At CEO (Boardroom Media) we track over 1,000,000 startups and over 5,000,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top California based CEO’ operating in the Energy Storage space. If you think a CEO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on [email protected].
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.

Harrold Rust
Founder, President & CEO of Enovix
Mr. Harrold Rust has served as CEO and President of ENOVIX since its founding in late 2006. He has 25 years of leadership experience in technology development and driving operational innovations that enable complex 3d structures to become highly cost effective. Prior to ENOVIX he was Vice President of Operations for FormFactor, a Global Top 10 MEMS based Manufacturer, where under his operations leadership the company experienced a highly successful IPO along with significant capacity, revenue, and gross margin expansion . Following his Stanford graduate degree, he spent 17 years at IBM’s industry leading magnetoresistive recording head group driving high volume manufacturing of the lithographically based heads that were increasing in areal density by over 60% each year. Hard drive storage systems saw a areal density increase of 1000x during this period.
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About Enovix: Enovix develops 3D wave array energy storage architecture for Lithium based cells to improve manageability of the stored energy.
Mateo Jaramillo
CEO & Co-Founder of Form Energy
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About Form Energy: Form Energy develops and commercializes a low-cost battery system that can store wind and solar energy for a long duration.
Ashutosh Dutt
CEO of ChargeNet Stations
Tosh Dutt is an executive and Subject Matter Expert in Distributed Energy Resources and EV Charging having successfully built and scaled sales organizations in mature startups and new business units of large organizations. His leadership has led to the successful development, finance, and integration of utility and commercial-scale renewable energy and micro-grid projects across the globe involving technologies such as solar PV, thermal storage, advanced energy storage, fuel cells, IoT, biomass co-generation, and electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Being a renewable energy professional, he is fortunate to embrace the values of Zero Net Energy and Zero Net Carbon in both his professional and personal life and understands how the intersection of plant-based foods, EV charging infrastructure, and distributed energy resources contributes to a zero-carbon footprint to fighting climate change.
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About ChargeNet Stations: ChargeNet Stations specializes in the fields of SaaS, cleantech, electric vehicle supply equipment, and distributed energy resources.
Yu Wang
Co-founder and CEO of Farasis Energy
With over 15 years of leadership positions in the lithium-ion battery industry, Dr. Wang offers extensive experience in large scale production, commercialization, marketing and sales of successful Li-ion products. He held development and management responsibilities at NEC Moli Energy and PolyStor Corporation, where he was Director of R & D and chief cell designer.
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About Farasis Energy: Farasis Energy is a renewable energy company that develops and manufactures lithium ion battery energy storage systems.
Jagdeep Singh
Founder & CEO of QuantumScape
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About QuantumScape: QuantumScape is a renewable energy company that develops solid-state battery technology to increase the range of electric cars.

Amit Narayan
Founder / CEO of Autogrid
Amit Narayan is the Founder and CEO of AutoGrid, Inc. From 2010 to 2012, he was the Director of Smart Grid Research in Modeling & Simulation at Stanford University, where he continues to lead an interdisciplinary project related to modeling, optimization and control of the electricity grid and associated electricity markets. Prior to founding AutoGrid, Dr. Narayan was the Vice President of Products at the publicly traded company Magma Design Automation, Inc. (Nasdaq: LAVA), where he led the product development and product management teams responsible for Magma’s flagship product in the design implementation area. Over one third of all semiconductor chips used in consumer electronic devices — such as smart phones, blue-ray players and video games — were designed using products developed by Dr. Narayan’s team at Magma. Prior to joining Magma, Dr. Narayan founded Berkeley Design Automation, Inc. (BDA), a venture-backed company in analog and radio-frequency semiconductor design software and served as its founding CEO and later Vice President of Engineering, responsible for all research and product development activities, as well as customer engagements. Under Dr. Narayan’s leadership, BDA saw its products adopted by over 100 semiconductor companies in the world (including 20 out of the top 25). For his work at BDA, Dr. Narayan’s received the EDN’s “Innovation for the Year” award in 2006.Dr. Narayan received his B. Tech. in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur and Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley. He has published over 25 papers about design automation, holds seven U.S. patents and is an active advisor to several startup companies in the Bay Area.
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About Autogrid, Berkeley Design Automation: AutoGrid Systems organizes energy data and employs big data analytics to generate real-time predictions that create actionable data.
Alexandra Rasch Castillo
Founder and CEO of Caban Systems
Alexandra Rasch Castillo is founder and CEO at Caban Systems.
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About Caban Systems: Caban Systems designs a software enabled energy storage solution for telecom infrastructure providers worldwide.
Ken Ogata
CEO and Co-Founder of TeraWatt Technology
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About TeraWatt Technology: We engineer ultra-high energy density lithium-ion rechargeable batteries

Eric Dresselhuys
Chief Executive Officer of ESS
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About Enian, ESS: ESS is a provider of long-duration energy storage solutions ideally suited for C&I, utility, microgrid, and off-grid applications.

Anita Sengupta
CEO of Hydroplane
Dr. Anita Sengupta is CEO and Founder of Hydroplane Ltd., a sustainable aviation and renewable energy technology company. Previously she co-founded ASX an eVTOL UAM company. Previous to that she was Senior Vice President of Systems Engineering at Virgin Hyperloop. Previous to that she was an engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). She has been developing entry system and propulsion technologies for Mars, Venus, and deep space missions including : lead systems engineer for the MSL supersonic parachute, leading the development of a Mars Ascent Vehicle, the principal investigator for the Orion Vehicle Drogue Parachute Subscale Test Program, entry system lead for a Venus lander mission, lead systems engineer for a Mars Sample return mission concept, and Co-Investigator of several plasma propulsion development programs including VHITAL, NEXIS, and Prometheus 1. Prior to joining JPL she worked in industry on the Delta IV Launch Vehicle, X37 Vehicle, Space Shuttle, and Commercial Communication Satellites (XM-radio). She received her PhD and MS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Southern California, where she is currently a Research professor in the Astronautics and Space Technology, Viterbi College of Engineering. She received her BS in Aerospace Engineering from Boston University.
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About Airspace Experience Technologies, AirspaceX, Hydroplane, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, University of Southern California: Emission free aviation and energy storage technology company

Colin Wessells
Co-Founder and CEO of Natron Energy
Colin Wessells is the founding CEO at Natron Energy (formerly Alveo Energy). He cofounded Natron in 2012 with two advisors as a spin out of his PhD thesis at Stanford. At Natron, he has led the development of battery products based on Natron’s unique cell chemistry. He has raised over $22 million in venture capital investment in Natron. He also served as principal investigator for two ARPA-E awards totaling $4.6 million. He holds PhD, MS, and BS degrees from Stanford in materials science and engineering.
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About Natron Energy: Natron Energy is an energy storage company that develops a high power, long cycle life, and low-cost battery technology.

Daniel Myers
Founder and CEO of Flair
Daniel Myers is the Founder and CEO at Flair.
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About Flair: Flair makes smart vents and wireless thermostats and advanced software for residential heating and cooling.
David Snydacker
CEO of Lilac Solutions
David Snydacker is the Chief Executive Officer at Lilac Solutions, Inc.
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About Lilac Solutions: Lilac Solutions develops an ion exchange technology to address the challenges faced by lithium producers.

Eric Clifton
Founder, President and CEO of Orison
Eric Clifton is Founder and CEO of Orison, an energy storage company. Orison plug-and-play energy storage provides control and security over your energy while contributing to a self-healing, efficient energy grid. Eric is a prolific developer and visionary with experience in corporate strategy and sustainable development. He has over 15 years of experience and expertise in product development of smart home technologies for construction of residential communities built with sustainable strategies. Eric began his career as an entrepreneur over 15 years ago by securing a $10M investment and has continued to achieve success with multiple companies. He was a Member of the National Board of Directors of the U.S. Green Building Counsel. Eric is a member of the California Smart Inverter Working Group (SIWG).
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About Orison: Orison designs and manufactures smart, plug-and-play energy storage systems to enable reliable power, 100% renewable energy.

Virginia Klausmeier
President & CEO of Sylvatex Inc
Virginia founded SVX and has been President and CEO since 2012.
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About Sylvatex Inc: Sylvatex has developed a next generation cathode active material manufacturing process for electric vehicles and energy storage that lowers cost, capital, and carbon footprint.
Sinuhe Montoya
CEO of DroneQuote
Sinuhe got his start in the “real world” by enlisting in the United States Army in 2002 as a result of September 11th. He completed two combat tours to Iraq wherein he learned the value of life and freedom by experiencing lessons that can only be taught during a war. Once he got out of the Army, he was armed with an ironclad resilience and steadfast drive to be a successful businessman. Being a steward of the environment, he knew that renewable energy was his calling so he muscled his way into sales at the renown Baker Electric in San Diego where he made himself a name for being a top producer. It was at Baker that Sinuhe took from his past experiences and introduced drone technology to make the process safer of designing for solar safer, more efficient, and better for the customer. Having the strong drive to always be of service and to help others coupled with an itch to be an entrepreneur he saw the opportunity to take the concept of drone technology and apply it solar and roofing. Not being risk-averse, Sinuhe bet on himself, and with the help of his business partner, he launched DroneQuote in 2017. Today, Sinuhe continues to build DroneQuote and strives to give consumers a level of convenience, cost-effectiveness, and transparency that has never been seen in solar and roofing. While you can take the man out of the Army, you can never take the Army out of the man – with this spirit, Sinuhe and company will not stop until the mission to simplify solar and roofing for everyone is accomplished.
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About DroneQuote: DroneQuote is the only marketplace for solar and roofing utilizing drones for accurate and competitive quotes. Proudly Veteran-owned.

Iouri Balachov
Founder & CEO of 4D Energetics
Dr. Iouri Balachov, Founder and CEO with 30 years of experience in developing advanced power generation technologies. He is inventor of 4D Power battery technology. Before forming 4D Power he was a Senior Scientist at SRI’s Physical Sciences Division for eleven years, specializing in development of materials for advanced nuclear reactors, low-cost SOFC technology, and, novel fuel cell concepts. During his time at SRI, Dr. Balachov won and led several $1-3M national and international research projects funded by DARPA, DOE, and EPRI and served for DOE as a reviewer of research proposals on advanced nuclear reactors. In 2009 Dr. Balachov established his own company, 4D Energetics, with focus on reducing time to market, technical and business risks. Dr. Balachov holds a Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics (1986) from Moscow Engineering Physics Institute’s Department of Theoretical and Experimental Physics.
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About 4D Energetics: 4D Energetics develops stationary energy storage based on adsorption batteries.
Peter Frischmann
CEO and Co-founder of Sepion Technologies
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About Sepion Technologies: Sepion is an advanced membrane company offering a platform suite of highly-tunable nanoscale membranes for multiple industrial markets.
Deep Chakraborty
CEO of Enact Systems
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About Enact Systems: ENACT SYSTEMS provides a single business platform for solar project management, design, financing, installation, and asset management.

Michel Freni
Chief Executive Officer & Chairman of Kumbaya
Mike Freni is the CEO & Chairman at KUMBAYA.
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About Kumbaya: Kumbaya is a developer of a solar-powered, communications and IoT hub created to deliver basic education, nutrition and health knowledge.

Joel Meeks-Matous
Founder & CEO of TMM Disruptive Advanced Materials
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About TMM Disruptive Advanced Materials, TMM Disruptive Advanced Materials: TMM creates sustainable and low-cost Nanomaterials for commercial markets from waste products
Parker Wells
Founder and CEO of Element 16 Technologies
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About Element 16 Technologies, Overhead.fm: Improving industrial energy efficiency with thermal battery systems