota Law School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and a BA in International Relations from St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minnesota. https://future-meat.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

John has over 30 years of experience taking novel solutions from conception to reality across the energy, semiconductor and supercomputer industries. Prior to founding Rondo, John served as co-founder and vice president of development for GlassPoint Solar, the leading provider of solar thermal energy for industry worldwide. He is also the former founder and president of Ausra, Inc., a pioneer in solar thermal and solar electric systems. John launched his career as the lead engineer for Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy national lab, where he designed award-winning technology to support real-time fusion experiments. He is a published author of numerous technical papers and holds more than 20 patents in the U.S. and internationally. John earned a B.Sc. with Special Distinction in Computer Science from Yale University. https://www.rondo.energy/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Paul Bunje is the co-founder and CSO of Conservation X Labs, an organization that brings innovation to global conservation threats. Conservation X Labs is a leader in using technology and entrepreneurship to protect biodiversity using a mix of crowdsourcing, open innovation, directed research, and acceleration. Paul was formerly the Chief Scientist at the XPRIZE Foundation, where he led the impact strategy across grand challenge domains at XPRIZE, spanning civil society, environment, energy, health, and exploration. Dr. Bunje is a global thought leader in bringing innovation to solve environmental grand challenges. Paul was formerly the founding Executive Director of the UCLA Center for Climate Change Solutions, the Managing Director of the Los Angeles Regional Collaborative for Climate Action and Sustainability, and served on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council for Oceans. The American Association for the Advancement of Science selected Paul as one of 40 individuals that exemplify the thousands of AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellows who are dedicated to applying science to serve society. Paul is trained in biology, with a B.S. from the University of Southern California and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. https://conservationxlabs.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/