JB Straubel

JB Straubel (born December 20 1975) is part of the founding team and the Chief Technical Officer of Tesla Motors, an electric car company based in San Carlos, California. [http://www.teslamotors.com/] At Tesla, JB oversees the technical and engineering design of the vehicles. JB also has responsibility for new technology evaluation, R&D, technical diligence review of key vendors and partners, IP, and systems validation testing.

JB was named "2008 Innovator of the Year" by MIT's Technology Review of Young Innovators Under 35 [http://www.techreview.com/TR35/Profile.aspx?TRID=742] . He spoke at MIT's EmTech08 on a panel on green transportation in Boston, MA in September 2008 [http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/emtech/22140/] . JB was honored to keynote the Stanford Alumni EDAY in July 2008 [http://engineering.stanford.edu/eday08/schedule.html] . In July 2008, JB spoke on a transportation panel "Progression Toward EVs" at Plug In 2008 [http://plugin2008.com/conf/?id=conf_agen] . In early 2008, Stanford Magazine featured JB's role in growing the Stanford presence at Tesla Motors [http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2008/janfeb/pc/tesla.html] . In September 2007, JB spoke on an energy panel titled "Clean, Secure, and Efficient Energy" at Stanford University along with former Secretary of State, George Shultz, where he emphasized the importance of education about climate change, and decreasing the co2 intensity of our current energy production methods. [http://auroraforum.stanford.edu/event/clean-secure-and-efficient-energy] [http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=5743] Popular Science magazine featured JB in a full-length article in April 2007. [http://www.time4.com/time4/microsites/popsci/futureofcars/tesla_p1.html] His photograph was shown in the Economist in July 2006, taking Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for a drive at the Tesla Roadster unveiling in Santa Monica, California.

Prior to Tesla Motors, Straubel was the CTO and co-founder of Volacom along with Harold Rosen. Volacom worked closely with Burt Rutan at Scaled Composites to design a specialized high-altitude aircraft platform using a novel hydrogen-powered electric power plant. At Volacom, JB co-invented and patented the new long-endurance hybrid propulsion concept that was later licensed to Boeing.

Before Volacom, JB worked with Harold Rosen and Ben Rosen at Rosen Motors as a propulsion engineer developing a new hybrid vehicle drivetrain based on a micro turbine and a high-speed flywheel. Rosen Motors ultimately closed but both main technologies carried on with commercial success, the turbine at Capstone Turbine (CPST) and the flywheel at Pentadyne Power Corp. JB was part of the early team at Pentadyne where he designed and built a 1st generation 150kw power inverter, motor-generator controls, and magnetic bearing systems.

In the area of technical expertise, JB has consulted with VC firms Taproot Ventures and Kleiner Perkins in addition to several other private equity investors to conduct technical diligence reviews for many start-ups in the energy and clean technologies category. JB also consults with Amory Lovins at the Rocky Mountain Institute.

JB has had a long personal passion for electric vehicles, including building an Electric Porsche 944 that held a world EV racing record, a Custom Electric Bicycle , and a pioneering new Hybrid Trailer System that he designed while in college. JB received a B.S. in Energy Systems Engineering and a M.S. in Energy Engineering, emphasis on energy conversion, both from Stanford University.

Outside of Tesla Motors, JB is also an accomplished pilot and holds private pilot, instrument and multi-engine ratings.