Welcome to GVPClimate

Early-Stage
Clean Tech Investing

GVP Climate is a highly experienced, mission-driven, active investor in breakthrough climate solutions that can deliver meaningful, sustainable impact, and outsized returns.

Transformational Solid-State Battery Technology

GVP Climate led the Series C for Factorial Energy, a leading solid-state battery developer for electric vehicles. GVP Senior Partner Liad Meidar serves on the Board

Carbon-free Cement

GVP Climate participated in the Series A round of Brimstone, creator of the first carbon-negative process for making portland cement. GVP Chairman Brett Olsher serves as the Senior Advisor to the Company

Industrial Decarbonization with Hydrogen

GVP Climate participated in the Series A round of Advanced Ionics, developers of a groundbreaking electrolyzer which enables waste heat to drive production of clean hydrogen for decarbonizing heavy industry. GVP Senior Operating Partner Philippe Varin is a member of the Board

Decarbonization with Advanced Materials

GVP Climate joined the Series A round in Boston Materials, producer of Z-axis carbon fiber, an innovative material with decarbonization applications in major markets including thermal management, transport, and industrial light-weighting. GVP Chairman Brett Olsher is an Advisor to the Company

Brett Olsher

Co-Founder and CIO

CJ Warner

CJ Warner

Senior Operating Partner

Philippe Varin

Senior Operating Partner

Hector PhD

Prof. Héctor D. Abruña, PhD

Senior Technical Partner

Liad

Liad Meidar

Co-Founder

Wilson Lihn

Partner, Head of Research​

Alexandra Dias-Lalcaca, PhD

Research​ Analyst

Lawrence Small

Larry Small

Partner & General Counsel

David Cassells

David Cassells

Chief Financial Officer

Casey Herren

Casey Herren

Director of Business Development

GVP Climate LLP

430 Park Ave
New York, NY 10022

© 2023 GVP Climate LLP. All Rights Reserved.

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Brett Olsher

Co-Founder and CIO

Brett Olsher heads GVP Climate’s clean technology investment practice.

Until 2019, Brett was partner and chairman of the Global Natural Resources Group in the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs. He was also chairman of the Russia Executive Leadership Group, as well as a member of the Firmwide Commitments Committee, the Investment Banking Division Operating Committee and the Investment Banking Services Leadership Group. Brett joined Goldman Sachs in 2010 as a Partner and co-head of the Global Natural Resources Group.

Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Brett worked at Deutsche Bank from 2001 to 2010 during which time he was global head of Emerging Markets and prior to that, co-head of the bank’s global Mergers & Acquisitions business and global head of Natural Resources. He was also a member of the Executive Committee for the Corporate and Investment Bank. Brett also spent four years at J.P. Morgan in London as a top-ranked equity research analyst.

Before his career in investment banking, Brett spent 10 years as President of Olsher Metals Corporation, a global commodities trading, processing and logistics firm. From 1983 to 1986, he was a member of the professional staff at Price Waterhouse, where he qualified as a CPA.

During his career, Brett has advised on $410bn of M&A transactions as well as $124bn of financings, including the AUD 57bn merger of BHP and Billiton, the $100bn unification of Shell, the $3.2bn IPO of China Shenhua Energy Co., Statoil’s $2bn acquisition of Encana’s Gulf of Mexico business, the €32bn merger of Arcelor and Mittal, Xstrata’s $18.8bn acquisition of Falconbridge, Tata Steel’s $12.1bn acquisition of Corus Group, Maersk Oil’s $7.5bn sale to TOTAL, ENl’s $5.8bn acquisition of 100% of OAO Arctic Gas Company, ZAO Urengoil Inc, OAO Neftgastechnologia and 20% of OAO Gazprom Neft, Xstrata’s $90bn agreed merger with Glencore, ArcelorMittal’s $4bn combined equity and equity-linked capital raise, Caracal’s $1.4bn sale to Glencore, the $5.6bn capital raising for X2 Resources, EIG’s $1.lbn joint venture with Abengoa, First Quantum Minerals’ CAD $1.43bn followon equity offering, the $3bn rights issue for ArcelorMittal, Areva’s €2bn restructuring and creation of Orano and the Weir Group’s $1.3bn acquisition of ESCO and $500m equity offering.

Brett earned a Master’s Degree in International Economics and Politics from Columbia University’s Graduate School of International and Public Affairs (“SIPA”) and has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts. Brett is also a Member of the Dean’s Advisory Board at SIPA and is a Member of the Executive Committee for Columbia University’s Center for Global Energy Policy.

Brett is a Senior Advisor to Trafigura, a Senior Advisor to Brimstone, and a Member of the Board of Directors of CRU International.

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CJ Warner

CJ Warner

Senior Operating Partner

Cynthia (CJ) Warner is a seasoned energy executive with experience in both traditional and renewable energies. For more than 40 years, CJ has been driving growth and improvements to deliver energy ever more safely, reliably, and sustainably, holding executive positions in operations, technology development, strategy and business development, and environment, health, and safety. She has led operations globally for large refiners including Andeavor and BP as well as scale-up and development efforts in novel renewable energy technologies.

CJ was the President and CEO of Renewable Energy Group (REG) – a leading international producer of low carbon, bio-based diesel – from 2019 through 2022, growing the company’s market value approximately three-fold prior to its acquisition by Chevron.

Prior to REG, Ms. Warner served as Executive Vice President, Operations for Andeavor (formerly Tesoro). She oversaw Andeavor’s Refining; Logistics; and Environment, Health, Safety & Security groups, providing leadership that promoted safe, reliable, efficient, and value-enhancing execution. In this capacity she helped to realize significant growth opportunities including the purchase and conversion of the Dickinson refinery to a renewable diesel facility, and the purchase and integration of Western Refining.  Prior to that role, Ms. Warner served as Andeavor’s Executive Vice President, Strategy and Business Development, where she led the Company’s strategic growth initiatives. 

Prior to Andeavor, Ms. Warner held executive leadership roles at several global energy companies. She was Chairman and CEO of Sapphire Energy from 2012 to 2014, after joining as President in 2009, where she led the emerging biofuels company’s ongoing technology development and transition to commercial-scale algae biomass and renewable crude oil production.  Earlier, she served as Group Vice President of Global Refining and Group Vice President of Health, Safety, Security, Environmental and Technology for British Petroleum (BP). During her 10-year tenure with BP, she oversaw refining operations in five continents and led a ground-breaking cooperative effort with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to shape an industry-wide framework for clean air improvements. 

Ms. Warner began her career as a chemical engineer at UOP, initially working on shift as a plant operator.  This hands-on experience contributed to her success in several years of  operational leadership roles at Amoco.

She was named 2020 Businessperson of the Year by Fortune Magazine, listed as one of the top 20 CEO’s that year. She is a featured leader in the 2008 book Becoming a Resonant Leader: Develop Your Emotional Intelligence (Harvard Business Press) and was named one of Fast Company’s 100 most creative people in business in 2010.

Ms. Warner serves on the Board of Directors for Chevron and Bloom Energy, and is Lead Independent Director for Sempra Energy.  She is also a member of the Columbia University Advisory board for the Center for Global Energy Policy (CGEP);  the National Petroleum Council; and the Vanderbilt University School of Engineering Academy of Distinguished Alumni and the school’s Board of Visitors.

Ms. Warner earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Chemical Engineering from Vanderbilt University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Illinois Institute of Technology.

She currently resides in Nevada, IA with her husband where they are developing a portion of their property into a pollinator reserve.

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Philippe Varin

Senior Operating Partner

Philippe Varin started his career in 1978. He held various R&D, plant and Business Unit Management roles at Pechiney in France and the USA and he was Group Executive Vice President for the Aluminum sector when he left Pechiney to become the CEO of the Anglo-Dutch steel conglomerate Corus in 2003, based in London. The Corus turnaround led to the acquisition by the Indian Group Tata in 2007. Philippe remained with Tata for two years, in Mumbai and in London. He then moved to the French car making Group PSA Peugeot Citroen where he was Chairman of the Managing Board between 2009 and 2014. He was then the Chairman of the Board of the nuclear cycle and equipment companies Areva and Orano from 2015 and 2020, and chairman of Suez from 2020 to 2022. He was also Chairman of the Audit Committee of the Board of Saint Gobain between 2013 and 2021 as well as Chairman of “France Industrie” and Vice Chairman of the “Conseil National de l’Industrie” between 2017 and 2021, as well as an advisor to the French government on the supply of critical raw materials for mobility and renewable energy in 2021 and 2022.

Philippe is currently a member of the Board of the International Chamber of Commerce and Chairman of the French Committee. He chairs the World Materials Forum that he co-founded in 2014. He has recently joined the board of green hydrogen electrolyzer company Advanced Ionics.

Philippe graduated from Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole des Mines de Paris.

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Hector PhD

Professor Héctor D. Abruña, PhD

Senior Technical Partner

Professor Abruña, Émile M. Chamot Professor of Chemistry, is Director of the Center for Alkaline Based Energy Solutions (CABES) and the Energy Materials Center at Cornell (emc2).  He completed his graduate studies with Royce W. Murray and Thomas J. Meyer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1980 and was a postdoctoral research associate with Allen J. Bard at the University of Texas at Austin from 1980-81. After a brief stay at the University of Puerto Rico, he joined Cornell in 1983.  He was Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology from 2004-2008.

Prof. Abruña has been the recipient of numerous awards including a Presidential Young Investigator Award, A. P. Sloan Fellowship, J. S. Guggenheim Fellowship and J. W. Fulbright Senior Fellow.  He was elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007 and Fellow of the International Society of Electrochemistry in 2008. He was named Fellow of the Electrochemical Society in 2013 and in 2017 was the recipient of the Gold Medal of the International Society of Electrochemistry. He was elected member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2018 and received the American Chemical Society Award in Analytical Chemistry in 2021. Prof. Abruña is the co-author of over 560 publications (h-index = 102) and has given over 670 invited lectures world-wide. He considers his 62 Ph.D. students and 75 Post-Doctoral associates, to date, as his most important professional achievement.

Prof. Abruña has been involved in a number of clean energy related start-up companies including Factorial Energy, Conamix and Ecolectro.

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Liad

Liad Meidar

Co-Founder

Liad Meidar is Founder and Managing Partner of Gatemore Capital Management and co-founder and member of the investment committee for GVP Climate, a subsidiary of Gatemore focused on early-stage clean technology investing.

In 2005, Liad founded Gatemore as an investment advisor serving high net worth families and corporate defined benefit pension funds.  As part of that, Liad served as chief investment officer of the Gatemore Multi-Asset Fund (GMAF), an open-ended, highly diversified fund which aimed to provide institutional investors access to high Sharpe ratio returns though a single vehicle.  Under his watch, the GMAF won numerous industry awards, including UK Pensions DB Multi-Asset Manager of the Year, the FT Pension and Investment Provider Multi-Asset Fund Manager of the Year, and Pensions Age Multi-Asset Manager of the Year.  In 2020 Gatemore sold its investment advisory business along with its management of the multi-asset fund.

In 2015, Liad started Gatemore’s turnaround and activist strategy, taking highly concentrated positions in listed small caps across the consumer, industrial, media, and technology sectors, and engaging with management, boards of directors and fellow shareholders to achieve significant recoveries in shareholder value.  In 2018, Gatemore launched a co-mingled fund to house the strategy, the Gatemore Special Opportunities Fund, for which Liad serves as the portfolio manager.

In 2021, Liad formed GVP Climate as a subsidiary in partnership with its Chairman and CIO, Brett Olsher, to invest in early-stage clean technology companies.  Liad now serves as a member of the investment committee of GVP Climate.

Liad has extensive experience as a board member of companies undergoing turnarounds, including: a publicly traded semiconductor wafer foundry based in California; a privately held global machine tool builder with dual headquarters in the US and Germany; and most recently with Gatemore portfolio company DX (Group) plc, an AIM-listed leading provider of delivery solutions, including parcel freight, secure, courier, and logistics in the UK.

Liad is currently a board member of three Gatemore portfolio companies: GSE Worldwide, Inc., a fully integrated talent management and sports agency where he is Chairman; Factorial, Inc., developer of a breakthrough solid-state battery technology; and Third Point Investors Limited, an LSE-listed investment company.

In addition, Liad serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council at Princeton University and on the Board of Trustees of the American School in London. He received an AB in economics from Princeton University.

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Wilson Lihn

Partner, Head of Research

Wilson started his investment career as a Research Analyst at Gatemore Capital Management in 2010. Following the formation of GVP Climate in 2022, Wilson now leads research for GVP’s clean technology venture investment practice.

Prior to joining Gatemore, Wilson served as a legal compliance and Internet abuse associate at United Online, the parent company of Juno and NetZero.

Wilson is a board member of Gatemore portfolio company GSE Worldwide, Inc., a fully integrated talent management and sports agency. He graduated from Columbia University with a BA in History and received an MBA with distinction from NYU’s Stern School of Business where he was named a Stern Scholar. He is also a CFA charterholder.

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Alexandra Dias-Lalcaca, PhD

Research Analyst

Alexandra is a research analyst at GVP Climate.

Prior to joining GVP Climate, Alexandra completed her PhD in Chemistry from Imperial College London. Her research used electrochemical techniques for ultra-low concentration biological molecule sensing.

Alexandra also graduated with a Master of Science in Advanced Chemical Engineering with Distinction from Imperial College London and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

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Larry Small

Partner & General Counsel

Larry serves as Gatemore’s General Counsel and is responsible for all legal aspects with respect to the Firm and its subsidiary GVP Climate.

Until July 2023, Larry was a Partner and the General Counsel of Valence8, a boutique investment office, where he was a member of the management committee and responsible for overseeing all legal aspects of the Firm’s managed investment funds and advisory businesses.

Prior to Valence8, from 2004 to 2022, Larry was a Partner and the General Counsel of Cabot Square Capital, a London-based private equity firm, where he sat on the investment and operations committees. At Cabot, he was responsible for transaction structuring, negotiation, and execution across the Firm’s pan-European investment funds, including M&A, financings, reorganisations and realisations.

Larry began his career in London as part of the US capital markets practice of law firm Clifford Chance, where he was an associate from 1999 to 2004.

Larry earned a JD from Yale Law School and has an M. Litt in History from Cambridge University and a BA in History from Brown University. He has been a member of the New York State Bar since 2000.

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David Cassells

David Cassells

Chief Financial Officer

David Cassells is Chief Financial Officer at GVP Climate. He is responsible for finance, operations and compliance.

His previous experience includes working as group Accountant for G.H. Financials Ltd, an FCA-regulated global clearing and settlements company, where he produced year-end audited statutory accounts for three entities in the UK, US and Hong Kong and ensured the firm was FCA compliant, with particular focus on client money regulations. Prior to that, David worked at Klesch Group and was responsible for the accounting function of the FCA regulated company as well as three Swiss-based entities. Previous to this David worked as an Assistant accountant for the asset management branch of Babcock & Brown.

David is a board member of Gatemore portfolio company GSE Worldwide, Inc., a fully integrated talent management and sports agency. He received a BA in Business Economics from Leicester University and is an ACCA qualified accountant.

 

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Casey Herren

Casey Herren

Director of Business Development

Casey Herren is responsible for partner relations and capital formation.

Casey has over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry with a particular focus on advising institutional investors on their allocations to alternative investments such as private equity, venture capital, and hedge funds.   Prior to joining Gatemore, Casey held similar roles with Lazard and Atlantic Investment Management in New York as well as Caymus Capital Partners, Highland Capital, Behringer Harvard, Vaughan Nelson, and Sourcerock Group in Texas.   

He received a BBA in Business with a concentration on finance from Texas A&M University.

New York

430 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10022

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George Cadbury

Partner, Head of Strategic Development

George Cadbury is Partner of GVP Climate. He is responsible for all aspects of strategic and capital development.

His previous experience includes the Head of Business Development and President of the largest independent hedge fund platform in the UK in 2007, PCE Investors, with peak assets of $3 billion.

George was also Managing Director of an independent Irish UCITS platform – Merchant Capital. Prior to joining Merchant Capital, George was Managing Director in Europe for Ubequity Capital, a Canadian private equity firm. He was also Head of European Operations for Mondore General Trading, a physical commodity trader.

George is a board member of Gatemore portfolio company GSE Worldwide, Inc., a fully integrated talent management and sports agency. He graduated with a BA in History from Exeter University.