The prestigious global organization IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) hosted its two-day International Conference on Green Energy and Smart Systems in Long Beach earlier this month, and Sunstone Management CEO and managing partner John Keisler was among the panelists.
Also participating was Bill Beverly, co-founder and co-CEO of Evolectric Inc., an electric truck conversion company. Evolectric is a portfolio company of funds managed by Sunstone Investors, LLC.
The pair was a part of the Building a Zero-Emission Vehicle Ecosystem panel. Other panelists included Toyota Senior Engineering Manager Jacquelyn Birdsall, Hyzon Motors Head of Business Development Cory Shumaker and American Honda Motor Company Manager Marc Deutsch.
Dr. Tyler Reeb, executive director of the Center for International Trade & Transportation at Cal State Long Beach, moderated the panel.
“We’re in the fourth industrial revolution,” Dr. Reeb said in his introduction. “There’s an amazing velocity of technological change and at the same time a whole new culture of community cooperation and in some cases opposition… Getting that community buy-in can be the difference.”
Keisler said that the inflection point for clean energy development and implementation is already here. He said the first step in this industrial revolution is retrofitting existing infrastructure – pointing to Evolectric and its model of installing electrically-powered drivetrain systems in existing delivery trucks.
“In a real sense, government is the source of capital in this revolution,” Keisler said, referring to the public-private partnership model of economic development. “They provide the capital for the research and development. That is the $10 billion bond (passed by California voters.”
It was the only panel in the two-day symposium – presentations of specific topics made up the rest of the program.
IEEE has more than 460,000 members worldwide, according to its website. The organization’s goal is to advance technology for the benefit of humanity, the group’s mission statement said.
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Jennifer Huang
Sunstone Management
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