About

Mr. Dresselhuys is the CEO of ESS Inc. and joined the company in March 2021. Mr. Dresselhuys has over 25 years of leadership experience and is an accomplished technology and market development pioneer with a demonstrated background in growing both public and private companies. Prior to joining ESS Inc., Mr. Dresselhuys founded Silver Spring Networks, which became the leading provider of smart grid networking and data solutions, leading to an IPO in 2013 (NYSE: SSNI) and an eventual sale to Itron (NASDAQ: ITRI). Other experience includes a variety of leadership positions at Procter and Gamble and Smart Energy Water, where he helped build up the companies on a global scale. As an active member of the energy industry, he currently serves as the Chairman of Enian, LTD. in London and on the board of directors of Autogrid, Inc. He is also a frequent speaker at industry events and author on issues related to the energy transition. Mr. Dresselhuys holds a B.S. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin and earned an Executive Certificate from the Sloan School at MIT.

Mr. Evans is the President and founder of ESS Inc. Having started ESS from his garage in 2011, he has led the company through the commercialization of the iron flow battery system in 2016 and multiple rounds of successful investment to build the company. Prior to ESS Inc., Mr. Evans was the Director of Design & Product Development at ClearEdge Power Inc. His team designed the ClearEdge5, a 5 kW combine-heat-and-power fuel cell system, which was successfully commercialized in 2010. This product received both CSA International certification in North America and KNREC certification in Asia. Mr. Evans began his career at United Technologies Corporation (UTC) where he held technical leadership positions in their Fuel Cell business and, prior to that, as a project engineer in the Pratt & Whitney aircraft engine business. In 2006, Mr. Evans was awarded the distinguished George Mead Award, the highest honor for individual engineering achievement at UTC. Mr. Evans has authored over 15 patents and patent applications. He holds a BS in Aerospace Engineering and an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Clarkson University, an MS in Finance from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and an M.B.A from Carnegie Mellon University.

Dr. Song is the Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of ESS Inc. In this position, she has spearheaded the transition of the iron flow battery technology to becoming a commercial energy storage system. Prior to joining ESS Inc., Dr. Song was the Vice President of Research and Development at ClearEdge Power Inc., where she led over 20 cross-functional scientists and engineers on all corporate R&D projects and the commercialization of the 5 kW Combined Heat and Power Fuel Cell system. Dr. Song started her career at Milliken & Co. as an Industrial Research Chemist. Dr. Song has authored approximately 20 peer-reviewed publications and over 10 patents and patent applications. Dr. Song holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Peking University and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She specializes in fuel cells, batteries, electrochemistry and the catalysis properties of nanoparticles.

Mr. Moftakhar is the Chief Financial Officer for ESS Inc. Mr. Moftakhar is an accomplished finance executive with experience in energy, banking, technology, real estate, and consumer products specializing in strategy and finance. Mr. Moftakhar has significant corporate experience in finance, business development, strategy, and M&A with companies including Bank of America, Sempra Energy, San Diego Gas and Electric, and Cox Communications. He has been a lecturer and adjunct professor in the areas of economics, finance, statistics, and business, including his latest experience as an Adjunct Professor of Finance with the University of San Diego. Mr. Moftakhar received his Bachelor’s of Managerial Economics from the University of California, Davis, his Master’s in Business Administration from the Graziadio School of Business at Pepperdine University, and his Executive Master of Leadership degree from the Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California.

Mr. McDermott is the Senior Vice President Business Development & Sales for ESS Inc. An energy sector executive focused on growing energy infrastructure and advanced energy technology businesses primarily addressing utility, industrial and commercial sectors, Mr. McDermott has served in numerous executive and leadership roles throughout his career in high-growth start-up companies as well as executive roles in public listed companies. Prior to joining ESS, Inc., Mr. McDermott was the Vice President Sales for Silver Spring Networks where he successfully led the company’s market-building presence and key partnership development for Smart Grid and Smart City business across the APAC region. As Global Head of Business Development at Better Place, Mr. McDermott created the world’s first smart charging commercial offering which leveraged networked electric vehicle charging infrastructure to provide dynamic load management and energy storage services to utilities, grid operators and energy traders. Mr. McDermott is a Hokie from VA Tech where he earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering in Power Systems.

Dr. Heng is the Senior Vice President of Engineering at ESS Inc. He has held key executive and advisory roles in several technology startups, having successfully brought two solar companies to acquisition and several startups to next-level funding. As COO of Caelux Solar, Dr. Heng orchestrated a new perovskite-based solar product from prototype to pilot production, enabling the company’s strategic positioning in a competitive industry. As head of Solar Product Engineering & Operations at Tesla/ Solar City he led design, development, pilot, and transition to manufacturability of cutting-edge products including the solar roof. Before this, he was part of Intel’s Device Integration and Process Engineering groups. He holds more than 72 patents in disciplines ranging from biotech to transistor technology to solar. Dr. Heng is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering with a focus in device physics and nanobiotechnology.

Mr. Lisiecki is the Vice President of Information & Business systems for ESS Inc. He has led the initiative to standardize cross functional business process, including enabling Oracle ERP to provide scalability and better decision insights. Prior to joining ESS Inc., Mr. Lisiecki spent 19 years at the Campbell Soup Company in various technology and finance leadership roles. These roles included Business Intelligence, SAP, Business Acquisition Integrations, Global FP&A and Financial Consolidation. Mr. Lisiecki holds a B.S. in Management Information Systems from Clarkson University and a M.S. in Management Information Systems from Pennsylvania State University.

Mr. Lewis is the Vice President of Quality for ESS Inc. An accomplished and dynamic leader, Mr. Lewis contributes extensive experience driving breakthrough performance in Manufacturing, Engineering and Quality Operations. Mr. Lewis has a passion for facilitating collaboration across the business to drive an understanding of product requirements and enable efficient development and production of high quality, reliable products. Prior to joining ESS Inc., Mr. Lewis led Quality teams at large publicly traded companies and most recently served in Operations and Engineering leadership roles including Vice President, Portland General Manager at FLIR Systems. He has an excellent track record for improving throughput and profitability by driving effective process controls and a continuous improvement mindset throughout an organization. Mr. Lewis holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and earned his MBA from Babson College.

Mr. Montgomery is the Vice President of Integrated Supply Chain for ESS Inc., working across the full range of supply chain processes and planning to ensure the company can meet the growing demand for our energy storage solutions. He has over 25 years of leadership experience in supply chain and manufacturing operations, working across a variety of industries including aerospace, electronics, biotech, and smart grid networking.  Mr. Montgomery has a passion for building integrated planning processes, streamlining new product introduction, and building supply chain capabilities to accelerate time-to-volume manufacturing.  Prior to joining ESS, Mr. Montgomery spent 11 years with Silver Spring Networks and Itron in leadership positions across Manufacturing Engineering, Supply Chain, S&OP, and Product Management.  He most recently served as the Vice President of Manufacturing Engineering driving NPI performance and cost-down activities across a complex network of internal and external manufacturing sites.  He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Arizona State University and an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA.

Mr. Michael R. Niggli brings to the ESS board a wealth of utility industry management experience. He most recently served as President and Chief Operating Officer at San Diego Gas & Electric Co. (SDG&E) until December 2013 and currently serves on the boards of several energy-related companies. Since beginning his career at SDG&E in 1971, Mr. Niggli held many positions within the electricity and gas operations, fuels acquisition, project management and customer service operations of SDG&E. Prior to rejoining SDG&E in 2006, Mr. Niggli served in positions with Entergy Corp., Nevada Power Company, Sierra Pacific Resources and Sempra Energy. Mr. Niggli has been closely involved in business and education partnerships in San Diego, New Orleans and Las Vegas. He served as Chairman of Sierra Pacific Power Company and Nevada Power Co. since July 1999. He served as a Director of San Diego Gas & Electric Company since December 7, 2012; Member of the Board of Directors of Esval S.A. since March 2015 and ESSBIO S.A. since March 2015. Mr. Niggli served as a Director of San Diego Gas & Electric Company and Southern California Gas Co. since February 23, 2007. He served as a Director of Pacific Enterprises Inc. from February 23, 2007, to April 3, 2010. He also has served on the boards of the Central Arkansas Radiation Institute, United Way of Southern Nevada, Great Basin National Park Foundation, UNLV Foundation, Electric Power Research Institute, Edison Electric Institute and the Nevada Development Authority. Mr. Niggli has authored at least a dozen articles on issues pertinent to the electric, gas and telecommunications industries. He has provided expert testimony on electric and gas utility matters before numerous legislative committees, public service commissions and city councils at the federal, state and local levels. He founded the graduate program in power engineering at San Diego State University and lectured part-time for five years. Mr. Niggli holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from California State University in Long Beach and a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from San Diego State University. Mr. Niggli participated in the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.

Mr. Dresselhuys is the CEO of ESS Inc. and joined the company in March 2021. Mr. Dresselhuys has over 25 years of leadership experience and is an accomplished technology and market development pioneer with a demonstrated background in growing both public and private companies. Prior to joining ESS Inc., Mr. Dresselhuys founded Silver Spring Networks, which became the leading provider of smart grid networking and data solutions, leading to an IPO in 2013 (NYSE: SSNI) and an eventual sale to Itron (NASDAQ: ITRI). Other experience includes a variety of leadership positions at Procter and Gamble and Smart Energy Water, where he helped build up the companies on a global scale. As an active member of the energy industry, he currently serves as the Chairman of Enian, LTD. in London and on the board of directors of Autogrid, Inc. He is also a frequent speaker at industry events and author on issues related to the energy transition. Mr. Dresselhuys holds a B.S. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin and earned an Executive Certificate from the Sloan School at MIT.

Mr. Evans is the President and founder of ESS Inc. Having started ESS from his garage in 2011, he has led the company through the commercialization of the iron flow battery system in 2016 and multiple rounds of successful investment to build the company. Prior to ESS Inc., Mr. Evans was the Director of Design & Product Development at ClearEdge Power Inc. His team designed the ClearEdge5, a 5 kW combine-heat-and-power fuel cell system, which was successfully commercialized in 2010. This product received both CSA International certification in North America and KNREC certification in Asia. Mr. Evans began his career at United Technologies Corporation (UTC) where he held technical leadership positions in their Fuel Cell business and, prior to that, as a project engineer in the Pratt & Whitney aircraft engine business. In 2006, Mr. Evans was awarded the distinguished George Mead Award, the highest honor for individual engineering achievement at UTC. Mr. Evans has authored over 15 patents and patent applications. He holds a BS in Aerospace Engineering and an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Clarkson University, an MS in Finance from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and an M.B.A from Carnegie Mellon University.

Mr. Raffi Garabedian was the Chief Technology Officer of First Solar, Inc. from 2012 through 2020. Mr. Garabedian joined First Solar in 2008. Before joining First Solar, he founded Touchdown Technologies, Inc. and served as its Chief Executive Officer. He worked in the semiconductor and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) industries for over 15 years, developing and manufacturing new technology products ranging from automotive sensors to telecommunications switching systems. He holds over 20 issued patents and has deep experience in strategy, product development, engineering, manufacturing technology, management and team building. Mr. Garabedian holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic University and an M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Davis.

Ms. Claudia Gast is the Chief Financial Officer and Board Director of Global Technology Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: GTAC) and co-founder of Greentrail Capital, an investment firm focused on publicly listed companies and pre-IPO opportunities, with an emphasis on global technology and consumer organizations. For the last 15 years, she has been responsible for leading mergers and acquisitions and has an extensive background in private equity. Prior to her current roles, Ms. Gast served as Chief Strategy Officer and Head of M&A at AM General (a KPS Capital Partners portfolio company), as well as Executive Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development at GWR Safety Systems (a GHC Capital portfolio company) and as Finance Leader at Procter & Gamble. Ms. Gast holds a B.S. in Business Administration and an M.S. in Finance & Management from Esade Business School in Barcelona; an MBA in Finance & General Management from the University of Michigan; an MBA in Finance & Strategic Management from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; and an MBA in Finance, Accounting & Strategy from the University of Chicago.

Mr. Rich Hossfeld is SVP of Strategy and Investments at SoftBank Energy. Rich is an entrepreneurial and thesis driven investor and business executive, with expertise identifying emerging market and technology opportunities, building and executing business plans and commercial strategies for start-up through Fortune 500 companies, developing markets and conducting business in both emerging and developed markets, building infrastructure businesses to accelerate product sales and profitability, removing regulatory barriers to market expansion and launching new products.

Kyle Teamey is an investor with Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) where he focuses on commercializing products and services that can have an outsized impact on climate change. He currently serves on the boards of several private corporations. Prior to joining BEV, Kyle was an investor with In-Q-Tel (IQT) where he concentrated on “deep technology” investments in energy, materials, advanced manufacturing, logistics, and computing hardware. Prior to IQT, Kyle was an executive with several start-up companies, to include serving as CEO of Liquid Light. He was also an Entrepreneur in Residence with Redpoint Ventures and Executive in Residence with Columbia Technology Ventures. Kyle is a veteran of the U.S. Army, having served as an active duty officer from 1998 to 2004, and is currently a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve. Kyle holds a B.A. in Environmental Engineering from Dartmouth College, a M.A. in International Finance and Energy Policy from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, a M.S. in Materials Science from Columbia University, and a Masters of Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College.

Mr. Daryl Wilson is a versatile leader with more than 35 years of progressive industrial management experience in environmental technology, operations, manufacturing, human resources, product development, and organisational change developed in world class organisations, including Dofasco, Toyota, and ZenonEnvironmental. For the last 14 years, Daryl Wilson served as CEO of Hydrogenics, a publicly listed leading provider of advanced hydrogen solutions. Mr. Wilson also served on the board of ATS Automation for 10 years and is a certified corporate director.