Management Team
CEO – Sheeraz Haji
As CEO of Cleantech Group, Sheeraz Haji is one of the world’s most influential cleantech thought-leaders and trusted advisors to global companies and executives. Prior to joining the company, Sheeraz served for eight years as co-founder and CEO of GetActive, a venture-backed software-as-a-service, customer relationship management company. He led GetActive’s merger with Convio, then as Convio’s president built a company with 1,200 clients and 300 employees.
Sheeraz has also worked as a strategy consultant for McKinsey & Company; entrepreneur-in-residence (EIR) for El Dorado Ventures; operations executive for GMO, a global management investment firm; and product manager for Digital Impact (acquired by Acxiom). Sheeraz launched his career as an environmental engineer with Environ International. He has Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in environmental engineering from Brown University and Stanford University respectively. Sheeraz also holds dual U.S. and French citizenship.
Executive Vice President – Greg Neichin
Greg leads the Cleantech Group’s Research & Advisory business where he assists global enterprises, investors, and public institutions in evaluating cleantech companies and assessing the development of cleantech markets. Greg is responsible for Cleantech Group’s full suite of market intelligence products and oversees an experienced team of Analysts covering a range of cleantech sectors. In addition, he leads the firm’s Advisory activities, where he regularly provides guidance to some of the world’s largest energy companies, technology and services vendors, and government agencies. Greg has personally authored a variety of publications including the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2010 Smart Grid Vendor Ecosystem Review.
Greg has a range of expertise helping organizations successfully adapt to innovation and has worked in a variety of consulting, operating, and entrepreneurial roles. Greg began his professional career as a Consultant with Mercer Management Consulting and subsequently advised a global client base on technology trends and commercialization for SRI Consulting Business Intelligence. Greg spent four years on the management team of GetActive (merged with Convio), a developer of CRM software for advocacy and charitable organizations, where he led a variety of sales, marketing, and partnership efforts as Vice President, Business Development and worked in strategy and business development for Redback Networks – a leading telecommunications equipment vendor acquired by Ericsson. In addition, he co-founded PlaceVine, a leading web-based information service.
Greg has a B.A. in Economics and Government from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania where he was a recipient of the Price Fellowship for studies in Entrepreneurial Management.
Managing Director Europe & Asia – Richard Youngman
Richard Youngman is responsible for driving the growth of the Cleantech Group’s activities outside North America, especially in Europe and Israel, and Asia. He is based in Cleantech Group’s office in London.
Richard has more than five years experience researching cleantech innovation, venture capital markets, and start-ups across Europe and Globally. He is a regular keynote speaker at major cleantech events and is the driving force behind the annual Global Cleantech 100, a list of the World’s most promising private cleantech companies. He authors periodic reports, such as The Rise of the Corporation in Cleantech.
Most recently, he was Vice President of Research & Operations at Library House, where he ran the Library House Research team, which discovered and collected the information about high-growth companies that underpinned that company’s data, analytical, and event services. Before Library House, Richard ran his own advisory firm conducting research and consulting on the measurement and evaluation of intangible assets and intellectual capital for organizations such as the European Commission. This followed nine years building a broad-based finance and research background with leading financial institutions such as ABN AMRO, Barclays Capital and BZW in the City of London. His work was centered on the debt markets and revolved around financing M&A deals and advising clients on achieving alignment between their financial and strategic plans. Richard has an MA from Cambridge University, and an MBA from Theseus International Management Institute, Sophia Antipolis, France.
Vice President, Sales – Catherine Jhung
Catherine is the VP of Sales at Cleantech Group where she develops and executes the Company’s sales strategy across all product lines. She leads the company’s sales organization that cultivates and manages relationships with global corporations, investment firms, professional services firms and government agencies looking to develop, acquire, partner, or invest in cleantech opportunities.
Catherine has led sales teams at a variety of startups in the research, software, and advertising industries, helping them develop their sales and go-to-market strategies. Previously, she was the Director of Sales at edo Interactive, a pioneer that develops digital marketing technologies to leverage pre-existing global, point of sale (POS) payments infrastructures along with modern social networking communities. Prior to edo Interactive, Catherine spent over five years on the executive team at Equilar, the leading research firm for benchmarking executive and board compensation. There, she built and managed the sales and client services divisions from the ground up, growing the business to over 600 subscription clients.
Catherine has a B.S. in Managerial Economics and a minor in Computer Information Systems from UC Davis and an M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.
Vice President, Events – Sara Strope
As Director of Client Services, Sara leads customer-centric initiatives to ensure that all Cleantech Group clients are fully utilizing Cleantech Group’s research, advisory services and events to meet their innovation sourcing needs. From the global Advisory Board program to Cleantech Group’s online research center, Sara aims to make each Cleantech Group experience is a positive one.
Sara has a range of client-focused expertise helping organizations successfully implement new initiatives and has worked in a variety of client management, online marketing, and lobbying roles. She honed her client relationship skills as the leader of the interactive producers at Boston Interactive and as a senior team member at GetActive (merged with Convio), a software-as-a-service company providing CRM tools to nonprofits. Sara has also worked at as an account director at Ogilvy Public Relations and a policy analyst at United Jewish Communities and the Association for Enterprise Opportunity.
Sara started her career as a microenterprise, healthcare, and housing lobbyist in Washington, DC. She holds a M.S.W. with a focus on Social and Economic Development and a B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis.
Vice President, Finance – Dave Couch
Dave Couch is based in Cleantech Group’s San Francisco office, and is responsible for the company’s finance, human resources, and IT departments.
Most recently, he was controller at Saatchi & Saatchi, a leader in the sustainability consulting industry. Prior to that, he was the Manager of Financial Planning & Analysis for GetActive Software (merged with Convio), a software-as-a-service company providing CRM tools to nonprofits. He started his finance career in the banking industry, where he served as CFO of a mid-sized credit union.
Dave holds a B.A. from Michigan State University, and an MBA from the University of Michigan.
Senior Director, Marketing – Whitney Bennett Michael
As Senior Director of Marketing, Whitney heads up all efforts to grow the global Cleantech Group brand including building awareness of the i3 market intelligence platform and driving attendance and sponsorship at industry-leading Cleantech Forums. Whitney manages a wide variety of projects including marketing campaigns, branding, public relations, social media, and event marketing.
Prior to Cleantech Group, Whitney was Director of Marketing and Audience Development for TechWeb, driving all marketing efforts for Web 2.0 Summit, Web 2.0 Expo and Enterprise 2.0 Conference. Additionally, she was responsible for the entire TechWeb Live Events Group’s email marketing, marketing analytics, and audience database growth strategy. This role oversaw all campaign reporting, database management, and the crafting and enforcing of privacy and other emailing policies for the entire marketing group. Whitney began her career in marketing research, from research design to data analysis, to help organizations understand branding, awareness and satisfaction amongst customers and prospects.
Whitney has a B.A. in Economics & Management from Beloit College in Wisconsin and an M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley.
Senior Director, Head of Advisory – Kevin Reed
Kevin currently leads Cleantech Group’s Advisory practice, where he counsels leading multinationals, investors, and public agencies on emerging cleantech technologies and markets. He oversees our global team of consultants and analysts that execute a host of advisory projects—ranging from market assessments, innovation sourcing, go-to-market strategy, and investment due diligence.
Kevin comes to Cleantech Group from McKinsey & Co., where he served large corporate clients and private equity funds on market strategy and M&A within solar, smart grid, and energy efficiency sectors. Prior to McKinsey, Kevin was an intellectual property lawyer at Keker & Van Nest LLP, a leading trial boutique, counseling clients such as Google, Comcast, and Netflix.
Kevin has a J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was a Senior Editor of the Yale Law Journal. He also graduated magna cum laude from Columbia University, with a B.A. in Economics and Philosophy.
Managing Director – Rafael Coven
Rafael Coven is managing director of the Cleantech Group’s Cleantech indices. He has a combination of extensive cleantech industry and institutional investor experience, and has spent most of the last 21 years in cleantech as a manager, entrepreneur, equity investor and management consultant.
Rafael has global experience working with or consulting to such leading cleantech firms as Abengoa, Dynatech, Philips Lighting, Siemens, and numerous private equity and venture capital investors in the sector. During the 1990s, Rafael was an international equity analyst at Dietche & Field Advisors where he evaluated, made, and managed a US $700 million segment of the firm’s $5.6 billion equity holdings (including many cleantech companies). He has also founded three cleantech companies and still actively reviews numerous cleantech businesses. He has lived and worked in several countries and speaks Italian and Spanish.
He holds a B.A in Developmental Economics from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School. Based in Baltimore, Maryland, Rafael is a CFA level II candidate and a member of the US Green Building Council.