SEMINAR:The Fierce Urgency of Now: How startups are becoming unicorns...
On November 4th we will be hosting Sıla Kılıççöte from Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV). She is a partner at BEV, an investor-led fund that aims to build the new, cutting-edge companies that will lead the world to net-zero emissions. Founded by Bill Gates, its investors and board of directors include tech and business leaders from around the globe, including Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Alibaba’s Jack Ma, and Michael Bloomberg. It has raised over $2 billion in committed capital to support bold entrepreneurs building companies that can significantly reduce emissions from agriculture, buildings, electricity, manufacturing, and transportation.
Sıla Kılıççöte will be giving a talk at 10:40 at Cinema Hall followed by a Q&A and discussion session during which she will answer questions about technology development, solving challenges via innovation, start-up culture and Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
The seminar and the discussion session are open to all. Please see details below:
Seminar by Sıla Kılıççöte
The Fierce Urgency of Now: How startups are becoming unicorns while saving the planet
Talk followed by open discussions on start-ups, technology development and Breakthrough Energy Ventures
Time: November 4th, 10:40-12:00
10:40-11:20 Seminar
11:30-12:00 Open discussion
Place: Cinema Hall (Physical attendance will be limited by recent allowable capacity)
Also available online via:
https://sabanciuniv.zoom.us/j/91842780160?pwd=STdzWVlDUjVsMUdhd255V3RnZkgrdz09
Meeting ID: 918 4278 0160
Passcode: 485388
Abstract:Clean energy and climate is the defining challenge of our time. We must reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 to avoid the most devastating impacts of climate change. And although continued deployment of the technologies we have today is going to get us part of the way there, we will also need to successfully invent, commercialize, and deploy-at-scale a broad array of transformative new energy technologies if we are to mount a serious offensive toward achieving this daunting midcentury goal.
But we must be reminded that clean energy innovation takes time, with any new energy venture taking at least 30 years to go from inception to impact-at-scale. We are therefore faced with the fierce urgency of now to launch a whole new generation of transformational low-carbon energy ventures at an unprecedented pace and scale over the next 5-10 years.
This talk will provide an overview of Breakthrough Energy Ventures, introduce the audience to five grand challenges of our time and provide examples of startups that are tackling these challenges and being exceptional in technology development and business models.
Bio: Sila is an impact driven technology and business leader with expertise in buildings, grid integration of distributed energy resources and electrification of transportation. Prior to joining BEV, she was the CEO of eIQ Mobility, a fleet electrification startup, and ushered it through its incubation to its acquisition. She also built and led the Grid Integration Systems and Mobility research team at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and managed the Bits and Watts initiative at Stanford University’s Precourt Energy Institute. With over 15 years of research, she led complex research projects that were geared towards engaging the electricity industry stakeholders to develop a more flexible and responsive electricity grid in the US. Her research career is marked by development of automated demand response, OpenADR, flexible resources participating in a variety of electricity markets and data-driven approaches to plan and operate distribution grids.
Sila has a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of New Hampshire and a masters in building science from Carnegie Mellon University.