WHO WE ARE

Steve Westly – Managing Partner

Prior to founding The Westly Group, Steve Westly served as the Controller and Chief Fiscal Officer of the state of California - the world's sixth largest economy.   As Controller, he chaired the State Lands Commission and served on 63 other boards and commissions, including CalPERS and CalSTRS, the nation's two largest public pension funds, which together invest more than $350 billion.   During his four-year term, Mr. Westly spearheaded innovative tax programs that helped close the State's budget deficit and also led an effort to commit more than $1 billion to clean technology investments.   In the 2008 election cycle Mr. Westly served as a state co-chair and a National Finance Committee member of the Obama for America campaign.

Before running for office, Mr. Westly helped guide the online auction company eBay through its period of most rapid growth, serving as the Senior Vice President of Marketing, Business Development, M&A and International.   Mr. Westly helped bring eBay to Europe and Asia and developed the marketing and acquisition strategies that paved the path for the firm's exponential growth.

Mr. Westly began his career in Washington, D.C., where he worked first on Capitol Hill and later in the Office of Conservation and Solar at the U.S. Department of Energy.   Mr. Westly returned to California to become special assistant to the President of the California Public Utilities Commission.   While there, he published two books on alternative energy and the utilities.  Mr. Westly also served as the California Co-Chair for the Obama for President campaign.  

Mr. Westly holds a bachelor's degree from Stanford University and an MBA from Stanford's Graduate School of Business, where he served on the faculty for five years.   Mr. Westly and his wife, Anita, run the Westly Foundation, which provides education and health care services for children and underserved communities throughout California.  


Mike Dorsey – Managing Partner

Prior to joining The Westly Group, Mr. Dorsey co-headed the Bay Area Equity Fund, a $75 million double-bottom line venture capital fund that achieved top quartile returns based mostly on clean tech investments. In this capacity he raised and managed the fund, serving on the investment committee from the fund’s inception. The fund has investments in five clean tech companies. He continues to serve on its investment committee.

Before the Bay Area Equity Fund, Mr. Dorsey worked as an investment banker, primarily to technology companies, for 20 years. He served as Head of Technology Investments Banking of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and Cowen & Co. In this capacity he worked with most leading venture capital firms as an agent and made a small number of venture capital investments as a principal.

Mr. Dorsey holds a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and an MBA from Yale School of Management. He serves on the Board of Directors of United Way of the Bay Area and advisory boards of Stanford University.


Gary Dillabough – Partner

Mr. Dillabough runs the Clean Building Materials Practice at the Westly Group.  Prior to joining the Westly Group, Mr. Dillabough was the General Manager of Corporate Environmental Affairs at eBay.  In this capacity he led all of eBay's environmental efforts and helped design and set specifications for a 200,000 sq ft Gold LEED certified building.  In addition he installed San Jose's largest commercial solar deployment (650 kW) and a 500 kW fuel cell.  During these projects, Mr. Dillabough met with and built relationships with numerous green building material suppliers and vendors.

Prior to that Mr. Dillabough was the Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at eBay. This team generated $575 million in revenue through revenue sharing agreements and ad sales over a five year period.  Mr. Dillabough negotiated and put in place a number of large partnerships with the US Postal Service, UPS, General Electric, Sun, and Fidelity.  He also oversaw the acquisition and integration of FairMarket which at one time was one of eBay's largest competitors.

Mr. Dillabough spent four years in corporate real estate and developed his own portfolio of close to 100 apartment units.  Mr. Dillabough is one of the few people in this industry with a combination of clean tech and hands on real estate development experience.

Mr. Dillabough has a BS in Civil Engineering from California Polytechnic University. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Lucile Packard Hospital Foundation and OneMillionLights, and formerly served as a director of the Internet Advertising Board (IAB) and the One Laptop Per Child Association (OLPC).

Mr. Dillabough recently installed a 5 kW fuel cell at his home. This is one of the first residential installations in the state.


Dave Coglizer – Principal

David Coglizer is responsible for sourcing deals and leading the solar and wind energy practices at The Westly Group. He comes to The Westly Group with a background in both entrepreneurship and finance. Mr. Coglizer’s entrepreneurial experience began when he managed a group of thirteen Supercuts franchises into the most profitable in the country. He has also worked in corporate finance for Grupo Financiero Bancomer, now BBVA Bancomer, the largest financial institution in Latin America. Mr. Coglizer, who is fluent in Spanish, will also oversee all deal opportunities in Mexico and South America. The Westly Group is seeing a growing number of biofuel opportunities in that part of the world.

Mr. Coglizer was also formerly Senior Manager of eBay Real Estate and of eBay’s Seller Scalability Group overseeing and developing programs for eBay’s elite Top Sellers. He additionally brings six years of commercial real estate experience from working at CB Richard Ellis.

Mr. Coglizer has a BA from University of California at Davis and an MBA from Stanford University and was a student body president at both universities. He is a lifelong environmentalist, and has held leadership positions with the Sierra Club and the League to Save Lake Tahoe in northern California.

Michael Kaufman – Principal

Mr. Kaufman manages the due diligence process for The Westly Group, performing financial analysis, interviewing references and evaluating potential investments against industry comparables. He also focuses on strengthening the group's deal flow channels and deal identification process.

Mr. Kaufman has worked for Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut and was Special Assistant to the Controller at the California State Controller's Office from 2004 to 2006.   He holds a bachelor's degree from Brown University.




Benjamin Abram – Associate

Mr. Abram is an associate for The Westly Group, where he tracks all incoming deal flow and performs industry and financial due diligence on both incoming business plans and targeted companies. Mr. Abram is a graduate of Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering, where he was senior class president and was elected to a three-year term on the Duke University Board of Trustees. He holds a bachelor's degree with dual majors in civil & environmental engineering and public policy studies.

In addition to his position on the Duke University Board of Trustees, Mr. Abram serves as a Board member of the Chordoma Foundation, as well as on the inaugural National Advisory Board of DukeEngage. Ben has a particular interest in companies pertaining to infrastructure and energy savings through efficient system management.

Mr. Abram serves as a board observer at Glacier Bay, and is a member of Class XIV of the Kauffman Fellows.




Mike Jackson – Associate

Mr. Jackson is an analyst at The Westly Group. Prior to joining, he was founder and CEO of Village Green Energy, a retailer of renewable electricity production to households and businesses. Previously, he managed research in India and China at the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development at Stanford University, where he wrote on the impact of global coal, oil, and natural gas markets on energy choices in the developing world.

In addition to his work in energy, Mr. Jackson chairs an internal board for Variety Children’s Charity of Northern California, where he leads efforts to bring young professionals into the charity as volunteers and future donors. Mr. Jackson holds a master’s degree in Energy Engineering and an bachelor's degree in Biology and Earth Systems, all from Stanford University.





Ken Goldman – Venture Partner

Mr. Goldman served as Senior Vice President, Finance and Administration, and Chief Financial Officer of Siebel Systems from August 2000 until the close of Oracle Corporation's acquisition of Siebel Systems in January 2006. Prior to working at Siebel Systems, he served as Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Excite@Home. From 1992 to 1996, Mr. Goldman served as Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Sybase, Inc.   Other Chief Financial Officer positions that Mr. Goldman has held were with Cypress Semiconductor and VLSI Technology. Mr. Goldman was involved in taking public both VLSI Technology (1983) and Excite@Home Network (1997) as Chief Financial Officer.

Mr. Goldman earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University in 1971 and received his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1974.

He is a member and the former president of the Santa Clara chapter of The Financial Executive Institute, and was formerly a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board Advisory Council (FASAC) (2000 - 2004). He is an advisory board member for the Harvard Business School California Research Center, a member of the West Coast Chief Financial Officer Roundtable, a member of the FEI Committee for Financial and Information Technology and a former member of the NASDAQ's Issuer Affairs Committee.  


Isaac Applbaum – Venture Partner

Mr. Applbaum is a Special Limited Partner with The Westly Group.  He will be responsible for the team’s activities in Israel and for sourcing and performing due diligence on water companies.

Mr. Applbaum was a founding General Partner of Opus Capital, a two hundred and eighty million dollar early stage venture fund, focusing his efforts on finding Israeli-based investments for the firm. Previously, Isaac was a Partner and Managing Director for Israel at Lightspeed Venture Partners, an early stage venture capital firm with over two billion dollars under management.

Prior to joining Lightspeed, Mr. Applbaum was the founder and CEO of Concorde Solutions Inc. (CSI).  In 1998 Mr. Applbaum sold CSI to Bank of America, becoming a Senior Vice President at the bank with responsibility for running the bank’s E-ventures group and an advising the strategic investments group.

Before founding Concorde Solutions, Mr. Applbaum was responsible for running US operations for Advanced Technology International, a large Israeli software development company.

Mr. Applbaum currently serves as a Special Advisor for Economic Development to the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert.  Mr. Applbaum is President of the Board of the California Israel Chamber of Commerce, Vector Intersect Acquisition Corporation (VTRQ), The Modern Bank Corporation, and is Chairman of The Western Wall Heritage Foundation. Mr. Applbaum is a member of the Young Presidents Organization.


ADVISORY BOARD

Michael Kahn

Michael Kahn is the senior partner of Folger Levin & Kahn LLP. Mr. Kahn’s practice involves federal and state court proceedings throughout the United States. Mr. Kahn has tried over twenty cases to verdict with a success rate of over ninety percent. Mr. Kahn has also argued over a dozen appeals in State Supreme Court and Federal and State Courts of Appeal and has arbitrated over a dozen cases to decision (with over a 90% success rate). Mr. Kahn has been involved in numerous landmark cases including PeopleSoft v. Oracle in which he represented PeopleSoft; U.S. v. Stringfellow in which he was lead trial counsel and City of Atascadero v. Merrill Lynch in which he represented the “Killer Bs”. He was appointed by the California Supreme Court to represent the defendants in a landmark search and seizure case and a death penalty case.
Richard Rock

As a co-founder of The CAPROCK Group, a multi-family office, Richard works with an exclusive list of wealthy, entrepreneurial families to assist in the strategic deployment of family capital. Richard also founded XIAN Advisors which specialized in early stage corporate advisory services and private wealth management. As an early employee at eBay, he played a key role in the growth and success of the company in the areas of marketing, business development and real estate. Richard received his MBA from Stanford University and a his degree in Finance from the University of Idaho.
Craig Tighe

Craig Tighe is a partner in the Silicon Valley office of DLA Piper US LLP. Craig focuses his practice in commercial finance, private equity and mezzanine investments, venture and angel investing, venture debt and leasing, workouts and restructurings, and mergers and acquisitions. He serves as counsel to corporations in a number of industries, including early stage technology companies, telecommunication businesses, beverage and food companies and consumer product manufacturers. He is also counsel to a number of banks and other financial institutions, as well as to equity investors and private equity funds. Craig is a member of the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Zoological Society.