Board of Directors

Pinnacle Engines is a Silicon Valley-based technology company developing ultra-efficient engines for both transportation and stationary applications. Its founders pioneered the patented Pinnacle Engines architecture and the Cleeves cycle, an ultra-efficient internal combustion engine design that uses fewer parts, produces lower emissions, and will be brought to market at the same or lower cost than current mass production engines.

	Ron Hoge, Chairman and CEO Ron Hoge became CEO of Pinnacle Engines in early 2011 after serving on its Board since its inception. He has forty years of business experience with executive leadership roles in eight different companies, from Fortune 500 firms to venture-backed startups. His background includes positions as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Cummins Power Generation (Onan), President and Chief Executive of Magnetek, and President of a $1.5 billion aerospace division of Allied Signal. Overall, he has led businesses on three continents through startup, growth, reorganization, and disposition challenges. He is currently a Director at two other cleantech startups, NovaTorque, Inc., and Glacier Bay, Inc. He is also on the President’s Advisory Council of ACCION International, and a Trustee of the EARTH University Foundation. Ron has a BA in Mathematics from Amherst College and an MBA in Marketing from Stanford University.
	Monty Cleeves, Founder, President, and CTO James Montague (Monty) Cleeves earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Santa Clara in 1973. He had a thirty-year career in the semiconductor industry, but his passion has always been engines and engine efficiency. His career spanned engineering and management at Fairchild/National Semiconductor, Cypress Semiconductor, Candescent, and Matrix—ultimately becoming CEO of Kovio. Over the course of his career, he has been granted more than eighty-five patents and currently has more than eighty applications pending. In August of 2007, he refocused his career when he founded Pinnacle Engines to commercialize his ideas for bringing significant efficiency improvements in internal combustion engines to consumers.
	Rohini Chakravarthy, NEA Partner Rohini Chakravarthy is a Partner at NEA and focuses on information and energy technology investments. Besides her involvement in Pinnacle Engines, she is on the boards of Agni, Aquantia, Azuray Technologies, EditRing, EnVerv, Luxtera, and TechForward, and works closely with Cirtas, Fusion-io, Vuclip, and other NEA portfolio companies, such as Plusmo (acquired by AT&T). Prior to joining NEA, Rohini’s career included investment, management, and engineering positions with Cisco Systems, Intel Capital, and Bay Networks. She received an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and holds a master's degree from Case Western Reserve University, as well as a B.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology–Madras, both in electrical engineering.
	Umesh Padval, Partner, Bessemer Venture Partners Umesh Padval is a Partner in Bessemer’s Menlo Park office and focuses on the IT and cleantech sectors. In addition to his position on Pinnacle Engines’ board, he sits on the boards of Avnera, Avalanche Technologies, Berkeley Design Automation, Powergenix, Exclara, and Xtreme Power. He is also on the boards of semiconductor companies Entropic Communications (NASDAQ: ENTR), Integrated Device Technology (NASDAQ: IDTI), and Monolithic Power Systems (NADSAQ: MPS). Prior to joining Bessemer, Umesh held senior management positions at LSI Logic, C-Cube, and VLSI Technology. He began his career at Advanced Micro Devices. Umesh holds a bachelor’s of technology from the Indian Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in engineering from Stanford University. He is also active on advisory boards at Stanford.
	David Moll, Founder and Managing Director, Infield Capital C. David Moll is the Founder and Managing Director of Infield Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm specializing in clean technology for the transportation industry. Prior to launching Infield’s first venture fund in 2008, David served as the CEO of Webroot, Inc., piloting the company through its highest growth years and creating one of the largest privately-held software companies in the US. Prior to his IT experience, he had an accomplished career with a Tier 1 automotive supplier and an integrated consumer products company, culminating in a four-year stint operating factories for MTD Products in Tennessee with 1,000 employees and three heavy manufacturing facilities. A strong advocate of alternative energy technologies, David serves on the board of the Colorado Cleantech Industry Association. He is a graduate of Baldwin Wallace College and earned an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.