Team

IMPEL Executive Team

Reshma Singh

Program Director, Berkeley Lab

Reshma Singh is the Program Director for the tech-to-market IMPEL program, the Cradle to Commerce accelerator program, the California Energy Commission's R2M2 Microgrids program, and previously the Presidential U.S.-India Center for Building Energy Research and Development (CBERD) program at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She was formerly a Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office. She brings over ten years of experience advancing urban sustainability and cleantech innovation, and works with complex international ecosystems in the United States, India, and Singapore.

Reshma’s research lies at the intersection of design and technology of smart buildings and cities. She holds two cleantech patents, is the lead author of Building Innovation Guide, and contributor to Mutations: Harvard Project on the City and The Bay Area-Silicon Valley and India: Convergence and Alignment in the Innovation Age. She serves on the Advisory Board for The Carbon Leadership Forum and formerly on Telecommunications Industry Association’s (TIA) Smart Buildings and Power and Energy group, and for the State Department’s international TechWomen program.

She previously co-founded GreenExcel, an online sustainability education company. She is a recipient of the American Association of University Women award and Harvard University’s Community Service Fellowship award.

Reshma has taught graduate seminars at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and at University of California, Berkeley. Apart from her professional life, she teaches dance and has co-produced an acclaimed children's musical. Singh holds a master's degree from Harvard University, and a bachelor's degree in architecture from New Delhi, India.

Laura Wong

Program Manager, Berkeley Lab

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Laura Wong is the lead Program Manager for IMPEL, bringing nine years of experience guiding complex, multi-stakeholder programs. Her strategic execution drives entrepreneur-oriented learning modules and strategic program development, deepens partner and stakeholder engagement, and clarifies team workflows. Drawing on firsthand experience as a creative services owner, she brings unique strengths in creative direction, visual narratives, and client relationship management to orchestrate high-impact events, including pitch showcases, technical summits, leadership roundtables, and expert-led learning modules.

Yashima Jain

Technical Program Manager, Berkeley Lab

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Yashima supports the building technology commercialization, early market transformation, and deployment of innovative research and analysis programs. She serves as a Program Manager for the deployment of tech-to-market programs like IMPEL and Cradle2Commerce. She also works on a program that aims at supporting India in accelerating its climate ambition by identifying specific opportunities in decarbonized and clean energy system pathways, accompanying benefits that would be achieved, and facilitating progress with transformative modeling, implementation, and investment actions.

Before joining LBNL, Yashima worked as a Research Associate with the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) on data-driven assessment and analysis for the new IIHS Campus being built in Bengaluru and as a Program Manager for Solar Decathlon India. At IIHS, she led the development of dashboards used for analytics for systems like energy, water, waste, etc, and coordinated with other teams at IIHS to understand their use cases for data collection. She also assisted with developing controls and algorithms. Before joining IIHS, she also worked with GBCI where she was involved in the development of the LEED Residential green rater training program and educational content on LEED Zero and LEED Residential 4.1.

Vidhi Bhatia

Program Operations Analyst, Berkeley Lab

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Shanshan Li

Commercialization Manager, Intellectual Property Office, Berkeley Lab

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Shanshan works with researchers in the areas of energy efficiency, energy storage, and renewable energy, assessing technologies for commercial potential. She works closely with a licensing associate and patent attorneys to determine the appropriate patent protection for a disclosed invention, to develop competitive market analyses and strategies for commercialization, and to generate industry leads for licensing. She also coordinates relevant industry outreach. Additionally, she manages the lab’s participation in Cleantech to Market (C2M), a Haas School of Business course in which teams of business, science, and engineering students evaluate the commercial potential of clean energy technologies.

Bonnie Cobiseno

Administrator, Berkeley Lab

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program ADVISORS

Mary Hubbard

Whole Homes and Appliance Rebate Program Monitoring and Delivery Supervisor, U.S. Department of Energy

Mary Hubbard is the Commercialization Program Manager at U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Office of Technology Transitions. Mary is a results-driven, strategic, and passionate leader with experience in accelerating innovative energy technologies to the market. Previously she was at Building Technologies Office's Emerging Technologies Program where she led BTO’s Technology to Market Initiative.

Tom Kirchstetter

Director: Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts Division, Berkeley Lab

Dr. Tom Kirchstetter is a Senior Scientist at Berkeley Lab. He serves as the Director of the Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts Division, which supports decision making in the electricity sector, provides the technical basis for DOE’s appliance and equipment energy efficiency standards, and analyses energy systems to inform technology development and deployment. Kirchstetter is also the Chief Scientific Advisor to the Cyclotron Road Program, which supports entrepreneurs who are creating tomorrow’s clean energy future. He holds a concurrent appointment as an Adjunct Professor in Civil & Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley, where he teaches courses and mentors student researchers. Kirchstetter has served as an editor of the journals Aerosol Science & Technology and Atmospheric Chemistry & Physics and organizer of the International Conference on Carbonaceous Particles in the Atmosphere.

Kirchstetter entered the DOE national laboratory system as a student intern at Brookhaven National Lab in 1992. After earning a PhD in Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley, Kirchstetter won the DOE Alexander Hollaender Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship in 1998 and began conducting atmospheric aerosol research under the mentorship of Tihomir Novakov at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, where he as has spent the past 20+ years of his career. Kirchstetter is well known for his research on carbonaceous aerosols and the characterization of motor vehicle emissions and control technologies. Kirchstetter was a member of the Oppenheimer Science and Energy Leadership Program’s third cohort and is a cofounder of the Oppenheimer Leadership Network.

Stephen Selkowitz

Senior Advisor for Building Science, Berkeley Lab

Stephen Selkowitz is a retired Senior Advisor for Building Science, and former Group Leader of the Windows and Envelope Materials Group in the Building Technology and Urban Systems Division. As an internationally recognized expert on window technologies, façade systems, and daylighting, he collaborates with R&D teams worldwide.

He is a frequently invited speaker to industrial and professional groups on many aspects of building technologies and commercial building energy efficiency, and is the author/co-author of over 170 publications, 3 books and holds 2 patents. He is the Principal Investigator for the new LBNL program to design and build FLEXLAB®, the Facility for Low Energy Experiments in Buildings. He is a past member of the Board of Directors of the National Fenestration Rating Council and is currently on the advisory board of a number of efficiency initiatives such as the Green Lights Daylighting Program in New York City, and the Zero Emissions Building program in Norway. Before joining LBNL he was a principal in a consulting engineering firm and taught courses in Environmental Controls and Alternative Energy Systems. Selkowitz holds a BA in Physics from Harvard College and an MFA in Environmental Design from California Institute of the Arts.

Christina Ellwood

Startup Advisor, Angel Investor, formerly Startup CMO

Christina Ellwood is a technology executive with 25+ years of operating experience. She is a scientist and marketer passionate about bringing new technology to market. She co-founded Tempathic in 2018, an enterprise SaaS company that orchestrates human interventions with automated systems for life science companies. She founded Moreland Associates in 2001 to provide technology companies access to seasoned Chief Marketing Officer talent on an interim basis and consulting service to help them build traction in the market place. Moreland’s clients include private and public companies in the Enterprise software, telecom, data, IoT and cleantech sectors. She is currently COO of Eluvio, a platform service enabling, "just-in-time, low-latency content distribution, monetization, and asset servicing directly to consumers".

From 2012 – 2014, she was Vice President, Marketing for Brickstream Corporation, a retail technology company. Prior to Moreland, she founded and served as President, CEO and Chairman of OfficePlease Inc., an intranet SaaS software company. Previously, she was the VP of Marketing for Sentient Networks a telecom switch manufacturer, until their acquisition by Cisco Systems; director of carrier development and marketing at Premisys, a telecom and enterprise Integrated Access Device (IAD) manufacturer, which was later acquired by Zhone; business development and marketing positions with N.E.T., a TI multiplexer manufacturer; and Kevex Instruments, a provider of EDX and XRF spectrometers and detectors.

She is on the advisory board of Helium, an IoT platform company; Funnelcake, a sales and marketing funnel analytics company; Myngl.IO a platform to securely combine, commingle, fuse, analyze and monetize myriad 1st and 2nd Party datasets at industrial scale and speeds; Parle Innovation, a mobile electronic accessories company; and previously was on the advisory board of Fatskunk, a mobile malware company acquired by Nokia.

She regularly contributes to entrepreneur support organizations including: TiE Silicon Valley; Cleantech Open; Keiretsu Forum’s Entrepreneur Academy; and Astia. Christina is known for her strong, clear leadership and drive.

Jagjot (JJ) Singh

Co-President, Stanford Angels, and Executive Chairman, Board of Directors

Jagjot (JJ) Singh is an Executive Coach and Mentor to several software and hardware companies. He advises companies in financing, mergers and acquisitions, business strategy, building teams, closing sales, technology-market fit, and building unique world class technology products.

Professional highlights:

Coach and Mentor: Lead Mentor for ten years at Startx (Stanford incubator) for over 30 companies that have raised more than $250M in financing. Taught technology transfer, pitch sessions, business plan development, and negotiation.
Co-President of Stanford Angels: As Head of Investment Committee, evaluated more than 500 business plans over the past nine years. Angel group has invested in more than 60 companies.
Guest Lecturer Stanford University: Over last five years, taught Entrepreneurship course at Graduate School of Business, Launching Technology course at Graduate School of Bio-Design, and Business Plan course to undergraduates.
Advisor and Board Member: Including Subtle (Radiology AI spinout from Stanford), Zephyrus (technology spinout from Berkeley), Omny (Block Chain company), Vital (enterprise AR/VR), Datatron (enterprise AI), Zum (transportation marketplace).
Judge in Startup Competitions: Various technology and startup competitions at Stanford, Berkeley, Startx, TIE, and VC groups over the past ten years.
Investor: In various startups including CirroSecure (NYSE:PANW), Zero Degrees (NYSE:IACI), Dogster (Say Media), Chestnut Medical (NYSE:COV), Second Foundation (NYSE:FIS), Encentuate (NYSE:IBM), Jetlore (Paypal), Workspan, Zum, Aerin, Medrio.
Founder and CEO: Various businesses including Teknekron (data warehouse), Caresoft (information algorithms), AllDocuments (invoice processing), Chestnut Medical (Stroke extraction device), Second Foundation (enterprise applications).
Education: MBA Stanford Graduate School of Business; MS Engineering Economic Systems, Stanford University; BE Mechanical Engineering, Panjab University, India.

Expert Coaches

IMPEL Innovators receive hands-on training from dynamic and inspiring IMPEL Expert Coaches to craft and deliver succinct, clear, and compelling pitches. Our coaches are skilled entrepreneurs who have raised multi-million dollar funds, coached first-time technologists towards successful commercialization, and judged numerous startup pitches.

Jagjot (JJ) Singh

Co-President, Stanford Angels, and Executive Chairman, Board of Directors

Jagjot (JJ) Singh is an Executive Coach and Mentor to several software and hardware companies. He advises companies in financing, mergers and acquisitions, business strategy, building teams, closing sales, technology-market fit, and building unique world class technology products.

Professional highlights:

Coach and Mentor: Lead Mentor for ten years at Startx (Stanford incubator) for over 30 companies that have raised more than $250M in financing. Taught technology transfer, pitch sessions, business plan development, and negotiation.
Co-President of Stanford Angels: As Head of Investment Committee, evaluated more than 500 business plans over the past nine years. Angel group has invested in more than 60 companies.
Guest Lecturer Stanford University: Over last five years, taught Entrepreneurship course at Graduate School of Business, Launching Technology course at Graduate School of Bio-Design, and Business Plan course to undergraduates.
Advisor and Board Member: Including Subtle (Radiology AI spinout from Stanford), Zephyrus (technology spinout from Berkeley), Omny (Block Chain company), Vital (enterprise AR/VR), Datatron (enterprise AI), Zum (transportation marketplace).
Judge in Startup Competitions: Various technology and startup competitions at Stanford, Berkeley, Startx, TIE, and VC groups over the past ten years.
Investor: In various startups including CirroSecure (NYSE:PANW), Zero Degrees (NYSE:IACI), Dogster (Say Media), Chestnut Medical (NYSE:COV), Second Foundation (NYSE:FIS), Encentuate (NYSE:IBM), Jetlore (Paypal), Workspan, Zum, Aerin, Medrio.
Founder and CEO: Various businesses including Teknekron (data warehouse), Caresoft (information algorithms), AllDocuments (invoice processing), Chestnut Medical (Stroke extraction device), Second Foundation (enterprise applications).
Education: MBA Stanford Graduate School of Business; MS Engineering Economic Systems, Stanford University; BE Mechanical Engineering, Panjab University, India.

Whitney Hischier

Lecturer, Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley

Whitney Hischier is a lecturer at the Haas School of Business, College of Natural Resources, and School of Engineering at UC Berkeley in strategy and entrepreneurship. Her courses focus on experiential projects for students to learn tools with real organizations and include Startup Lab, Consulting to Startups and Small Business, International Business Development, Red Teaming, and Scenario Planning and Futures Thinking.

She also works with the Berkeley Haas Global Access Program program which hosts international students to work on startups for a semester, as well as the Learn to Launch program for international graduate students launching new ventures. Whitney is a national instructor for the National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps program which focuses on commercialization of academic scientific research and has worked with the World Bank as an innovation expert in Poland, Hungary and Romania.

Whitney serves as a facilitator, educator and coach for several of the national labs, including Los Alamos and Livermore. Previously, Whitney was Assistant Dean for Executive Education at Berkeley for nearly a decade and prior to that, a career consultant in the US and Europe with Deloitte and KPMG.

Whitney has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley.

Christina Ellwood

COO, Eluvio, Startup Advisor, Angel Investor, formerly Startup CMO

Christina Ellwood is a technology executive with 25+ years of operating experience. She is a scientist and marketer passionate about bringing new technology to market. She co-founded Tempathic in 2018, an enterprise SaaS company that orchestrates human interventions with automated systems for life science companies. She founded Moreland Associates in 2001 to provide technology companies access to seasoned Chief Marketing Officer talent on an interim basis and consulting service to help them build traction in the market place. Moreland’s clients include private and public companies in the Enterprise software, telecom, data, IoT and cleantech sectors.

From 2012 – 2014, she was Vice President, Marketing for Brickstream Corporation, a retail technology company. Prior to Moreland, she founded and served as President, CEO and Chairman of OfficePlease Inc., an intranet SaaS software company. Previously, she was the VP of Marketing for Sentient Networks a telecom switch manufacturer, until their acquisition by Cisco Systems; director of carrier development and marketing at Premisys, a telecom and enterprise Integrated Access Device (IAD) manufacturer, which was later acquired by Zhone; business development and marketing positions with N.E.T., a TI multiplexer manufacturer; and Kevex Instruments, a provider of EDX and XRF spectrometers and detectors.

She is on the advisory board of Helium, an IoT platform company; Funnelcake, a sales and marketing funnel analytics company; Myngl.IO a platform to securely combine, commingle, fuse, analyze and monetize myriad 1st and 2nd Party datasets at industrial scale and speeds; Parle Innovation, a mobile electronic accessories company; and previously was on the advisory board of Fatskunk, a mobile malware company acquired by Nokia.

She regularly contributes to entrepreneur support organizations including: TiE Silicon Valley; Cleantech Open; Keiretsu Forum’s Entrepreneur Academy; and Astia. Christina is known for her strong, clear leadership and drive.

Partners

With locations in both Boston, MA and Houston, TX, Greentown Labs is a community of climatetech and cleantech pioneers working to design a more sustainable world. Greentown Labs has a decade-long track record of providing climatetech startups with the programming, resources, mentorship, network connections and physical space that they need in order to scale and to succeed in tackling the world's biggest climate and environmental challenges. They are the largest climatetech startup incubator in North America.

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