project-finance
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Maryssa Barron
Maryssa Barron is the founder and CEO of BuildQ, an AI-powered project intelligence platform for the energy sector that structures project data, automates due diligence, and accelerates clean energy financing and M&A. A Harvard graduate, Stanford-trained lawyer, and licensed D.C. attorney, she spent nearly a decade in renewable energy - pioneering early power purchase agreements and rising to COO at a global independent power producer - before building the tool she wished had existed. She founded BuildQ in 2024 while studying for the bar exam, won the 2025 AngelNV competition and over $1 million in funding, and within a year had grown the platform to 300+ projects, 10+ gigawatts of clean energy capacity, and over $150 million in deal flow.
Simon Glass
Simon Glass is the founder and CEO of Qodeo, a UK and US based platform that uses proprietary algorithms to match entrepreneurs with venture capital and private equity firms - with a deliberate focus on diverse, regional and female founders who sit outside the traditional venture network. A Cambridge BA, MA and MBA who trained in corporate finance at London Business School, Glass spent years in venture capital (including Amadeus Capital Partners, the first backer of ARM), banking, academia and media before building Qodeo to end what he calls the needle-in-a-haystack approach to finding investment. The platform now tracks tens of thousands of organizations and connects 20,000+ entrepreneurs with 7,400+ investors across multiple markets.
Ateeq ur Rahman
Ateeq ur Rahman is a London-based founding partner of Sovereign Stone Capital Partners, a private investment firm backing mid-market businesses across the UK and Southern Europe. After nearly 30 years in international banking, including a stint as Country Head and Managing Director for Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank in Qatar where he led the merger with Union National Bank, he turned operator and investor, building ventures spanning Portuguese real estate, venture capital, and specialty coffee. He commits personal capital to deals and prefers hands-on partnership to passive checks.
Ted Kniesche
Ted Kniesche is the founder and CEO of Zero Industrial, a Charleston-based startup decarbonizing industrial heat by deploying commercially available thermal energy storage systems and selling clean heat and steam under long-term Heat-as-a-Service contracts. After two decades in clean energy development - including 13 years co-founding and building business development at Fulcrum BioEnergy - he launched Zero Industrial in 2024 with Jim McDermott and closed a $10 million Series A in April 2025 led by Evok Innovations.
Jacob Sandry
Jacob Sandry is the co-founder and CEO of Euclid Power, a New York renewable energy operating system that turns scattered solar and storage project documents into decision-ready intelligence. After helping build Goldman Sachs' renewables fund from zero to $3 billion deployed, he left to fix the unglamorous paperwork that quietly stalls clean energy. Euclid now supports more than 21 GW across 1,100+ projects, raised a $20M Series A led by Venrock, and bets that AI plus accountable human experts beats AI alone in an industry where 99% accurate is functionally wrong.