Nicholaus Rohleder is the Co-Founder of Climate Commodities (CC), which is a climate economy-focused platform company with operating subsidiaries in physical trading, mineral processing & refining, transportation & logistics, renewable power, insurance, and financial services.
In addition to his role at CC, Mr. Rohleder serves in a board capacity under the title of Independent Director at the following companies: Ardour Capital, an investment bank focused on energy technology, critical minerals & materials, and decarbonization; EnergyLink, a solar + storage development platform that has completed over 180 projects in the United States with significant battery technology integration track record; Clean Earth Acquisitions Corporation (NASDAQ: CLIN), a $230mm special purpose acquisition company formed by former senior management of major energy infrastructure and energy technology private equity firms; American Hydrogen, a carbon capture, utilization, & storage, and hydrogen development platform founded by former senior management of major oil & gas companies; and Lone Cypress Energy Services, an energy infrastructure development platform with capabilities in oil & gas, carbon capture, utilization, & storage, and hydrogen founded by former senior management of major oil & gas companies.
Outside of his professional commitments, Mr. Rohleder serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches the course Climate Technology: Finance & Policy focused on the following areas of the climate economy: solar & wind, batteries – grid & vehicle applications, hydrogen, carbon capture, alternative fuels, waste to value, critical minerals, artificial intelligence, climate financial services, and climate-focused insurance solutions, as a Visiting Fellow focused on national security issues surrounding critical minerals & materials at the National Security Institute (NSI), as a Member of Chatham House participating in working groups on international competition, climate policy, and the energy transition, as a Mentor at Rice University’s Clean Energy Accelerator, and as an Energy Technology Advisory Board Member at Tulsa Innovation Labs, an economic development initiative focused on energy technology companies in Tulsa funded by the George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF).
Previously, Mr. Rohleder served as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University, teaching the Theory & Practice of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) course covering all major decarbonization pathways and technologies, as an Energy Security Fellow focused on national security issues surrounding critical minerals & materials at Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE), as an Independent Director and then Chairman of Renovare Environmental (formerly BioHiTech Global) (NASDAQ: RENO & NASDAQ: BHTG), a waste technology platform founded by the former Co-Founder & CEO of Interstate Waste Services, one of the largest waste companies in the United States, and as an Independent Director at Climate & Capital Media, a climate-focused media platform founded by the former Global Head of Communications at BlackRock & KKR.
Mr. Rohleder attended the University of Oxford, reading a Master of Science in Major Programme Management, where his research was focused on financing and developing energy infrastructure and metals & mining projects in emerging markets. Mr. Rohleder received a Master of Science in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Environmental Engineering and Technology from the University of Pennsylvania, where his research was focused on clean energy technology materials science alterations and substitutions in various clean energy transition scenarios, a Master of Science in Sustainability Management with a concentration in Environmental Finance from Columbia University where his research was focused on the economics of waste to value conversion technologies in homogeneous and heterogeneous waste input scenarios, and is a former Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree in the energy category.