Board of Directors
Robert Chess — Chairman
Rob currently serves as Chairman of Nektar Therapeutics, in addition to his work at OPXBIO. Nektar Therapeutics is a publicly listed company (NASDAQ: NKTR) that develops improved pharmaceutical products using its innovative drug delivery platforms. Rob joined Nektar in 1991 as its first non-founder employee, and was the company's CEO through 1999. Since 1999, he has served as Nektar's chairman and was also the acting CEO in 2006. Rob was previously the co-founder and president of Penederm, Inc., a publicly traded dermatological pharmaceutical company that was sold to Mylan Laboratories. He has held management positions at Intel Corporation and Metaphor Computer Systems (now part of IBM), and was a member of the first President Bush's White House staff. Rob is chairman of Bio Venture for Global Health and a member of the Board of Directors of Metabolex, and is on the Board of Trustees of the California Institute of Technology and the Committee for Economic Development. He is a member of the faculty of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he teaches courses in entrepreneurship and management of health care innovation, and is an adjunct fellow at Stanford's Center for Health Policy. Rob received his B.S. degree in engineering from the California Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from Harvard.
Charles (Chas) R. Eggert — President and CEO
Chas is applying more than 30 years of experience in the global specialty-chemical industry to the leadership of OPXBIO. Prior to joining OPXBIO in September 2008, Chas was president of the Specialty Polymers Group, a $500 million revenue division of Akzo Nobel. Earlier, he held top management responsibility for the Food Ingredients - Europe and global Personal Care business units of ICI prior to the acquisition of ICI by Akzo Nobel. While at ICI, he was a board director of the American Chemistry Council. Chas began his career with Monsanto Company, progressing through roles in technology, manufacturing, business development, marketing, and general management. His work at Monsanto included an assignment as vice president of Monsanto Venture Capital. Chas is a board director of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), as well as a founding director and vice chairman of the Colorado Cleantech Industry Association. Chas earned an MBA in marketing and finance from Washington University in St. Louis and an M.S. in biochemical engineering from the University of Minnesota. He also holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from Washington University.
William D. Lese
William is a co-founder and managing director of Braemar Energy Ventures, a venture capital firm headquartered in New York City that focuses exclusively on investing in early- to mid-stage energy technology companies, primarily in the United States and Canada. Mr. Lese has more than 24 years of research, operating, and venture capital experience in energy and environmental businesses. Prior to co-founding Braemar, Mr. Lese was a partner with Mantis Holdings, Inc., a venture capital firm focused on investing in environmental and energy efficiency companies, where he concentrated on emerging technologies for converting industrial waste streams into value-added products. Prior to Mantis Holdings, he was the director of business development for NPS Industries, Inc., an international manufacturer of engineered equipment for the power industry. Mr. Lese's business development activities included managing a joint venture with Consolidated Edison Co., and managing other key customer relationships. Prior to joining NPS Industries, he was one of the original employees of Sithe Energies, Inc. (an affiliate of Vivendi, SA), which became one of the world's largest independent power producers. At Sithe Energies, Mr. Lese had project and technical oversight responsibilities, including managing several power projects. Mr. Lese has both chaired and participated on numerous panels focusing on energy technology investment opportunities and major energy issues. He currently serves on boards of directors of EnerNOC, Celunol, Coaltek, and Utility Associates. He is chairman of the board of Solicore and serves as a board observer for Stion, Enerkem, and Fractal Systems. Mr. Lese has both a B.A. in physics and an M.S. in energy science from New York University.
Steve Foster
Steve is a partner at Altira Group, a venture capital firm headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Altira focuses exclusively on investing in energy technology companies in both the traditional and renewable sectors. Mr. Foster has more than 25 years of experience in business development, venture capital and private equity and has been successfully investing in disruptive innovation in energy and information technology. Prior to joining Altira in 2010, Steve helped co-found TPG Ventures in 2000 and TPG Growth in 2006 and was a key player in TPG’s global energy practice. Before TPG, Mr. Foster was a Partner at Crosspoint Venture Partners, Director of Business Development at 3Com, Senior Manager at Hewlett Packard, and Audit Manager at Ernst & Young. Steve has a master’s degree in Management from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree from Santa Clara University, where he currently serves as Chairman of the Advisory Board at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. In addition to OPXBIO, Mr. Foster currently serves on the boards of EPS Corp. and Accelergy Corporation.
Erik Straser
Erik leads Mohr Davidow's Cleantech investment team and applies his expertise in areas of solar, biofuels, energy storage, industrial biotech, and clean coal. Prior to Mohr Davidow, Erik worked at Interval Research Corp., a technology incubator funded by Paul Allen, and at the Los Alamos National Laboratory as a technical staff member. He also consulted to several seed and early-stage venture capital firms. While pursuing a Ph.D. in engineering at Stanford, Erik led an interdisciplinary project between the electrical, mechanical, and civil engineering departments to develop a next-generation monitoring system for critical facilities. He holds a U.S. patent from his research work. Erik serves on the advisory council of the Stanford Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency, as well as on the advisory boards of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), Stanford's BASES, NVCA Cleantech Council, and Cleantech Venture Network. He is a winner of the 2006 World Technology Award for Finance, presented by the World Technology Network in association with the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Dow Chemical, Cisco, Time magazine, Fortune magazine, Science magazine/AAAS, Red Herring, and CNN. Erik earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from Harvey Mudd College and both doctoral and master's degrees from the Stanford University School of Engineering.
Jonathan Koch
Jonathan is a Managing Director based in New York. Jonathan oversees USRG's investments in biofuels, bio-based chemicals and infrastructure. Prior to co-founding USRG, Jonathan was the CEO and co-founder of Sundial, a leader in provisioning utility services online, and COO of Visible Path, a Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers funded start-up company. Jonathan was a Business Development Manager at General Electric Energy and spent more than five years with Booz, Allen & Hamilton consulting on large M&A transactions in the energy and life sciences sectors and advising the Environmental Protection Agency on policy issues in the Superfund, Clean Air and Drinking Water divisions. Jonathan serves on the Board of Directors for Renewable Energy Group (REG), Niagara Generation, Fulcrum BioEnergy, Westerly Wind and General Compression.
Jonathan holds a joint MBA and MS in Resource Policy from the University of Michigan and a BA from Tufts University.