About the Authors
BEN SOLTOFF is the Ecosystem-Builder and Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, where he wears many hats. He’s the point person for all things climate tech; he partners with universities around the world to teach climate and energy entrepreneurship, especially in places at the forefront of the energy transition, like Houston, Texas, and Queensland, Australia; and he leads the delta v accelerator, the capstone entrepreneurial experience for MIT students. He’s also a co-founder of the Texas Exchange for Energy & Climate Entrepreneurship (TEX-E), which is a student-driven initiative dedicated to building tomorrow’s energy and climate innovation ecosystem.
Prior to joining MIT, Ben was the Environmental Innovation Manager at the Yale Center for Business and the Environment (CBEY) and the Environmental Innovation Fellow at the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale (CITY). In that dual role, he helped students to design, build, and launch environmental solutions.
He has also been part of several sustainability startups, and he has managed climate resilience projects around the world, including rural India.
Ben holds dual master’s degrees from the Yale School of Management and the Yale School of the Environment, as well as a bachelor of science degree from Duke University.
He lives in Newton, Massachusetts, with his family. He enjoys making animal sculptures, climate fiction, and dad jokes.
BILL AULET is the Ethernet Inventors Professor of the Practice of Entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Additionally, he has been the managing director at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, serving all of MIT for the past 18 years.
Prior to MIT, Bill had a 25-year track record of success in business. He has directly raised more than $100 million in funding for his companies and led the creation of hundreds of millions of dollars in market value in those companies. He worked at IBM for 11 years, from 1981 to 1993. From 1993 to 2005, he founded and led two companies (Cambridge Decision Dynamics and SensAble Technologies) and then led a third (Viisage), which were all MIT spinouts.
As an author, he has written three books (Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 Steps to a Successful Startup, Disciplined Entrepreneurship Workbook, and Disciplined Entrepreneurship: Expanded and Updated). His books have been translated into over two dozen languages and have become award-winning US and international bestsellers. Among the various recognition he has received as an educator, in 2021, he was awarded by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship as the Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year. His work is used in over a thousand schools and has helped educate over a million students.
Specifically, in the area of climate and energy combined with entrepreneurship, Bill has spearheaded several MIT efforts, including founding and leading the original Energy Ventures course and co-founding the MIT Clean Energy Prize as well as TEX-E. He currently sits on the board of Greentown Labs.
Bill holds a bachelor’s in engineering from Harvard University and a master’s degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
.TOD HYNES is a senior lecturer at MIT, where he co-founded and teaches Climate & Energy Ventures and co-founded and advises the MIT Climate & Energy Prize. He is a senior advisor for climate and energy at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and is the chair of the board of the Woodwell Climate Research Center.
Tod is the CEO and co-founder of Maigent, a company that enables individuals to thrive in an AI-first world and automates the process of starting and running companies. Tod also founded Clymate Studios to help others help the climate. He started a wind development company before tax equity investors entered the US market, and he started XL Fleet, one of the first fleet vehicle electrification companies, which scaled across the United States and Canada and went public in 2020. From 2004 to 2008 he was the director of alternative energy at Citizen Energy, where he launched the company’s wind development business and assessed various clean energy and carbon offset development opportunities. In 2001, Tod started one of the first social networking companies, but he decided to focus on climate.
Tod holds a bachelor of science degree in management science from MIT.
FRANCIS O’SULLIVAN is a managing director at S2G Investments and is a leader of the firm’s energy investing activities. Frank is also an adjunct faculty member at the MIT Sloan School and has previously served as the director of research for MIT’s Energy Initiative and as co-director of the MIT Electric Power System Center. Earlier in his career, Frank was a senior consultant at McKinsey & Company.
Frank is a senior associate with the Energy and National Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC; he is a Distinguished Associate at the Energy Futures Initiative; and he has previously served as a board member of the American Council on Renewable Energy. Frank is a member of the governing authority of University College Cork.
He received his PhD, EE, and SM degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his BE from the University College Cork, all in electrical engineering.
LIBBY WAYMAN is an investor with Breakthrough Energy Ventures, an investor-led fund created to accelerate the transition to clean energy and a clean economy. Libby has over 15 years of experience in clean energy and clean technology, including multiple startups and executive roles in leading energy companies.
In previous roles, Libby led clean technology innovation at GE as the global director of ecomagination innovation, served as the director of the Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative at the US Department of Energy, and developed several technologies in the solar industry including at SunPower and Alion Energy.
Libby started her career in entrepreneurship by co-founding a business that now supplies equipment to the dairy cold chain in India. She holds a BS in civil and environmental engineering and an MS in mechanical engineering from MIT. While at MIT, Libby co-founded the MIT Energy and Climate Club and the MIT Energy Conference, and she led the student input to the formation of the MIT Energy Initiative, all of which became beacons for information sharing and analysis on energy technologies. Libby now also teaches the Climate & Energy Ventures course at MIT.