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CORE TEAM

Our team is experienced and multi-disciplinary.

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MANU PILLAI
FOUNDER/ CEO

Manu has over 30 years of experience in technology, management, startups and a few patents from camera systems to wireless systems. He is a member of the IEEE, ACS, AIChE and TiE. Previously he founded WaterBit from his garage with  2 chopsticks and some wire, going on to build out the company, where he met Bill Koutny and was funded by TJ Rodgers.

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BILL KOUTNY
HEAD OF TECHNOLOGY

Bill has over 30 years of experience in gases, chemicals in chip fabs with several patents and deep expertise in R, data cleansing, machine learning and more. He worked with Manu at WaterBit, and addresses challenges from a physics / thermodynamics point of view. With his background in gases and chemicals, he also runs point on lab safety.

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 TO BE ANNOUNCED
MICROBIOLOGY

Synthetic biology, wet lab, computational biology

ADVISORS

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STEVEN ANDERSON

Steven is a chemical engineer who is currently an SVP at Gallo/G3. He has over 30 years in chemical engineering projects. He has a background in renewables, environmental compliance, gases, fermentation and scaling. 

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TJ RODGERS, PhD

TJ is the founder of Cypress Semiconductor. During his time as CEO, the company acquired over 30 businesses, partnered with Apple Inc., received thousands of patents, made over $1.6 billion in revenue, and helped establish SunPower. TJ is deeply involved in the green economy, from Enovix to Enphase.

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AARON KNEWTSON

Aaron is a Vice President of Food and Agribusiness at Compeer, in Lakeville, Minn. He brings over 15 years of experience in lending to commercial food, fuel and feed processing industries, as well as public financing for rural health care facilities.

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THOMAS  JARAMILLO, PhD

Dr. Jaramillo is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, Energy Science and Photonics at Stanford University. He is also the director of SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis. He is a leader in carbon utilization and energy conversion. 

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Liana Frey, MBA

Liana is an Adjunct Professor at UT Austin and  faculty member at Dartmouth college. She is a marketing and business process expert. Previously, she was a founding member of Dell.com where she helped build take the e-commerce giant from  from concept to $1B+ revenue. 

Interested in joining our team? We are recruiting! 

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