Board of Directors

Ira Ehrenpreis
General Partner, Technology Partners

Leo Joseph
Serial Entrepreneur

Sujit Banerjee
Managing Director, Element Partners

PM Pai
Venture Partner, NEA

Raj Atluru
Board Observer
Venture Partner, Draper Fisher Jurvetson

Ira Ehrenpreis
General Partner, Technology Partners

Ira Ehrenpreis is a General Partner with Technology Partners. He has been with the firm since 1996. Ira leads Technology Partners’ Cleantech investment practice, investing in Energy Technology, Water Technology, and Materials Science opportunities. Ira is a recognized leader in both the venture capital industry and the Cleantech sector, and in 2007, was named one of the “Top 50 Most Influential Men Under 45″ by Details Magazine. In the venture community, Ira serves on the Board of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and on the Board of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists (WAVC). He is also the Co-Chairman of both the VCNetwork and the YVCA, two non-profit organizations comprising more than 1,000 venture capitalists. In the Cleantech sector, Ira has served on several industry Boards, including the Clean-Tech Investor Summit (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 Conference Chairman), Cleantech Venture Network (Past Chairman of Advisory Board), ACORE (American Council on Renewable Energy), Energy Investors Forum (Past Conference Chairman), Energy Venture Fair, and California Climate Change Advisory Board. He has also served on the Advisory Boards of the Southern California Tech Coast Alliance, Forum for Women Entrepreneurs (FWE), and the Comerica Venture Capital Advisory Board. Ira is also an active leader at Stanford University, where his contributions have included teaching the course on Venture Capital and serving on the Board of Visitors of Stanford Law School. Ira is also a Contributor to Nimmer on Copyright, the leading copyright treatise. Ira received his JD/MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and Stanford Law School, where he was an Associate Editor of Stanford Law Review. He holds a B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude.

Ravi Viswanathan, PhD
Partner, NEA

Ravi joined NEA in February 2004 as a Principal and became a Partner in December 2004. He focuses on information technology investments with special emphasis in energy, hardware, India-related and growth equity investments. Ravi is on the board of Availink, Deeya Energy, ISGN Technologies, Jentro Technologies, Liquidia, Solar Junction, Suniva and ViXS and works closely with GlobalLogic, OANDA, ProtoStar, and our energy portfolio companies.

Prior to joining NEA, Ravi worked at Goldman, Sachs & Co. where he was co-head of the technology practice in their private equity group and led direct, fund, and secondary investments in the areas of information technology and life sciences. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Ravi worked for McKinsey & Company and advised clients in the software, communications, and pharmaceutical sectors on strategy, acquisitions and new business building. Previously, Ravi worked for Raychem Corporation in the Corporate Technology Division where he focused on research and product development in semiconductors, liquid crystals, and other materials systems.

Ravi received a Master’s in Business Administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara where he focused his research on materials science applications in molecular electronics, biomaterials, and nanotechnology. Prior to graduate school, Ravi received a BS in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Leo Joesph
Serial Entrepreneur

Leo Joseph is a serial, highly successful entrepreneur. Among his most recent ventures, Leo was a cofounder and key member of the senior executive management teams at P.A. Semi (sold to Apple) and Sibyte (sold to Broadcom).

Sujit Banerjee
Managing Director, Element Partners

Sujit is a Managing Director at Element Partners and brings with over 10 years of investment experience. Sujit leads Element’s efforts in power storage, semiconductor, and power electronics, and will expand Element’s efforts in photovoltaics. Prior to joining Element, Sujit was a Partner with BlueRun Ventures where he founded their Cleantech practice as well as their India office. In addition to leading Blue Run’s investments in Deeya Energy and Petra Solar, Sujit’s other investments included Slicex, Cyoptics, Magsil, Nexplanar, and Sasken (BSE: SASKEN). Prior to BlueRun, Sujit was a Principal with TL Ventures where he led investments in pre-IPO companies Atrenta and Sonics, both respected leaders in their field. Prior to TL, Sujit’s professional experience included investment banking with Merrill Lynch, management consulting for several companies in the semiconductor industry, and working as an engineer with Synoptics Communications.

Sujit received his M.B.A. from the Wharton Business School, where he was Chairman of the Wharton India Economic Forum, and holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with Eta Kappa Nu academic honors.

PM Pai
Venture Partner, NEA

PM joined NEA in 2009 as a Venture Partner. He is the former Chief Operating Officer (COO) of SunPower and has more than 30 years of manufacturing and mass production experience in a range of industries. PM is a director of two NEA portfolio companies, Suniva, Inc., a manufacturer of high value monocrystalline solar cells, and Deeya Energy, developer of an advanced energy storage platform. While at SunPower from April 2005 to July 2008, he was responsible for strategic planning, production expansion, and supply chain development on a worldwide basis. Prior to SunPower, he served for four years as president of Moser Baer India Ltd., the world’s second largest manufacturer of optical storage media. PM graduated from Mysore University, India, in Mechanical Engineering. His graduate work also includes an M.Tech Industrial Engineering, with distinction, from ITT Madras and the Advanced Management Program (ISMP) at Harvard Business School.

Raj Atluru
Venture Partner, Draper Fisher Jurvetson

Raj Atluru is a Venture Partner at Draper Fisher Jurvetson where he spearheaded the firm’s cleantech investment practice since 2001 and its India investment operations since 2005. He has been active across technology sectors, with an emphasis on renewable energy, energy storage, smart grid and energy efficiency applications, wireless technologies and business software and services. Raj has been the lead partner on a variety of companies across the cleantech sector, including Array Converter, Bright Source Energy, Coaltek, Deeya Energy, EnerNOC (ENOC), GreatPoint Energy, MiarTech, Scientific Conservation, Solar Junction, and Tioga Energy, among others. In addition, Raj is a co-founder of SilverLake Kraftwerk, a growth equity fund focused on energy and resource investing.

Raj sits on the advisory board of the Cleantech investors Forum, and co-founded The Spotlight Fund, a non-profit dedicated to funding start-up educational entrepreneurs. Raj received B.S. and M.S. degrees in Civil/Environmental Engineering from Stanford University where he taught the solar and wind engergy lab and was a full time research assistant on the Waste Isolation Pilot Project for Sandia National Labs (Department of Defense Nuclear Repository Study). In addition he received an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.