Experiences

Head of Corporate Development @ Optimus Technologies, Inc.
Nov. 2023 - Current
Amsterdam, Netherlands

Investor-placed executive individual contributor reporting to the CEO. Led company-wide commercial and capital strategy, with responsibilities across all business functions.

Led expansion into three new geographies (EU/NL, Australia, Brazil) and supported partners in two existing ecosystems (Thailand, Japan), and validated an expansion into the mining sector. Navigated complex regulatory requirements for emissions, aftermarket commercial vehicle equipment, and biogenic fuels, working directly with regulators (CARB, NHVR, RDW) to forge new pathways. Managed an evolving and connected incentive frameworks across the US Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED), and other global equivalents to ensure robust commercial GTM and pricing structures.

End-to-end support of new capital formation and initiated new strategic finance tools including ABL credit lines and leasing models to retain existing keystone fleet customers.

Supported the CEO in Director and investor relations.

Managing Partner @ Italic Skyline, LLC
Mar. 2024 - Current

Prior and ongoing engagements include investor-placed Acting CEO at ArchDia, Inc., a Drexel SaaS spinout with IP from CMU, Drexel, and University of Hawaii. ArchDia is a code quality tool, providing technical design debt identification and economics-based “pay down” planning. Reset commercial strategy, sought SBIR Phase II funding, and restructured the organization for future growth.

Venture Partner @ Idea Foundry, Inc.
Dec. 2018 - Nov. 2023
Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Idea Foundry invests in and scales early stage innovation-enabled businesses. Originally focused on CMU and University of Pittsburgh deeptech spinouts, the remit continually expanded. Meeting a need to fund “death valley” stage businesses, I co-founded and grew IF Venture, an angel investment group. I led dozens of investments in companies like Peptilogics, Boost Technologies, RueData, Opareta, SioValley Technologies, Kuali.ai, etc.).

As Director, I led a team of associates to invest in startups across the entire deal continuum, later moving into a Venture Partner role to lead IF Ventures and help scale portfolio companies.

At Idea Foundry, I had the privilege of sharing my experiences as a founder and entrepreneur, helping others to see problems and solutions from new and creative angles. Building on Solinius’ and IF’s rust-belt roots, I pride myself on adding value when the rocket ship stalls, meeting startups where they are, embedding with their teams to solve mission-critical problems with as little capital as possible.

Chief Executive Officer + Founder @ Solinius, Inc.
Jan. 2017 - Dec. 2021
Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Solinius is a management platform for mini-grid operations in LMICs. In conjunction with our market-adapted asset management model, we gave asset owners efficient stakeholder communications and ops management, their competitive advantage against challenging unit economics. Through a hardware + software solutions, we connected and controlled installed equipment, providing dynamic event-based control of installed assets and allowing the efficient movement of data and communications between stakeholders including asset owners, end users, maintenance teams, finance teams, etc.

Solinius worked in Uganda and South Africa, later partnering with the US Department of Defense on dual-use energy management technologies. We installed critical power producing infrastructure in remote areas of South Africa and built a 3-year commercial partnership with University of Pretoria to build a pipeline of next-generation AI-focused control systems.

Solinius was later exited to existing investors, with structured operations winddown.

Small Business Owner
Jan. 2012 - Dec. 2016
Saratoga Springs, NY

Built a cash flowing small business with $1,000 in seed capital. Scaled to over 50+ concurrent clients.