Mr. Gillard is General Partner at Pangaea Ventures Ltd., the world leader in advanced materials venture capital. He joined Pangaea in 2010. Mr. Gillard has over twenty-five years’ experience as an investor and entrepreneur, with the past sixteen years focused on advanced materials.
From 2006-2010, Mr. Gillard served as President of BASF Venture Capital America. He was responsible for the establishment of the Silicon Valley office and expansion of the team. Mr. Gillard led investments into SDCmaterials Inc., Luca Technologies LLC, Ultracell Corporation, Arcadia Biosciences, Inc., Sciona, Inc., and ARCH Ventures VII, among others.
From 2001-2006, Mr. Gillard was with Mitsubishi Corporation and responsible for venture investment and business development activities in Canada, with a specific focus on cleantech. He was instrumental in establishing Japanese markets and partners for several Canadian and American cleantech companies, with a special focus on fuel cells, solar and smart grid applications.
Prior to joining Mitsubishi, Mr. Gillard began his career in investment banking, structuring mergers and acquisitions as well as manufacturing technology joint ventures into China. In the late ‘90’s, he spent five years as an full-time entrepreneur, establishing three IT companies in succession.
Mr. Gillard sits on the board of directors of NewLeaf Symbiotics and the Foresight Cleantech Accelerator Centre, and is Chairman of Vestaron Corporation. He also serves the World Economic Forum on an advisory board focused on collaborative innovation in chemicals and materials. He is the co-author of “Inside the Minds: Energy Venture Capital Best Practices”, published in 2008 by Aspatore Books. Outside of work, he is a high-energy father of three, an avid cyclist and a twice-nominated Canadian Independent Music Award winner.