CleanTech Fellows
CleanTech Fellowship is a selective leadership program that offers exceptional Texas MBA students the opportunity to deepen industry knowledge through hands on experiences in the clean tech world. Once selected, each CleanTech fellow spends 10-15 hours per week working with a company of their choosing and periodically meeting with the other fellows to check in, attend speaker series, and discuss developments in the industry. Students earn credit for the part-time internship, which lasts for the second semester of the first year. The experience offers a great opportunity to build relationships with industry experts and growing companies. The CleanTech Fellows program is connected to the CleanTech Group.
The following is a selection of recent CleanTech Fellow profiles:
Vignesh Veettil, ReJoule
For my project, I sized the battery diagnostics market, segmented use cases, and identified 30+ commercial EV OEM and fleet targets with named decision-makers.
The most beneficial part of my fellowship experience was working on a real commercialization challenge with ReJoule and seeing how a clean technology company evaluates market opportunities beyond the technical solution. Our project focused on market analysis, customer segmentation, and identifying potential target companies for ReJoule's EV battery diagnostics technology. This helped me better understand how early-stage climate technologies move from technical validation to market adoption, and gave me practical experience applying business strategy to a clean technology use case.
Raymond Chu, Break Point Energy
During my CleanTech Fellowship at Break Point Energy, I conducted a rigorous, data-driven market screening of over 200 Texas corporations using financial parameters to map out a targeted pipeline of potential buyers for transferable clean energy tax credits. Additionally, I developed sophisticated CFO-centric marketing collateral and video strategies that translated complex tax legislation into bottom-line impacts, like lower Effective Tax Rates and enhanced Earnings Per Share, under ASC 740 compliance.
The most valuable part of this fellowship had nothing to do with reading tax codes or building financial models. It was getting a front-row seat into how an early-stage startup actually operates on the ground. The coolest part was learning how to deep-dive into an industry, spot a hidden "fracture" or regulatory blind spot that everyone else missed, and turn it into a real business opportunity.
Brian White, Downland
At Downland, I worked directly with the founder. My project included three major areas: conducting informational interviews to understand the current customer and partner pipeline, researching agricultural and land data sources available to find key information, and developing a financial model for the company based on its pricing strategy.
The biggest takeaway from my project was seeing what it takes to start a new company from the ground up. Working directly with the founder provided me with insights into her perspective and how she approached growth opportunities. I was also able to tie some of the principles from my finance courses into the work for my project, which I found rewarding.
Palak Patel, Tesla
The project focused on developing a Marginal Abatement Cost Curve (MACC) for decarbonization initiatives across Tesla sites. This involved collecting and analyzing data on the annual carbon emissions reduction potential and associated capital expenditure for each project. The analysis included calculating the Net Present Value of the initiatives and evaluating their cost-effectiveness. Finally, a MACC was developed to visualize and prioritize projects based on the amount of carbon emissions reduced per dollar invested, enabling informed decision-making for decarbonization efforts.
The most valuable aspect of the project was gaining hands-on experience in the financial analysis of decarbonization initiatives and evaluating their economic viability. It also involved identifying and prioritizing projects with the highest carbon reduction potential and the greatest return on investment, enabling more effective decision-making for sustainability efforts.