Antonio Dixon, Creative Director
Antonio Dixon is an MIT-trained, award-winning entrepreneur, and economist with experience in healthcare (telehealth), renewable energy, and international trade which has led him to work over 20 international markets, and travel to over 60 countries. Mr. Dixon was recently recognized as a Top 100 Startup Changemaker from Harvard and MIT and recognized by the UN as a Young Pioneer, the winner of the Frost & Sullivan Emerging Market Innovation Award. His company, SolarFi is the only company with less than $50,000,000 in revenue to be invited to the UN’s SDG Innovators Program. Mr. Dixoon serves as an Executive-in-Residence at Columbia University and NYSERDA (The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority) and as a professional advisor at MIT's Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship. He is a SOCAP Scholar that has advised on Presidential elections in Africa. An expert change-maker and serial entrepreneur, Mr. Dixon has always had an abiding interest in sustainability. To that end, as co-founder of SunPowerd Mr. Dixon developed alliances to provide solar grids to developing countries and orchestrated key partnerships with Microsoft, Royal Dutch Shell, USAID Power Africa, and the United Nations. Based on his experiences as a resident in Africa where access to the internet and even continuous power is sometimes a luxury, Mr. Dixon saw an opportunity and leveraged his deep knowledge of technology to co-found SolarFi. SolarFi has the life-altering potential to bring energy and economic development to developing countries and seeks to connect the under-served and unconnected populations in Africa through solar-powered technology stations which have become the swiss army knife for impacting communities.
Mike Rinella, Director of Strategic Planning and Development
Mike is a Harvard Alumnus and Special Advisor to NYS Senate Finance.
Russ Klein, CTO
Russ Klein is the former Director of Innovation and Research at Sensi Tech Hub, supporting the first and only innovation center and its startup investment fund in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Mr. Klein is a professional innovation consultant who brings technology and best-practices to under-developed and under-served markets. He empowers people by inspiring them to experiment with disruptive tools and processes and by supporting them as they apply 21st-century technologies to create a better world for themselves. A serial entrepreneur, over the last 25 years Mr. Klein has founded more than a dozen startup technology companies developing software and information products for the private investment industry on Wall Street, as well as mobile banking, e-commerce, machine learning, multifactor security and biometrics, education, communications, and media systems. His skills include rapid development and agile methodologies, software design and engineering, information architecture and knowledge discovery in data, messaging and intranet platforms, web and mobile app development, Internet of Things solutions, OTT communications applications, and social media marketing. Mr. Klein has personally developed, produced, managed, and led hackathons for private companies, governments and NGOs, and for the public in the USA, Algeria, Turkey, Poland, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere. Mr. Klein is also an accomplished writer, focusing on research and analysis in emerging technology and emerging markets.
Mythraeyi Venkatesh, Operations
Mythraeyi is an Operations & Analytics Strategy Professional. She is a former Big 4 (PwC Advisory) & IBM Consultant specializing in IoT and Big Data.
Doug Lloyd, Chief Engineer
Doug designed the network for the first Microsoft Airband project, The Magyver. He is the former Chief Engineer at Deep Blue Communications.
Nidhi Bhutani, Marketing
Nidhi is an experienced Marketing Professional with an history of working in IT industry.
Brian Jiguere, Director of Institution and Government Accounts
Alex Pischalnikov, Advisor
Alex Pischalnikov is an expert specializing in utility strategic planning, operational improvement, regulatory policy, distributed energy resource integration, energy storage, and smart grid technology. Alex has led the development of strategic initiatives and regulatory filings for smart meter deployment, demand response, and electric rate design at both investor-owned and municipal utilities across North America. Alex has helped utility Customer Care organizations realize cost savings while enhancing the customer experience. Mr. Pischalnikov has conducted and published innovation research on energy storage deployment strategy, wearable technologies for utilities, and the connected home. Alex is based in Los Angeles office and has performed a variety of rate and regulatory comparative analysis on California’s utilities and energy.
Paul de Francisci
Specialist in capital markets, structured and real estate finance, investment management and private equity.
Mark O'Luck, Advisor
Mark O’Luck, is Chief Executive Officer of Spectrum Personal Communications Corporation (“Spectrum”) a diversified business consulting firm he founded in 1994 that provides consulting services to large construction companies, large construction projects, government agencies, and Fortune 500 companies. Prior to starting Spectrum, he was co-founder and President of SBMA, Inc., a small business consulting firm, and worked as a business consultant and senior management consultant in Corporate America. In June 2009, Mr. O’Luck was nominated by Governor David A. Paterson as a Trustee of the Power Authority of the State of New York, and was confirmed by New York State Senate to serve a two-year term beginning April 2010. At the time of his confirmation, Mr. O'Luck was the first minority and MBE Trustee in NYPA's 79-year history. His term expired on June 26, 2012. Recently, he founded the NYC Monthly "The MWBE" Networking & B2B, a forum which brings together NY agencies and authorities, prime contractors, and DMWSBE businesses in an informal setting that encourages joint ventures, partnerships and further collaborative relationships. Mr. O' Luck is a member of the New York Committee of the Regional Plan Association. Some of the other boards and capacities in which he has served include: Chairman Emeritus & Past Chairman of the Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation; Vice Chairman, Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce; Regent, Long Island College Hospital; Director, Brooklyn Bureau of Community Service; Director, Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corp. and several others. He also previously served on the NYS Public Service Commission Consumer Advisory Council; an advisor to NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn's Municipal Entrepreneurial Testing System (METS), Con Edison Business Advisory Board; Independence Community Bank Business Advisory Board, and the Kings County Overall Economic Development Planning Committee. In 2007, he served on the Spitzer Paterson M/WBE Transition Team Working Group. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce’s Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Award, the 2006 MBE Award of Excellence from the XIII Annual Competitive Edge Conference, the 2003 Brooklyn Economic Development Corp. Service Award, et al.
Glenn Butler, CTO
Glenn is an industry vendor and inventor of the VendScreen Revolution smart device for new and existing vending machine. Early in his career, Butler co-founded Streamware, served as president of Cantaloupe, and was vice president and CTO of Crane Merchandising Systems before co-founding VendScreen. Butler holds a degree electrical engineering and computer science and has served as an advisor to several companies. As a technical leader I have architected and hired / managed engineering teams building the entire ecosystem of connected solutions, including:Web, cloud, and mobile (iOS and Android) software utilizing both Microsoft and Open Source platforms; High availability / high scalability systems; device hardware, industrial design, electrical, and software / firmware; Connectivity utilizing cellular, BLE, WiFi, ZigBee and industry specific hardware.
Raphael Carty, Advisor
Raphael Carty joined NYU Stern in 2018 as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Management and Organizations. Raphael has spent his career largely in the tech space as a senior leader commercializing innovative technology in companies ranging from startups to the Fortune 500. Raphael started in product management at HP in Silicon Valley and has served as global VP Marketing of SaaS disruptor DealerTrack (NASDAQ:TRAK), CMO/VP Product of cybersecurity pioneer CertCo, Director of Marketing for Networking of 3D graphics innovator Silicon Graphics, and Co-Founder/CEO of smart buildings startup Callida Energy. Raphael built an online consumer business at Chase Credit Cards and led the digital transformation of cardholders.
Dr. Sam Agbo, Technical Advisor
Dr. Sam Oboche Agbo is a Public health expert and Child Specialist with a strong background and work experience in Epidemiology; Primary Health Care, UHC, Health Policy and Financing and Business management in Africa and the UK. Dr. Agbo is chief of health and child survival and development for UNICEF, where he is responsible for planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of integrated management of childhood illness, immunization, and emergency preparedness and response. Agbo’s experience includes 16 years in various roles at UNICEF and over 30 years on the front lines in the fight against polio. He previously worked as head of health and HIV at Save the Children, as a community health officer with the World Health Organization (WHO), as an independent policy and health advisor in the UK, and as head of health for Merlin. He is an Aspen Institute New Voices Fellow, and a technical advisor at SolarFi.
John Cervey, Advisor
For over a decade, John Cervey led efforts for technology-based businesses in alternative energy and cleantech fields that resulted in over $100 million in funding and the creation of hundreds of jobs. His focus and expertise is in business development, public sector funding and regulatory/policy strategy development and implementation.
Specialties: Business development, partnering, strategic alliances, government liaison, government funding, proposal development.
