Team
Staff
Régine Clément, CEO Daniel Matross, Senior Director, Strategic Programs Logan Yonavjak, Manager, Research and Analysis
Board of Directors
Martin Whittaker, CEO, JUST Capital
Jason Scott, Partner, Encourage Capital
Christian Zabbal, Managing Partner, Black Coral Capital
Gabriel Kra, Managing Director, Prelude Ventures
Nicholas Eisenberger, Managing Partner, Pure Energy Partners
FOUNDING SPONSORS
To be announced.
FOUNDING MEMBERS
Richard Kaufmann Will Nesbitt
BIOGRAPHIES
Régine Clément, CEO
Régine Clément joined the CREO Syndicate in January 2016 as its inaugural CEO to help catalyze the deployment of private capital in Cleantech, Renewable Energy and Environmental Opportunities. Prior to joining CREO, Régine was Trade Commissioner and Head of Energy and Environment at the Canadian Consulate General in New York, where she worked with hundreds of companies to advance Canadian commercial interests in energy, infrastructure and cleantech in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware and Pennsylvania. In this capacity, she co-founded and co-managed the Canadian Technology Accelerator for Cleantech, an accelerator program that helps early and growth-stage companies gain access to capital, strategic partners and mentors in NYC and Silicon Valley. Previously she was Executive Director of SENS Production, a NYC-based site-specific dance company; a Trade Policy Analyst with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Ottawa, Canada, and an Analyst with Fundación Futuro Latino Americano on trade and environmental policy in Quito, Ecuador. Régine obtained her MSc in International Political Economy at the London School of Economics, and her Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Ottawa.
Daniel Matross, Senior Director, Strategic Programs
Daniel Matross, PhD, who will join CREO on a part time basis on March 6 as our Senior Director, Strategic Programs, based in Silicon Valley, will lead CREO’s programmatic activities, educational content development and key partnerships. Dan specializes in bringing strategy, innovation and quantitative tools to effectively deliver programs and consulting services in the energy and environmental field. He has over a decade of technical and business development experience in energy, climate, carbon and sustainability. Dan most recently worked for the Government of Canada, providing analysis and support to energy and environmental technology companies. Prior to this role, Dan provided strategic climate and energy expertise at KEMA Inc. (now part of DNV GL), a global energy consulting firm, and led all scientific work and carbon market operations at Cooler, Inc., a start-up with innovative technology to calculate carbon footprints from financial information. Dan began his career as a research scientist at Harvard University and the University of California Berkeley, authoring and co-authoring numerous articles in the primary scientific literature. As an accomplished speaker and writer, Dan is talented in making highly technical concepts accessible to a broad cross-section of audiences. Dan holds a Ph.D. in atmospheric science from Harvard University, and a B.S. in chemistry from Stanford University.
Logan Yonavjak, Manager, Research & Analysis
Logan Yonavjak has worked with a variety of investment firms on a suite of projects ranging from ESG product development, the development of social and environmental impact metrics methodologies, and a variety of renewable energy and conservation finance deals. Most recently she worked at Morgan Stanley's Institute for Sustainable Investing, Align Impact, and the Yale Investments Office. Logan received her B.A. with Distinction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Logan is a Startingbloc Fellow, a Property and Environment Research (PERC) Fellow and a Kinship Fellow and has also been a freelance writer for Ashoka Changemakers, Forbes, ImpactAlpha, and Nextbillion. Logan received her Masters in Forestry and MBA (with a concentration in Asset Management) from Yale in 2016. Logan is also on the Board of Slow Money NYC, which connects investors with local food entrepreneurs in NYC.
Martin Whittaker, Board Member
Martin Whittaker is Chief Executive Officer of JUST Capital, an NYC-based non-profit organization focused on sustainable capitalism. He is also an investment committee member for the Sonen Capital private investment platform and the Climate Change Capital private equity fund. Martin has 15 years’ experience in the sustainable investing and environmental finance field. Previously, Martin was a Managing Director and founding partner at Sonen Capital, a Director of MissionPoint Capital Partners, a Senior Vice President at Swiss Re Financial Services, where he was part of the Environmental and Commodity Markets team, and a Managing Director of Innovest Strategic Value Advisors. Martin currently serves on the Board of the Carbon Disclosure Project North America and as an advisor to SASB and GISR. Martin holds a Ph.D. in environmental science from the University of Edinburgh, and an M.B.A. from the University of London.
Jason Scott, Board Member
Jason Scott is a co-founder and Co-Managing Partner of Encourage Capital. Jason has more than a decade of experience developing and managing firms seeking to sustainably manage and invest capital. He was most recently a founding Director and investment analyst at Generation Investment Management, co-founded by David Blood and former Vice President Al Gore, Jr. From 1999 to 2004, Jason worked as an executive and advisor with Acumen Fund, the Blue Ridge Foundation, and the Flatiron Future Fund/Foundation in New York City. Jason serves on the boards of the Clean Economy Network and the Forest Philanthropy Action Network. Jason received and M.B.A. with distinction from a joint program of Columbia and London Business Schools and graduated cum laude from Duke University. He served on the transition advisory boards for the Obama Administration for Technology and Innovation and Energy and the Environment.
Christian Zabbal, Board Member
Christian Zabbal has been the Managing Partner, Canada of Black Coral Capital since early 2009. In preceding years, he was a partner at ghSmart, a management consulting firm specialized in talent assessment and development for the private equity industry. At ghSmart, Christian grew and managed several offices for the firm.
Prior to his employment at ghSmart, Christian was a Junior Partner at McKinsey & company, widely recognized as one of the world`s leading management consulting firms. He was a leader in the media practice and worked in the company’s Amsterdam and Montreal offices. Christian also published several thought-leadership articles on broadband deployment and the evolution of new media while at McKinsey, and occasionally still speaks at various events on these topics.
Christian started his career as a cancer researcher, developing new types of cancer therapy. He founded and then sold a small research company before pursuing an MBA and joining McKinsey & Company.
Gabriel Kra, Board Member
Gabriel Kra is Managing Director for Prelude Ventures, overseeing Prelude's investments in alternative energy and cleantech companies. Gabriel currently sits on the Board of Directors of Renewable Funding, PLANT PV, Sense Labs, and Project Frog and is active or a board observer with Prelude’s investments in Suniva, Yerdle, Citrine, and QuantumScape. Prior to founding Prelude, Gabriel was an investment banker with Deutsche Bank in its solar and semiconductor group in San Francisco. Previously, Gabriel held positions in 3 venture-backed telecommunications and semiconductor startups. Gabriel holds MBAs from the Haas School of Business and Columbia Business School, a master’s degree in atmospheric chemistry from SUNY Stony Brook, and a BA in Philosophy from Columbia College.
Nick Eisenberger, Board Member
Nicholas Eisenberger is the Managing Partner of Pure Energy Partners, a venture catalyst firm that invests in high-potential clean economy companies and partners with innovators to drive scale, profit, and impact. He is also co-founder of SuperCollider, an investment firm focused on early-stage Cleanweb companies using digital technologies to transform energy and resource use. After starting his career as an attorney in the environmental practice group of Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe, Nicholas joined Churchill Capital, one of the first pure play clean technology venture firms. He went on to found and lead several pioneering companies in the digital and clean economy spaces, including MyPoints.com, Ecos Technologies, GreenYour.com, Go Ventures, and GreenOrder, which he and his partners established as one of the most influential sustainability-focused management consulting firms and sold in 2008. Nicholas serves on the World Resources Institute New Innovators Council, the XPRIZE Foundation’s Energy and Environment Advisory Board, and is a former director of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE). Nicholas is an honors graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.