Management Team & Co-Founders
Daniel N. Robin, Managing Partner and Co-founder
Christopher Balthasar, J.D., Project Finance Specialist
Lana Solesen, Investment and Business Development Director
RIF Co-Founders: Geoff Sharples, Alan Bilinsky, Jay Brandeis (see below)
Daniel N. Robin, managing partner of In3 Capital Group, brings more than 25 years executive/board, financial and sustainable 
development experience to his partnerships, transactions and industry leadership with a background in impact investing, new technology commercialization, and international project finance (In3finance.com).
Mr. Robin also serves as an impact capital advisor and investor with In3 Capital Partners, corporate director and shareholder in numerous portfolio companies focused on health and sustainability. He provides leadership and insight on issues ranging from clean technology integration, policy/regulatory challenges, mobilization of capital (early-stage impact initiatives often combine philanthropic and for-profit sources), and how to further improve renewables economics to achieve scale and mitigate climate change as quickly as possible.
Mr. Robin has chaired renewable energy finance conferences, moderated panels, keynoted, served as a pitch contest judge, and conducted workshops at industry events and symposiums including a presentation and workshop at Harvard University for the “Climate Reckoning” conference (2017, Cambridge, MA), LAC-CORE Finance Summit (2016, Florida), Renewable Energy Finance conferences — Renew Fi (2015, California), Small Hydro Latin America (2012, Panama), and many others, on topics such as raising capital, industry challenges, and the social side of sustainability.
Mr. Robin is former adjunct professor of strategy and management at Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS, now Middlebury Institute), Graduate School of International Policy and Management (GSIPM), whose Fisher International MBA Program ranked in the top 15 schools in the US (out of more than 2,300) for four straight years from Entrepreneur magazine and The Princeton Review (news story), which bolstered the need for a Bay Area project finance forum.
Mr. Robin has published more than 200 articles, reports and extensive curriculum on leadership, investing, collaboration, and innovation for sustainability/impact. Current consulting involves waste-to-value project de-risking, regenerative agriculture & agtech (energy/food/water nexus), and precise analytics for financial opportunities.
Daniel’s investment portfolio include Carbon Drawdown Solutions, North Park Power Ltd., and WISE Solutions. Prior to earning a certificate in Emerging Market Finance (Moody’s Analytics), he received a bachelors in Computer & Information Science from University of California at Santa Cruz, completed advanced studies in Marketing and International Business (UC Berkeley), and earned certificates coaching (Coaches Training Institute in San Francisco), master’s level/trainer certificates in neurolinguistics (NLP Colorado) and public speaking (Toastmasters International). (return to top) – LinkedIn
Christopher Balthasar, JD, managing director. Chris is a project finance specialist, California attorney, licensed BRE business broker, and Series 7 licensed securities broker with over ten years business and entrepreneurial experience. Chris has worked for Sunbelt Business Advisors, and as a financial advisor for Merrill Lynch and with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.
Chris has a unique combination of expertise in law, real estate and project finance. He has experience with peer-to-peer lending, strategic planning, business development, product development, project management, outsourcing, supply chain management, manufacturing, financial analysis, portfolio analysis, financing, forecasting, marketing, trade shows, business valuations and sales.
A licensed business/real estate broker with Calif. DRE (2007), he earned his Juris Doctor degree in 1995 at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. He happened to write the legal brief that was later made into the motion picture Erin Brockovich. Prior to working at Merrill Lynch, he secured his Series 7 / Series 66 Licenses (Broker/Dealer, Securities), and CA Insurance License (2010).
In his personal life, Mr. Balthasar is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu gold medalist, and three-time U.S. Open champion in 2007, 2010, and 2012. (top) LinkedIn
Lana Solesen, Investment and Business Development Director. Based in Denmark, Lana excels at business development, commercial management, strategy development, investment structuring and valuation of new and existing ventures and projects in sustainable energy and resource management sectors along with market development, policy and regulatory advisory.
She brings robust financial modeling and strategic business analysis skills with numerous successful project financing deliveries. Her contributions have enabled energy project developers, operators and investors to realize low- and no-carbon power production, resource efficiency, through innovative business models.
Lana holds a Masters of Science in financial mathematics from Copenhagen Business School, the University of Copenhagen (KU) and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), an international MSc degree (English-taught) emphasizing Applied Mathematics, Operations Research and Financial modeling. She earned her bachelors in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (NaUKMA) in Ukraine. (top) LinkedIn
RIF Co-Founders:
Geoff Sharples, Co-founder
Jay Brandeis, Co-founder
Geoff Sharples brings expertise in project finance, experience financing commercial solar and a passion for renewable energy, providing valuable leadership to RIF. Through his previous company, SeventhGen Financial, and more recent work at Clipper WindPower and Google, Geoff assists with commercial scale solar and wind projects. Having project-financed power plants in North Africa and Europe, Geoff is intimately familiar with risk and return issues related to power projects.
His experience includes structuring and negotiating finance and project agreements, financial analysis and project management. Projects include the 471 MW Rades power plant in Tunisia as well as leading the first deal for delivery of turbines at Clipper 2007-2009. The transactions were structured to change the risk/reward profile of the counter party. He has also led some key supply chain transactions of critical components.
Through consultative sales engagements in the high-tech sector Geoff has created and analyzed business plans and financial models from a broad spectrum of industries. Geoff has trained and managed multi-disciplinary teams and managed the sales process for a high growth software company. Combining experience in renewable energy, business planning, consultative selling and project finance with analytical discipline and rigor, Geoff offers structure and surety to financing renewable energy projects.
Geoff holds an MBA degree from Cornell University in finance and marketing and a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. (return to top)
Jay Brandeis came to RIF with a capital markets and marketing background. He is currently a Partner at Abnaki Group, where he brings years of leadership, business development, and project development experience to his role. Most recently, Jay led early-stage solar project development in ISO-NE at SunEdison, with a keen focus on project origination, site control, and various real estate matters. Prior to SunEdison, he led solar project development in NY-ISO and supported solar / wind project M&A throughout the Americas for First Wind (acquired by SunEdison). Prior to First Wind, Jay’s energy work consisted of start-up ventures, private equity, and consulting. Jay holds an MBA from the University of California, San Diego (Rady) and a BA from Denison University. (return to top) LI