Our Team

Chief Executive Officer & President

Troy is an entrepreneur and CEO in the clean energy and sustainability space. Troy was the COO of Clean Water Innovations, a clean water technology start up. Troy is a licensed general contractor for infrastructure who has developed projects in the nuclear, water, and power sectors. He specializes in management of sustainable energy projects focusing on taking projects from start to completion, and holds a bachelor’s degree in the field. Troy also proudly served his nation in the United States Army National Guard.

Chief Financial Officer

Andy is a Wall Street veteran, working for 13 years at Credit Suisse and CSFP trading and marketing derivatives. He spent 4 years at the hedge fund UBS O’Connor managing a credit and equity derivatives strategy. Andy also has startup company experience as co-CEO for HausMart and Director of Product Development at Kiodex. He earned a BSE in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University focusing on clean energy solutions for automotive engines.

Strategic Advisor

Brandon serves as strategic advisor, overseeing software development and investments. Over his 20+ year tenure at Microsoft Corporation, he has extensive experience in finance and benefits including managing strategic investments and ventures portfolios; managing passive and internal equity overlay strategies; overseeing external managers and private equity real estate strategies; and trading equity derivatives. He also is a member of Microsoft’s 401(k) Advisory Committee, which supports the company’s plan fiduciaries in oversight of their $64B defined contribution plan and oversees 100+ pension plans globally. Additionally, Brandon is an experienced venture capital and private equity investor, has served as a Board Observer for a SaaS provider in the dental space, and led a syndicate for a series A investment in a non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) startup. Brandon graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Technical Advisor

Alex Cheng serves as technical advisor, managing software architecture and development. As a principal software architect and engineer for over 17 years at Microsoft, he currently leads technical development for Azure AI's Language Translation service that translates over 10 trillion characters a month. He has extensive knowledge in building distributed systems and has also taken multiple new ideas rapidly from prototype to production for Microsoft Translator. Alex graduated with a BA in Computer Science from Cornell University as well as an MA in Computational Linguistics and an MS in Computer Science from University of Washington.

Project Specialist

Kevin contributes to site evaluation and observation through satellite imagery analysis. He developed a groundwater model for the National Park Service. At Subsurface Insights, he maintained a satellite data processing API, programmed an evapotranspiration library, and built land cover classification algorithms. He studied Earth Sciences at Dartmouth College.

Advisor

Tahreem has over 22 years as a finance leader at Microsoft where he managed a $140B multi-asset portfolio, managed the company’s Treasury operations and led investment efforts in ESG, including private equity investments in early-stage climate technology and carbon markets. Tahreem has previously run commodities, foreign exchange, cash management, treasury integrations, and equities at a global scale. He has served on the NY Fed FX Committee, and currently serves on the Board of the Pacific Whale Foundation in addition to other organizations. He studied Finance and Real Estate at Penn State University. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Advisor

Mark Gross is a food executive with more than 20 years of critical leadership experience, financial expertise and deep insight in leading business transformations. He is an experienced Board member through his role on the board as CEO of Supervalu (Fortune 200; NYSE) and Co-President of C&S Wholesale Grocers (Forbes 10 largest private U.S. companies). Currently, he is the CEO of Kernel Group Holdings a $300 M SPAC; Co-Chairman of the Board of Northeast Grocery Inc (merger of Price Chopper and Tops Markets), a $9B+ revenue grocery retailer; Audit Committee Chairman at Acosta, a leading full-service sales and marketing agency representing CPG brands and retailers, and Audit Committee Chair of Southeastern Grocers a $9B annual revenue grocery retailer. Gross earned his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania, graduating cum laude, and holds a BA from Dartmouth College, where he graduated with highest honors in his major.

Advisor

Michel is the Chief Privacy Officer, Product, Meta. He leads product and engineering teams focused on Meta’s privacy efforts. Previously, he led product marketing for Meta’s Partnerships businesses and product groups including Media, Games, Workplace and Connectivity teams. Prior to that, he led emerging business strategy and planning across Meta’s Global Marketing Solutions organization. Prior to joining Meta, Michel was SVP Strategy and Operations at Guggenheim Digital Media and spent 4 years at Yahoo in several leadership positions including Country Manager of Yahoo Canada and Chief of Staff to the CEO. Michel began his career in the Tech, Media, and Telecom practice at McKinsey and Company. He is a graduate of Queen’s University in Canada and holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.

Advisor

Ryan Coonerty is a member of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors and the two-time former Mayor of the City of Santa Cruz. He is also an entrepreneur, author, and educator. He is the host of the NewDEAL’s “An Honorable Profession” podcast. He was the cofounder of NextSpace Coworking + Innovation (now owned by Pacific Workplaces), a lecturer on law and government at UC Santa Cruz, and co-author of The Rise of the Naked Economy – How to Benefit from the Changing Workplace and wrote Etched in Stone – Enduring Words from our National Monuments. Ryan was selected by the Aspen Institute to be a Rodel Fellow in Public Leadership as one of “the nation’s most promising young elected officials.” He holds a law degree from the University of Virginia and a master's degree from the London School of Economics.

Advisor

Julie leads Truist’s ESG Advisory and Intra-Industry Coverage team. She leads ESG focused advisory across sectors to support clients in navigating the strategic and financing challenges and opportunities with a sustainability lens. The advisory mandate also includes working with companies emerging at the intersection of traditional industry verticals that empower a more sustainable economy. Julie has over 20 years of experience advising companies globally across sectors on corporate finance, capital structure, funding, and risk management, including with a sustainability lens. Prior to joining Truist, Julie led HSBC’s ESG and Strategic Solutions group in the Americas and previously held corporate finance advisory roles at Barclays and Lehman Brothers in London and New York. Julie graduated from London Business School with an MBA and received a BA in Economics (Honors) from Wellesley College.