Michael Fetcenko was President of Ovonic Battery Company, the inventor of NiMH batteries when acquired by BASF in 2012. He became Managing Director of BASF Battery Materials, North America before becoming Director of Global Licensing. He is an inventor with over 70 patents and 100 publications in the NiMH and Li-Ion batteries during his 39 years in the battery industry. He has extensive experience in licensing, with over 40 NiMH licenses and leading the Argonne National Laboratory NCM cathode material patent enforcement and licensing effort which resulted in 12 licenses. He has led R&D, scale-up, and commercialization with P&L responsibilities. His inventions are used in all NiMH batteries for consumer, stationary, and hybrid vehicle applications such as the iconic Toyota Prius with over 10 million vehicles on the road. He has served on the Sion Power technical steering committee and board of directors for five years representing BASF.

James Simons is chairman of the Simons Foundation and board chair and founder of Renaissance Technologies. Prior to his financial career, Simons was chairman of the mathematics department at Stony Brook University, taught mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University, and was a cryptanalyst at the Institute for Defense Analyses. Simons holds a B.S. from MIT and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. In 1976, he won the Veblen Prize of the American Mathematics Society for his work in geometry. He is a trustee of the Stony Brook Foundation, Rockefeller University, MIT, Brookhaven National Laboratory, the Mathematics Sciences Research Institute, New York Genome Center, the Science Philanthropy Alliance, and the Institute for Advanced Study, and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.

Leo Guthart founded Topspin in 2000. Prior to Topspin, he served as Vice Chairman of Pittway Corporation and Chief Executive Officer of its Security Group of companies, including Ademco, up until it was sold to Honeywell in 2000. After Pittway’s sale to Honeywell, he served as Chairman of the Security and Fire Solutions Group of Honeywell International. He was also Chairman of publicly-held Cylink Corporation, a leading U.S. supplier of encryption equipment that was sold to SafeNet Inc. Leo currently serves as a Director of AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE: ATR), an international producer of dispensing valves, pumps, and closures for pharmaceuticals and perfumes.

Leo is a graduate of Harvard College where he received a BA degree in Physics in 1958, and of Harvard Business School where he was a George F. Baker Scholar and received both an MBA in 1960 and a Doctorate in Business Administration with a specialty in Corporate Finance in 1966.

Mark Heising is a Managing Director of Medley Partners in Palo Alto, CA. He founded the firm in 2004. Previously he was the President of VLSI Cores, which designs and licenses cryptographic integrated circuits. Mark held various positions at Quickturn Design Systems, Cylink, and Proximity Designs. Mark currently serves on the Board of Directors of C-Quest Capital and the Bipartisan Policy Center Advocacy Network. He also serves on the Advisory Board to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Mark earned a BS in physics and an MS in electrical engineering and computer sciences from the University of California at Berkeley.

Gaurav Ahluwalia is Managing Director, Venture and Direct Investments at Euclidean Capital, based in New York City. Prior to joining Euclidean, he was a Principal at KKR & Co. He has also worked for TPG (Growth) and Morgan Stanley. Gaurav has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics from Macalester College.

Markus Solibieda is the Managing Director of BASF Venture Capital GmbH since November 2016.

Before joining BASF Venture Capital, Markus was a Partner at Mandarin Capital Partners and Head of the company’s Frankfurt office. Previously, he co-founded Baigo Capital, a European growth capital fund focused on the healthcare industry.

Markus started his professional career in the Venture Capital division of Deutsche Bank and subsequently worked for Advent International and 3i in Frankfurt and London. He was CFO and Speaker on the Board of ACG, a semiconductor and RFID technology company, and led the IPO on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 1999. Markus received his MBA from the European Business School following studies near Frankfurt, Dijon (France), and Phoenix (USA). He is an active business angel, a mentor to start-ups, and an honorary Board Member of the German Private Equity and Venture Capital Association.

Dr. Peter Schuhmacher is President of the BASF Catalyst Division. Schuhmacher studied chemistry at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany, and at the University of Amherst, Massachusetts. He earned his doctorate in 1995 at the University of Mainz, following a research fellowship at Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, California. Schumacher has been with BASF since 1995.

Tracy Kelley was assigned Chief Executive Officer July 10, 2017 with over 17 years of battery experience in lithium based battery systems. Tracy previous served as a research scientist at Valence Technology, a developer of lithium polymer batteries for portable applications, heading their failure analysis department. Tracy holds several patents in the area of active cathode materials and battery processing. He attended the University of Alabama majoring in Chemistry and Philosophy.