Meet the BuildingIQ team
Michael Zimmerman – CEO
Michael has spent the last 20 years working with high growth companies and the last 12 years as an executive, board member or investor in technology start ups. Prior to BuildingIQ, Michael was a General Partner at Technology Venture Partners, a leading Australian venture capital firm focused on cross-border opportunities, where he invested and worked with internet, software and mobile companies including ThreatMETRIX, Engana (sold to Finisar), MIG33, Viator, and Eurekster. Prior to TVP, he was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Altos Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, and a senior executive at iOwn Holdings, one of the leading internet mortgage and real estate companies (sold to Citigroup in 2001). Previously, Michael worked with Bain & Company, Goldman Sachs and The Mentoring Partnership. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) from Amherst College and an MBA from Stanford Business School.
Adam Benson – VP Engineering
Adam brings to BuildingIQ an extensive background in developing and commercializing innovative technology from embedded systems to cloud based services. As the VP of Engineering and IT at BuildingIQ, he is responsible for the R&D and IT technology teams creating BuildingIQ’s innovative and award winning building management optimization technology.
Adam has held leadership positions across several technology giants from Oracle, TowersWatson and OpenTV. As the VP of Engineering at OpenTV his leadership and execution of strategy was instrumental in the commercialization of early SaaS based transaction and management systems for the digital media space and the productization of personal Video scheduling technology across multiple devices. Adam has a BA (Computer Science) Degree from Macquarie University, Sydney Australia.
Greg Brewer – VP Global Sales
Greg Brewer is the Vice President of Global Sales for BuildingIQ. Greg brings more than 20 years of experience in increasing market share and generating double-digit growth in start-ups and established organizations. His expertise also includes mergers and acquisitions, having led the sale of Philips Global Controls to Philips Lighting and Controls, as well as the acquisition of Cooper Industries by Eaton Global. His time with General Electric, Rockwell Automation, Siemens Energy and Automation, and Philips Global Controls makes him a fixture in the building automation market. Additional work with Intel, Hyundai, Applied Materials, PG&E, and SDG&E will bolster BuildingIQ’s pre-existing partnerships. Greg has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of South Carolina Honors College – Columbia, SC.
Peter Dickinson – CTO
Peter has worked as an entrepreneur and executive in the energy management and commercial property sector for the last 12 years. Most recently, he was the Operations Manager and Group Leader of the AECOM Canberra Buildings Services Group. Prior to AECOM, Peter was the Managing Director of LiveDATA, a leading Australian energy monitoring and reporting services business, which he joined as an early employee. Peter successfully sold LiveDATA to global controls company TAC (Schneider Electric), and scaled this business to over 2,500 metered points across Asia Pacific. Peter has a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Mechanical/Electrical/Electronic Systems from the Australian National University.
Derek Johnson – VP Global Operations
Derek Johnson is the Vice President of Global Operations for Building IQ, responsible for delivering a revolutionary Building Management System (BMS) optimization technology platform and associated services that automatically drive the HVAC infrastructure to deliver the perfect balance of tenant comfort, energy consumption and energy expense specifically tailored to each client’s goals and infrastructure requirements.
Derek comes to BuildingIQ from Pacific Controls, Inc where he was the Chief Operating Officer responsible for driving development and delivery of advanced fault detection and diagnostics and continuous commissioning services within the North American market. Derek has also held diverse leadership roles driving innovation and operations within the advanced building automation, call center, electric utility and facilities management industries for organizations such as Bank of America, PPL Electric Utilities and the United States Air Force. Most notably he served as the Program Director for Bank of America’s intelligent Command and Control Center (iC3) Program, delivering the design, deployment and operation of this ground breaking energy and maintenance management solution. His department delivered world-class remote monitoring, control and data analytics for over 3,000 Banking Centers in 34 states.
Joel Weingarten – VP Product
Bringing a unique mix from 20 years of software, building design, and energy efficiency experience, Joel comes to BuildingIQ from EnerNOC where he was Director of Product Management in the Energy Efficiency business unit, directing the development of their EfficiencySMART product line. He was instrumental in EnerNOC being awarded a $10 million enterprise energy management system contract with the State of Massachusetts. Prior to EnerNOC, Joel was GM of 1701 Energy Group, managing renewable energy and energy efficiency projects at universities and Lawrence Berkeley Lab. Prior to 1701, Joel was a senior executive at enterprise and SaaS software companies, including Business Objects (SAP) and DemandTec with prior product leadership roles at Oracle and PeopleSoft. Joel received his BS in Architecture from MIT where he focused on the thermal performance of buildings and real estate development economics. Joel is a LEED Accredited Professional.
Cindy Anderson – Senior Director of Marketing
Cindy comes to BuildingIQ with more than 15 years combined experience in the technology and building management systems space, including extensive work with Honeywell, Global Energy Partners (EnerNOC), EPRI and Clean Urban Energy. Her expertise includes driving major marketing campaigns and product launches in the technology space. Prior to joining the BuildingIQ team, she worked closely with major commercial customers to probide energy and sustainability solutions across the country. Cindy holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Amherst College and an MBA from the Anderson School of Business at UCLA.
Board of Directors
Todd Dauphinais – Aster Capital
Todd has almost 20 years of experience in energy, utility and environmental technologies industries. As the lead North American partner for Aster Capital, he assists investee companies in strategic advice, fund raising, business development, corporate partnering and strategic growth initiatives. He currently represents Aster Capital on the boards of four portfolio companies.
Throughout his career, Todd has held several executive roles including President and General Manager of EFI Electronics, Managing Director of Corporate Development for Schneider Electric, and various other positions with Rockwell Automation and Deloitte Consulting. Todd holds a Masters of Business Administration degree from the University of Notre Dame and a Bachelors of Business Administration degree from Texas A&M University.
Gerd Goette – Siemens Venture Capital
Gerd is a Partner at Siemens Venture Capital, based in Silicon Valley, CA, specializing in investments in energy and cleantech. He manages SVC’s investments in BPL Global, BuildingIQ, ChargePoint, QBotix, Tendril and Wirescan. Earlier investments include Broadlight (acquired by Broadcom), Dune Networks (acquired by Broadcom), G2 Microsystems (acquired by Broadcom), IP-Unity Glenayre, ISE Limited (TSX:ISE), Kagoor Networks (acquired by Juniper Networks), Myrio (acquired by Siemens), Prenova (acquired by Ecova), Reactive NanoTechnologies (acquired by Indium), SmartSynch (acquired by Itron) and Verimatrix. Gerd serves on the VC advisory board of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and is a Charter Member of the Asia America MultiTechnology Association (AAMA).
With 25 years of worldwide industry experience, he combines a strong technical background with wide-ranging operational skills. Prior to joining Siemens Venture Capital in September 2000, Gerd held the position of Vice President and Head of CableTV Solutions in Siemens Information and Communication Networks. Additionally, Gerd’s managerial and operating expertise stems from earlier focus on R&D, system integration, product line management, technical sales support, project management and general management in the fields of telecommunication equipment and solutions. Gerd received a master’s degree in electrical engineering (Dipl. Ing.) from Technical University Darmstadt, Germany.
Ken Pentimonti – Paladin
Ken has spent the last 16 years financing and developing emerging growth companies in the IT and energy sectors. Currently, his is a Principal at Paladin Capital and is focused on sourcing, negotiating and monitoring investment opportunities for Paladin. Prior to joining Paladin, Mr. Pentimonti spent six years as an investment banker with JPMorgan Chase (and the growth-focused investment bank, Hambrecht & Quist, which was acquired by JPMorgan Chase). While at JPMorgan, Mr. Pentimonti led the execution of over 20 equity offerings, 10 M&A transactions and various other public and private capital raising transactions. Mr. Pentimonti also identified and led four late stage private equity investments made by JPMorgan Partners. Prior to JPMorgan, he was a senior consultant and auditor with Arthur Andersen & Co. in San Francisco. Mr. Pentimonti received his B.A. degree in Economics and Political Science from Stanford University, and his M.B.A. from the Anderson School at UCLA.
Will Deane – Exto Partners
William has over 14 years experience in financing and developing early-stage companies from both the company perspective and the investor perspective. As a Managing Director of Exto Partners, William assists investee companies with capital raising, corporate structuring, business development and strategic transaction negotiation. He sits on the board of several of Exto Partners’ investee companies and has advised on the formation, operation, financing, stock exchange listing (NYSE, NASDAQ and ASX) and acquisition or sale of corporations and funds management businesses of all kinds with transactions ranging in size from $1 million to $15 billion. William is admitted to practice law in Victoria, Australia and New York, USA and has a L.L.B. (Honours) from Bond University and a B.A. (Honours) from the University of Sydney.
Greg Kats, Director: Greg is an internationally recognized leader in renewable energy, energy efficiency and green buildings. As President of Capital E, he coaches clean energy CEOs, guides VC funded cleantech start ups, and leads a national effort to scale energy efficiency financing. He recently introduced and helped negotiate a $100 million strategic investment by St. Gobain in US electrochromic firm Sage. Greg served for 5 years as Managing Director of Good Energies – a multibillion dollar VC firm, where he led investments in clean energy and green buildings. He currently serves on the board of directors or advisors for 6 VC funded clean energy technology/service companies. Greg served for 5 years as the Director of Financing for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy. He is a founder of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), is a founder of the country’s first green bank (New Resource Bank), and is the Founding Chair of the National Chapter of the US Green Building Council.
Greg earned an MBA from Stanford University and, concurrently, an MPA from Princeton University. Greg was a principal author of Green Office Buildings: A Practical Guide to Development (ULI, 2005), and is the author of Greening Our Built World: Costs, Benefits and Strategies (Island Press, 2010). He is a frequent keynote speaker at real estate, cleantech and VC conferences.
Board Advisors
Andrew Dent: Andrew is a visionary entrepreneur and founder of several successful enterprise software companies, with an extensive track record of creating and launching pioneering new products. Andrew is currently CTO and co-founder of Hubspan, a leading middleware company selling a Saas offering to Fortune 500 companies. At Hubspan, he led the development of the product strategy, road map and development, and led initial deployments at such leading companies as Boeing, Intel and Home Depot. Prior to Hubspan, Andrew co-founded 7 Software, a start up selling solutions B2B ecommerce solutions to the Fortune 500 (sold to Concur Technologies). Previously, Andrew was a program manager leading delivery for a range of client/ server solutions at Microsoft.
Greg Irving: Greg Irving has more than 30 years of global experience in automation and control systems, software development and energy management. He has created systems that manage the environment and security of thousands of major buildings and industrial plants worldwide. His professional experience includes roles as the Global Vice President of Integrated Systems for Honeywell Automation & Control Systems, Global Vice President of Technology & Marketing for Honeywell’s Industrial Systems, and CEO of Honeywell Australia.
Nils Kok: Nils Kok currently holds positions as a visiting scholar at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, and as associate professor in Finance and Real Estate at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. His research on the intersection of sustainability and finance in the real estate sector has been rewarded with several international grants and prizes, and has appeared in leading academic journals. Nils is also the co-founder of the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB); a premier investor-led initiative to assess the environmental and social performance of the global real estate investment industry.
Brett Robson, Executive Director Macquarie Capital, Global Head of Real Estate Private Capital Markets: Australian based, Brett has over twenty two years real estate industry experience including ten years in corporate finance with Macquarie, and previously twelve years with Lend Lease spanning roles across fund, asset and development management. Brett leads Macquarie’s real estate private capital markets advisory business globally. Since 2003, this business has closed US$38bn of equity commitments to fund 90 private equity real estate transactions including primary and secondary fund raisings, clubs, joint ventures, PIPE’s, recapitalisations and privatisations.
Jerry Yudelson, PE, LEED Fellow: One of the United State’s leading experts on green buildings and the author of 13 books on the subject, Jerry Yudelson has more than 25 years of experience in renewable energy, green building design, and water conservation. He is a professional engineer, a LEED Fellow and has served as a National peer professional for the U.S. General Services Administration since 2006. He served on the national board of the USGBC, co-founded the Council’s first regional chapter in the Pacific Northwest, and for six years he chaired the world’s largest green building conference, Greenbuild. He now leads the consulting team at Yudelson Associates, where he provides global clients with expert guidance on creating, developing, designing and certifying green development projects and corporate sustainability programs.