Leadership Team
Dr. David Mills
Founder, Chairman and Chief Scientific Officer
Mills is known worldwide for pioneering Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector (CLFR) technology and for his work in non-imaging optics, solar thermal energy, and PV systems over 32 years. His lab at the University of Sydney developed and licensed the evacuated-tube solar water heater technology, which comprises 60 percent of the world's solar collectors and is used widely throughout China for distribution of low cost domestic hot water. Mills originated and ran the research program that in 1991, with colleague Dr. Q-C. Zhang, developed the most advanced sputtered double cermet selective absorber coating, which is now used in evacuated tube receivers by China's largest solar company, Himin. He developed or co-developed other commercial systems including the Prism solar concentrator (Sol X) and the "S" evacuated tube reflecting system (Solahart). A solar sterilizer design he originated won a World Health Organization award in 2002, and he was a finalist in the 2002 World Technology Awards for Energy.
Mills is a former president of the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) and served as inaugural chair of the International Solar Cities Initiative (ISCI). While at ISES, he chaired the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol for Renewable Energy in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy. Mills has published and refereed numerous academic reports and articles on solar energy in such publications as The Journal of Solar Energy and Applied Optics. At Ausra he continues to personally innovate while coordinating the highly talented Ausra R&D team and steering the direction of the company as chairman of the board.
Robert E. Fishman
President and CEO
Fishman brings to Ausra more than 30 years of experience in large scale power projects. Prior to Ausra, he managed Calpine's 25,000-megawatt portfolio of clean, efficient and reliable natural gas-fired and geothermal power plants. He also managed Calpine's development and construction programs, engineering, and safety, health and environmental activities. Before joining Calpine in 2001, Fishman was president of PB Power, Inc. where he managed power project engineering services for more than 6,000 megawatts of gas-turbine and renewable energy projects. A former chief engineer in the U.S. Navy, Fishman holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy, a master's and engineer's degree in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of Maryland. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Century Aluminum Company.
Prof. Graham L. Morrison
Founder and Vice President of Research & Development
Morrison brings decades of experience in solar energy technology and research. He is a driving force in designing, testing and proving Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector (CLFR) technology, which is critical for Ausra to continue to innovate. He was the inaugural director of the Solar & Thermal Energy Laboratory at the University of New South Wales, Australia's premier solar testing laboratory. In 1994, he received Australia's National Energy Innovation Award for outstanding achievement in R&D for energy efficiency. Morrison has acted as a consultant to the United Nations (UNDP) on the development of solar energy in India and China, and has published more than 250 articles on solar power in research publications such as Energy Conversion and Management, the International Journal of Energy Research and Solar Energy. Morrison completed a PhD in fluid mechanics at The University of Melbourne in 1971, and has held a number of visiting professorial and research scientist positions at the University of New South Wales, the University of Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania State University.
Robert Morgan
Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer
Morgan's thorough understanding of energy markets and the development process is instrumental to the commercialization of Ausra's CLFR technology. He joined Ausra from Agile Energy LLC, where he was a co-founder and managing member, assisting a variety of clients in the commercial aspects of renewable and fossil-fired project development. Prior to Agile he worked for 14 years at The AES Corp., a world leader in electric power generation. Morgan led several international power business units, developed numerous large "greenfield" power generation projects, and participated in several mergers and acquisitions. At Ausra, Morgan oversees power project strategy, siting, permitting, and delivery. Morgan received a bachelor's degree in economics and a master's degree in engineering economic systems from Stanford University in 1988.
Sam McIntosh
Vice President, Construction
McIntosh brings over 25 years of construction experience to Ausra including a thorough understanding of power plant design and construction execution practices. Sam has honed his "hands on" team leadership style through the design and construction effort of over 2500 MW of power plants. While at Calpine he helped to develop, organize, process, and refine one of the largest power plant build out efforts in the country while achieving new standards for safety, quality, cost and schedule control. With a background in nuclear and fossil fueled power plant operations, a bachelor's degree in engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and an M.B.A. from Pepperdine, Sam is well suited to develop and lead the Ausra construction team effort as they implement a utility scale solar thermal power plant construction program that is World Class.
Glen Davis
Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer
Davis is recognized in the power industry as an expert in the commercial aspects of power project development, particularly the negotiation of power purchase agreements and project finance structures. At Ausra, Mr. Davis and his team manage the structuring and negotiation of commercial agreements and project finance. Before joining Ausra in 2006, Mr. Davis was a co-founder and managing member of Agile Energy LLC, a consultancy founded to advise clients in the commercial aspects of renewable and fossil-fired project development. Prior to Agile Energy he held numerous positions at The AES Corporation, where for nearly 18 years he led many developments, acquisition and asset sale transactions, both in the U.S. and abroad. For five years he was responsible for leading all of AES' new business initiatives in the western United States and Canada. Mr. Davis earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Brown University and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, and has served on the Board of Trustees of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council.
Jim Barnhart
Vice President, Global Manufacturing
Barnhart brings to Ausra 25 years of global operations experience. Prior to Ausra he led West Coast Pharmaceutical Operations for Johnson & Johnson where he successfully implemented a regional operating model across Facilities Maintenance and Engineering, Capital Project Management, Facilities Planning, Business Services, Site Security, and Environmental, Health & Safety for three of J&J's operating companies. He previously held increasingly responsible positions with Applied Materials, Inc. in semiconductor capital equipment manufacturing, engineering, product management/marketing, global service business general management, business group operations, global real estate & facilities, corporate business continuity planning, and intellectual property management. A former officer in the United States Navy's submarine force, Barnhart led several nuclear engineering divisions and served as Sonar Officer. Barnhart earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Washington State University and a master's degree in business administration from the University of California at Berkeley.
John O'Donnell
Executive Vice President
O'Donnell counts more than 20 years of experience leading successful startup ventures. From 1984 through 2006, he founded and ran three technology companies in supercomputers and digital image and video processing. His career began at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton University Plasma Physics Laboratory. He holds eight patents in a wide range of technology fields. Since mid-2006, O'Donnell has been the primary force bringing Solar Heat and Power's technology to the United States, securing Ausra's venture capital funding and recruiting new members to the senior management team.
Mark Schmidt
Vice President, Intellectual Property
Schmidt came to Ausra from Morrison & Foerster LLP in Palo Alto, Calif., where he co-founded a clean technology intellectual property practice group. His practice at Morrison & Foerster included strategic patent counseling, patent prosecution and investor-side intellectual property due diligence in a wide range of technology areas including solar energy, alternative fuel, energy storage and water purification technologies. Schmidt entered patent practice in 1999 as a patent agent with Skjerven Morrill MacPherson LLP in San Jose, Calif. Schmidt holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Carleton College and a doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of Chicago. He received his J.D. from the University of California Hastings College of Law. He serves as Ausra's chief legal counsel and manages the company's intellectual property.
David DeGraaff
Vice President, Engineering
DeGraaff is a mechanical engineer who has conducted research in a wide variety of energy-related fields. While serving on the Stanford University faculty, he helped General Electric Aircraft Engines redesign the cooling of turbine blades in the high-temperature stages of jet engines. Most recently he co-founded CriticalPoint Software, a venture-funded start-up search software company, and spent several years leading product management for a major product line at Intuit, a $2 billion software company. He received his doctorate in mechanical engineering at Stanford University, where he studied heat transfer, fluid mechanics and the turbulent boundary layer in high speed flows using novel laser optical methods. He developed a fundamentally new theory of boundary layer development which is foundational for other major findings in the field. As the vice president of engineering, DeGraaff leads a talented team to prepare Ausra's core solar technology for large-scale deployment.
David Hawkins
Vice President, Power Engineering
Hawkins is a mechanical engineer with more than 25 years experience working in power plant engineering with companies such as Alstom, Burns and Roe and WorleyParsons. With a Bachelor of Technology degree from Loughborough University, his career spans virtually every power generation technology and includes the development, specification and design of projects in Europe, North America, Australia, Asia and the Middle East. Before joining Ausra, Hawkins worked for Mott MacDonald undertaking due diligence of power plant assets, renewable generation technologies and completed the technical specification and negotiation of an 800 MW combined cycle plant project in the Netherlands. As Ausra's vice president of power engineering, Hawkins now leads the team designing conventional steam power plant to match Ausra's core solar technology for large-scale deployment.
Eric Lundberg
Vice President, Finance
Prior to joining Ausra, Lundberg served as director of revenue at Harland Financial Solutions in Portland, Ore overseeing the billing operations, revenue recognition, and forecasting. He worked for PacifiCorp, an electric utility based in Portland, responding to intervener inquiries during rate cases, and special projects including developing the final model for the MidAmerican acquisition of PacifiCorp. For six years he served as chief financial officer on several projects with The AES Corp., including operations in southern California and throughout Latin America. At AES, Lundberg managed debt financing, debt conversion, Sarbanes Oxley policies and due diligence for acquisitions. He began his career at Deloitte & Touché, working in the attest and internal audit services group. Lundberg is a certified public accountant. At Ausra he is responsible for the oversight of financial operations, revenue recognition, reporting and compliance.
Perry H. Fontana, Projects
Vice President, Projects
Fontana brings extensive experience in the permitting and development of power generation facilities to Ausra. Prior to coming to Ausra, Fontana spent 30 years with URS Corporation, a major global engineering and consulting firm, where he served as vice president in the Electric Power Services business line, which accounts for nearly $1 billion dollars in annual sales. During his tenure at URS, Fontana was responsible for site selection and environmental permitting of over 10,000 Mw of generation facilities throughout the southwest U.S. and internationally. He has also served as an advisor to several multilateral lending institutions including the World Bank and InterAmerican Development Bank. At Ausra, Fontana is responsible for the development and permitting of Ausra's power generation facilities.
David McKay
Vice President, Manufacturing
McKay has over 30 years of manufacturing experience across a wide cross section of industries. He came to Ausra from Solar Heat & Power, the Australian renewable start up that grew into Ausra Inc. McKay's experience covers steel manufacturing & processing, heavy engineering, the mining industry, shipbuilding & refits for both commercial & defence sectors, advanced composites, aerospace & renewable energy. Previous positions & accomplishments include major contractor for GE Motive Power, United Airlines, several Naval authorities & certified contractor for airframe rebuilds for McDonnell Douglas. McKay managed a series of high volume passenger rail cars construction operations, Naval conversions & spent several years as Advanced Composites Operations Manager for the Australian Submarine Corporation, constructing the largest ever conventional submarines. While at Solar Heat & Power & now Ausra, McKay has driven the development of robotic manufacturing methods for renewable energy components.
Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures
Key Investor and Board Member
Vinod Khosla was a co-founder of Daisy Systems and founding Chief Executive Officer of Sun Microsystems where he pioneered open systems and commercial RISC processors. Vinod serves on the boards of Ausra, eASIC, Spatial Photonics, and Xsigo.
Sun was funded by Kleiner Perkins and in 1986 Vinod switched sides and joined Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers (KPCB). In 2004, driven by the need for flexibility and a desire to be more experimental, to fund sometimes imprudent "science experiments", and to take on both "for profit" and for "social impact" ventures, he formed Khosla Ventures. Khosla Ventures focuses on both traditional venture capital technology investments and clean technology ventures. Social ventures include affordable housing, microfinance among others.
Vinod holds a bachelor of technology degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi, a master's degree in biomedical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Ray Lane, Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers
Key Investor and Board Member
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, Lane has sponsored several investments for the firm in enterprise and consumer technology, as well as clean and alternative energy. Before joining KPCB, Lane 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. Lane led Oracle's business expansion beyond its core database technology into enterprise applications and professional services.