Innovation China Conference
The Open Innovation Platform for Deep-tech

Patrick has an extensive background in metallurgy, aerospace, power, and cleantech industries. Before co-founding CM Venture Capital, Patrick was a Senior Consultant at Performance Improvement, a risk analysis and management company specialized in power industries. Patrick is an experienced entrepreneur in the advanced materials space. His prior start-up focuses on advanced nanograin aluminum alloys and its applications, the company was successfully listed on the Toronto Venture Exchange. Before his entrepreneurial ventures, Patrick was a Senior Scientist in Materials Science Division at Rockwell Scientific.

 

Patrick obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, his M.S. from Tsinghua University (China) and M.S./B.S. from Ecole Centrale de Lyon (France), all in Materials Sciences. 

Matilda Ho is a serial entrepreneur and investor driving to create more sustainable food systems. She is the founder and managing director of Bits x Bites, China’s pioneer food-tech venture capital investing in startups tackling global food system challenges.

 

With a mission to shape the future of good food, Bits x Bites is a big step forward to inspire and support the entrepreneurial community to bring new ideas to solve global issues. To date, it has invested in companies that are advancing gene editing for high-performing crops, functional chickpea-based protein ingredients, as well as a company advancing cost-efficient, non-GMO meat production directly from animal cells without an actual animal.

 

In addition to Bits x Bites, Matilda has founded Yimishiji, a farm-to-table grocery e-commerce platform that has engineered food education and transparency into the entire supply chain and customer experience.
 

Jin Hu joined bp Ventures in Jan 2018 to lead on investment opportunities in China.

BP Ventures has made an investment in NIO Capital as an LP and complete the first direct investment in China in a Shanghai-based Start-up Powershare in 2019. Subsequently, bp venture China invested in an AI-based big data company R&B at the end of 2019. Jin Hu was also in charge of the bp Tusstar relationship and led Start-up competitions organized by Tusstar in 2018 and 2019 in China.

 

Jin began her career with BP in the UK in 2014 and gained a deep understanding of bp’s business and the needs of advancing the energy transition.

 

After completing her Ph.D. in Nanotechnology and Electrochemistry at the University of Southampton, Jin worked for British American Tobacco gaining a broad range of experience in technology innovation, new product introduction & market deployment, plus establishing spin-out ventures for novel products.

 

Jin also received an M.B.A. from the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.

 

Michelle Hua Michelle has extensive experience in private equity investment and strategy consulting.

 

Prior to joining CM Venture Capital, Ms. Hua served as Director with Co-bridge Capital, where she led investments in companies in the fields of clean-tech, advanced material, and IT service. Before that, Ms. Hua was a strategy consultant with Monitor Group and PRTM, where she advised clients on M&A, market-entry, and operations strategy. Earlier in her career, Ms. Hua worked in Dell Computer and Nortel where she was involved in product development, strategic planning, and operations management.

 

Michelle earned an MBA from the University of Michigan Business School, a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland, dual Bachelor's degree in Material Science and Automation from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. Michelle is on the board of iRock.

Yommei has been working with GE for 19 years. She has held various senior leadership roles with progressive responsibilities in the U.S. headquarters, Asia Pacific, and the Greater China Region. Her experience covers M&A, equity investment, debt and equipment leasing, supply chain financing as well as risk management for both commercial and consumer financing business.

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Starting from 2019, Yommei has been appointed as President and CEO of GE Healthcare Financial Services for China and APAC, providing life cycle financial services solutions to GE Healthcare customers and partners. 
 

Prior to GE, Yommei spent eight years setting up Joint Venture and starting up a business in the energy and infrastructure sectors for a NASDAQ-listed US technology company.  
 
Yommei received her Bachelor’s degree from Harbin Institute of Technology in China and her MBA from Boston College in the United States. 
 

As SUEZ's Senior Vice President of Water Technologies and Solutions Asia Pacific, Tim is responsible for providing leadership and strategic direction to SUEZ's Chemical and Monitoring solutions and engineering systems business in the Asia Pacific.

Tim Huang has more than 18 years of experience in the water and wastewater industry, holding a variety of positions from engineering and project management to commercial executive. In SUEZ Water's Technology and Solutions division, He served as Engineering and project Executive director for Greater China, Project Executive Director for the Asia Pacific, and Commercial Director for Greater China.

Francois Jenny has been working in China since 2005 and involved in the environmental industry since the late 90s. He studied in both France at the University of Compiegne (MSC in Chemical Engineering) and the UK graduating from Cranfield University (MSC in Applied Energy) and from Warwick University (MBA).

 

He is a Chartered Engineer from the Institute of Chemical Engineering (IChemE) and recognized as an International Manager from the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA). He has published several papers on solid waste Management at ISWA congress, and at several Forums in China. 

Francois has been involved in the waste management industry since early 2000.  Currently, Francois is working for SUEZ.  He is the Business Line Director, responsible for several waste treatment plants including Municipal Solid Waste, Organic Waste, Hazardous Waste, and Waste Recycling plants including plastic and Construction and Decoration waste and new services including soil remediation, industrial services, and smart waste management.

Naonori Kurokawa engages in seed and early-stage venture companies utilizing physical and chemical science technologies. He works with a wide range of startups including the University of Tokyo- based company and other domestic university-related companies. Prior to joining UTEC, he worked at a venture capital called ARCH Venture Partners which utilizes academic research from all over the U.S.

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Naonori obtained his MBA from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from the School of Engineering at Osaka University.

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Ryosuke Kawada has over 30-years of experience in global electric materials businesses. Ryosuke was the first employee in DuPont Electronic Materials appointed as Global Business Manager outside of the USA. After 17 years at DuPont, he joined E Ink Corporation in Cambridge, MA, an MIT spinout company. As a VP of Global Sales & Marketing, he led technology commercialization of the Amazon "Kindle Launch" in 2007, as well as a successful Exit (~$400M merger by a Taiwanese LCD company). At Toppan Printing Corporation, he was appointed as General Manager of the Corporate Planning Division and was responsible for whole company portfolio management.

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Ryosuke holds a B.S. in Electronics Materials Design from Keio University and MBA from Keio University Business School.

Frank joined BASF in 2003 and is currently the Head of Site Logistics and Investment Support at BASF. He functionally and disciplinarily leads site logistics operation teams to accomplish operational tasks and duties.

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Frank Ni received a Bachelor’s degree in International Shipping Management from Shanghai Maritime University and a master’s degree in Business Administration and Management from Zhejiang University.

Dr. Lisa Smith is an entrepreneurial venture capitalist with a track record of building high-growth businesses, and currently, she is a managing director of Better Tomorrow Ventures.

 

Previously she headed up sustainable investment for Unilever as Director of Unilever Ventures and practicing lean operations with McKinsey in North America and Europe.

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She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering.

Aruna has over 28 years of international experience in the oil and gas, petrochemical, and venture capital industries. She has worked with Schlumberger Oilfield Services in a range of field, operational, and management positions. For the last 15 years, she has been an investor with Shell Technology Ventures, Kenda Capital, Chemelot Ventures, and SABIC Ventures. Aruna is currently the Managing Director for SABIC Ventures.

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She graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology and also holds an MBA from IMD, Lausanne.

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Fumiko Uraki is the Head of Venture Group at Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings. She leads the Corporate Venture arm of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings, which covers broad areas from the material, environment to healthcare to benefit the overall group companies including Mitsubishi Chemical, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma, Life Science Institute, and Taiyo Nippon.

Fumiko has won the “Best Sales of the year, 2007” in BASF Japan. Prior to Mitsubishi Chemical Venture, Fumiko worked as a senior manager at BASF. 

Mani Vajipey is a seasoned business and technology professional. Prior to Banyan, Mani was with Qualcomm Inc. involved in the design, development, testing, and commercialization activities of mobile technologies.

 

Mani holds dual MBAs from UC Berkeley (Haas) and Columbia Business Schools, an MS Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Delaware, and a BTech Electrical Engineering from NIT, Warangal.

Stephane Vernede is CEO of Enwise. Stephane received a Ph.D. degree in Material Science and Philosophy from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne. As an Entrepreneur and Scientist, Stephane loves those two sides of innovation.
           

As an entrepreneur, he has co-founded Enwise, a China-based company that provides modular equipment and smart supervision to transform organic waste into renewable energy and fertilizer.

As a scientist, he is fascinated by the relation between information and energy. He has co-invented a technology that measures the energy dissipated during a fracture from the statistical correlations of the fracture surface.

Erik Walenza is the CEO of IoT ONE, the Co-chair of the American Chamber of Commerce Technology and Innovation Committee, and the Shanghai Director of Startup Grind. He has worked in China for nine years where he is an active member of the Chinese innovation ecosystem.

 

As CEO of IoT ONE, Erik researches the impact of industrial digitalization on his client’s businesses and supports them to realize opportunities and manage threats. As Co-chair of the Technology and Innovation Committee, he facilitates the exchange of best practices for innovation strategy and technology trend evaluation in China. And through Startup Grind he supports the development of Shanghai's innovation ecosystem.

 

Erik has interviewed over 100 CEOs and venture capitalists while building one of Shanghai’s largest entrepreneur networks. 

As a managing partner of Shanghai Shangchuang Xinwei Investment, Xiaolei Wang is responsible for the overall operation and management of Shangchuang Xinde Fund and Internet of Things Fund. She has rich experience in project development, investment management, project exit, and core risk control.

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Throughout her career, she has led over 20 investment projects including Nanolighting-lab, Transcom Instruments, XpeedIC, Novosense, TDHX, and Advanced Analytic Service.

Dr. Chifei Wu is a respected professor of Material Science and Engineering at East China University of Science and Technology. With over 30 years of academic and professional experience in materials and engineering technology, Dr. Wu has led numerous national projects both in China and Japan during his career and published over 300 academic papers.

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Dr. Wu graduated and obtained a Ph.D. from Tokyo University of Technology and is a holder of multiple patents in the U.S., Japan, and China.
 

Kevin is responsible for thematic investment strategy, projects sourcing and development, maintain a global pipeline, manage the evaluation process toward investment decisions, and the country responsibility of AEPW China oversight. Previously Kevin has developed a deep knowledge of the packaging industry throughout eight years collectively in Estee Lauder Companies and Unilever (China) Company.

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Kevin obtained his two Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, US and Guanghua School of Management at Peking University, China and B.S in Packaging Engineering from Hunan University.

Dr. Min Zhou co-founded CM Venture Capital in 2010. She has over 16 years of venture capital investment experience in the US and in China, in hard technology areas including materials, hardware, semiconductor, energy, and environment. Prior to her venture career, Min had 6 years of R&D and technology commercialization experience with Rockwell Scientific. 

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Dr. Zhou earned a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Southern California, an MBA from UCLA Anderson Business School, B.S. from Tsinghua University.