Staff

Andrée Sosler, Executive Director

Andrée joined Potential Energy in 2009 as its first full-time employee. Andrée has a decade of experience in poverty alleviation and economic development and has worked in more than a dozen countries in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. As Program Associate at the Trickle Up Program, she oversaw grassroots microfinance projects in Haiti, Benin, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Uganda. Andrée was also an Associate at the OTF Group, a strategy consulting firm that advises organizations, countries and regions on competitiveness. Based in Kigali, Andrée contributed to OTF’s work advising the Government of Rwanda on private sector development and led the firm’s projects in Republic of Congo and Angola. Andrée earned an MBA from The Wharton School, and an AB in Development Studies from Brown University.

Debra Stein, Associate Director

Debra joined the team with six years of experience in nonprofit fundraising, communications, and project management. In addition to her work on the Darfur Stoves Project, Debra manages Potential Energy’s new project in Ethiopia. Debra was previously Assistant Director at the Institute for Social Action at St. John’s University in New York. She has worked in the U.S. with Doctors Without Borders and amfAR: The Foundation for AIDS Research, and in Egypt with Environmental Quality International and FINCA International. Debra holds a Master’s in Nonprofit Management and Public Policy from New York University and a B.A. in Middle East Studies from Hampshire College.

Jan Maes, Livelihoods Specialist

Jan specializes in microenterprise development program design, evaluation and impact assessment. In addition to managing Potential Energy’s program in Darfur, Jan is exploring opportunities to set up viable marketing chains involving local women’s development groups, entrepreneurs, and community-based organizations in order to build sustainable access to clean cookstoves while creating new income opportunities. He has worked or consulted for Trickle Up, CARE, IFC, UNDP, USAID, The SEEP Network, PACT, Habitat for Humanity International, and other INGOs on livelihood promotion, microenterprise development and savings mobilization especially targeting very vulnerable or ultra poor populations in Asia and Africa. Jan has published several articles on poverty outreach in microfinance and enterprise development, and he teaches a course on “Microfinance for the Bottom Billion” in the Sustainable Microenterprise Development Program (SMDP) at the Carsey Institute, University of New Hampshire.

Tom Meshishnek, Accountant

Tom has an extensive background in accounting and financial management of nonprofit organizations, both large and small. He has served in a variety of sectors, including marine conservation, reproductive rights, wildlife rehabilitation, performing arts, food cooperatives, residential real estate, and CRM solutions. He is a Bay Area native and currently lives in Berkeley, California.

Cristina Ceballos, Intern

Cristina is an undergraduate at UC Berkeley working toward a B.S. in Molecular Environmental Biology. She has 2.5 years of stove testing experience in Dr. Ashok Gadgil’s research lab and is looking forward to expanding her knowledge at the Potential Energy office.

Amanda Kwan, Intern

Amanda is an undergraduate at UC Berkeley working toward a B.A. in History. She has nine years of web experience and is glad for the learning opportunity granted to her by Potential Energy.

 

Board

Dr. Ashok Gadgil, Founder & President

Dr. Ashok Gadgil is a Faculty Senior Scientist and Director of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Andrew and Virginia Rudd Family Foundation Distinguished Chair of Safe Water and Sanitation in Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley. He has substantial experience in technical, economic, and policy research on energy efficiency and its implementation, particularly in developing countries. For example, the utility-sponsored compact fluorescent lamp leasing programs that he has pioneered are being successfully implemented by utilities in several Eastern European and developing countries. He has several patents and inventions to his credit, among them the “UV Waterworks,” a technology to inexpensively disinfect drinking water in developing countries, for which he received the Discover Award in 1996 for the most significant environmental invention of the year, as well as the Popular Science award for “Best of What is New 1996”. In recent years, he has worked on ways to inexpensively remove arsenic from drinking water in Bangladesh. Dr. Gadgil has a doctorate in physics from UC Berkeley, has won over 20 awards for his work and has over 85 articles published in refereed archival journals.

M. S. Sadki, Chief Financial Officer

MS is a finance executive with an extensive background in international controllership, global financial planning and reporting, financial modeling, treasury, and systems implementations. He began his career in public accounting in Strasbourg, France with Deloitte. MS currently works with Tiburon Software Inc. as a Sr. Director of Finance. Prior to Tiburon, he worked with Mirion Technologies, a manufacturer of nuclear radiation monitoring systems as a Director of Finance and Corporate Treasurer. Before Mirion, MS worked with GNLD, a global manufacturer of food supplements with subsidiaries in forty countries worldwide first as Financial Manager in Europe and eventually as VP Finance at the world headquarters in the Bay Area. MS earned a BS in Finance and Accounting from the University of Lyon in France and an MBA in International Business from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. He is a CPA and member of both the American Institute of CPAs and California Society of CPAs. He is bilingual in French and English. On his spare time, MS enjoys mountaineering in Africa and South America, horseback riding, sailing in the San Francisco Bay and spending time with his wife Lidwine and their two sons Amaury and Erwann.

Dr. Philip Auerswald

Philip Auerswald is an associate professor at the School of Public Policy, George Mason University and an associate at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University. His work focuses on entrepreneurship, technology, and innovation. He is the co-founder and co-editor of Innovations: Technology | Governance | Globalization, a quarterly journal from MIT Press about entrepreneurial solutions to global challenges. He has authored, co-authored, and edited numerous books, reports, and research papers, including Seeds of Disaster, Roots of Response: How Private Action Can Reduce Public Vulnerability (Cambridge University Press, 2006), Clinton’s Foreign Policy: A Diplomatic History Through Documents (Kluwer Law International: 2003), and Taking Technical Risk: How Innovators, Executives, and Investors Manage High-Tech Risks (MIT Press: 2001). Prior to joining the faculty at George Mason University, Professor Auerswald was a lecturer and Assistant Director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He has been a consultant to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Washington and a B.A. (political science) from Yale University.

F. Henry “Hank” Habicht

Mr. Habicht is Managing Partner of SAIL Venture Partners, a leading venture capital fund investing in clean energy, water and related technologies. He is also Vice Chairman of the Global Environmental & Technology Foundation, which fosters innovation in environmental management and applications of clean technology. Mr. Habicht previously served as Senior Vice President, Safety-Kleen Corporation, a provider of industrial and recycling services, Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Vice President and Counsel with William D. Ruckelshaus Associates. He was Assistant Attorney General of the U.S., directing the Land and Natural Resources Division. He is a member of numerous boards and advisory councils, including the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, the Dow Chemical Corporate Environmental Advisory Council, the Princeton Environmental Institute and the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable Advisory Boards. He holds a J.D. from the University of Virginia and an A.B. from Princeton University.

Dr. Lakshmi Karan

Lakshmi Karan is the Global Strategy Director of Riders for Health, an award-winning social enterprise working to make sure all health workers in Africa have access to reliable transportation so they can reach the most isolated people with regular and predictable health care. Prior to working at Riders for Health, Lakshmi served as the Skoll Foundation’s Director of Impact Assessment, Learning and Utilization, and was responsible for leading the initiatives to assess investment performance and effectiveness. Within the social sector, Lakshmi served as a program and strategy consultant to a variety of organizations including Reebok Human Rights program, Oxfam America and the Alchemy Foundation. In the private sector, she spent several years as a management consultant to fortune 500 companies in the finance and health space. Her expertise was in systems design and knowledge management. Lakshmi grew up in South India, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a master’s degree in computer science. Subsequently, she earned a master’s and Ph.D. in international relations from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Her doctoral dissertation was in the fields of nonprofit effectiveness and organizational learning. Lakshmi volunteers with Maitri, a Bay Area domestic violence shelter for South Asians.

Eric Lemelson

Mr. Lemelson owns and manages a winery and several vineyards in Oregon’s Willamette Valley and produces Pinot noir and other cool-climate varietal wines. He is also an environmental lawyer and activist, working on energy and climate, land use, and other issues. He received his J.D. in Environmental and Natural Resources Law from Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland in 1992, and his B.A. from Reed College in 1981. Lemelson is Treasurer and a Director of the Lemelson Foundation, a Portland-based foundation that focuses on harnessing invention and innovation to solve pressing human needs in the developing world, and supports the next generation of inventors and innovators in the US. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Oregon League of Conservation Voters, 1000 Friends of Oregon, and several other environmental organizations.

David Selinger

David “Selly” Selinger describes himself as a serial entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is currently the CEO and Co-Founder of Rich Relevance, a data mining company. David Selinger first garnered international recognition as an expert in the field of eCommerce data analytics and personalization with his groundbreaking work leading the research and development arm of Amazon’s Data Mining and Personalization team. In that role, David increased Amazon’s annual profit by over $50 million (25% of US profit, 2003) setting the industry standard for recommendation services. David has decades of experience, from developing the first JavaScript-powered ad delivery system for Flycast—the same technology used by Google AdSense, DoubleClick and Overture—to leading Overstock’s personalization efforts as Vice President of Software Development and Data Mining. David also cofounded Redfin, a venture backed, industry-leading real estate search/brokerage company. David holds a broad collection of awards and standing patents in customer segmentation, analytics and data mining, including over a dozen pioneered at RichRelevance. David’s accolades also include the coveted PC Magazine Editor’s Choice Award (won for 2Roam Wireless, acquired by Air2Web). David received his BS in Computer Science from Stanford University.

Emeritus Board Members

Dr. Alice Agogino

 

 

Advisory Council

Kayje Booker, Executive Director, Global Access in Action

Kayje Booker is the Executive Director of Global Access in Action, a start-up nonprofit organization working to impact poverty through globally responsible technology transfer. She received her PhD in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from UC Berkeley. Her doctoral research aimed to understand and improve the innovation process for energy-efficient technologies for the poor. As a graduate student, her work with the Darfur Stoves Project involved both testing stove emissions and assessing carbon market opportunities for Berkeley-Darfur Stoves. She also contributed to early stage cookstove projects in Ethiopia and Haiti. When not working, Kayje enjoys backpacking, gardening, and rooting for tragically doomed sports teams.

Emilia Flores, Researcher, University of Pennsylvania

Emilia’s interest and focus is in public health and health care access and disparities, particularly for women, and is currently preparing for MPH/NP programs. Prior to her current position at University of Pennsylvania, Emilia worked as a Researcher at the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Previously, Emilia worked as a Manager in the KPMG Singapore Risk Advisory practice where she managed engagements in business process transformation, restructuring, and compliance. Emilia has also held several management positions with Stryker Corporation, a medical technology firm, primarily in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa Division. At Stryker, Emilia focused on program management as well as business process engineering, quality assurance and regulatory affairs, and supply chain management. Emilia holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Management Science and Industrial Engineering from Stanford University and has completed numerous graduate courses and research in systems design and supply chain management at the National University of Singapore.

Allison Goodson, Associate Portfolio Manager & Securities Analyst, Wentworth, Hauser and Violich

Allison Goodson is an Associate Portfolio Manager and Securities Analyst at Wentworth, Hauser and Violich in San Francisco. She is a member of the investment team of WHV’s International Fund and focuses on investments in the energy and materials space. Allison previously worked at Dodge & Cox in San Francisco, where she was a Research Associate. Allison is a mentor for the Year Up program and serves on the Alumnae Board of the Hamlin School in San Francisco. Allison earned an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an AB in Political Science from Brown University.

Garron Hansen, Country Director Rwanda, Wood Family Trust

Garron lives in Kigali, Rwanda, where he is Country Director for the Wood Family Trust, a Scottish-based charity that invests in making markets work for the poor in East Africa. Previously, he had a long career as a strategy consultant in both developed and developing countries, serving as a project leader in Dalberg’s San Francisco office, a manager with the OTF Group, primarily in Africa and at McKinsey and Company throughout Europe and the Middle East. He has significant experience in telecoms, financial services, agribusiness and private sector development. He holds an MBA with a major in international development from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia.

Liliana Luper, Nonprofit Communications Specialist

Liliana has six years of experience working in communications and operations for international humanitarian NGOs. She currently works for International Medical Corps in Washington, D.C. Previously, she lived in Geneva, Switzerland and worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Norwegian Refugee Council. She also traveled to India with Save the Children to support the organization’s 2004 tsunami response. Liliana earned a Master’s in Forced Migration from the University of Oxford and a BA in Government and Middle East Studies from Smith College.

Greg Neichin, Vice President, Cleantech Group

Greg currently runs the Research & Advisory business for the Cleantech Group, a leading research and events firm focused on clean technology innovation. Previously, Greg spent four years on the management team of GetActive Software, acquired by Convio in 2007, one of the earliest developers of online fundraising and marketing software for advocacy and charitable organizations. Greg began his professional career as a Consultant with Mercer Management Consulting, worked in strategy and business development for Redback Networks, and advised a global client base on technology trends and commercialization for SRI Consulting Business Intelligence. In addition, he co-founded PlaceVine, a web-based information service for the advertising industry. Greg has a B.A. in Economics and Government from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania where he was a recipient of the Price Fellowship for studies in Entrepreneurial Management.

Sharath Reddy, Analyst, Redwood Capital

Redwood Capital is a $3.7 billion dollar credit oriented investment fund. Sharath is responsible for managing the firm’s investments in business services, government services, and technology; he also co-manages investments in media and telecommunications. Sharath previously worked with Aavishkaar, a 2006 winner of the UN’s World Business award, given to businesses supporting the Millennium Development Goals. There, he provided consulting services to the microfinance industry and worked as a project manager for a micro venture fund targeting commercially viable small companies in rural India. Sharath has also worked in private equity with Francisco Partners, then a $2.5 billion technology buyout fund. He worked on investments in software, semiconductors, and telecommunications. Sharath has also served as an Associate Consultant with Bain and Company. Sharath holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated with honors, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from Stanford University, where he graduated as a member of Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society.

Susan Romanski, Head of Programs, South America Zone, CRS

Susan has dedicated the last fifteen years of her life to the field of international humanitarian relief and development with extensive experience in emergency operations, capacity building, management, and training in emergency preparedness and response. She is currently based in La Paz, Bolivia as Head of Programs, South America Zone at Catholic Relief Services (CRS). Previously, she was the Director of Disaster Risk Reduction at Mercy Corps, where she spearheaded Mercy Corps’ response to the famine and HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe, helped roll-out humanitarian relief operations in Iraq, provided humanitarian assistance in Liberia, started operations in Sri Lanka after the tsunami, led efforts in Darfur, and was among the first international aid workers to arrive in Bam, Iran and Pakistan following the devastating earthquakes. Susan’s programmatic work has included economic development, emergency water and sanitation, emergency food distribution, food security, community health, HIV/AIDS and psychosocial programming. She has served as a co-chair of InterAction’s disaster risk reduction working group in Washington DC, and is currently InterAction’s representative on the steering committee of the Global Network of NGOs for disaster risk reduction.

David Roth, Senior Advisor, Office of the United States Trade Representative

David is a Senior Advisor at the Office of the United States Trade Representative, Executive Office of the President. Previously, David was an Associate in the International & Cross Border Transactions practice group in the Washington, D.C. office of Holland & Knight. At Holland & Knight his practice focused on international trade, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, energy regulation, white collar defense and corporate regulatory compliance matters. Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Mr. Roth served as the North Africa Desk Officer within the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration. Mr. Roth helped secure U.S. companies access to foreign markets and pushed for foreign governments to honor their trade commitments. While at the Commerce Department, Mr. Roth participated in U.S.-Morocco Free Trade Agreement negotiations, assisted with Algeria’s World Trade Organization accession bid, and worked to re-establish U.S. commercial ties with Libya.

Martha Welsh, Strategic Partner Development Manager, Google

Before joining Google, Inc. as the Strategic Partner Development Manager, Martha worked for several years in investment banking as an Associate at Goldman Sachs. Martha also has extensive experience in the nonprofit sector, having worked at the Century Foundation, a research foundation that undertakes analyses of major economic, political, and social institutions and issues. Martha earned an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs.