Mentors at the Sustainable Aero Lab Energy Program

Our mentors are diverse professionals guiding startups to create impactful solutions in electrification, efficiency, and sustainability.

Director of Technology Management for the Breakthrough Energy Fellows Program

Brenda Haendler

  • Brenda is the Director of Technology Management for the Breakthrough Energy Fellows program, where she mentors innovators. With two decades in renewable energy, Brenda’s experience spans the advanced energy research projects at Booz Allen, biofuel policy development at the U.S. Department of State as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow, and prototype design. An MIT and UC Berkeley graduate, she is dedicated to advancing impactful energy solutions for a cleaner future.

Fritz Demopoulos

Business Angel, founded Qunar (NASDAQ 2013)

  • Fritz currently coordinates his investment and entrepreneurial activities through Queen’s Road Capital, his personal investment management vehicle. Additionally, Fritz held senior management positions at various companies in China including Netease, Hai Run Media Group and News Corporation. He also co-founded Qunar, which listed on the NASDAQ in 2013. Fritz was educated at UCLA, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and Karls-Ruprecht University in Heidelberg. He has lectured on entrepreneurship and the Chinese internet at Stanford, Harvard, UCLA, Tsinghua, Beijing University, Singapore Management University and the Communist Party College in Nanjing.

Business Angel with 15+ years of expereince

Dirk Freise

  • Dirk is a Business Angel since 2004 and has invested in several companies, including Finanzcheck, Sumup, and Next Kraftwerke. He has an entrepreneurial background, cofounding and exiting two companies (handy.de to Bertelsmann, Blau Mobilfunk to KPN). As a Founding Partner of Shortcut Ventures, Dirk has gained experience as an institutional investor. However, he now focuses on being a Business Angel as this in his view provides more freedom and means being closer to the Founders.

Rosemary Cox-Galhotra

Manager of Technology Management at Breakthrough Energy

  • Rosemary (Rose) serves as Manager of Technology Management for the Fellows Program at Breakthrough Energy (BE). She supports BE Innovator Fellows on the technical and commercialization aspects of their projects, which are early-stage, innovative technologies with significant CO2 emissions reduction potential. Prior to this role, Rose was a Senior Lead Engineer at Booz Allen Hamilton, supporting the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E). She holds a B.S. and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering.

Senior Partner at Carter, DeLuca, Farrell LLP

George Likourezos

  • George has over 25 years of experience procuring IP protection for inventors, small businesses, and corporate clients, incl. many Fortune 500 companies. His practice encompasses all aspects of patent, trademark and copyright law, incl. preparing and prosecuting patent applications worldwide. His clients are involved in aerospace, control and small satellite launch/propulsion systems, electronics, hybrid engines and hydrogen fuel cells, materials and semiconductors, software, and urban air mobility (UAM) vehicles and many more.

Matthias Engel

Managing Partner at Vireo Ventures

  • Matthias is a Founding Partner and Managing Partner at Vireo Ventures, a venture capital fund in Germany focused on early-stage tech investments driving the energy transition. With a focus on renewable energy, energy storage, smart grids, and e-mobility, Matthias brings deep industry insights and hands-on support to pioneering tech companies. Formerly, he led innogy’s corporate VC arm, overseeing a €130M portfolio across Europe, Israel, and North America.

Entrepreneur, CEO and Co-Founder Fibos, Board Member of EVI-GTI

Nahuel Klaut

Product Manager at Nordex Group

  • Nahuel is an Electromechanical Engineer with an MBA from IAE - one of the top business schools in Argentina - and is currently advancing his expertise with an Executive Master in Energy at ESCP Business School. With over 10 years of experience in manufacturing and recent leadership roles at Nordex, Nahuel’s commitment to sustainability fuels his dedication to applying his skills towards innovative solutions in the energy sector and in the fight against climate change.

Nicholas Burgwin

  • Nicholas is the co-founder and CEO of Fibos which develops instrumentation for gas turbine engines. Nicholas has experience working with large gas turbine OEM's, having initiated a multi-year development program with GE Aviation. Nicholas is active in the instrumentation industry as a board member of EVI-GTI, helping to promote and encourage new technologies to reach commercial adoption and have a meaningful impact on achieving aviation industry emissions reductions.