Tom Baruch founded CMEA Capital in 1989 to pursue a lifelong passion for applying investment discipline and strategy to nurture investment success in the application of exponential new technologies, such as Moore's Law and genomics, to building breakthrough companies that will transform industries.

Tom honed his early-stage investment skills beginning at the Battelle Development Corporation in the late 1960s and then at Exxon Corporation in the 1970s and early '80s. At Exxon, he managed investments and created several early-stage technology companies applying materials science and semiconductor-industry technologies such as Supertex (SUPX). Tom formed CMEA Capital with New Enterprise Associates (NEA) in 1989 after previously having founded and served as CEO of Microwave Technology, Inc., a supplier of gallium arsenide integrated circuits and value-added sub-systems.

Tom was one of the original investors in Aclara Biosciences (which merged with Monogram Biosciences - NASDAQ: MRGM), Flextronics (FLEX), Netro (NTRO), Silicon Spice (acquired by BRCM), and Symyx Technologies (SMMX).

Tom currently heads up the firm's energy & materials investments to include fuel cells, solar power generation and management, biofuels, and rechargeable batteries, among others. He continues to engage in his passion for early-stage investments by serving as Chairman of the Board of materials and energy companies including: Codexis, Inc., CNano Technology, Intermolecular, and Wildcat Discovery Technologies. Tom also currently serves on the boards of Biolight, Draths, Entropic Communications (ENTR), Exela, Luminus Devices, Solyndra and Superprotonic.

An area of special interest to Mr. Baruch is an innovative process for developing new chemical compounds called combinatorial synthesis. It applies a convergence of genomics, Moore’s law hardware and custom software to enable very rapid screening of new materials. Tom has pioneered CMEA’s investments in companies that apply combinatorial synthesis including Codexis, Draths, Intermolecular, Symyx, Syyrx and Wildcat Discovery.

Mr. Baruch holds an engineering degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Juris Doctor degree from Capital University. He is a registered patent attorney and is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the Board of Trustees of the Berkeley Institute for Synthetic Biology (BISB), the Board of Trustees of That Man May See Foundation and the Board of Trustees for UC San Diego’s Dean’s Leadership Council, the Division of Biological Sciences. Tom also serves as a board member of the Energy, Security, Innovation and Sustainability (ESIS) Initiative Steering Committee of the Council on Competitiveness.

Dr. Purnesh Seegopaul is a general partner at Pangaea Ventures, a venture capital firm specialized on building early-stage cleantech companies leveraging world-class, innovative advanced materials and nanotechnologies. Purnesh has extensive business and technology leadership experience in broad areas of advanced materials, clean technologies, nanotechnology, robust materials manufacturing, biotechnology and quality management. Early in his career, he pioneered the production scale-up and commercialization of nanostructured materials for industrial applications. While working with portfolio companies and scouting for game changing innovation, Dr. Seegopaul is also involved with many advisory boards and groups working with advanced materials, nanomaterials and clean technologies. He is currently a Director/Observer on the Boards of Cyrium Technologies, CNano Technologies, Envia Systems and Semprus Biosciences. He has published widely, holds nine US patents, received his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia and completed his post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Delaware.

Jimmy Lu is the Executive Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of the WI Harper Group, a venture firm managing $750M in committed capital. From offices in Beijing, Taipei and San Francisco, WI Harper seeks to invest in leading technology companies in the TMT, Cleantech and Healthcare sectors in Greater China and the U.S. Jimmy oversees WI Harper’s global operations and brings to the firm over 20 years of high technology and venture capital experience. In addition to serving on the CNano board of directors, he also currently serves on the boards of Quixey, Inc., China Diagnostics Medical Corporation, Kindstar Global Co. and StemCyte Inc. Prior to joining WI Harper, Jimmy co-founded and was a General Partner of iD Ventures America (formerly Acer Technology Ventures), which manages numerous funds, including Acer Technology Venture Fund and IP Fund One. The funds were early investors in iRobot Corporation (NASDAQ: IRBT), Harmonix Music (acquired by MTV/Viacom; NYSE: VIA), Monolithic Power Systems (NASDAQ: MPWR) and Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT). Jimmy joined the Acer Group, a leading worldwide technology company, in 1992, and as General Counsel worked closely with senior management to negotiate and structure the Acer Group’s international joint ventures, strategic alliances, acquisitions, global financings and commercial transactions. He assisted in establishing Acer’s first international venture capital fund, Fund 21 Limited. Before joining Acer, Jimmy was with Bingham McCutchen in San Francisco, specializing in M&A and venture transactions, debt and equity financings and public securities work. Prior to that, he spent several years as a banker with JP Morgan in New York City. Jimmy has been a panelist or speaker at conferences sponsored by international business and legal organizations and has guest lectured and presented at Yale, Harvard, Stanford and Wharton. Jimmy earned a B.A. from Yale College, an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall). He is currently the Vice-Chair of the Association of Yale Alumni and an Associate Fellow of Trumbull College. He is also a member of the University of Florida College of Engineering West Coast Advisory Board.

Justin joined IDG Capital in 2007. His investment interests include clean tech, enterprise software, outdoor media and other growth opportunities. Prior to IDG Capital, Justin worked at Mckinsey as a business analyst. Justin received his master and bachelor degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Tsinghua University.

Dr. Tao Zheng has over 15 year industrial experience in battery technology and business management. Prior joining CNano, Dr. Zheng was China President of A123 Systems, one of the world’s leading suppliers of high-power Lithium ion batteries for automobile, power grid and power tool applications. Tao helped to build A123 Systems China operations teams from 1 to about 1000 employees in 5 years. Prior to A123 Systems, he was the Founder and President of PowerGenie, one of the largest Lithium ion battery cathode material provider in China today. Dr. Zheng was also the Founder and CTO of Voltix Technologies, a lithium ion battery company, and was a research scientist at Telcordia (formerly Bellcore), where he engaged in development of plastic Lithium ion batteries. Dr. Zheng received his Ph.D. in Physics from Simon Fraser University, Canada.