Charging our lives,
changing our future

In the first chapter of her career, Venus Jenkins gained substantial experience in various energy and water industry start-ups and scale-ups. With a passion for power generation strategic initiatives, she previously led the largest fiber infrastructure deployment in Orange County, CA. When she’s not working, Venus enjoys math, physics, and sharply scripted Netflix shows, and loves being outdoors with her husband and two daughters.

Sharmila is the CRO at ChargeNet Stations. Prior to joining ChargeNet, Sharmila was the VP of Sales and Marketing at Peak Power Energy, a Canada based Climate Tech company. She was also a VP of Business Development at Advanced Microgrid Solutions. Sharmila was the CCO for Bosch Building Grid Technologies group, and led customer and market development efforts for introducing DC power distribution technology and software services to commercial and industrial customers. She previously led and managed the solar energy and energy storage business development and strategy functions for the Bosch group in North America. She has also previously led teams at Bosch Research in speech recognition and smart home applications. She has an MBA from UC Berkeley, an MS in Operations Research from the University of Delaware and B.E in Civil Engineering from BITS, Pilani.

Jon Bonanno is the CXO of New Energy Nexus and supports entrepreneurs who are solving the climate crisis. His focus is on mentoring/coaching portfolio companies and educating and enabling clean energy entrepreneurs. Jon co-founded Empower MicroSystems and has 25 years of experience building, supporting, and investing in internet billing, solar power and utilities, SaaS, and wind power start-ups and scale-ups.

Matt Cheney is the CEO of Catalyst Energy and CleanPath Ventures LLC. He previously founded Renewable Ventures LLC, the first solar energy IPP and tax equity syndicator. He is an authority when it comes to establishing and growing renewable energy companies. Widely recognized as an innovator, Matt financed the first solar PV “power purchase agreement” (PPA) behind the meter power plant for Green Mountain Energy.

As recent Head of e-Mobility for Enel X North America (previously CMO & COO at eMotorWerks), Preston Roper brings over two decades of experience forming and growing innovative teams at high-growth technology companies, including Honeywell, NetDynamics (acquired by Sun Microsystems/Oracle), and Synopsys (IPO). Under his leadership, eMotorWerks was acquired by Enel and scaled operations globally.

As a strategic advisor, he has helped digital energy companies such as Stem and Bidgely set product strategies, raise capital, and launch innovative software and hardware solutions. Previously he served as CMO & VP Corporate Development and EVP of Operations & Marketing at Cogenra (acquired by SunPower) and Tioga Energy (acquired by sPower), respectively. In addition to climate technology and energy, he brings expertise in SaaS, business intelligence, and enterprise software.

Roper holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, a Master of Science in Hardware-Software Co-Design from Stanford University, and a Masters in Business Administration from Stanford University.

Lorraine H. Akiba is President/CEO of LHA Ventures. She is a recognized thought
leader with technical expertise and knowledge in the development of Hawaii’s renewable
and clean energy policy and regulatory framework. Given her diverse professional
experience she provides senior policy advisor services in other regulated industry
sectors and expertise for development of corporate environmental, social and
governance goals and metrics for publicly traded and private companies.
She served as a commissioner on the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission which presides
over all regulated public utility matters including electric, gas, private water and
wastewater, telecommunications, water transportation, and motor carrier transportation
utilities.
Prior to this appointment, she worked in private practice as a law partner at McCorriston
Miller Mukai MacKinnon LLP and Cades Schutte LLP. She headed the Environmental
Practice Groups at both law firms with an emphasis in environmental and natural
resources law in addition to her commercial and business litigation practice.
She continues many leadership roles in various national and international organizations
including the City and County of Honolulu Resilience Strategy Steering Committee and
the US-Japan Council. She also is a member of the O-Power Industry Council and the
U.S. DOE Research Advisory Council for the LIFT Solar project.
Ms. Akiba is an experienced board director for private companies and non-profit
organizations. She serves on the Hawaii Medical Services Association (HMSA) board,
the licensed Blue Cross affiliate for Hawaii, as a member of the Audit, Quality Oversight
and Community Engagement committees. She also serves on boards of various national
not-for-profit entities including the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, where she
chairs the Governance committee.
She previously served as a member of the Advisory Council to the Board of Directors of
the Electric Power Research Institute; the Board of Directors of the National Association
of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and its Energy Resources and Environment
Committee; the U.S. DOE and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Future Electric
Utility Regulation Advisory Group and the State and Local Efficiency Action Network
(SEE Network) Financial Solutions Working Group.
Ms. Akiba holds a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and
graduated with honors from the University of California at Berkeley with a B.A. in
political science.

Benton Moore is the CEO of Sea Dragon Capital, a fund for early-stage investments. Chargenet benefits from his extensive experience as an entrepreneur, attorney, and investor, and from his passion for scaling start-ups in diverse industries. While he’s attracted more than $100 million in deals in his career, Benton’s proudest accomplishment is coaching his daughter’s undefeated soccer team.

From 2001-2015, Michael was the CFO and EVP of Finance at GoDaddy.com. He guided GoDaddy.com from a small 45 person business with $10 million in sales in 2001 to a large public company with almost $2 Billion in sales in 2015. He was responsible for the company’s accounting, tax, financial reporting, budgeting, forecasting and day-to-day financial affairs, as well as oversight of the company’s Sarbanes-Oxley implementation, payment processing and Fraud Detection organization. Since he wore many hats over His 13+ years, he was also in charge of human resources, facilities, physical security and event planning. He has 4 patents to his name and helped define the SaaS business model at GoDaddy.

With over 24 years in the Human Resource and People space, Katee Van Horn has built and grown teams in every facet of HR. Most recently, she led her Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion consultancy, VH Included, where she partnered with organizations to strengthen their cultures. In addition, Katee sits on the Multicultural Advisory Board for One Community AZ and co-hosts the Inclusive AF podcast, where she discusses Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion topics. She is particularly interested in driving diverse leadership teams to create inclusive cultures where everyone can thrive. Katee also likes to spend her time with her 18 nieces and nephews and enjoy the sunshine in Arizona.

With a background in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, Rebecca Wolkoff has been involved in numerous large energy projects. These include Parker Hannifin’s hybrid hydraulic trucks, General Compressions’ compressed energy storage system, and Tesla’s electric car production. Before becoming a CTO at ChargeNet, she gained significant expertise in energy storage optimization for both behind-the-meter and front-of-meter use cases at Enel X. In her spare time, Rebecca loves reading about sustainability, geeking out about general relativity, and fending off Warriors fans as a Cleveland sports fanatic.