Who We Are

Mukesh Chatter is the President, CEO and co-founder of Alsym Energy, a battery technology company developing high-performance, low-cost batteries to enable a zero-carbon electrified future for all. He is a successful serial entrepreneur with a track record of developing advanced technology products and leading startups from launch to success. Mukesh co-founded Nexabit Networks, a terabit switch/router company, and led the company as CEO until its acquisition by Lucent Technologies. After the acquisition, Mukesh served as the Vice President and General Manager of IP Products at Lucent. Mukesh also co-managed NeoNet Capital LLC, an investment firm focused on funding out-of-the-box, innovative ideas.

Mukesh was named one of the Top 10 Entrepreneurs of the Year by Red Herring Magazine in 1999, and was named Rensselaer Entrepreneur of the Year in 2001. He holds over 23 patents spanning a broad range of technical domains and has several more patent applications pending.

In addition to his role at Alsym Energy, Mukesh serves on the board of MarvelBiome, Inc., a developer of innovative therapeutics to address neuro diseases. He is also on the governing board of the Center of Indic Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. Mukesh has previously served on Georgetown University’s Parent Advisory Council and the Johns Hopkins University Parents Round Table.

Mukesh and his wife are deeply passionate about developing affordable solutions to global problems and they have endowed two chaired professorships at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to support clean water and carbon capture technology.

Mukesh received his Master’s degree in Computer and Systems Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.

Graeme is the COO at Alsym Energy. He is a serial C-suite entrepreneur with a track record of launching, scaling and guiding multiple start-ups to exits, and has a career-long focus on bringing disruptive solutions to industries undergoing massive change.

Graeme’s career has spanned advisory work (Monitor Company, various ClimateTech start-ups), CEO / COO roles in start-ups (Allurent, CQuotient, Blueday, Tulip), and business-line leadership positions in blue-chip companies including Salesforce and Oracle. He lives in the Boston area with his wife and four kids and is an avid sports fan and participant.

Graeme received his MBA from Harvard Business School and his BA from Brown University.

Mike Hannon is CFO, Secretary and Treasurer at Alsym Energy, a battery technology company developing a new generation of high-performance, low-cost, non-flammable batteries to enable a zero-carbon electrified future for all. He is a successful financial leader with over 25 years of experience building high performance finance and administrative strategies for early stage global manufacturing and service companies.

Previously, Mike was the CFO, Secretary and Treasurer at MagneMotion, a linear synchronous motor company providing intelligent conveyor systems for the assembly automation, material handling, and transportation industries. After its acquisition by Rockwell Automation, Mike served as the Business Manager of Planning and Operations for Rockwell’s ICT Division.

Mike also served as the Corporate Controller at Nexabit Networks, a terabit switch/router company, and led its financial operations until its acquisition by Lucent Technologies. After the acquisition, Mike served as the Lucent’s Division Controller. He also served as Senior Director of Finance and Administration at Axiowave Networks Inc., a provider of optical routing platforms for large telecom carriers.

In addition to his current role at Alsym Energy, Mike serves as the founder and Managing Partner at Belwin, LLC, a real estate investment company.

Mike received his MBA from Bentley University’s McCallum Graduate School of Business and his Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Boston College.

Rahul is a technology developer and engineer with a background in lithium-ion and lithium-air batteries. Before co-founding Alsym, Rahul served as Chief Technology Officer at EnerMat Technologies, where he led technology R&D in graphene-based lithium-ion battery storage systems and low-cost manufacturing strategies. Rahul previously taught at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he earned his Ph.D.in Mechanical Engineering.

Mukesh Chatter is the President, CEO and co-founder of Alsym Energy, a battery technology company developing high-performance, low-cost batteries to enable a zero-carbon electrified future for all. He is a successful serial entrepreneur with a track record of developing advanced technology products and leading startups from launch to success. Mukesh co-founded Nexabit Networks, a terabit switch/router company, and led the company as CEO until its acquisition by Lucent Technologies. After the acquisition, Mukesh served as the Vice President and General Manager of IP Products at Lucent. Mukesh also co-managed NeoNet Capital LLC, an investment firm focused on funding out-of-the-box, innovative ideas.

Mukesh was named one of the Top 10 Entrepreneurs of the Year by Red Herring Magazine in 1999, and was named Rensselaer Entrepreneur of the Year in 2001. He holds over 23 patents spanning a broad range of technical domains and has several more patent applications pending.

In addition to his role at Alsym Energy, Mukesh serves on the board of MarvelBiome, Inc., a developer of innovative therapeutics to address neuro diseases. He is also on the governing board of the Center of Indic Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. Mukesh has previously served on Georgetown University’s Parent Advisory Council and the Johns Hopkins University Parents Round Table.

Mukesh and his wife are deeply passionate about developing affordable solutions to global problems and they have endowed two chaired professorships at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to support clean water and carbon capture technology.

Mukesh received his Master’s degree in Computer and Systems Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.

Mark is a Venture Partner at Material Impact and a former Senior Vice President at GE Global Research and Chief Technology Officer at General Electric Co. Mark spent 37 years at GE, serving in various management positions in engineering and business, and leading several multi-billion-dollar business units, including GE Energy’s power-generation segment. Mark earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Tufts, his Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Northeastern University, and his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Nitin Nohria is the George F. Baker Jr. and Distinguished Service University Professor at Harvard Business School, where he was Dean from 2010-2020. He studies leadership and the drivers of human and corporate performance and has written several books, articles and cases on these topics. He serves on the boards of ABInbev, Bridgespan, Exor, Mass General Brigham, and Rakuten Medical and is the chairman of Thrive Capital. Nohria received a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay and his PhD in Management from the Sloan School of Management at MIT.

Kripa is a co-founder of Alsym Energy and a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. He received his B.Tech from IIT Madras, India and his SM (ME and EECS) and Ph.D from MIT. Prior to joining MIT as a faculty member, Prof. Varanasi was a lead researcher and project leader at the GE Global Research Center.

The focus of his work is in understanding the physico-chemical phenomena at interfaces and developing novel materials, devices, and products that can dramatically enhance performance in energy, water, agriculture, transportation, medical, and consumer devices. He is passionate about entrepreneurship and has co-founded multiple companies such as LiquiGlide, DropWise, and Infinite Cooling for translating the technologies from his lab to market. Time and Forbes Magazines have named LiquiGlide to their “Best Inventions of the Year”.

Prof. Varanasi has received various awards for his work including NSF Career Award, DARPA Young Faculty Award, SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award, ASME Bergles-Rohsenow Heat Transfer Award, Boston Business Journal’s 40 under 40, DOE’s National Cleantech University Prize, MIT 100K Award, ASME Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award for outstanding achievements in mechanical engineering, and MIT Graduate Student Council’s Frank E. Perkins Award for Excellence in Graduate Advising.

Ralph B. Vogel is a Managing Director at Coppermine Capital. Prior to this he was a Managing Director at Mandeville Partners. He began his business career at Bain & Company, where he split his time between clients in Latin America and North America. Ralph also worked in investment banking at Bear, Stearns & Co. and for the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress in San Jose, Costa Rica. He co-founded SCORE (Spinal Cord Opportunities for Rehabilitation Endowment). Ralph holds an AB from Harvard College and an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA.

Named by Fortune as one of the “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders,” Peter Diamandis is the Founder and Executive Chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation, which leads the world in designing and operating large-scale incentive competitions. He is also the Executive Founder of Singularity University.

As an entrepreneur, Diamandis has started over 25 companies in the areas of health-tech, space, venture capital and education. He is Co-founder and Vice-Chairman of two public companies, Celularity and Vaxxinity. Dr. Diamandis is Co-founder & Chairman of Fountain Life, a fully-integrated platform delivering predictive, preventative, personalized and data-driven health. Finally, he also serves as Co-founder of BOLD Capital Partners, a venture fund with a half-billion dollars under management being investing in exponential technologies and longevity companies.

Diamandis is a New York Times Bestselling author of four books: Abundance – The Future Is Better Than You Think, BOLD – How to go Big, Create Wealth & Impact the World and The Future is Faster Than You Think. Most recently he co-Authored the #1 best seller LIFE FORCE with Tony Robbins which chronicles the extraordinary healthcare and biotech revolution unfolding before our eyes.

He earned degrees in molecular genetics and aerospace engineering from MIT and holds an M.D. from Harvard Medical School. Diamandis’ favorite saying is “The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself.”

Carl is Chairman and Co-Founder of High Meadows Foundation and High Meadows Fund. He is a board member and advisor at a number of environmental and educational organizations, including the Environmental Defense Fund, where he was formerly Chairman and is currently a Trustee in the US and Chair of the Board of Trustees in Europe. Carl is a Member of the Council of The Wilderness Society, a Director at Climate Central, and a Member of the Advisory Board of Private Capital Research Institute at Harvard Business School. He is also an Advisory Council member of the High Meadows Environmental Institute at Princeton University.

Carl was a Co-Founder and Managing Director of Berkshire Partners LLC, a private equity investment firm based in Boston, MA, and serves as a Senior Advisor after retiring. He received an AB from Princeton University, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and served in the US Marine Corps Reserve. Carl and his wife, Judy, own High Meadows Associates, which operates farms in southern Vermont.

Darrell joined Wartsila in 2021 as the Director of Product Management and Hardware Engineering for the Energy Storage and Optimization (ES&O) team. Wartsila was recognized in 2022 and 2023 as the third largest integrator of energy storage solutions with projects across six contentment. Darrell’s team developed the Quantum energy storage solution that is providing over 7.5 gigawatt-hours of utility scale battery storage.

Prior to Wartsila Darrell was the Director of Electrical Engineering at NECES, where he was responsible for the electrical engineering development on energy storage products. During his tenure NECES Darrell delivered numerous energy storage solutions incorporating lithium-ion battery technologies for utility scale energy storage, AGV, and UPS applications. In 2020 Darrell helped deliver the world’s largest lithium-ion battery storage facility, providing 250MW/750MWh.

Darrell has a passion for helping the industry meet the economically growing challenges of utility scale energy storage projects with the highest safety and environmentally responsible solutions possible.

Maria is the CEO and Founder of Ardinall Investment Management, an investment firm focused on sustainable investing and resilient infrastructure that she started in 2017.

Prior to Ardinall Investment Management, she spent 15 years at Goldman Sachs, where she served as a Portfolio Manager and Managing Director in the Goldman Sachs Investment Partners (GSIP) Group. Maria currently serves as a director on the board of Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE: PXD), Macquarie Infrastructure Corporation (NYSE: MIC), Nabors Energy Transition Corp (NYSE: NETC), on the board of CDPQ (one of Canada’s largest pension plans), and on the advisory board of Eni Next (Eni SpA’s corporate venture arm). She also serves as a director on several private companies’ governing and advisory boards in the energy transition space.

Maria sits on the advisory board of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, on its executive committee, and serves as co-chair of its Women in Energy program. She is also a member of the MIT Corporation’s Development Committee and sits on the MIT Economics Department’s Visiting Committee. Maria has held her CFA since 2004, and holds a dual degree in economics and management science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She resides in New York City with her husband and three children.

Dr. Ravi Kanjolia is a Technology Fellow at EMD Electronics, a business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt Germany. He is a recognized industry expert and technology executive in semiconductor materials and processes with successful management and global R&D team-building experience. He is responsible for developing an innovation pipeline of electronics materials for applications in the microelectronics industry for advanced architectures and devices. He brings fundamental chemistry knowledge to develop solutions for various applications in semiconductors/displays and other related fields.

In the past, he served as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Head of R&D for SAFC Hitech and EMD Performance Materials for over 20 years. As CTO, he was directly responsible for the worldwide R&D of Deposition Materials and drove strategic collaborations with universities, government labs, OEMs, and IDMs for technology development, enabling pre-competitive R&D to products and applications. He deployed several materials to high volume manufacturing (HVM) while building a robust IP portfolio. He also held senior R&D leadership positions in Epichem and Morton Thiokol.

Dr. Kanjolia holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry in organometallic chemistry and has over 75 refereed scientific journal articles, reviews, book chapters, and over 30 patents. Currently, he serves on the technical committee of Area Selective Deposition (ASD) and is a Science Advisory Board member of Jump/nCore programs of Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC). He also serves as the Industry Advisory Board member of the NSF-sponsored ATOMIC center at Penn State. He is a recipient of the 2021 Mahboob Khan Outstanding Industry Liaison Award of SRC recognizing his contributions to student mentoring, research collaboration, and technology transfers. He was invited to attend the White House Semiconductor R&D Roundtable in 2016, which focused on growing competitive semiconductor manufacturing in the US.

Nikhil Koratkar is a co-founder of Alsym Energy and the John A. Clark and Edward T. Crossan Chair Professor in Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). Professor Koratkar’s research has focused on the synthesis, characterization, and application of nanostructured materials. This includes graphene, carbon nanotubes, transition metal dichalcogenides, hexagonal boron nitride, phosphorene, tellurene, perovskites as well as metal and silicon nanostructures produced by a variety of techniques such as mechanical exfoliation, chemical vapor deposition, and oblique angle sputter and e-beam deposition. He is studying the fundamental mechanical, electrical, thermal and optical properties of these one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) materials and developing a variety of composites, coating and energy storage device applications using these materials.

Professor Koratkar is a winner of the NSF CAREER Award (2003), RPI James M. Tien ’66 Early Career Award (2005), the Electrochemical Society’s SES Young investigator Award (2009), American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award (2015), IIT-Bombay Distinguished Alumnus Award (2019) and RPI’s William H. Wiley ‘1866 Distinguished Faculty Award (2021). He was elected ASME Fellow in 2016, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2021, and Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) in 2023. He has published a book on graphene as an additive in composite materials and over 230 archival journal papers and 5 Patents (>29,000 Citations, H-Index = 81). In 2018 and 2021, Clarivate Analytics named him in their highly cited researchers list. Professor Koratkar has served as an Editor of Carbon since 2010, and has served on the Editorial Board of Energy Storage Materials since 2015.

Professor Koratkar joined the faculty of the Mechanical Engineering Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in January 2001 as an Assistant Professor. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2006 and to Full Professor in 2009. In 2011, he was also appointed a Full Professor in the Department of Materials Science at RPI. In 2012, Professor Koratkar was appointed the John A. Clark and Edward T. Crossan Chair Professor in Engineering at RPI.

Tyler is the Chief Strategy Officer at Bidgely, an energy analytics company that helps utilities and consumers accelerate the energy transition.

Before joining Bidgely, Tyler was the head of Tesla’s Residential Energy business. At Tesla, Tyler led an organization of over 3,000 technical and operational team members to scale home battery and solar solutions globally. Tyler spent over 8 years at Tesla and has a wealth of experience in energy product development, operations, and commercialization.

Tyler is passionate about helping scale new technologies that enable affordable and reliable electricity. Tyler graduated from Dartmouth College where he studied climate science, and he has been working in the climate technology sector for over a decade.

Sanjay Sarma is the Chief Executive Officer, President and Dean of the Asia School of Business, and a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and the Sloan School of Management at MIT. He was the Vice President for Open Learning at MIT for nearly 10 years, during which he oversaw OpenCourseWare and led the creation of MITx, MicroMasters, the MIT Integrated Learning Initiative and the Jameel World Education Lab. As a researcher, he co-founded the Auto-ID Center at MIT and developed many of the key technologies behind the EPC suite of RFID standards now used worldwide.

He was also co-founder and CTO of OATSystems, which was acquired by Checkpoint Systems (NYSE: CKP) in 2008. Between 2010 and 2012, Sarma led MIT’s team to establish the Singapore University of Technology and Design. He has served on the boards of several companies including Hochschild Mining (LON: HOC — until 2021), Aclara Resources (TSE:ARA –since 2021), GS1US, EPCglobal, CleanLab and several startups.

Dr. Sarma received his Bachelors from the Indian Institute of Technology, his Masters from Carnegie Mellon University and his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. Sarma worked at Schlumberger Oilfield Services in Aberdeen, UK, at Lawrence Berkeley Labs and at OATSystems. His current research interests are Internet of Things, street scanning, sensing, RFID, autonomy, cybersecurity, logistics, manufacturing and education. He is the Author of 3 books including The Inversion Factor, Grasp, and Workforce Education.