Board of Directors

John has more than 15 years of experience investing in venture capital and developing companies commercializing applications of advanced materials and over 20 years of financial investment experience. Prior to Element, John was a Partner at Advent International Corporation and managed the firm’s California office. John joined Advent in 1996 and participated in the direct investment activities of both Advent's EnviroTech and Advent Energy II funds. He has invested broadly across the CleanTech sectors with an emphasis on advanced materials, information technology, and electronics. Areas of focus include applications of advanced materials, energy, and supply chain management.

Before Advent, John spent 7 years at Materia Ventures Associates, investing in and managing early- stage companies that were commercializing advanced material technologies. While at Materia, John also served as CEO of Luxar Corporation, a manufacturer of CO 2 lasers for the medical market and as President of SSC, Inc., a manufacturer of high performance ceramic oxide materials used in superconductors, fuel cells, catalysts, and other applications. From 1984 to 1988, John held various positions at 3M Corporation in its Acquisitions and Business Development Department.

John is a member of the boards of Accelergy Corp., BMG Seltec, Inc., Deeya Energy, Inc., Miartech, Inc., PowerGenix Systems, Inc., and SyntheSys Research, Inc. Previous boards on which John has served include: Luxar Corp., OK International, Inc., RedPrairie Corp., SSC, Inc., and Superconductivity, Inc. He is past Chairman of the CleanTech Venture Network Advisory Board.

John received a BS in Business Administration from Michigan Technological University and an MBA from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.

Jennifer Fonstad is a Managing Director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, having joined the firm in 1997. Ms. Fonstad has worked for 20 years with both large corporations and start-ups to help build their organizations. At Draper Fisher Jurvetson, her investments span a broad set of both technology and life sciences companies including Internet services, wireless networks, medical devices, cleantech, and nanotechnology. She brings strategic leadership and a strong network to bear as a member of the Board for her investments.

Her current Board responsibilities include Greenfuel Nantero, Groxis, Intematix, Ipedo, and Nanostring. Ms. Fonstad also led the firm’s investment in Athenahealth (eHealth services), Ember (wireless mesh network), Luminus Devices (solid state lighting), Molecular Imprints (nano-imprint lithography), and Aperon Biosystems. Previous investments include United Online (NASDAQ: UNTD), Achex (acquired by First Data Corp - FDC), and Lumenos (acquired by WellPoint - WLP).

Ms. Fonstad speaks frequently at industry conferences and writes often for industry publications. She began her career with Bain and Company after spending a year teaching in sub-Sahara Africa. She graduated Cum Laude from Georgetown University, holds an MBA with Distinction from the Harvard Business School, where she launched the school’s first business plan competition, and is a former Kauffman Fellow. Ms. Fonstad is married with four children.

Tom Byers is a professor at Stanford University where he focuses on technology entrepreneurship education. He is founder and a faculty director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), which serves as the entrepreneurship center for the engineering school. STVP includes the Mayfield Fellows work/study program, Educators Corner website of teaching resources, and a set of global Roundtable on Entrepreneurship Education conferences. Tom is also a faculty director of the AEA/Stanford Executive Institute, a general management program for technology executives. Tom is co-author of a popular textbook called "Technology Ventures: From Idea to Enterprise" published by McGraw-Hill. Tom also holds visiting professor appointments at the London Business School and University College London.

Tom currently serves on the governing boards of Reactivity, MyThings, and Flywheel Ventures. In addition, he serves on advisory councils of the American Society for Engineering Education's Entrepreneurship Division, Harvard Business School's California Research Center, and the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) for inner-city youth. Previously, Tom lectured at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. Tom has a range of business experience including executive vice president of Symantec Corporation and the founding president of Slate Corporation. Tom started his professional career at Accenture.

For his efforts at Stanford, Tom holds an endowed chair known as the McCoy University Fellow in Undergraduate Education. Tom has received its Gores Award for excellence in teaching (the university's highest award) and its Tau Beta Pi Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching (the engineering school's highest award). He is a recipient of three recent national teaching awards: the ASEE Kauffman Award for excellence in engineering and technology entrepreneurship education, the USASBE Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year Award, and the Leavey Award for excellence in private enterprise education. In 2004, STVP was named the NASDAQ Entrepreneurship Center of the Year. In the past, Tom was named Northern California Entrepreneur of the Year in Ernst & Young's competition and was given the Academy of Management's Innovation in Entrepreneurship Teaching Award and Price-Babson's Appel Prize for bringing entrepreneurial vitality to academia.

Tom holds a BS in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research and an MBA from UC Berkeley. He also earned a PhD in Business Administration (Management Science) at UC Berkeley.

Steve Perricone is President and CEO (Co-Founder) of BioFuelBox Corporation. Steve has over 20 years experience in the technology industry, with over half of that in start-up environments.

Most recently Mr. Perricone was Vice President of Worldwide Sales for SonicWALL (NASDAQ: SNWL). He joined SonicWALL when it had less than 20 employees and was instrumental in the growth of the company to over 450 employees worldwide.