Robert Nally - Managing Director

Mr. Nally has extensive experience in the successful commercialization of advanced technologies, management of intellectual property, building winning management teams, developing strategies, business plans and achieving their successful execution in early and expansion stage high-tech companies in a range of industries and markets. Mr. Nally also has twelve years of operational experience in a number of cleantech companies.

Mr. Nally has lectured on Technology Management and Commercialization of Technologies at the University of Waterloo and in various other locations including China. In addition, Mr. Nally has extensive board experience in public and private companies, holds twelve patents and has consulted to such companies as Xerox and NCR.

Earlier in his career, as Director of Engineering in the Financial Systems Division at NCR Corporation, Mr. Nally headed up engineering, research and development of electronic banking systems.

After NCR, Mr. Nally was the Commercial Development Officer for the University of Waterloo with the mandate to transfer and commercialize technology through forming new start-up technology companies, mainly from the University, based on research breakthroughs. During his tenure, Mr. Nally co-founded fifteen information technology and environmental technology companies. Mr. Nally then co-founded Venture Founders’ Canadian Fund.

Mr. Nally is a graduate of the University of Waterloo with a B.A. Sc (Electrical Engineering) and an M.A. Sc (Systems Design Engineering) in Image Processing and Pattern Recognition. Mr. Nally is also a Professional Engineer and has completed the American Management Association Management Program.

Kayvon Khalili - Managing Director

Mr. Khalili is a senior executive with more than 25 years experience in operations, sales, strategy and finance, in both North American and international markets. Mr. Khalili is a Managing Director with DBL Cleantech Capital.

He previously served as Executive Vice President of an early stage cleantech management group, working with entrepreneurs in the clean technology space and helping to shape strategy, grow revenues and build enterprise value.

Previous to this, Mr. Khalili held executive and senior management roles with a leading industrial parts manufacturing and distribution company, focusing on corporate and sales strategies, sales processes and management, process re-engineering and operations. This experience spanned from front line sales and operations responsibilities to managing multiple business units with P&L control and leading the company as part of the executive team.

Mr. Khalili also headed up business development activities and formed sales strategy with an international manufacturing company, with business operations in Europe and the Middle East. As a result, he has a strong background in sales, manufacturing and distribution, operations, process control, finance and customer service.

Mr. Khalili holds a BA from the University of Western Ontario and an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario. Mr. Khalili has served as an executive on boards such as the Canadian Association of Family Enterprise and Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Toronto.

 Jeffrey Drebben - Managing Director

Mr. Drebben has extensive experience as an entrepreneur, venture capitalist and investment banker. His investment banking activities began with Merrill Lynch and Scotia Mcleod, where he founded the concept of operating investment boutiques within these firms. He then established his own investment management company serving clients in the Midwestern and Western United States, where he was also a regular guest on a number of radio and TV shows, providing analysis, coverage and investment advice.

During his time as an investment advisor, he performed consulting work with several US based venture capital groups, including Venture Founders in Boston, a spin-off of MIT's technology commercialization arm. In association with Venture Founders, he co-founded Venture Founders’ Canadian Fund to commercialize Canadian clean technology, primarily evolving out of The University of Waterloo.

As a cleantech Canadian venture capitalist, Mr. Drebben has been involved in the founding of twelve early stage companies, several of which have gone public or were profitably sold. His activities with these companies included deal structuring and negotiation, managing operational and marketing issues, as well guiding the entrepreneurs through the IPO process. He has addressed venture capital conference panels in Canada, has appeared on CNN, Bloomberg and CNBC cable networks in the US and been featured in the New York Times article on entrepreneurship.

Mr Drebben has an Honors BA from Loyola College where he received the LG Balfour award for the outstanding student in

his graduating year.