Since 1968, Neil has been continuously involved in the investment banking industry, either as a principal, officer, or founder of several firms. He has supervised and initiated the publication of numerous investment research reports on the water industry and conducted conferences directed towards top corporate management, the investment community, and venture capitalists. He has been a speaker at conferences on topics ranging from financing, to business and investment opportunities in the water industry. In addition, he has consulted to Fortune 500 companies and participated in negotiations concerning mergers, acquisitions, and venture capital investments. He is quoted frequently in newspapers including the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Investor's Business Daily, and is a frequent water expert on CNBC.

Prior to joining Crowell, Weedon & Co. in December 2006, Neil was: 

• First Vice President, Managing Director – The Seidler Companies (2002 to 2006).
• Senior Vice President – Wells Fargo Investments (1999 to 2002).
• First Vice President - Investments with PaineWebber Incorporated (1991 to 1999).
• Founder and Managing Partner of Water Research Associates (1986 to present).
• First Vice President with Cantor, Fitzgerald and Company (1985-1986).
• Co-founder and Senior Vice President of the Amdec portion of Seidler Amdec Securities (1981-1985).
• Institutional salesman with Crowell Weedon and Company (1976-1981)
• Partner, Vice President, and Manager of Institutional Equity Trading with Stern, Frank, Meyer and Fox (1972-1976). Neil sold his interest to Drexel, Burnham, Lambert in their acquisition of the firm.
• Equity trader with Kleiner, Bell and Company, an investment banking firm in Beverly Hills (1968-1972).

Neil received his Bachelor's degree in finance from the California State University in Los Angeles. 

Cleantech Indices™ Managing Partner, Rafael Coven has an ideal combination of extensive cleantech industry and institutional investor experience. He has spent most of the last 23 years in cleantech as a manager, entrepreneur, equity investor, and management consultant.

Rafael has global experience working with or consulting to such leading cleantech firms as Abengoa, Dynatech, Philips Lighting, Siemens, and numerous private equity and venture capital investors in the sector. During the 1990s, Rafael was an international equity analyst at Dietche & Field Advisors where he evaluated, made, and managed a $700 million segment of the firm's $5.6 billion equity holdings (including many cleantech companies). He has also founded three cleantech companies and still actively reviews numerous cleantech businesses. He has lived and worked in numerous countries and speaks Italian and Spanish.

He holds a B.A in Developmental Economics from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School. Based in Baltimore, Maryland, Rafael is a CFA level II candidate and a member of the US Green Building Council, the Chesapeake Sustainable Business Alliance, and the Cleantech Group™, LLC.

Matthew Sant is a partner at Irell & Manella LLP, and practices in the firm's Newport Beach, California office. Mr. Sant represents some of the most exciting and innovative companies in the global economy.

Matthew Sant's practice focuses on the structure and negotiation of complex licensing, development and commercial transactions involving intellectual property assets and emerging technologies. His experience also includes debt and equity financing, mergers and acquisitions, and public and private corporate securities. Among his clients are several companies and funds exploring "green" technologies, including the developer of hybrid and electric vehicles, the developer of proprietary "waste to energy" technologies for producing biofuels, and a fund that has invested in solar and other renewable energy technologies.

Mr. Sant is active in the American Bar Association's subcommittee on International Technology Transfer Licensing and has participated in working groups that have commented on patent reform in China and the European Union. He is frequently quoted in the business and legal press and has written and spoken on a number of topics related to his practice areas. In April 2006, Mr. Sant delivered a web seminar to an international audience entitled "Intellectual Property Boot Camp: What every business should know about intellectual property."

Telkonet SmartEnergy (TSE) is an intelligent, occupancy-driven in-room energy management system, providing an economic, green approach to controlling HVAC usage and improving energy efficiency. It incorporates a patented technology – Recovery Time™ (RT) that performs constant real-time calculations to adjust and maintain a room’s temperature based on occupancy. Unlike conventional fixed-setback systems, where the temperature is often forced to one fixed temperature in all rooms, RT takes into account a diverse range of factors to determine each room’s energy efficient temperature, restoring the temperature to the users’ desired comfort setting within minutes of returning to a room. TSE has been proven to deliver a rapid return on investment, often achieving quantifiable savings of approximately 30% by eliminating the wasteful heating and cooling of unoccupied rooms. Operating on an individual room-by-room basis, the system uses a combination of occupancy sensors, along with intelligent programmable thermostats or PTAC controllers, underpinned by RT’s unique functionality that ensures rooms are never excessively hot or cold when an occupant returns to the room.

Telkonet specializes in advanced integrated solutions for broadband data networking and energy management, including its highly successful in-building powerline communications (PLC) technology. Headquartered in Germantown, Maryland, USA, Telkonet has over 140 employees and serves thousands of customers worldwide. The company’s unique broadband networking solutions currently support more than a million network users per month, with its energy management systems optimizing energy consumption in over 60,000 rooms. Telkonet’s technology innovation is underpinned by the highest level of end-to-end quality of service, with comprehensive technical customer support. Its systems deliver wide-ranging functionality, from wired and wireless high-speed Internet access to energy management, IP surveillance and local area networking. Telkonet’s platforms are widely deployed on the global stage – in single buildings and ships, in multi-building complexes, hospitality venues and multi-dwelling units, and at government, education and defense locations. For more information, please visit www.telkonet.com

Dr. Rob Wilder is Founder and the Manager of the WilderHill Clean Energy Index (ECO), the first and leading Index on Wall Street for renewables & clean solutions. The Index is tracked by a PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy Portfolio (symbol PBW) which has grown to over $1.75 billion in assets within its first three years. http://www.wildershares.com

Rob is also Manager of WilderHill Progressive Energy Index (WHPRO), the first Index to capture the opportunities in reducing impacts of coal, oil & natural gas in response to climate change and improving the major energy sources of today: it is tracked by a Fund as well, symbol PUW. See http://www.whprogressive.com

Rob is also a Co-manager of the WilderHill New Energy Global Innovation Index (NEX) as the first live Index for clean energy worldwide. The NEX is tracked by a PowerShares Fund (PBD) launched in 2007, see http://www.nex-index.com

Rob is the CEO of WilderShares LLC. He has been a part-time faculty member at the University of California, Santa Barbara, at U.C. San Diego, and at University of Massachusetts. He holds J.D. and Ph.D. degrees, has been a Fulbright Fellow, AAAS/ EPA Fellow in Environmental Science & Technology, National Academy of Sciences Young Investigator (twice) and California Sea Grant Fellow. He is author of the 1998 book, Listening to the Sea: The Politics of Improving Environmental Protection and is widely published such as in Nature, Institutional Investor, Engineering News-Record, and the UCLA Journal of Environmental Law & Policy.

Rob is President of the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Institute, is a Trustee at the Society for Conservation Biology, and he had previously worked for The Nature Conservancy. Rob lives with his family in a solar-powered home in Encinitas, California.

Jamie Wimberly founded and currently serves as CEO of the Distributed Energy Financial Group (DEFG, www.defgllc.com), a holding company with three branded entities, including: 

1. DEFG LLC, a specialized consulting and financial services firm focused on innovative energy technologies and solutions,
2. EcoAlign (www.ecoalign.com) :  A full-service strategic marketing agency focused on the energy and environment space,
3. DEFG Ventures:  Our investment arm that provides capital, advisory services and marketing expertise to alternative energy companies seeking angel and venture capital.

DEFG’s overall mission is to bring together customers, capital providers, and technology and solutions vendors to create exceptional value for its clients.   DEFG’s clients include many of the leading utilities, vendors and equipment manufacturers, and financial firms active in the energy technology sector. 

As an offshoot of his work with DEFG, Mr. Wimberly co-founded and manages the Customer Care Research Consortium (CCRC), a research organization with 16 utility members (covering well over half of the nation’s energy consumers) focused on customer care operations in partnership with Navigant Consulting.  He also manages the Demand and Energy Technology (DETech) Research Consortium, a research organization with 9 utility members focused on alternative energy and DSM issues.

Mr. Wimberly co-founded and formerly served as President of the Center for the Advancement of Energy Markets (CAEM), a non-profit think tank focused on the energy sector. 

Prior to CAEM, Jamie Wimberly served as the Vice President of the Consumer Energy Council of America (CECA), the oldest public interest organization in the nation focusing on the energy, telecommunications and other network industries providing essential services to consumers. 

Previously, Mr. Wimberly worked in the Office of Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur for two separate time periods and had a wide range of responsibilities that took him well beyond the confines of that office.  In particular, Mr. Wimberly became one of the key congressional aides in relation to U.S. trade policy, and was a member of the U.S. negotiating team during any number of bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations, e.g., NAFTA, the Uruguay Round of GATT, the U.S.-Japan auto talks, and the U.S.-China intellectual property negotiations.  Prior to that position, Mr. Wimberly worked in Japan for two years as a teacher and writer, and before that, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras, Central America.

Mr. Wimberly is a graduate of Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies with an MA in international economics and a focus on energy markets.  Mr. Wimberly also has a degree from Miami University of Ohio and has completed extensive course work at the Corcoran School of Art.