Michael Brown was a co-founder and former Chairman of the Board, Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital, a Vancouver-based, internationally funded venture capital fund specializing in clean technology. Mr. Brown was previously Co-founder (in 1968) and up to March 1999 the President of Ventures West Capital Ltd., one of Canada’s largest private sources of capital for early-stage technology companies. Mr. Brown has extensive knowledge of the fuel cell industry, market trends, VC financing, recruitment, building valuable companies within this sector and IPO assistance.
Mr. Brown has been directly involved in several companies in the fuel cell/energy technology space. Notably, he was the first venture investor in Ballard Power Systems, Inc. in 1987 and remained on its Board until 1998. He is a Director of Questair Technologies Inc, and Cellex Power Products, Inc., and was formerly a director of Greenlight Power Technologies, Inc. He was also the Chair of MDI Mobile Data International Inc., and served as a Director of MacDonald Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. and several other public companies. He was a founder and is a Director of Fuel Cells Canada. Mr. Brown is a published author in sustainable development technology, and lectures widely on both that topic and venture capital.
Mr. Brown graduated from UBC in 1960, BA (Hons Economics). He attended Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar (BA (PPE) 1962). In 2000, the Science Council of BC named Mr. Brown as the winner of the Cecil Green Award for entrepreneurialism, and the following year the Vancouver Board of Trade named him one of eight B.C. Pioneers of Innovation.
