Pankaj Dhingra Guest Blogger
Postcard from Davos: Monday January 22, 2008 at 10:39 AM
Well, here I am in the storied valley of Davos, Switzerland – the site of World Economic Forum annual meetings (http://www.weforum.org). I have heard about the WEF annual meetings for so long that being invited to the 2008 meeting is a dream-come-true. However, being here after being honored by the WEF as a Technology Pioneer gives me the carte blanch to walk up to any one and strike up a conversation. Well, I plan to do just that and report it all to you through daily posts.SwitzerlandSwitzerland must have been created by God to give human-kind a taste of heaven and a respite from daily struggles. I know if from experience, having lived here for two years during the mid-90s. It is small country but crammed with all the natural beauty in this world. Switzerland is the land of mountain peaks that kiss the sky, crystal clear lakes, beautiful sunrises and sunsets from its numerous valleys. Whether hiking, skiing or just relaxing in your chalet with a glass of wine and a good book, you can get away from the world and recharge your batteries before plunging back into the daily rat race. It is the land of world famous resorts – St. Moritz, Grindelwald, Zermatt and of course, Davos. It is a skiers heaven during winters and great for hiking and camping during summers.Swiss are the most multi-lingual people that I know. Even the kids at local McDonalds know English, German, French, Italian and of course, Schweizerdeutsch (or Swiss-German). A two-hour drive from Zurich gets you to Germany, France, Austria, Italy or Lichtenstein – a delightful contrast from my New York where a two-hour drive gets you to New Jersey. If you love nature, do spend a week in Switzerland and I promise that you will come back many more times.DavosDavos is a narrow valley nestled between tall mountains. As such, you see the snow-covered peaks glowing with the morning sun long before the valley receives any light – it’s a pretty weird but wonderful scene. It has been snowing all day today so there is about six inches of new snow on the ground. It is cold but nothing a few layers of clothing can’t handle; and nowhere as cold as Green Bay Wisconsin was during Sunday’s NFC championship game. The biggest event in Davos this week is the WEF annual meeting and all hotels in Davos and Klosters (a village 20 minutes from Davos) are exclusively reserved for WEF participants. I am told that the security is so tight that all of the mucky-mucks here - global political leaders, billionaires, CEOs of world’s largest companies and even the Technology Pioneers are able to move around without their security details – all the better for casual conversations.World Economic ForumThe World Economic Forum bills itself as an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas. It holds a number of forums around the world but its crowning moment is the annual meeting in Davos. The 2008 annual meeting is co-chaired by Tony Blair, James Dimon (Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co.), K. V. Kamath (CEO of ICICI bank in India), Henry Kissinger, Indra K. Nooyi (Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo.), David J. O’Reilly (Chairman and CEO of Chevron) and Wang Jianzhou (CEO of China Mobile Communications). The annual meeting will be opened by Condoleezza Rice. www.weforum.org/en/events/AnnualMeeting2008/index.htm has the details on the annual meeting as well as an abridged list of participants. The US media coverage can be found on CNN, CNBC, Forbes, Reuters and The Wall Street Journal.This year the annual meeting has four themes – Competing while collaborating, Addressing economic insecurity, Aligning interests across divides, Exploring nature’s new frontiers and Understanding future shifts. The sessions start at 9AM every day (January 23-26) and go until 8PM or so, after which there are scores of networking meetings that go until 2AM. There are 5 parallel sessions scheduled in each time slot. I plan on attending and reporting on most of the sessions that deal with greentech issues, such as: Progress on climate change, Carbon finance, Effectiveness of carbon trading, Nuclear energy, Creating Green Jobs (where I am also on the panel), Clean energy – what is driving the mix, genetics and energy, etc.Technology PioneersAccording to the November 29, 2007 press release from the World Economic Forum, Technology Pioneers are companies that have been identified as developing and applying highly transformational and innovative technologies in the areas of energy, biotechnology and health, and information technology. To be selected as a Technology Pioneer, a company must be involved in the development of life-changing technology innovation and have the potential for long-term impact on business and society. In addition, it must demonstrate visionary leadership, show all the signs of being a long-standing market leader – and its technology must be proven. Previous Technology Pioneers have included Business Objects, Cambridge Silicon Radio, Corel Corporation, Encore Software, Google, Mozilla Corporation and Napster.The class of Technology Pioneers 2008 consists of 39 companies, selected from 273 companies nominated for this honor. Twenty-three of these are US-based companies; two each from Israel, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Switzerland; and one each from Canada, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands and Russia. Technology Pioneers are nominated in three main categories: Energy/Environment, Biotechnology/Health and Information Technology. The entire list of Technology Pioneers and interviews with the CEOs of the selected companies can be found at http://www.weforum.org/techpioneers/2008.NanostellarNanostellar is a Redwood City based developer of materials for diesel emissions control. It is a four-year old company with multi-million dollar revenues in 2007. We expect our first automotive OEM sales contract this year. Nanostellar is funded by 3i, Khosla Ventures, Monitor Venture Partners, Firelake and Asiatech.Nanostellar’s innovation addresses the serious threats posed to the environment by pollution from automobiles, trucks and stationary engines. These threats are spurring governments in the United States, European Union, and other nations to pass legislation that sets incrementally stricter standards for emissions reduction. This in return requires rapid evolution of the chemical catalysts used to mitigate emissions.Diesel engines have long been identified as major polluters. This is one of the major reasons why we don’t see many diesel powered cars in the US, even though diesel engines have 20%-30% better fuel efficiency than gasoline engines and better fuel efficiency than same-size gas-electric hybrids during highway driving. The implementation of 2007 diesel emissions control regulations in the US promises to clean up diesel engines and has resulted in strong interest by automotive manufacturers to bring diesel cars to the US. Europe, on the other hand, has had strong diesel emissions control regulations for over a decade and, as a result, 55%-60% of European passenger vehicles are powered by modern, clean diesel engines. The big drawback in diesel emissions control is the use of platinum, which in the last four years has tripled in price from $530/oz. to $1,560/oz. According to Johnson Matthey, 4.24 million oz. (119 tons) of platinum was used in 2007 for automotive emissions control.Nanostellar commercialized its first generation of diesel catalyst materials in 2006. Nanostellar introduced its second generation product, NS Gold™ in 2007 and pioneered the use of gold as an automotive catalyst, in combination with platinum and palladium. With NS Gold, Nanostellar reduced the costs for the catalytic converters, while capturing more than 20 percent higher noxious emissions. The potential to use gold in this type of application has long been considered, but until now the technical challenges concerning catalyst durability have prevented gold’s use.The key to Nanostellar’s rapid progress is Rational Design. Nanostellar’s Rational Design methodology unites two disciplines – computational nanoscience and advanced synthetic chemistry – to speed the pace of development of nano-engineered materials. Rational Design allows Nanostellar to gain a fundamental understanding of the surface chemistry and properties of nano-materials, enabling it to develop new nano-engineered alloys at record speeds.This is all for now …….. ciao until tomorrow!!!
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