Howie Rodenstein, Chairman of Advisory Board howie@gigawattglobal.com
Howie Rodenstein, based in Boston, served for the past 15 years as CFO of Adheris Inc. a pharmaceutical information services company that he grew from a start-up to its sale for $100 million to inVentiv Health. He earned an MBA with Distinction (Baker Scholar) from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics from Brandeis University. Howie founded and still chairs an annual charity bike ride that has attracted over a thousand riders and raised over $2.5 million for environmental NGO’s over the past nine years.
Sari Miller, Partner and Advisor
Sari is the First Angel Investor in: LeapFrog Investments, Grassroots Business Fund, Purpose.com and Switch & Data (now part of Equinix). She sits on the board of Digital Divide Data. She led the team that sold a company to AIG, in which she was a Partner, EVP and CFO, and founded an insurance company that became publicly traded. She received her BA from Barnard and an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Weldon Turner, Director and COO weldon@gigawattglobal.com
Weldon Turner was formerly the Director of International Equity Sales/Trading at Credit Suisse in New York, and has been a senior product manager at RCS Solar, a leading supplier of solar power plants in Europe and Africa. From 1994 to 1999, and from 1985 to 1992 he was a V.P. of Equity Sales/Trading at Salomon Brothers in New York. Turner has been on the Board of Advisors of Thorium Power Company and Portofino Equity Advisors. He has extensive experience in growing new companies; he managed GoldNames from 1999-2000, a domain name internet company, from inception to an organization with over 50 employees. Turner has been on the Board of Advisors of Thorium Power Company and Portofino Equity Advisors. He holds a BA in History and Political Science from Union College, NY, received his JD law degree from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University and his LLM from Thomas Jefferson Law School.
Josef Abramowitz, President josef@gigawattglobal.com
Yosef Abramowitz is a human rights activist, educator and entrepreneur. Nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize, Abramowitz is recognized as a pioneer of the solar energy industry in Israel and East Africa. He was named by CNN as one of the six top global “Green Pioneers” and by PV Tech as one of the world’s most inspiring solar CEOs. Josef is co-founder of the Arava Power Company, which built the first grid- connected solar field in Israel, in May 2012 closed on $220 million for the next eight solar fields in Israel, in April 2013 closed on another 40 MW project, with a further $2 billion worth of projects in the pipeline. His life’s work was featured on CNN’s “The Next List” with Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Dr. Hanna H. Klein,, Director of Research and Grants hanna.helena.klein@gigawattglobal.com
Dr. Klein in an energy expert. She has developed gas turbines with ABB in Switzerland and worked with Nuclear Safety for Vattenfall power company in Sweden and designing concentrated solar systems with Aora Israel. She has developed her own patents in concentrated solar technologies (as EZKlein) and has been active as an evaluator for the European Commission for grants regarding energy and environmental Science. She built up her business experience working as a business consultant for Arthur Andersen out of Amsterdam. She holds a MSc in Energy Systems from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and a PhD in solar energy from the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Chana Gluck, General Counsel chana.gluck@gigawattglobal.com
Chana served previously at Slaughter and May as a financing lawyer. During her time at Slaughter and May,Chana has advised on some of the most cutting-edge global energy deals including: Kosmos Energy on the Jubilee Field upstream development and financing, offshore Ghana 2011; Also advised on a US$3 billion refinancing for the project; Egyptian Methanex Methanol Company, the project company, and project sponsors (Methanex Corporation and EGAS) on a pioneering methanol petrochemicals project; AES Meghnaghat on the US$300 million project financing facilities for the Meghnaghat 450mw power station, the first large-scale independent power project in Bangladesh;Egyptian Refinery Company's Mostorod Oil Refinery project, the largest ever project financing in Africa as of 2012, comprising US$2.6 billion in debt and a further US$1.1 billion in equity; AccuGas Limited (a wholly owned subsidiary of Seven Energy International Limited) in relation to a US$ [215] Million Medium Term Multi Currency Project Finance Facilities. Chana earned her degrees from King's College in London.
Aryeh Green, VP Strategic Investment aryeh.green@gigawattglobal.com
Aryeh is director ex officio of MediaCentral, and has been a consultant and executive for various publicly-traded companies, including Pfizer and MotoGuzzi. An expert in Middle Eastern affairs and media issues, Aryeh is a well-known international speaker and has been a leading advocate and activist for freedom and democracy for two decades. He holds masters degrees in business and international relations.
Mandy Efrati, Controller mandy@gigawattglobal.com
Mandy Efrati, CPA, began her career at Ernst & Young in New York City in 2008, just as the global recession was beginning. After four years of working in the real estate department, she moved to Israel and relocated to Ernst & Young, Tel Aviv where she began working with start-ups and high tech companies. Next, she moved to Jerusalem and began working at KPMG where she continued to service start-ups, including Gigawatt Global. She joined the Gigawatt Global team in May 2015. She holds a Bachelors in Economics from the University of Maryland, and a Masters in Accountancy from the University of Notre Dame.
Alex Goldberg, VP Turkey, Strategic Planning and Design alex@gigawattglobal.com
Alex is a native of Mexico City and has a background in marketing and corporate image branding. Alex manages projects in Turkey, and his artistic business perspective is instrumental in creating and guiding the company’s vision. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Art from the University of Texas at Austin and attended Stanford Business School.
Michael Fichtenberg, VP Finance michael@gigawattglobal.com
Michael handles finance for both corporate and project finance needs. Michael started his
professional career as an entrepreneur in the construction materials business in NYC, where he founded and operated his company in custom materials servicing high-rise buildings in Manhattan. Deciding to move into the clean technology sector, Michael worked at an insurance company at their renewable energy desk, where he dealt with private wealth management, clean technology start-ups, and acquisition/sale of operating solar fields. Joining the Arava Power Company in 2011, Michael worked under the CFO and assisted in raising the debt and equity for 100 MW of solar PV, and the construction and commissioning of Israel’s first medium sized PV field. Michael holds degrees in Finance, Information Technology, and completing an Executive MBA at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.
Gershon Baskin, VP Special Projects gershon@gigawattglobal.com
Gershon is the co-director and founder of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI) - a joint Israeli-Palestinian public policy think and “do”-tank located in Jerusalem. He initiated the founding of IPCRI in 1988 following ten years of work in the field of Jewish-Arab relations within Israel, in Interns for Peace, the Ministry of Education and as Executive Director of the Institute for Education for Jewish-Arab Coexistence. He has been awarded the Histadrut Prize for Peace in 1996, the Turkish Foreign Policy Institute Peace Prize in 2004, the Tribute of Honor and Courage from the World Movement for Democracy in 2004 and the Search for Common Ground Journalist Award for Middle East Journalism in 2005 and 2007 as well as the Ordine Della Stella Della Solidarieta Italiana. He holds a Ph.D. in International Affairs from University of Greenwich.
Julian Sinclair, VP Research Julian.Sinclair@gigawattglobal.com
Julian is Vice President and Head of Research at Gigawatt Global. Previously, he worked on the founding team of Alma Eco-cities Ltd, an Eco-city development company founded by clean tech industry leaders, where he still serves as a consultant. He has also consulted to leading solar energy companies including BrightSource Energy and Arava Power Company. Julian began his career as an economist advising the UK government. He holds a Masters in Public Administration specializing in Environmental and Development Economics from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and a BA (First Class Honors) in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University.
Remy Reinstein New Projects Coordinator remy@gigawattglobal.com
As New Projects Coordinator, Remy seeks out new business clients and manages the pipeline of potential candidates for GWG's services. He also serves as the company's representative in its dealings with the Israeli government and Knesset, through the Foreign Ministry and Members of Knesset on the relevant committees. Remy holds a BA from IDC in Herzliya in Government, Diplomacy and Strategy, specializing in International Affairs.
Eran Blumberg, Project Development / Architect eran.blumberg@gigawattglobal.com
Eran has gained vast experience in engineering management and the coordination of project development. His focus is site identification, geographical constraints, radiation parameters, energy production assessment, design and layout yield optimization and controlling of engineering data flow. Eran oversees land surveying & geotechnical parties preparing the engineering detail for the construction of medium and large scale PV projects and manages EPC & subcontractors during project construction and operational stages. He honed his skills through five years on the engineering team at Arava Power Company, Israel’s leading solar developer and holds a practical engineering degree in architecture and various certifications in Green Studies.
Eli Rapp, Office Manager eli.rapp@gigawattglobal.com
Eli has worked in sales and customer service for a Jerusalem restaurant chain. He volunteers in a number of projects, including "Kids of the Night", an outreach program for troubled youth in Jerusalem. Eli is completing his B.A. in Business Management & Technology Marketing at the Jerusalem College of Technology.
Jennifer Posen, Assistant to President jennifer.posen@gigawattglobal.com
Jennifer brings over fifteen years of executive and corporate management experience as well as a BBA in Finance experience to her role as assistant to Yosef Abramowitz. With her calm, no-nonsense approach, if it needs to get done, on-time and well, Jennifer is the go-to person.