Sandeep Nijhawan

Co-Founder & CEO, Electra, Inc.

Bio

Sandeep Nijhawan is the co-founder and CEO of Electra, the company decarbonizing iron and steelmaking through an electrochemical, renewable-energy-powered process. Nijhawan has been at the center of deep-technology and venture investments for over 20 years, leading international companies to garage-based start-ups and transforming nascent ideas into global enterprises. Prior to starting Electra in 2020, he was an operating partner of True North Venture Partners and president of two electrochemistry-focused cleantech startups: AquaHydrex, which developed an electrolyzer for the hydrogen economy, and Staq Energy, which developed distributed energy storage solutions. Earlier in his career, Nijhawan was a senior vice president at Intermolecular, specializing in accelerating R&D of innovative materials for electronics; founded and was CEO of LED start-up Siorah Incorporated; and incubated Applied Materials’ LED business from concept to commercialization.

Sandeep has a Bachelor of Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology - Kanpur, India, a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota and an MBA from the International Institute of Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland.