our team
Prior to co-founding Imperative Ventures, he co-founded First Green Partners, an energy and industrials investment firm backed by Warburg Pincus. At First Green, Tom’s investments included Monolith, Trelys, and Digital H2O (acquired by Genscape).
Tom was a co-founder of BlueStream Ventures and began his career as a sell-side research analyst.
He has partnered with management teams from pre-revenue seed investments through strategic sales and IPOs.
Tom serves on the NREL Investor Advisory Board, and is a director at Solidia Technologies, Ionic Materials, and Anellotech. Tom received his MBA from Kellogg Business School at Northwestern University, and his BA in mathematics from St Olaf College.
During that time he served as a director or observer on the boards of early stage technology companies.
Prior to his role in venture capital, Pulakesh gained over ten years of experience in international business development, sales, marketing, and chemical process scale-up while working at BASF.
He serves on numerous industry advisory boards, including the NREL Investor Advisory Board, Activate, and Rocky Mountain Institute.
Pulakesh has a PhD from Stanford University and a M.Sc. from IIT Kanpur, India.
He has published in peer-reviewed journals and has co-authored more than 15 patents.
Michelle brings 15 years experience ranging from investments in climate-tech, mobility and healthcare to leading startup operations and driving technology development and product commercialization.
Prior to Imperative, Michelle served as an Investment Manager with Hyundai Cradle CVC and Pegasus Tech Ventures. Her expertise encompasses deal origination, due diligence, commercial and strategic contract negotiations, as well as M&A, public, and secondary market exits.
Michelle is an active member of the venture community and serves as advisor/mentor to various organizations including the NREL Investor Advisory Board, Alchemist and Extreme Tech Challenge.
Michelle holds an MBA from University of British Columbia and Bachelor of Science degrees in Chemical and Bioengineering from McMaster University.
Christoph Bieri is an independent strategy and M&A advisor based in Basel, Switzerland, advising entrepreneurs to define and execute their ownership strategies. He also is a member of the Board of Directors of RepRisk, a pioneer provider of outside-in ESG data.
Previously, Christoph built an M&A advisory firm focused on life sciences which was acquired by EY in 2019. From 2020 to 2022 he was instrumental in the reorganization of one of Switzerland’s longest-established VC firms.
Christoph started his career at the Boston Consulting Group. After BCG, he co-founded a VC-funded Biotech company which he led as its CEO until 2006.
He received a PhD in Biophysical Chemistry at the EFP Lausanne, a MSc in Biochemistry at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel, and more recently a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Technology and Public Policy from ETH Zurich.
Jan is a company-builder and has worked closely with dozens of management teams during critical junctures of scale-up and commercialization. He has over 35 years of experience as an operator, investor, and board director.
Through his wide range of roles, Jan has developed deep relationships with corporates across the energy and industrial sectors.
Prior to Imperative, Jan served as an operating partner with Kleiner Perkins for ten years, actively managing numerous investments as a director, investor, and interim CEO.
Jan previously was President of UTC Power (United Technologies) where he was tasked with building an energy business that served the building and transportation sectors with sustainable technologies like fuel cells, micro-turbines, combined heat and power solutions, and organic rankine cycle systems. Prior to UTC Power, Jan was President and CEO of Siemens Power Transmission and Distribution for the USA market.
He has served the Department of Energy in various advisory positions for optimization of the national power grid and renewable energy resources.
We strive to be bold but disciplined; imaginative and pragmatic; creatively decisive.
We’ve dedicated our careers to building the future of energy and industry. Creating lasting change in the world’s bedrock industries is our calling.
From the earliest stages of lab-scale research to the construction of billion-dollar plants—we’ve learned hard, valuable lessons.
After working with dozens of management teams through the crucibles of company-building, we know how to catalyze scale and growth effectively.
We invest in companies that are built to scale from the outset, ready to compete in the biggest markets on earth:
Are you an early-stage hard tech company driven by scalable decarbonization?
Together we can solve imperative challenges.
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Decades of experience; deep networks across industries; a pragmatic passion for company-building—
our core qualities give us a unique insight into the imperative scale-up inflection points.
We invest in companies that are built to scale from the outset, ready to compete in the biggest markets on earth:
