Leadership

Ali Firouzi is Vice President of R&D at Natron Energy, an early-stage startup based in the San Francisco Bay area that is developing a radical new sodium-ion battery technology. Ali has 20 years of industrial experience with the previous 12 focusing on energy storage spanning a broad range of battery technologies from flow batteries, to alkaline systems, to intercalation chemistries. In 2005, he co-founded Deeya Energy (later known as Imergy Power Systems) which successfully commercialized flow batteries for Telecom applications in emerging economies. In the process, he served as VP of Engineering and Chief Scientist while raising over $52MM. In 2011, as the Director of CUNY’s Energy Institute’s battery projects, he led the early stage technology development efforts of what ultimately became Urban Electric Power. Since early 2013, Ali has played an integral part for technology advancement at Natron Energy (formerly Alveo Energy), most recently serving as VP of Product Engineering. Ali earned degrees in Bachelor of Science and Doctorate of Philosophy in Chemical Engineering from University of Minnesota and University of California at Santa Barbara, respectively. Dr. Firouzi holds 12 issued patents and is well-published in international journals, including three in the journal Science. Having developed curriculum in Electric Power Systems at Foothill College, he is an active contributor for growth in local, public education.

Ron Russo is Acting Vice President of Operations at Natron Energy, an early-stage startup based in the San Francisco Bay area that is developing a radical new sodium-ion battery technology.

Mr. Mosso has over 30 years’ experience bringing new products from R&D to commercialization. Most recently, Mr Mosso, was the CTO of EnerVault corporation, a grid-scale electrochemical energy storage company. There, he led the technology development and scale-up from bench-scale systems to a full-scale field demonstration plant. Previously, Mr. Mosso has held executive positions in product development and operations for photonics, solar cell, nano-materials, polymer, and power systems product companies including NanoGram, NeoPhotonics and Raychem Corporation. In these roles, he has been responsible for process and product scale-up; designing, building and launching new manufacturing operations; and negotiating partner relationships with key suppliers and large customers. Mr. Mosso has also developed international partnerships with large companies for joint product development in Europe, North America, and Asia, as well as establishing critical supply chain relationships around the world.