About TH!NK North America

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Frequently Asked Questions about TH!NK North America

Board Members

Jan-Olaf Willums

Dr. Willums is the CEO of Think Global AS. As CEO he has responsibility for all operations from design through to industrialization and distribution of the trademark
TH!NK products.

Dr. Willums is the founding chairman of InSpire Group, a venture capital and financial advisory for energy- and social responsible investments. As co-founder of several high-tech companies, like REC (solar power company) and Computas (artifical intelligence), his commitment to new technologies and the environment are evident.

Willums extensive background includes senior management position at Volvo Petroleum, Executive Director of Energy and Environment at the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, Head of the Work Industry Council for Environment, and founding Director of the World business Council for Sustainable development in Geneva. Upon his return to Norway in 1998 he was Senior Vice President of Storebrand, the largest financial institution in Norway.

Dr. Willums is a member of the International Advisory boards of the World Bank Institute, of the Private Sector Advisory Group on Corporate Governance in the World Bank, and of the President’s Environmental Advisory Board of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). He is Vice Chair of the Bellagio Forum, a group of major foundations set up by the Rockefeller Foundation to promote Sustainable Development, and member of the Intl. Advisory Board of the Clean Tech Venture. He is Adjunct Professor in Innovation at the Norwegian School of Management (BI).

Dr. Willums has a M.Sc. from the Swiss Institute of Technology and a D.Sc. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and lives in Norway.

William E. “Wilber” James

Wilber James is a Managing General Partner of RockPort Capital Partners.

In 1998 he co-founded RockPort Partners, a merchant bank specializing in the energy and environmental sectors and in 2001 co-founded Rockport Capital Partners, the venture fund. Until October of 2000, he was the Chairman of Citizens Power LLC, which he co-founded in 1988 as the nation’s first electric power marketing company. Mr. James co-founded Citizens Energy Corporation and its for-profit holding company, Citizens Corporation, of which he was the Chairman and CEO, which engaged in international oil trading, natural gas marketing, electric power marketing, international oil and gas exploration and overseas investment. He is a co-founder and serves on the Department of Defense’s “Defense Venture Catalyst Initiative” (DeVenCI), which brings emerging commercial technologies to the DoD to support the war on terrorism, specifically in the IT, Energy and Advanced Materials sectors.

Mr. James currently serves on the Boards of Directors of MicroSeismic, Think Global, TH!NK North America, and Peabody Energy Corporation. He is a Trustee of the African Wildlife Foundation, and The Cape Ann Historical Association and serves on the advisory board of The National Peace Corps Association and is a co-founder and serves on the Executive Committee of the Innovation Fund for Regenerative Medicine at Harvard University/Massachusetts General Hospital.

Mr. James is a graduate of Colorado College.

Ray Lane

Ray Lane is a Managing Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, focused on helping entrepreneurs with technological and market insight, organizational development, team building, selling and managing growth. Since joining KPCB, Ray has sponsored several investments for the firm in enterprise and consumer technology, as well as clean and alternative energy. These companies include Ausra (solar concentrator), GreatPoint Energy (coal to gas conversion), Fisker Automotive (plug-in hybrid car), TH!NK North America (electric car), Luca Technologies (biologically enhanced gas recovery from fossilized hydrocarbons), Xsigo Systems (virtual I/O switch for datacenters), SpikeSource (open source platform for integration and testing), PodShow (social media network), Virsa (compliance for large enterprises) and Elance (marketplace for services). He also serves on the board of Quest Software.

Before joining KPCB, Ray was President and Chief Operating Officer of Oracle Corporation, the second-largest software company in the world and the leading enterprise software and services company. During his eight-year tenure, Oracle exhibited phenomenal revenue growth from approximately $1 billion in 1992 to over $10 billion. Ray led Oracle's business expansion beyond its core database technology into enterprise applications and professional services.

Before joining Oracle, Ray was a senior partner with Booz-Allen & Hamilton, where he pioneered and led the Information Systems Group, a worldwide consulting practice targeted at helping senior management achieve better results from information technology. He also served on Booz-Allen's board of directors and executive management committee. Prior to Booz-Allen & Hamilton, Ray served as division vice president with Electronic Data Systems Corp (EDS). In addition, he spent ten years with IBM in various product-management, sales and marketing positions.

Ray received a Bachelor's degree in mathematics and an honorary Ph.D. in Science from West Virginia University (WVU). He was elected to the Academy of Distinguished Graduates of WVU and serves as a director of the Foundation Board for the University. Recently, WVU honored Ray by naming the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. Ray serves on the board of trustees of Carnegie Mellon University. He has been an active campaigner and planner for Carnegie Mellon's establishment of a Silicon Valley campus, and the co-creator of a High Dependability Computing Consortium with Carnegie Mellon and NASA. Ray serves as Vice Chairman of Special Olympics International and has served on the International Board of Special Olympics for several years. He also holds an honorary Ph.D. from Golden Gate University.

Egil Mollestad

Dr. Mollestad is the CTO of Think Global AS. As CTO he has responsibility for the technical departments in Think Global AS.

Dr. Mollestad has his background from the Norwegian oil industry. He has had several management positions in Norwegian Contractors a company world wide known for their innovative gravity based concrete platforms. He joined Think as the technical director in 1996 and had this position until 2003. In the period between 2003 and 2006 Dr. Mollestad was CEO for consultancy company in Oslo focusing on energy and environmental issues. He rejoined Think Global as CTO in March 2007.

Dr. Mollestad has a M.Sc. and a PH.d. from the Norwegian Institute of Technology, and lives in Norway.

Operations Manager

Vicki Northrup

Ms. Northrup joined TH!NK North America in March 2008 as Operations Manager. She has a 12 year history in the EV industry working for Bombardier Motor Corporation and for Ford Motor Company when the TH!NK brand was owned by Ford from 1999-2004. Ms. Northrup was credited for launching the single largest Electric Vehicle project at that time in the northeast US in conjunction with the New York Power Authority. She holds a B.S. degree from Barry University in Miami, FL and an MBA from Baker College in Michigan. Ms. Northrup is a member of numerous Clean Cities organizations throughout the US. She is currently based out of the TH!NK North America offices in Menlo Park, CA.

Contact TH!NK North America

Secretary of Corporation and Vice President of Business Development

Dhiraj Malkani

Dhiraj Malkani is a Senior Associate at RockPort Capital Partners. Mr. Malkani joined RockPort in July 2006. He is actively engaged in all aspects of RockPort's diligence process including research, financial and technical analysis, intellectual property evaluation, and structuring. Mr. Malkani is also a member of the Screening Committee and assists in portfolio company monitoring activities which include work with Advanced Electron Beams, Think Global and TH!NK North America, among others.

Mr. Malkani began his career at Lucent Technologies as a product-development engineer working on optical MEMS products. He has received U.S. Patents for his inventions in MEMS technology. He has also worked with the Photonics Center, a business incubator at Boston University, where he helped screen early-stage photonics/life-sciences companies for their incubator program. During business school, he worked as a Summer Associate at Deutsche Bank's Technology Investment Banking group.

Mr. Malkani holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management, an MS, with honors, in Mechanical Engineering from Boston University and a BS, with Distinction, in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Mumbai.

About Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers

Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers (http://www.kpcb.com) is leading the venture community to invest in and accelerate Green technology solutions and policy innovations. The firm has been active in Greentech initiatives since 1999. KPCB has committed more than $200 million to ventures across the globe that offer green technology products and services, such as better biofuels, renewable energy generation, cleaner transportation, improved energy storage, and higher energy efficiency technologies. More than half the firm’s investing professionals are involved in Greentech investments.

Since its founding in 1972, KPCB has backed entrepreneurs in over 475 ventures, including AOL, Amazon.com, Citrix, Compaq Computer, Electronic Arts, Genentech, Genomic Health, Google, Intuit, Juniper Networks, Netscape, Lotus, Sun Microsystems and Symantec. More than 150 of the firm's portfolio companies have gone public. The firm has offices in Menlo Park, California, Beijing, China and Shanghai, China.

About Rockport Capital

RockPort Capital Partners, founded in 2000, is one of the pioneering Cleantech/Greentech VC funds and focuses exclusively on the Energy and Power, Advanced Materials and Process and Prevention technology sectors. With offices in Boston, MA and Menlo Park, CA, Rockport has invested, to date, over $300M in more than 40 portfolio companies with breakthrough technologies that deliver significant economic value to large potential markets. For more information, visit http://www.rockportcap.com.