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Steve Empedocles, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Empedocles, is the Founder and CEO of Clark Street Associates. He focuses on strategy, messaging and value proposition development for all of Clark Street’s clients.
Dr. Empedocles spent more than 25 years as a business development executive for advanced technology companies in various segments of the semiconductor and clean energy industries, with an emphasis on identifying opportunities to leverage commercial technologies into dual-use applications. In his career, Dr. Empedocles has developed commercial products in multiple industries, including batteries, photovoltaics, fuel cells, displays, memory and solid-state lighting. Dr. Empedocles received his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He holds over 100 patents in semiconductor, energy and advanced electronic materials and was selected by MIT Technology Review as one of the world's top 100 young innovators for his role in the developing the field of commercial nanotechnology. He has been published in leading journals, including Science, Nature, and Physical Review Letters.
VJ Sahi
Partner
Mr. Sahi is Partner and Senior Vice President at Clark Street Associates. He is primarily responsible for Clark Street’s government relations within DOD, Department of Commerce and on Capitol Hill, assisting commercial companies in areas of advanced electronics, semiconductors, quantum computing and machine learning.
Mr. Sahi has developed commercial businesses in electronics, semiconductors, batteries, PV, solid state lighting and displays. His focus at Clark Street is expanding our clients’ commercial businesses by finding partners in the government for advanced technology development, demonstrations, sales, and manufacturing scale-up. He has spent more than 20 years working with top semiconductor and advanced electronics companies to help develop new and innovative technologies and products, working in collaboration with the federal government, to expand and strengthen the U.S. commercial and defense industrial bases. Mr. Sahi has a Masters degree in chemical engineering, from the University of Toronto.
John Hamma
Managing Director | Advanced Electronics
Mr. Hamma is a Managing Director of Clark Street’s Advanced Electronics Practice. He is responsible for leading Clark Street Associates’ client engagements in areas such as digital ICs, RFICs and photonics, as well as packaging and heterogeneous integration.
Mr. Hamma has over 30 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, leading global sales and business development teams for Lam Research, SVTC, Novati and Skorpios Technologies. His experience throughout his career has been primarily working with emerging and established semiconductor companies, as well as leveraging semiconductor technologies in the defense, telecommunications and life science industries.
Corinne A. Chu, PhD
Managing Director | Energy & Environment
Dr. Chu is responsible for Clark Street’s programs in clean energy, environment, energy efficiency, and carbon sequestration.
Dr. Chu has spent her career working with federal and state governments to transition advanced technologies from development stage into commercial manufacturing and market deployment. She was responsible for creating the ARPA-E SCALEUP program at the Department of Energy, while Chief of Staff to the Acting Director of ARPA-E. Before that, she was an AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow in both the office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy and the Office of Technology Transitions at DOE. She also played an integral role in developing deep decarbonization strategies at NYSERDA. Corinne received her PhD in chemistry from the University of California San Diego.
Rex Sherry
Managing Director | Business Development
Mr. Sherry is responsible for leading client projects in the transportation, data center, logistics, semiconductor and manufacturing site-selection sectors. In addition, he supports clients with strategic investor work, joint-ventures, alliances and partnerships, valuation analysis and strategic advisory services.
Prior to joining CSA, Mr. Sherry spent more than 25 years as an investment banker for the semiconductor and emerging technologies markets while at Montgomery Securities, Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns. He has closed more than $130B in financings and M&A deals with both large established companies as well as leading start-up. Mr. Sherry has a B.S. in finance and economics from the University of Washington.
Joel Fetter
Managing Director | Industrial Efficiency
Mr. Fetter is responsible for Clark Street’s programs in industrial decarbonization, energy efficiency, and carbon management.
Mr. Fetter has more than 15 years of experience developing managing programs for the federal government, with a focus on entrepreneurship and innovation to bring advanced energy technologies to market. Mr. Fetter led Booz Allen Hamilton’s climate technology innovation practice, which provided strategy and support to major government funding programs, such as ARPA-E and NYSERDA. He was responsible for the development of ARPA-E’s Technology-to-Market program, which integrates R&D with commercial strategy to transition new climate technologies from the lab to the market. He also developed ARPA-e’s advanced nuclear program. Mr. Fetter earned a B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an M.A. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
Brandon Tinianov, PhD
Managing Director | Energy Efficiency
Dr. Tinianov is Managing Director of Energy Efficiency programs. He is primarily responsible for client activities in building envelop and other energy efficiency technologies. Dr. Tinianov has over 30 years of experience in developing and delivering innovative and disruptive building energy technologies. He was Vice President of Industry Strategy, and lead Government Affairs for View (electrochromic glazing) as well as CTO of Serious Energy. He has served the US Green Building Council for 15+ years in various capacities including the co-founder of the Silicon Valley Chapter. Dr. Tinianov received his PhD in Engineering Systems from the Colorado School of Mines and is, is a registered Professional Engineer and a LEED Accredited Professional.
Lieutenant Colonel Steve Harrison, PhD
Managing Director | Defense & Intelligence
Lieutenant Colonel Steve Harrison is responsible for Clark Street’s Defense and Intelligence program.
Dr. Harrison focuses on radiation hardened electronics, satellite systems and ground communications. He has over 40 years’ experience in the military and intelligence communities. He served twice in the White House (Office of Science and Technology Policy and National Space Council) and managed programs at the National Reconnaissance Office and DARPA. He held senior positions at Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and BAE, directing advanced technology electronics programs. Lt. Colonel Harrison received his Masters’ and PhD degrees in nuclear engineering from Renesslaer Polytechnic Institute.
Pearu Põld
Manager
Mr. Põld is a Manager at Clark Street. He is responsible for supporting clients in areas of industrial decarbonization, sustainability, advanced manufacturing, transportation and manufacturing site-selection.
Mr. Põld has spent his career supporting companies with a focus on manufacturing, in areas of carbon sequestration, low-carbon construction materials, additive manufacturing, automated assembly, solar, EV components and PCB assembly. He is responsible for structuring client projects and driving strategy development and execution. Mr. Põld received his Bachelor of Science in Finance from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
Lisa Pangilinan, PhD
Manager
Dr. Pangilinan is a Manager at Clark Street. She is responsible for executing project strategy in the areas of clean energy, industrial decarbonization, and semiconductors.
At Clark Street, Dr. Pangilinan creates technical analyses and value propositions. She uses this insight to identify government program opportunities relevant to client projects and develop project objectives. Dr. Pangilinan received her PhD in Chemistry from University of California, Los Angeles with a focus on the development and characterization of hard metal alloys.
Max Bocheff
Manager
Mr. Bocheff is a Senior Technology Analyst at Clark Street. He drives project execution of Clark Street’s client in emerging compute architectures, advanced microelectronics, clean transportation, and industrial decarbonization.
Mr. Bocheff joined the firm after completing a fellowship modeling and analyzing the economic and environmental impacts of commercial-scale solar photovoltaic projects. Prior to this, Mr. Bocheff led metrology operations of epitaxial thin-films at UC Santa Barbara, where he received his Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering and Master’s in Material Science, with an emphasis in photonics and electronics.
Jonathan Weisberg
Senior Associate
Mr. Weisberg is a Senior Associate at Clark Street. He is responsible for supporting client programs in areas of advanced computing, semiconductor technology and supply chain security, and low-carbon transportation.
Mr. Weisberg is a data scientist, with a deep background in machine learning, image analytics, quantum theory and computational chemistry. He received his Masters in Theoretical Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.
Sahar Naghibi, PhD
Senior Associate
Dr. Naghibi is a Senior Associate at Clark Street Associates. She specializes in advanced electronics including semiconductor and advanced packaging technologies.
Dr. Naghibi has a background in semiconductor related research and development of novel materials and processes. Prior to joining CSA she was a semiconductor engineer working on next-gen RF applications, including advanced packaging and device development. She has a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from UC Riverside.
Megan McEvoy
Associate
Ms. McEvoy is an Associate at Clark Street Associates. She is responsible for supporting clients who work in areas of clean energy, industrial decarbonization, energy efficiency and semiconductor technology. Prior to joining Clark Street, she worked at an AI startup in Silicon Valley supporting companies in their manufacturing process during hardware development and worked as a consultant focused on risk and regulatory support for financial services. Ms. McEvoy received her Bachelor of Applied Sciences in Mechanical Engineering from Queen's University in Canada.
Varun Naik
Associate
Mr. Naik is an Associate at Clark Street. He is responsible for supporting clients in areas of semiconductor technology, clean energy solutions, and aerospace.
Mr. Naik joined the firm after receiving his Master’s in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, with an emphasis on electronic and optical materials. There, he helped develop a smart thin film roofing material for all-season energy savings.
Taylon Owens
Associate
Mr. Owens is an Associate at Clark Street. He is responsible for supporting clients in industrial decarbonization, energy efficiency, and semiconductor technology. Mr. Owens joined the firm after earning Master's degrees in Environmental Change and Management and in Public Policy from the University of Oxford. There, he focused on improving energy security for underserved communities by working at the intersection of energy, climate change, and policy.
Kacey Costa
Human Resources
Kacey Costa is responsible for Human Resources at Clark Street. Ms. Costa has been in the human resource field for over 15 years. She has extensive experience in human resource management, operations administration and project management. At Clark Street, she handles recruiting, benefits, policy implementation, employee counseling and organizational development. Ms. Costa has a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Organizational Psychology from Pepperdine University.
Alejandra Morales
Executive Assistant
Alejandra Morales is the Executive Assistant to the CEO at Clark Street. She is responsible for administration, scheduling, event planning and customer service.
Elvira Felix
Finance Operations
Elvira Felix is responsible for Finance Operations at Clark Street. Ms. Felix has been in the accounting and finance field for over 30 years. Her experience in both private and public accounting includes tax preparation for both corporate and individual clients, all aspects of the accounting cycle function, and financial statement preparation. She has a Bachelor degree in Business from San Jose State University.
Andrew Filler
General Counsel
Mr. Filler is corporate counsel for Clark Street. He brings more than 25 years of corporate law and intellectual property expertise to support Clark Street and their disruptive innovation clients.
Mr. Filler has a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Cornell and graduated magna cum laude with a J.D. from the University of San Francisco Law School. He was named one of the top corporate IP attorneys in Silicon Valley by the Silicon Valley Business Journal.
Associated Team
(Counsel & Lobbying Support)
Jeff Denham
Dentons
Congressman Jeff Denham was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives where he served four terms, from 2010 to 2018. He was a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the Agriculture Committee, Natural Resources Committee, and Veterans’ Affairs Committee. Congressman Godon supports Clark Street clients in areas of sustainability, defense and transportation and infrastructure. He received a Bachelor’s degree from California Polytechnic State University.
Secretary John McHugh
MLA
Secretary John McHugh is the second longest serving Secretary of the United States Army (2009-2015). Before that, he was a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives for more than 16 years. Secretary McHugh supports Clark Street clients in areas of defense, intelligence, and national security, with particular focus on transitioning innovative technologies into the hands of the warfighter. He has a master’s degree from the State University of New York (SUNY).
Tom Hawley
MLA
Tom Hawley served six years as Deputy Under Secretary of the Army (DUSA), reporting directly to successive Secretaries of the Army. As DUSA, he had oversight of Army’s test and evaluation programs. In addition, he spent 16 years on the Professional Staff on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), including as the minority Deputy Staff Director and staff lead of the HASC subcommittee with oversight of Research and Development funding. Mr. Hawley served on active duty as a commissioned officer in the United States Army for 25 years. He supports Clark Street clients in areas of defense technology demonstration and deployment and Defense budget procedures. He has a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University.
Anne LeMay
MLA
Anne LeMay served as Chief of Staff to the Secretary of the Army, with the equivalent rank of a three-star general. She was responsible for coordinating senior civilian and military staff to achieve critical objectives impacting the entire Army. Prior to that, she served 16 years on Capitol Hill in positions of increasing responsibility to include Director for Defense and Foreign Affairs for then-Congressman John McHugh and on the House Armed Services Committee staff. Ms. LeMay supports Clark Street clients in areas of defense technology development, demonstration, and deployment. She has a master’s degree from The George Washington University.