With more than 25 years of senior management experience in technology and engineering, Paul Reep has a proven ability for facilitating government and private sector partnerships, including a major multi-agency technology transfer initiative with the Departments of Commerce, Energy, Interior, Agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Agency. The result of this work is still ongoing at the Department of Energy, where bio-energy is a key mission area.

Behind these accomplishments is a lifetime of engineering experience as a senior manager in the Department of Energy and at the Illinois Power Company, Mountain States Energy, Inc., Atomics International (Rockwell) and Lockheed Development Center.

A patent and licensing veteran, Mr. Reep holds four US patents as principal inventor in highly complex technology domains. He recently completed an assignment as Manager of Technology Advancement and Licensing at the Stevens Institute for Innovation at the University of Southern California, where he worked directly alongside researchers and scientists to identify and develop patent and licensing opportunities for USC inventions.

Paul Reep studied Geology and Petroleum Engineering at Moorpark College. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Administration Management from California Coast University, Los Angeles.

Jeffrey Reed is the Director of Emerging Technology for the Sempra Energy utilities -- Southern California Gas Company and San Diego Gas and Electric. In that capacity he leads development of policies and initiatives aimed at supporting the development and deployment of sustainable energy solutions and leads the natural gas RD&D, Emerging Technology (technology transfer program for customer Energy Efficiency programs), CleanTech investment and natural-gas vehicle programs. He has also led numerous company initiatives related to renewable and low-carbon energy technologies. Prior to joining the Sempra utilities, Mr. Reed was a senior strategy consultant with Booz-Allen and Hamilton and Accenture, and was an officer with ABB Power Generation in Switzerland. Mr. Reed holds a doctorate in engineering from UC Berkeley and a masters degree in management from Stanford University.

Mr. McDermott is a Managing Director based in Los Angeles and one of the firm's two Managing Partners. Mr. McDermott has operational control of the firm's day-to-day activities. Prior to forming USRG, Mr. McDermott started his career as a public power banker with First Boston's Municipal Finance Group in New York. While at First Boston, he worked with Southern California Public Power Authority, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Washington Public Power Supply System and several other West Coast municipal utilities and investor owned utilities. As a private equity investor, Mr. McDermott worked for Prudential's Private Capital Group and Allen & Company. As an entrepreneur, Mr. McDermott has started, run and invested in the following companies: Stamps.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: STMP) (Founder and CEO), Spoke Software, Inc. (Founder and CEO), Archive, Inc. (Founder and CEO), Practice Technologies Inc. (Investor and Board Member), NanoH2O, Inc. (Founder and Board Member) and OH Energy, Inc. (Founder & Board Member).

Mr. McDermott is active in the management of Fulcrum BioEnergy, General Compressionand SolarReserve. Mr. McDermott holds an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA and a BA in Philosophy from Colorado College.

A Senior Director at CALSTART, Lawrence Wnuk manages an Alternative-Fuel Hybrid study program for the California High-Efficiency Advanced Truck Research Center. Other projects include the Federal Transit Administration’s National Fuel Cell Bus Program for CALSTART, an advanced transportation technologies consortium. Dr. Wnuk has performed studies for the FTA Bus Rapid Transit Program and a coalition of transit properties seeking near zero and zero-emission transit bus propulsion technologies. As a Caltech/MIT Enterprise Forum board member, he encourages the growth of technology-based entrepreneurial ventures.

Prior to CALSTART, Dr. Wnuk worked at General Motors Advanced Technology Vehicles in Torrance, California, leading programs in advanced propulsion and charging technologies for electric and hybrid electric vehicles culminating in successful product demonstrations in Europe and in the US. Dr. Wnuk also worked at Hughes Electronics managing programs involving analog and digital control systems, spread spectrum RF systems, electro-optical and laser systems. Lawrence holds a BS, an MS and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of California Los Angeles.

Rogelio is President of Nochebuena R&D, a small consulting organization based in Pasadena, CA. His primary industry focus is breakthrough technologies and devices. He is also a Sr. Consultant for MindForce Consulting an international network of consultants that specialize in conducting Technology Assessment and Commercialization of Intellectual Property for companies that range from global telecommunication providers to national laboratories.

Mr. Nochebuena’s areas of expertise include semiconductors design and processing, flexible and lean manufacturing, business strategy, marketing, new product development, and managing R&D.

He is a proven business strategist having assisted companies to expand operations, create additional sources of revenue; and has also worked on divestitures and evaluated M&A deals. He has strong expertise in increasing market share and improving the new product development process, an area where he has demonstrated a consistent ability to introduce novel technologies and design new products and services.

Mr. Nochebuena has more than 20 years of experience in high technology; he has worked in Fortune 100 as well as start-ups, including Agilent Technologies, Xerox Corp, Perkin-Elmer, Carl Zeiss, etc. Having the correct mixture of physical and biological sciences, and has been involved in the development of a variety of projects; serving in senior technical and marketing positions.

While working at world famous Xerox PARC, Rogelio was tutored in Nanotechnology by Prof. Cal Quate the co-inventor of the Atomic Force Microscope, since then he has been involved in a variety of projects that include super capacitors using Nanolaminates, organic nanotubes, and avant-garde Photovoltaics (CIG/CIGS, CdTe and solar concentrators). He holds several patents in lasers and quantum electronics. He also write a newsletter with global reach for JETRO on the effect that Nanotechnology has on Biotech, Energy, etc. and a new series on Technology Innovation.

Rogelio is an Executive Coach for Japanese companies that want to enter the US Market where he assists them to write Business Plans, create and execute their Strategy and prepares them to raise capital from Angel and VC’s. He frequently conducts technology assessment and due diligence projects for the Angel Community in: medical devices, advanced materials and photovoltaics and energy storage technologies.

Mr. Nochebuena got his BSEE from National Polytechnic Institute and a Master’s in Electrical Engineering from Brigham Young University; he holds a MBA from Pepperdine University.

He has spoken in a number of panels in local and international seminars and conferences; he is member of the Executive Committee for the Caltech/MIT Enterprise Forum and held the position of Chapter Vice-Chair for the IEEE Laser and Electro-Optics Society Los Angeles Chapter. He is an Adjunct Professor of Business Strategy at Pepperdine University.

A Senior Director at CALSTART, Lawrence Wnuk manages an Alternative-Fuel Hybrid study program for the California High-Efficiency Advanced Truck Research Center. Other projects include the Federal Transit Administration’s National Fuel Cell Bus Program for CALSTART, an advanced transportation technologies consortium. Dr. Wnuk has performed studies for the FTA Bus Rapid Transit Program and a coalition of transit properties seeking near zero and zero-emission transit bus propulsion technologies. As a Caltech/MIT Enterprise Forum board member, he encourages the growth of technology-based entrepreneurial ventures.

Prior to CALSTART, Dr. Wnuk worked at General Motors Advanced Technology Vehicles in Torrance, California, leading programs in advanced propulsion and charging technologies for electric and hybrid electric vehicles culminating in successful product demonstrations in Europe and in the US. Dr. Wnuk also worked at Hughes Electronics managing programs involving analog and digital control systems, spread spectrum RF systems, electro-optical and laser systems. Lawrence holds a BS, an MS and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of California Los Angeles.