Sven Strohband brings engineering and operational experience to the MDV team and supports the partnership in sourcing and evaluating investments in the areas of software, systems and materials.

Prior to MDV, Sven spent three years at the Volkswagen Electronics Research Laboratory (ERL) in Palo Alto where he was responsible for discovering new materials and electronics technologies for automotive applications. He was also the Stanford Racing team's lead engineer. The team developed a robot that successfully navigated 132 miles of unknown terrain fully autonomously in the fastest time, winning the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge.

Sven has authored numerous papers on the simulation of materials systems and authored various patents for novel automotive electronics applications.

Sven received a doctorate and master's degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. He also earned a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University.

Calum founded SAFCell in November, 2009 to develop and commercialize solid acid fuel cells (SAFCs). The company is focusing on developing fuel cell stacks for integration into diesel auxiliary power units, with initial deployment in portable power/military applications. Funding for SAFCell comes through a development contract with Nordic Power Systems (Norway) and several federal grants.

As a graduate student and then post-doctoral scholar in Materials Science at the California Institute of Technology, Dr. Chisholm investigated the fundamental properties of a class of materials known as superprotonic solid acids, named such for their ability to transform into highly conductive solid-state proton conductors under specific temperature/pressure conditions. In 2005, Dr. Chisholm co-founded Superprotonic with the goal of developing these scientifically fascinating materials into a commercially viable fuel cell technology for a wide range of power applications. The company raised over $20 million dollars in 4 years, expanded into a 14,000 square foot facility and grew to 16 employees. In August, 2009 Superprotonic's Board of Directors ceased company operation due to financial considerations. In November, 2009 Dr. Chisholm and many of Superprotonic's former employees founded SAFCell to continue the commercialization of SAFCs.

Working with many exceptional collaborators, Dr. Chisholm has published 18 scientific papers in peer review journals and holds or has applied for 13 patents. His research on fuel cells was also featured in the PBS series "CURIOUS," which documents breakthrough scientific innovations. He may be reached at calum.chisholm@safcell-inc.com.

A native of Fez, Morocco, Dr. Yazami joined the graduate school of electrochemistry and materials science (ENSEEG) of the Grenoble National Institute of Technology (INPG), where he obtained a MS Degree (Engineer) in 1978 and a Ph. D. in 1985.

His research focused on carbonaceous materials for lithium storage in batteries, which led him to the discovery of the lithium-graphite anode in 1980.

In 1985 Dr. Yazami joined CNRS as a research fellow at the LEPMI lab. In Grenoble and eventually was promoted to a Research Director position in 1988.

In 2000, Yazami joined CALTECH under a cooperative exchange program with CNRS and co-founded a joint CNRS-CALTECH international laboratory on ‘Materials for Electrochemical Energetic’ (LIA-ME2) with Prof. Brent Fultz of the Department of Materials Science. Yazami, Reynier and Fultz developed a thermodynamics measurement system (ETMS),a technology developed by VIASPACE, Inc. under Caltech license.

In 2006 Yazami was appointed ‘Visiting Associate’ in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering’ in collaboration with Prof. Robert Grubbs. Yazami and Grubbs are the co-founders of CFX Battery, Inc. a Caltech–CNRS start-up company on primary and rechargeable batteries.

Steve Spinner is the Loan Programs Advisor in the Office of the Secretary in the U.S. Department of Energy focused on implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Appointed on April 29, 2009, Mr. Spinner helps oversee the >$100B of loan guarantee and direct lending authority for the Title XVII Loan Guarantee Program (LGP) and the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) Loan Program. He works closely with the commercial lending, state and regional development finance agencies, venture capital, private equity and entrepreneurial communities. He is also the Department's member on the White House Business Council.

Steve Spinner's career spans nearly twenty years in the technology, media, energy, and retail industries. Prior to joining the Obama Administration, Mr. Spinner served the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team on the Technology Innovation and Government Reform working group. Before then, Mr. Spinner had been an active advisor and investor to over thirty leading technology companies, helping entrepreneurs grow their ventures, focusing on incorporation, financing, product development, organizational behavior, business development and sales & marketing. In 2002, Mr. Spinner founded Sports Potential, the preeminent educational services and sports sciences company. Mr. Spinner was Senior Vice President of NotifyMe Networks, a voice ASP company, which was sold to AT&T in 2001. From 1996–2000 he held several positions at NBC including Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships where he oversaw the company's business & channel development departments, operations with over $70 million in annual revenues. Before his tenure at NBC, Mr. Spinner was Program Manager for Atlanta Centennial Olympic Properties, the marketing joint venture between the United States Olympic Committee and the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games.

Mr. Spinner began his career based in both Europe and Asia as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company focusing on media & entertainment clients. He received an M.B.A. from Harvard University and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Wesleyan University.

A resident of Menlo Park, CA, Mr. Spinner is married and has two children.

Robyn Zander is a Project Manager in the Energy Efficiency Division at Southern California Edison ("SCE"). SCE is one of the largest investor-owner utilities in the United States, serving 13 million customers across a 50,000 square mile service territory. For the last six years, SCE has partnered with its customers to save more electricity through energy efficiency programs than any other utility in the nation.

Before joining SCE, Robyn worked 10 years at Boeing as a program manager in the contracts division and 5 years as a general partner of a manufacturing company. As a general partner, Robyn grew the business through product development, increased international distribution, and marketing. Her specialty is product development and commercialization.

Robyn joined SCE's Energy Efficiency Regulatory Group in 2006. Since joining the SCE team, she has been a major contributor in the development of the Technology Resource Incubator Outreach Program (TRIO). This program nurtures upstream technologies through workshops and education that focus on doing business with utilities. She works with all levels of the energy efficiency industry, from university engineering students, venture capitalists and angel investors, as well as with manufacturers, trade associations, utilities, and state and federal governments.

Robyn received her MBA from Pepperdine University and BS in Psychology from Oregon State University.

Milena Marinova is the Senior Director of Strategy and International Development at eSolar, focusing on project structuring, financing, marketing and commercial activities. She brings more than 10 years of global business experience and general management in consumer electronics, manufacturing and, most recently, renewable energies, in the US, EU, Middle East, North Africa, Australia, Brazil, China and India. Ms. Marinova has led teams of professionals across multiple countries and diverse functional areas, previously with the consulting firm Mitchell Madison Group where she developed the international business practice and advised clients in a wide range of industries. She has held management positions in finance, strategy and marketing with Gateway, Inc. and eMachines, Inc. where she directed global product and customer planning, and international expansion across Europe and in Japan. Ms. Marinova holds an MBA from the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Switzerland, and a dual BSc in Engineering & Applied Science and Economics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in the US. She is a board member of the Caltech/MIT Enterprise Forum, an Executive Coach at IMD, and has served as a private advisor to companies in the US and Europe. Ms. Marinova speaks English, Bulgarian (native language), French, Italian and Russian.

Nikhil is the Founder and Managing Partner of Artilient Labs. He is also the Founder and CEO of Clean Green Guy.

A serial entrepreneur with the mindset of a management consultant, Nikhil has helped his clients succeed through careful planning, analysis and execution. Nikhil has held the position of COO in a business advisory and management consulting firm where he advised clients in various industries such as hospitality, renewable energy, real estate, healthcare, financial services, nutrition and social networking and helped with funding requirements, private placements, business process redesign, business planning, devising marketing, business development and go-to-market strategies, mentoring entrepreneurs, structuring MBO's and LBO's and consulting to executive management. Nikhil has consulted to various Fortune 500 clients in industries such as retail, utilities, manufacturing, healthcare and helped with implementing multi-million dollar projects and advising on mergers and acquisitions. Nikhil is a member of the California Green Workforce Coalition, a South Bay Workforce Investment Board initiative.

Nikhil maintains his "Idea-2-Implementation" log to give entrepreneurs an insight into Artilient Labs and how ideas are grown into companies which achieve the triple bottom line using the philosophy of smart execution, frugality and community-driven synergies.

Nikhil currently sits on the Mentoring Committee of the Los Angeles Business Technology Center and the Executive Committee of the Caltech MIT Enterprise Forum. Nikhil has a BS in Electrical Engineering and an MBA in Finance from USC's Marshall School of Business.

Kevin is a partner with Stubbs Alderton and Markiles, LLP, where he leads the firm’s intellectual property and technology transactions practice. His focus is advising companies engaged in building businesses based upon technology or the commercialization of intellectual property. Kevin is a business lawyer, a registered patent lawyer and a former engineer. His clients include software companies, businesses engaged in mobile commerce, semiconductor design firms, electronics and hardware manufacturers and Internet businesses. Kevin’s experience as an Internet lawyer dates back to 1995 when he represented Cisco Systems, Inc. and a year later when he was the principal technology lawyer for Geocities. Kevin has been selected among his peers as a Southern California Super Lawyer in 2006, 2008 and 2009.

Kevin is the author of “Licensing of Trade Secrets and Know-How,” a chapter of Trade Secret Litigation and Protection in California, an attorney’s practice book published by the State Bar of California. In addition, Kevin is a contributing author of “Joint Ventures and Strategic Alliances,” a chapter of Intellectual Property in Business Transactions, an attorney’s practice book published by Continuing Education of the Bar, and he is an update author of “Exploiting Trade Secrets by Licensing” and of “Form Licensing Agreements and Provisions,” two chapters of Trade Secrets Practice in California (Second Edition) published by Continuing Education of the Bar. Kevin has been quoted in numerous high-tech industry publications and has appeared on Bloomberg TV. Kevin is the founder and Chair of the Licensing Committee of the California State Bar Intellectual Property Section.

Prior to joining Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP, Kevin was a partner in leading international law firms, including Brobeck Phleger & Harrison, LLP, where he headed the firm’s technology transactions practice in Southern California. After law school, he served as a judicial law clerk for Hon. John G. Davies, United States District Court for the Central District of California. Kevin received his J.D. degree from University of California, Hastings College of the Law and B.S. degree from University of California, Davis.

Stephanie C. Yanchinski currently administers the Caltech/MIT Enterprise Forum, a unique program in Los Angeles which is celebrating 25 years of assisting entrepreneurs to start their new ventures. She was formerly the founding Executive Director of Entretech, a highly respected non-profit assisting the growth of technology companies in Southern California. Over her eight year involvement with Entretech the organization grew from a founding Board of six people to a membership base of close to 250 organizations. Entretech helped companies raise over $1.5 million in financing. She launched a novel Strategic Partnering Program, matching entrepreneurial ventures with Big Corp participants, which was broadly applied to aerospace, biotechnology, energy and the new materials industries.

Stephanie Yanchinski currently works with cities in their strategic planning for growing tech clusters and completed a major study on behalf of Caltech and the City of Pasadena. She advises and implements strategies to assist large corporations wishing to partner with technology ventures. She is affiliated with Adaptive Business Leaders (ABL), California’s premier Health and Technology Executive Membership Organization, where she facilitates mentoring programs for executives.

An award-winning writer and marketing and communications specialist, Ms. Yanchinski successfully built and managed a business consulting company serving a diverse clientele in the high tech arena. She takes particular pride in the many start-up ventures that used her services to attract finance and partners. Here, her intuitive sense of how business works added value and credibility. First established in London UK, she operated successfully in Europe, Singapore and Toronto. In Toronto, she drove the foundation stages of a $20 million medical science incubator, located in the downtown core and ran a $1.5 million CEO mentoring and training program. She was an early founder, and leading Board member of Canada’s largest and most successful biotechnology industry association.

A graduate of McGill University in Canada, Stephanie C. Yanchinski trained as a scientist and pursued medical research in hormone metabolism in Canada and the UK, where she earned a second degree before turning to a career in science journalism. She worked for the leading British science publication New Scientist as Biosciences Editor, where she won Britain’s foremost prize for science reporting. As European Bureau Chief for McGraw Hill’s newsletter Biotechnology Newswatch, and through her writings for Business Week, the Financial Times newspaper, The Times and Guardian newspapers, and European investment newsletters, she tracked the emergence of the biotechnology industry in Europe. She authored Setting Genes to Work, (Penguin Press) and The Biotechnology Revolution, (Lutterworth), two books on the early development of the biotechnology industry.

Rogelio is President of Nochebuena R&D, a small consulting organization based in Pasadena, CA. His primary industry focus is breakthrough technologies and devices. He is also a Sr. Consultant for MindForce Consulting an international network of consultants that specialize in conducting Technology Assessment and Commercialization of Intellectual Property for companies that range from global telecommunication providers to national laboratories.

Mr. Nochebuena’s areas of expertise include semiconductors design and processing, flexible and lean manufacturing, business strategy, marketing, new product development, and managing R&D.

He is a proven business strategist having assisted companies to expand operations, create additional sources of revenue; and has also worked on divestitures and evaluated M&A deals. He has strong expertise in increasing market share and improving the new product development process, an area where he has demonstrated a consistent ability to introduce novel technologies and design new products and services.

Mr. Nochebuena has more than 20 years of experience in high technology; he has worked in Fortune 100 as well as start-ups, including Agilent Technologies, Xerox Corp, Perkin-Elmer, Carl Zeiss, etc. Having the correct mixture of physical and biological sciences, and has been involved in the development of a variety of projects; serving in senior technical and marketing positions.

While working at world famous Xerox PARC, Rogelio was tutored in Nanotechnology by Prof. Cal Quate the co-inventor of the Atomic Force Microscope, since then he has been involved in a variety of projects that include super capacitors using Nanolaminates, organic nanotubes, and avant-garde Photovoltaics (CIG/CIGS, CdTe and solar concentrators). He holds several patents in lasers and quantum electronics. He also write a newsletter with global reach for JETRO on the effect that Nanotechnology has on Biotech, Energy, etc. and a new series on Technology Innovation.

Rogelio is an Executive Coach for Japanese companies that want to enter the US Market where he assists them to write Business Plans, create and execute their Strategy and prepares them to raise capital from Angel and VC’s. He frequently conducts technology assessment and due diligence projects for the Angel Community in: medical devices, advanced materials and photovoltaics and energy storage technologies.

Mr. Nochebuena got his BSEE from National Polytechnic Institute and a Master’s in Electrical Engineering from Brigham Young University; he holds a MBA from Pepperdine University.

He has spoken in a number of panels in local and international seminars and conferences; he is member of the Executive Committee for the Caltech/MIT Enterprise Forum and held the position of Chapter Vice-Chair for the IEEE Laser and Electro-Optics Society Los Angeles Chapter. He is an Adjunct Professor of Business Strategy at Pepperdine University.