The Natron Energy Team

Wendell Brooks is Natron Energy’s CEO. Wendell has worked extensively with emerging growth companies in his 30-year professional career. He served as President of Intel Capital from 2014 through 2020, leading a $4.5 billion venture portfolio, Intel’s internal new business incubation efforts, as well as Intel’s M&A group. Brooks also served as a senior vice president at Intel, sitting on the twelve-member executive leadership team for the company. Wendell has served on the boards of SambaNova Systems, Xsight Labs and Joby Aviation. He currently sits on the board of the Michigan Alumni Association and on the board of the university’s Innovation Partnerships. Prior to his time at Intel, Brooks was a partner at Allen & Company from 2007-2014, responsible for mergers and acquisition advisory work as well as early-stage capital raising in the technology and media industries. Wendell was a Managing Director and head of Salomon Smith Barney/Citigroup’s European TMT group prior to joining Allen & Company. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BS in Industrial & Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan.

Colin Wessells is Natron Energy’s Founder and Chief Technology & Product Officer. Colin co-founded Natron in 2012 with two advisors as a spin out of his PhD thesis in the materials science department at Stanford University. Over the past twelve years, he has built Natron’s team while leading the company’s private and public capital raises. Colin is a co-inventor on over forty issued patents related to Natron’s core technology and is a co-author of over twenty peer reviewed papers. He holds PhD, MS, and BS degrees from Stanford in materials science and engineering.

Kimberly Eckert, CFA is the Chief Financial Officer at Natron Energy. She brings over 24 years of financial leadership to the company, including extensive experience in both public and private capital markets across the energy transition, critical materials, and broader natural resource industries.  She has served as a public company CFO, where she was responsible for SEC reporting, corporate governance, investor relations, and audit.  Her experience also includes investment banking (Deutsche Bank Securities) and in-house corporate finance where she has executed and/or advised on numerous merger/acquisition and capital markets transactions.  She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Junior League of Denver Foundation and serves on the Board of Directors for LightHawk Conservation Flying, an organization that accelerates conservation success through the perspective of flight. Kimberly holds an MBA from The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and has a BS in International Business and Finance from The University of Montana.

Doug Countess is the Chief Operating Officer at Natron Energy. Doug was formerly the Vice President of Manufacturing at First Solar, where he led the corporate transition from the Series 4 product to the Series 6 product. Prior to that, Doug built First Solar’s Program Management Office which guided and streamlined new technology development into international high volume manufacturing. Prior to joining First Solar, Doug held various Operations roles at Intel and Harley Davidson. He holds a MBA in Operations from Lebanon Valley and BS in Electrical and Computer System Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

John Schmidt is the Chief Commercial Officer at Natron Energy. John has worked extensively in data center, networking, and telecommunications industries in a variety of leadership roles including engineering, product management, sales, and business unit management. Prior to joining Natron Energy, John was with CommScope where he held several senior executive positions including Senior Vice President where he had general management responsibility for the building and data center connectivity business unit. John has received 18 patents for networking equipment design and served on the advisory board for Infrastructure Masons. John holds an MS in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University, an MBA from the University of St. Thomas, and a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota.