Rob Hanson

Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Rob Hanson is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Monolith, where he leads the development of next-generation technology for producing low cost, low emission hydrogen and carbon black, an important raw material used in the manufacture of rubber and plastic. Prior to Monolith, Hanson served as the global director of product management for AREVA Solar, the solar division of the world’s largest nuclear company. 

He has a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford, and has been a guest lecturer at Stanford, UNL, Foothill College and the University of Saskatchewan on topics ranging from thermodynamics to entrepreneurship. Hanson also co-founded uforia studios, a 65-employee health and fitness company with locations in San Francisco and Palo Alto. 

William Brady

Co-Founder & Director

William (Bill) Brady is a member of the board of directors and is a co-founder of Monolith. He was executive vice president of Cabot Corporation, the world’s largest carbon black company. Throughout his 23-year experience at Cabot, Brady held numerous positions in the United States and Asia, including president of the $2B carbon black business, which operated 23 manufacturing plants in 17 countries. In addition, he led the commercialization of two start-up businesses at Cabot in ink jet colorants and elastomer composites. 

Brady is currently CEO of Kula Bio. He also serves on the board of directors of Hollingworth & Vose and Teknor Apex, both next generation materials companies. He is a graduate of the University of Scranton with a B.S. in chemistry and received his M.B.A. from Fairleigh Dickinson University. 

Henry Cornell

Director

Henry, a Senior Partner at Cornell Capital, lends his extensive expertise to our Board as a Director. With over 35 years of private equity experience, Henry previously served as Vice Chairman at Goldman Sachs before co-founding Cornell Capital. Noteworthy achievements include founding real estate efforts in Asia and leading principal investments in the region. Upon returning to New York, Henry took the helm of Private Equity Americas and Asia at Goldman Sachs. Henry currently serves as a Director at Blue Mistral, MRC Global, PureStar Linen Group, and Vault.

Beyond his professional achievements, Henry actively engages in philanthropy, serving on the boards of Mt. Sinai Hospital, the Whitney Museum, The Asia Society, and the Navy SEAL Foundation. Additionally, he is a proud member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Jonathan Garfinkel

Director

Jonathan Garfinkel is a Partner of TPG based in San Francisco and is a member of the leadership team of TPG Rise Climate, the firm’s dedicated climate impact investing business. Jonathan joined TPG in 1998 and through 2010 worked on the TPG Capital private equity investment team in both San Francisco and London.  Thereafter, he served in numerous firm-related roles, including leadership of corporate development and compensation, and was TPG’s Co-Chief Operating Officer from January 2019 to June 2021.

Jonathan serves or has served on the boards of Summit Carbon Solutions, Monolith, eVoltz, ProSight Specialty Insurance, HS Group, 2Co Energy, Aleris International, and Midwest Air Group. He is a member of the Advisory Council of Stanford’s Graduate School of Education and the Stanford Cancer Institute, is the current Board Chair of Climb Hire, and the former Board Chair of Aspire Public Schools. Jonathan holds a BA in Economics from Stanford University, an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and an MA in Education from Stanford’s Graduate School of Education. He and his wife Kimberly live in San Francisco with their four children, Maddie, Ollie, Annabelle and Samantha.

Pieter Houlleberghs

Director

Pieter Houlleberghs joined Decarbonization Partners (a partnership between BlackRock and Temasek) as Managing Director based in New York in February 2002. Prior to joining Decarbonization Partners, Pieter worked for Temasek for 9 years and most recently led Temasek's next-generation clean energy and sustainable real assets investment activity in the Americas.

Before joining Temasek, Pieter held senior investment banking roles covering the energy and resources sector with UBS, Rothschild and Barclays in London and Sydney. He currently serves on the board of Carbon Direct (Carbon management services) and prior board experience includes serving on the boards of Cypress Creek Renewables (solar power), Svante (carbon capture) and Eavor (geothermal energy).

Pieter holds an MBA from INSEAD and a Masters in Mechanical Engineering (MEng) from Imperial College London with First Class Honours.

Robert Kerrey

Chairman

Robert (Bob) Kerrey is managing director at Allen & Company and serves as chairman of the board of Monolith. From 2001 to 2011, Senator Kerrey was president of The New School, a university founded on democratic ideals and daring educational practices. 

From 1989 to 2001, he represented Nebraska in the United States Senate, where he promoted equity for rural communities, led in farm and environmental legislation, strengthened taxpayers’ rights, led in restructuring U.S. intelligence agencies, and partnered with local leaders to build projects of lasting value to Nebraskans. Prior to his Senate service, Senator Kerrey served one term as Nebraska’s governor. He served as a U.S. Navy SEAL during the Vietnam War, and is the recipient of the Medal of Honor for his service. Senator Kerrey earned a B.S. in pharmacy from the University of Nebraska. 

Yoan Dipita N’Komba

Director

Yoan Dipita N’Komba is a Principal at Warburg Pincus, where he focuses on energy transition and sustainability investments. Yoan is a Director of Citizen Energy, Eco Material Technologies, Monolith, and Zenith Energy and has also worked on the firm’s investments in ClimeCo and Velvet Energy. Prior to joining Warburg Pincus in 2016, Yoan worked in the Financial Sponsors group at Credit Suisse First Boston. Yoan serves as Chair of the Finance & Impacts Committee for the Board of Trustees of The Nature Conservancy in New York. Yoan received an AB in Philosophy and Government cum laude from Harvard College.

Jeff van Steenbergen

Director

Jeff van Steenbergen is a co-founder and the managing partner of Azimuth Capital Management, a Calgary-based energy sector private equity firm. Prior to jointly establishing the firm, he was co-head of North American Oil & Gas with JP Morgan & Co. Van Steenbergen has been active in the North American and international energy sector for 38 years and has a wide range of experience in oil and gas and energy infrastructure as a private equity investor, investment banker, and in operations and development planning roles with Mobil Oil and in field operations with Schlumberger. 

Van Steenbergen has been a finance professional for 27 years and has broad experience in private equity, capital markets, mergers and corporate finance. He also has 11 years of energy sector operating experience in North America, Asia and Western Europe, including eight years in offshore drilling operations. His education includes a Bachelor of Applied Science (Honours) in civil engineering from Queen’s University in Kingston and an M.B.A. in international business and finance from Dalhousie University in Halifax. He also attended a series of executive programs at Harvard, INSEAD and Stanford. He holds a US Coast Guard Master’s License (Captain) for ExxonMobil Offshore Drilling Units and is a professional engineer registered in the province of Nova Scotia. Van Steenbergen represents Azimuth Capital Management on the boards of Altex Energy, Magma Global, Steelhead LNG and Monolith.

Tony Wang

Director

Tony Wang is a Managing Director at Plutus Capital NY, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SK, Inc., where he specializes in sourcing new investment opportunities in the fields of energy transition and industrial decarbonization. With a career spanning various investment sectors, he previously worked at a sovereign wealth fund focusing on infrastructure and real assets investing, at Denham Capital investing in the oil and gas industry and started his career at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in the Global Energy and Power Coverage Group. 

Tony holds a major in Finance and a minor in Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business. Outside of his professional pursuits, Tony leads a fulfilling life in New York City with his wife, Bella, and son, Alistair. He is an avid runner who enjoys training for and participating in marathons across the globe in his leisure time.