Climate Week Happy Hour: Tools in the Clean Tech Investing Toolkit

Charlotte Hamilton, CEO & Co-Founder, TAF Carbon Michele Demers, Founder and CEO at Boundless Impact Research & Analytics Maya Bhat, Investor at Clean Energy Ventures moderated by Konstantin Driker, Managing Director NY Green Bank Following the panel, continue the conversation over drinks with a highly curated group of climate tech founders, investors, corporate innovation leaders, and ecosystem partners. Designed to encourage meaningful connections rather than crowded networking, this gathering brings together the people building and backing the next generation of climate solutions. Space is limited to maintain the integrity of the experience. Our Upstate NY visiting companies include: Applied Biorefinery Sciences, led by Christopher Wood and Tom Amidon Benchmark Labs, led by Ulrik Solderstrom Clean Label Solution, led by Mo Arshadi CryoBio, led by Murli Manohar CutPeak Energy, led by Brett Miller Ecolectro, led by Gabriel Rodriguez-Calero InteliEQ, led by Christianne Radziewicz MicroEra Power, led by Ellie Rusling Overfield Labs, led by Phillip Lanza RETRN Bio, led by Christopher Thomas Revora Materials, led by Sravanth Gadikota Smart Seawall Technologies, led by Pepsy and Natalie Kettavong TKF, led by Tom King Viridi, led by Jon Williams Panelists: Charlotte Hamilton, CEO & Co-Founder, TAF Carbon Charlotte Hamilton is a lifelong entrepreneur dedicated to moving beneficial science into the world. She is the CEO and co-founder of TAF Carbon. In her career to date Charlotte has cofounded and led five different companies all advancing complex new technology in chemistry, biotech and material science. The companies she has led include Novomer making CO2 based polymers, Adenios improving drug delivery to the brain, Conamix advancing EV battery chemistry and TAF Carbon. Both Novomer and TAF Carbon were acquired by larger corporations. Charlotte is a co-inventor of multiple pieces of intellectual property and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The Independent, CleanTechnica, USA Today and other publications. She has been nominated as a Magical Mentor, named an Unreasonable Fellow and won the grand prize for Clean Energy Research at Clean Equity Monaco in 2021. She was also a member of the inaugural edition of the Gaingels 100, a book honoring leading LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs and she serves on the national board of StartOut a nonprofit working so that all entrepreneurs can thrive on a level playing field. Born and raised in Alaska she worked previously as a paper delivery girl for the Anchorage Times, completed a B.S. and an MBA from Cornell University as a first generation college graduate and worked in Seattle at both Microsoft and as a VISTA national service volunteer. Michele Demers, Founder and CEO at Boundless Impact Research & Analytics Michele Demers has 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur and business executive. She is Founder and CEO of Boundless Impact Research & Analytics, an industry research and environmental data and analytics firm that provides objective and actionable analysis that moves investment dollars more quickly toward clean technologies and companies driving positive environmental change. The Boundless method uses a science-based, data-driven approach, grounded in the proven methodology of Life Cycle Assessment, and serves a growing universe of investors, companies, and funds.   From 2010-2013, she was Vice President at Foundation Source where she built a knowledge platform that was used by a network of 1200 family offices.  From 2007-2008, Michele helped found and was Director of Communications for Humanity United, a philanthropic entity created by Pam Omidyar and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. She has been involved in the successful development of more than two-dozen startups and is regularly called upon for her innovative thinking about impact measurement. Michele advises and mentors emerging clean tech companies and projects through Heritage Group Accelerator and TechStars. She is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University and has a Master’s in International Relations and Communications from Boston University. Maya Bhat, Investor at Clean Energy Ventures Maya Bhat is an Investor at Clean Energy Ventures (CEV), a Boston-based venture firm that invests in companies capable of substantially reducing CO₂ emissions at scale. At CEV, she supports sourcing and diligence across areas like electrochemistry, materials discovery, critical minerals, and distributed energy. She works closely with portfolio companies on technical and operational challenges. Before venture, Maya worked on the commercial team at Electric Hydrogen where she worked across feasibility modeling  through commercial financing tackling problems from TEA, customer economics, project financing, reliability modeling, warranty structuring, and scale-up. She spent time with engineers, project developers, and on the manufacturing floor, giving color to what it takes to build hardtech companies. Maya received her PhD from Carnegie Mellon University in Chemical Engineering, and she was previously a cofounder at a flow battery diagnostics company.  She's excited to support founders in sharing the next generation of climate companies Konstantin Driker, Managing Director, NY Green Bank Konstantin Driker is a Managing Director at NY Green Bank on the Investment and Portfolio Management Team. He is responsible for investing in renewable and clean energy projects in the State of New York and manages a portfolio of investments across various asset classes. Prior to NY Green Bank, Mr. Driker served as a m