Welcome to Sustainable Innovation Day!

Sean J. Martin is Vice President of Sustainable Investing at MSCI Inc., where he leads initiatives focused on ESG integration, sustainability analytics, and responsible investment strategies for institutional investors. With over a decade of experience in sustainable finance, Sean previously served as Senior Associate and ESG Associate at MSCI, following impactful roles at ISS | Institutional Shareholder Services.

He began his sustainability career with Volvo Group in Sweden, developing business models for zero-emission logistics during his master’s thesis.

Thomas is a Senior Associate at BMW i Ventures, where he focuses on investments in technologies that drive sustainability across transportation, manufacturing, and supply chains. Since joining the firm in 2021, he has been involved in investments such as AMPECO, Bcomp, and DeepDrive. Prior to BMW i Ventures, Thomas was an Analyst at Yttrium, a growth equity firm specializing in late-stage B2B technology companies.

Julia is a Guinness World Record-holding inventor and 4x founder in solar energy, climate tech, 3D printing, and Industry 4.0. She is the Founding Director and Chair of the Sustainable Innovation Council, a clean tech advisor, and a mentor at Berkeley SkyDeck. Julia is also the author of Imagine Next, an atlas of 365 innovation concepts.

She co-founded Ibcentre, scaling clean energy markets across 7+ countries and launching CISOLAR—the largest renewables expo for emerging European markets. Her policy work helped open household solar markets in Ukraine, and she co-founded Eastern Europe’s first portable solar charger company.

Julia built the world’s first large-scale 3D printer for flexible clothing and pioneered sustainable 3D-printed fashion in the U.S., presenting at NY Fashion Week and earning global recognition, including Gold at the Edison Awards. Her work has been exhibited in museums and featured in innovation textbooks.

An impact investor and Ironman finisher, Julia co-founded Female Founders and Funders of Berkeley and is a frequent speaker on climate innovation, including at NATO Women Innovators Conference. She is completing her MBA at UC Berkeley Haas (’25).

Nare Janvelyan, PhD, is an Investor at Voyager Ventures. Nare is a graduate of UC Berkeley in Chemistry and earned her PhD in Chemical Physics from Harvard, where she researched metal-based nanomaterials for decarbonization of the chemical production industry. After her PhD, Nare joined the management consulting firm, Simon-Kucher, where she led teams developing go-to-market strategies for software and technology companies. She joined Voyager Ventures where her background in materials science and software commercialization brings a unique vision for accelerating the success of category-defining climate tech companies.

Matt Caspari is a Managing Partner at Alumni Ventures, where he leads the Deep Tech, Georgetown (Potomac Ventures) and UC Berkeley (Strawberry Creek Ventures) funds. He invests in mission-driven founders developing groundbreaking technologies. His investments encompass a diverse range of sectors, including agriculture, AI, aviation, battery technology, biotechnology, cybersecurity, defense, energy generation, longevity, robotics and space.

Prior to Alumni Ventures, Matt gained operational experience as a two-time venture-backed founder/CEO and as a leader of the innovation team at Nike. He was the founding CEO of Aurora Biofuels, a deep tech venture that grew to 100+ employees, secured over $100 million in funding and was acquired by Reliance Industries.

In earlier roles, Matt served as a strategic management consultant at Cambridge Pharma Consultancy, later acquired by IMS Health, and gained experience on the M&A team at Bloomberg. He holds a BS in Biochemistry from Georgetown University and an MBA with a Certificate in Entrepreneurship from UC Berkeley.

Julia Lam is an investor and advisor at Kayak Ventures (www.kayak.ventures) which invests in founders who are revolutionizing industries or creating entirely new ones.  They invest in the pre-seed and seed stages of startups in the Climate and Tech industries.

She has worked with hundreds of startups over the last 15 years. She joined Facebook in 2007 when it was just 200 people, and spent most of her time on the Platform team working with entrepreneurs and developers.

Julia was part of Facebook's two person fbFund team backed by Accel and Founders Fund. Through that, she helped fund Lyft (IPO-ed), TaskRabbit (acq. by IKEA), Life360 (IPO-ed), and Wildfire (acq. by Google) as well 50+ other teams when they were 2-4 people. fbFund also ran one of the first startup accelerators.

After Facebook, Julia spent 8+ years as founder and CEO at a few startups in the social good, travel, and fashion space. She helped to start Startup UCLA, which has been around for over a decade.

On the advisor side, Julia brings her own founder knowledge to help companies get through their “firsts” (first product, first fundraise, first launch, etc.). Given this, she often meets teams in their first 1-2 years as a company and helps them grow and get to the next level.

Julia holds her B.A. from UCLA in Communication Studies.

Jon is a seasoned finance operations professional with a deep commitment to catalytic fundraising, capital structuring, and impactful deployment. He brings experience from leading asset managers, including Farallon Capital and Generate Capital, where he helped scale innovative investment platforms.

A hands-on investor in climate solutions, Jon has backed companies like Electric Era and AirCapture, aligning personal capital with his values. He also serves as board treasurer for RE-volv.org, the nation's leading nonprofit solar and storage developer. Earlier in his career, he co-founded Muir Data Systems, a startup focused on wind energy operations and maintenance.

Jon believes solving climate change will require bold action from mission-driven organizations—both for-profit and nonprofit. He is passionate about unlocking philanthropic capital to support this work, applying technology and operational discipline gained over two decades in finance.

He holds an MBA in Sustainable Management from Presidio Graduate School and a BS in Finance from Bentley University. Jon lives with his family in a solar-powered home in Castro Valley, California.

Justin Ashton has been working in the climate technology sector since 2008, first as a founder / operator, and now as

an investor. Justin is co-founder and GP at Redwoods Climate Capital, investing in climate and frontier tech startups

working to create humanity's abundant future. Before Redwoods, he built and led the product and commercialization

teams at Modern Hydrogen, a deep tech company that developed pyrolysis technology to decarbonize natural gas.

Justin previously co-founded XL Fleet, a category leader in xEV powertrain technology for the commercial vehicle

segment that was taken public in 2020. He started his career as an intelligence officer in the US Air Force and is a

veteran of the Iraq War. Justin received an MBA from MIT Sloan and a BSEE with a research focus in AI/ML from

UCSD.

Karen Sheffield is the Founder & Managing Partner of Pachamama Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in US early-stage climate tech companies. Previously, she worked for American Airlines, PepsiCo, and Visa in multiple and progressing finance roles. A self-described operator turned investor, Karen began angel investing 4 years ago and, ever since then, has dedicated much of her time to uncovering opportunities in unlikely places. Karen holds a double degree in Finance and Economics from Texas Christian University (TCU) and an MBA from The University of Texas at Austin.

Karen is an active member of several organizations such as Global Women in VC, WeInvest LATAM, Pipeline Angels (as a VC-in-Residence), among several others. 

With over 20 years of experience in venture capital and private equity, Alexander is Managing Partner at Network VC, investing in early-stage startups across Europe and the U.S. He is also the CEO and founder of Startup.Network, a leading professional platform for VC market participants. With a strong track record in new business development, M&A, and IT, he has led multiple successful deals and exits across various sectors. A board member of the Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (UVCA), he actively contributes to advancing the VC ecosystem in Ukraine. Alexander is an alumnus of executive programs at Harvard Business School and Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. He is passionate about supporting innovative entrepreneurs and creating impact through venture capital.

Vasyl Dub is the CEO & Founder of Raisable Founders Hub, where he helps entrepreneurs become investment-ready by reshaping mindset, refining strategy, and building strong networks in Silicon Valley. A seasoned founder and mentor, he has raised over $10M, scaled businesses to $1M+ ARR, and advises through programs like Stanford Technology Ventures and Alchemist Accelerator. Vasyl also shares insights on his YouTube channel, covering startup growth, fundraising, and founder resilience.

Shilpi Kumar is the Director of Partnerships for Bakar Climate Labs at Berkeley and a Board Partner with Third Sphere, a VC firm focused on early stage investments in Climate startups. Before coming to Berkeley, Shilpi led investments across industrial decarbonization, circular economy,  and sustainable materials, and built an expertise working in go-to-market, customer development, and commercialization.

Christina Cairns has over 20 years' professional experience, including 13 years in international development and 8 years in development finance. She specializes in mobilizing catalytic investment, innovative financial solutions and public-private partnerships to improve development outcomes and climate resilience. She currently serves as Director of Investment Management for the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) where she facilitates access to finance for MSMEs and under-served borrowers, primarily in Africa. In her prior career as a Foreign Service Officer with USAID, she leveraged public and private sector financing to capitalize renewable energy projects, and to promote equitable access to energy throughout sub-Saharan Africa. She also served as the Climate Change and Natural Resources Officer for USAID's Eastern and Southern Caribbean program based in Barbados. In her previous life, she led ocean and coastal policy-making and environmental planning for NOAA and several California agencies. 

Kalyan is a 2x-VC backed founder, Forbes Awardee, ex-Management Consultant, ex-Civil Engineer and a Cornell University alumnus. His current startup, xPub - AI Agents for pre-construction industry - is completely redefining the way the legacy and dusty industry works by transforming traditional, labor-intensive processes such as bidding and estimations through advanced image and language models. Beyond his entrepreneurial endeavors, he serves as a Founding Curator at the World Economic Forum and a Climate Reality Leader, trained by Vice President Al Gore.