About Us

Ben has decades of experience building new businesses in the electric vehicle and technology industry. Prior to Blue Current, he was Worldwide Head of Automotive Solutions at Amazon Web Services (AWS), where he started the company’s cloud solution business supporting autonomous, connected and electric vehicles. Before AWS, he led strategy and business development at the global EV maker NIO in the US through the company’s IPO in 2018. Early in his career, he was a member of the engineering team that built the original prototype of the General Motors EV1 electric car. He has engineering and business degrees from Yale, Stanford and the University of Chicago.

Kevin joined Blue Current as Chief Technology Officer in 2018, and has a significant background in electrochemistry, with a focus on battery and fuel cell technologies. Prior to Blue Current, he was on the research team at Ford Motor Company, focusing on research and development of battery materials and fuel cell systems. He is named in over 12 peer reviewed scientific publications and 9 patents. Kevin received his Bachelor’s degree from Drexel University and his PhD in chemical engineering from UC Berkeley, where his thesis focused on lithium-sulfur batteries containing solid polymer electrolytes.

Yutaka has thirty years of experience scaling battery production from early stage to mass production at Panasonic, A123, Zeon, QuantumScape and 24M. He has served as Chief Engineer, Principal Engineer, and a Research Fellow. Prior to Blue Current, he was the Senior Director of Process Engineering at Desktop Metal where he developed the company’s metal 3D printer media for mass production. Before that, he was the Senior Director of Process Engineering at 24M Technologies where he built the manufacturing plan and selected machines for volume production. Yutaka has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Maizuru College of Technology and a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in production system engineering from Toyohashi University of Technology.

Stephanie has over 25 years of work experience in Human Resources and People Operations. Throughout her career, Stephanie has successfully designed and implemented market-driven compensation programs to attract and retain top talent. Before Blue Current, Stephanie served as the US Head of People & Workplace at NIO. She was responsible for setting up the US operations, enabling the organization to scale from 1 employee to over 700 employees in 4 years. Stephanie has held various HR leadership positions at companies such as YuMe, Linden Lab, Tesla Motors, Charles Schwab, Google and Postini. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Rochester.

Nitash Balsara is co-founder and serves as an advisor and board member at Blue Current. He is the Charles W. Tobias Professor of Electrochemistry in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and is a faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Prior to Blue Current Nitash co-founded SEEO, an early solid-state battery company that was acquired by Bosch. He has over 280 scientific publications and 13 issued patents. Nitash received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, a master’s degree from Clarkson University, PhD from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and two post-docs at the University of Minnesota and Exxon.

Joseph M. DeSimone is co-founder and serves as an advisor and board member of Blue Current. He is the Sanjiv Sam Gambhir Professor of Translational Medicine and Chemical Engineering at Stanford University. He was Co-founder and current Executive Chair of Carbon. Joe has published over 350 scientific articles and has nearly 200 issued patents in his name – with more than an additional 200 patents pending. He is a member of the National Academies of Medicine, Sciences, and Engineering. He is one of only 25 individuals elected to all three U.S. National Academies — the National Academy of Sciences, Medicine, and Engineering. In 2016, President Obama presented him with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

Louise is Managing Partner and Co-founder of Piedmont Capital Partners, LLC, which builds companies resulting from Technology Innovations from Academia. Prior to joining Piedmont she was Vice President of Investments at Wells Fargo Advisors. She serves on numerous corporate boards, community and educational advisory roles including Co-chair of the UNC Shuford Program in Entrepreneurship, the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Visitors and is a member of the Governors Entrepreneurial Council. She was Co-founder and Board of Directors for the Women to Women Endowment. Ms. Brady received her Bachelor’s Degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in with a double major in Industrial Relations and Economics.

Jon Chisholm is the managing director for Koch Disruptive Technologies (“KDT”), leading the energy investment vertical. From 2014 to 2022, he was the Vice President of Koch Minerals and Trading, LLC (“KM&T”), responsible for business development, strategy and investments. Mr. Chisholm started his career at Koch Industries (“Koch”) in 2005 and has worked in various companies across Koch, including Flint Hills Resources, Koch Fertilizer, Koch Carbon and KM&T. He currently serves on the board of directors for Compass Minerals and Blue Current. Mr. Chisholm earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a major in finance from Oklahoma State University.