
High Impact and Timely Insights from the Research Experts at Clean Edge
The clean-tech marketplace is rapidly changing – making reliable updates on the latest issues and breakthroughs critical. To help subscribers keep abreast of these changes, Clean Edge produces the Clean Tech Nation Briefing Series. Leveraging Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder’s book, Clean Tech Nation, each webinar is designed to highlight real-world lessons, best practices, and key trends.
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Clean Tech and The China Equation

A decade ago, China and the concept of clean tech were oxymoronic. But today, China is the world’s largest single investor in clean energy ($89.5 billion in 2014), ranks at the top of most renewable energy country indexes, and is the number one manufacturer globally of solar PV modules and lithium ion batteries. It also is home to the world’s largest installed base of wind turbines and is number two for installed solar PV capacity, with the goal of being number one by 2020 (if not sooner).
Moving forward, what impact will the recently announced U.S.-China Agreement on Climate Change have on the global clean-tech market? How far can China transition from its reliance on dirty coal to renewables and efficiency? Can China pivot from being primarily a manufacturer to leading the charge in a design-led revolution? And for clean-tech entrepreneurs, what opportunities and challenges lay at the intersection of China and clean-tech deployment and innovation?
Whether you’re a North American company interested in entering the Chinese market or a clean-tech innovator looking to collaborate on either side of the Pacific, please join us for a lively interactive conversation.
This panel is especially timely following this week’s announcement from co-host Autodesk that it is expanding its Cleantech Partner Program to China. The program grants early-stage clean-tech companies access to $150,000 worth of Autodesk’s design software, to its educational resources, and a variety of co-marketing opportunities for free.
Panelists:

Mark Clifford
Executive Director
Asia Business Council
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Mark L. Clifford is the Hong Kong-based executive director of the Asia Business Council and author of The Greening of Asia (Columbia University Press). Previously he was editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Standard and the Asia regional editor for BusinessWeek. Mark moved to Asia in 1987 as the Seoul, Korea correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review, and later served as the magazine’s business editor in Hong Kong. In addition to the Asia Business Council’s books on young Asians (Through the Eyes of Tiger Cubs: Views of Asia’s Next Generation) and on green buildings (Building Energy Efficiency: Why Green Buildings Are Key to Asia’s Future), Mark is co-author, with former WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi, of China and the WTO: Changing China, Changing World Trade; the co-author of Meltdown: Asia’s Boom, Bust and Beyond; and the author of Troubled Tiger: Businessmen, Bureaucrats and Generals in South Korea. Mark graduated from the University of California, Berkeley and was a Walter Bagehot Fellow at Columbia University. He has lived in Hong Kong since 1992.

Gary Rieschel
Founder and Managing Partner
Qiming Venture Partners
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Gary Rieschel has more than 30 years of operating and investing experience. He is a leading venture capitalist in U.S. and China and is founder of Qiming Venture Partners, a firm of $1.6B focused on early stage investments in China. Gary created multiple venture capital funds in the U.S. and China, and has taken over thirty companies to successful exits. Gary served on Softbank’s board of directors for six years, and held senior executive positions at Cisco Systems, Sequent Computer Systems, and Intel. Mr. Rieschel is well regarded as a mentor to entrepreneurs and other venture capitalists.
Gary has a B.A. from Reed College and an M.B.A from Harvard. He currently serves as a director of AllTech Medical; Tigermed; LP Amina Lanzatech, and on two bank JV boards in China. He is a Trustee of Reed College, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Jake Layes
Head, Sustainability & Cleantech AsiaPacific
Autodesk
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Jake Layes is head of Sustainability and Clean Tech for AsiaPacific at Autodesk. He is responsible for sustainability programs and initiatives at Autodesk, including Autodesk’s Clean Tech Partner Program in Asia, which supports the efforts, innovations and environmental advancements of clean technology partners across the region.
As a highly respected industry expert, Jake has been a frequent speaker at a range of prominent design and innovation conferences, including the Tsinghua International Design Symposium in Beijing; the Design Business Forum in Tokyo; the National Design Conference in New Delhi; and the World Green Design Forum in Yangzhou, China.
A German by nationality, Jake has a broad international background ranging from product development for consumer products, to marketing and business development. He has been in Asia since 1997, having lived & worked in Singapore, Japan and is now covering AsiaPacific out of Hong Kong. Jake holds an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, as well as a Bachelor of Science – Industrial Design from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, USA.

Ron Pernick
Managing Director
Clean Edge, Inc. (Moderator)
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Ron Pernick is founder and managing director of clean-tech research and advisory firm Clean Edge and the coauthor of two books on clean-tech business and innovation, Clean Tech Nation (HarperCollins, 2012) and The Clean Tech Revolution (HarperCollins, 2007). At Clean Edge he has coauthored more than two dozen reports on clean technologies, markets, and policies and oversees the firm’s research, event production, index publishing, and advisory services. He has taught MBA-level courses at Portland State University and New College, is widely quoted in the media, and is a regular speaker at industry events in the U.S. and abroad. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and two children.
Thanks to our Session Co-Host:

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To find out more about the Clean Tech Nation Briefing Series content and sponsorship, please contact:
Bryce Yonker
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yonker@cleanedge.com
503.206.8448