Mr. Ramirez is a values-driven serial entrepreneur skilled in building high performance teams, developing funding strategies, promoting legislative sponsorship, and driving growth. He was recruited as the CEO of WaHa Inc., an early-stage company, to raise capital to develop an atmospheric water generation product. What followed was a period of discovery and enlightenment. While numerous technologies could generate water from air, none could do so reliably in desert-like climates, and the energy cost penalties for water generation in arid climates challenged every putative solution’s commercial viability.
A breakthrough in engineering design by led by David Quo, EVP of Engineering, and Eugene Kapustin, CTO, and the identification and development of initial target markets led by Chris Kay, COO, addressed that challenge and has resulted in a compelling value proposition offering a step-change improvement in the efficiency of legacy dehumidification systems with disruptive applications in numerous vertical markets including controlled environment agriculture, pharmaceutical production, semiconductor manufacture, lithium-ion battery manufacture, and direct air carbon capture. These breakthroughs, which led to the recapitalization of the company and its relaunch with new founders, also hold great promise for reliable, low cost, atmospheric water generation in desert-like climates, particularly in environments where every other currently existing solution fails because of temperature swings or changes in the levels of absolute humidity.
Previously, Mr. Ramirez built two companies with Mr. Kay: Ice Energy Inc., a Cleantech energy storage company sold to a private equity company, and Endūr Inc., a developer of 24/7 mission critical computing infrastructure sold to Calpine Energy. Mr. Ramirez co-founded Ice Energy and served for 10 years as CEO, where he led the adoption of energy storage legislation CA AB 2514 and secured the first utility scale contracts for distributed thermal storage. Earlier, he co-founded and directed Structured Capital Management, a boutique investment bank specializing in complex asset-backed securitizations and was first to securitize seller carry-back mortgages, lottery receivables, SBA premium strips, and specialized mortgages held on the balance sheet of a major European Bank. He is the co-author of Collateral Mortgage Obligations: Structures and Analysis and co-editor of Whole-Loan CMOs, and The Handbook of Non-agency Mortgage-Backed Securities.
Mr. Ramirez is a former principal of Alex Brown and Sons, a former managing director of Bear, Stearns, and Co. (both former NYSE traded companies) and began his career as a staff attorney for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Ramirez is a member of the National Executive Council of the Boy Scouts of America and has served on the Board of Governors of the Stanford University Associates, Board Member of The Children’s Hospital of Colorado, Board Member of the Colorado Outward Bound School, and trustee of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business Trust.
Mr. Ramirez received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Stanford University in 1976; a Juris Doctor degree from Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley in 1979; and an MBA from Stanford University in 1983.
Mr. Ramirez is a values-driven serial entrepreneur skilled in building high performance teams, developing funding strategies, promoting legislative sponsorship, and driving growth. He was recruited as the CEO of WaHa Inc., an early-stage company, to raise capital to develop an atmospheric water generation product. What followed was a period of discovery and enlightenment. While numerous technologies could generate water from air, none could do so reliably in desert-like climates, and the energy cost penalties for water generation in arid climates challenged every putative solution’s commercial viability.
A breakthrough in engineering design by led by David Quo, EVP of Engineering, and Eugene Kapustin, CTO, and the identification and development of initial target markets led by Chris Kay, COO, addressed that challenge and has resulted in a compelling value proposition offering a step-change improvement in the efficiency of legacy dehumidification systems with disruptive applications in numerous vertical markets including controlled environment agriculture, pharmaceutical production, semiconductor manufacture, lithium-ion battery manufacture, and direct air carbon capture. These breakthroughs, which led to the recapitalization of the company and its relaunch with new founders, also hold great promise for reliable, low cost, atmospheric water generation in desert-like climates, particularly in environments where every other currently existing solution fails because of temperature swings or changes in the levels of absolute humidity.
Previously, Mr. Ramirez built two companies with Mr. Kay: Ice Energy Inc., a Cleantech energy storage company sold to a private equity company, and Endūr Inc., a developer of 24/7 mission critical computing infrastructure sold to Calpine Energy.
Mr. Ramirez co-founded Ice Energy and served for 10 years as CEO, where he led the adoption of energy storage legislation CA AB 2514 and secured the first utility scale contracts for distributed thermal storage. Earlier, he co-founded and directed Structured Capital Management, a boutique investment bank specializing in complex asset-backed securitizations and was first to securitize seller carry-back mortgages, lottery receivables, SBA premium strips, and specialized mortgages held on the balance sheet of a major European Bank. He is the co-author of Collateral Mortgage Obligations: Structures and Analysis and co-editor of Whole-Loan CMOs, and The Handbook of Non-agency Mortgage-Backed Securities.
Mr. Ramirez is a former principal of Alex Brown and Sons, a former managing director of Bear, Stearns, and Co. (both former NYSE traded companies) and began his career as a staff attorney for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Ramirez is a member of the National Executive Council of the Boy Scouts of America and has served on the Board of Governors of the Stanford University Associates, Board Member of The Children’s Hospital of Colorado, Board Member of the Colorado Outward Bound School, and trustee of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business Trust.
Mr. Ramirez received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Stanford University in 1976; a Juris Doctor degree from Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley in 1979; and an MBA from Stanford University in 1983.