Leadership

Mark Gordon is a co-founder & Partner of Ascent Funds and is currently a Board Director and Chief Financial Officer for Hyzon Motors Inc. Prior to this, Mark was a senior portfolio manager at Janus Henderson, where he managed the Alphagen Energy Funds. Before that, Mark was a Senior Analyst at Paulson & Co responsible for the energy sector. Prior to Paulson, Mark was a Portfolio Manager at Soros Fund Management where he ran an energy and natural resources fund for three years. Mark spent eight years at Goldman Sachs Asset Management ending as a Portfolio Manager and a Managing Director.

Mark has an MBA (honors) from the University of Chicago with concentrations in Analytic Finance and Economics. Mark has an MA from Stanford University and a BA from Brown University (honors). Mark is a CFA charter holder.

Mark was awarded a second degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do and he completed the Ironman Triathlon World Championship in Kona, Hawaii.

David Wu is President and co-founder of Ascent Hydrogen Fund. An experienced capital markets executive, David has brought over 10 companies to IPO across global markets. David is the former Group Deputy CFO and Chairman of Capital Markets for Fosun International, China’s largest investment conglomerate managing over US$100 billion in global assets. At Fosun, David led four global IPOs with a combined transactional value of over US$10bn, ran strategic financing activities for Fosun’s private equity & venture capital and co-chaired Fosun’s ESG committee. He pioneered the Group’s investor strategy which received the "Best IR" award from The Asset in both 2017 and 2018.

Between 2010 and 2017, David led the sale of two energy companies as Head of Capital Markets; Hong Kong listed Greenheart Group (acquired by New World Group in 2014) and NYSE listed InterOil Corp (acquired by ExxonMobil for c.US$3bn) in 2017.David started his career with Rothschilds in the IPO/ECM team in London, Moscow and Singapore and held senior positions with Brunswick Group in Beijing and Edelman in Hong Kong advising some of Asia’s largest listed companies, including Sinopec, Baidu, Trina Solar and Yingli Solar.

Born in China, David grew up in London and studied Economics and Management at Trinity Hall College, Cambridge University. He was also a Du Cane piano scholar at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

John Vogelstein is a Partner and Lead Advisor at Ascent Hydrogen Fund.

Mr. Vogelstein is also the Chairman of New Providence Asset Management, LLC and Senior Advisor to Warburg Pincus, LLC. Born in 1934, he attended The Taft School and Harvard College. Mr. Vogelstein began his career at Lazard Freres & Co., where he became a partner in 1964. He joined E. M. Warburg & Co., Inc. (later Warburg Pincus, LLC) in 1967. Over the course of the next forty years, he and Lionel Pincus built the firm to be one of the largest and most successful full line private equity firms in the world.

Currently, Mr. Vogelstein is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Prep for Prep; Vice Chairman of the Board of Overseers of The Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University; Trustee of New York University; Chairman of Third Way; Chairman of Christie’s Advisory Board; Trustee of Temple Emanu-El; Trustee of The Jewish Museum, and Director of Flamel Technologies.

Dr Michael Hession is the former Chief Executive Officer of NYSE listed InterOil Corporation before it was successfully acquired by ExxonMobil for US$3bn in 2017.

Dr. Hession began his career with BP specializing in managing major development projects. From 1998 to 2013 he worked with Woodside Energy managing major LNG projects and developing new businesses. Dr. Hession was educated in the United Kingdom, France and the United States and has a doctorate in climate science from the University College Wales. He also has a MBA from the London School of Economics, Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales in Paris, and New York University in the US.

George Gu is Chairman and co-founder of Hyzon Motors and Horizon Fuel Cells, one of the world’s leading fuel cell manufacturers founded in 2003.

Prior to founding Horizon, George Gu was leading Eastman Chemical Company’s venture capital activity in mainland China. He participated in over 20 venture investments made by Eastman Ventures, with a focus on Asia-Pacific. His roles included VP Business Development for Asia Biznet, and interim CEO for Jinqiao eCommerce. George also led Eastman’s Asian Business Development team in developing advanced material opportunities, with a specific focus on clean energy. George also has experience in marketing, channel development and business planning with Canon Inc and Eastman Kodak. George holds an MBA from University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and a B.S. in Finance from Fudan University.

Chris Atkinson is an active investor and energy entrepreneur who started his career at Shell but spent most of his formative years at Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) in the USA, Southeast Asia and Europe.
He was the founder of Serica Energy plc and has been involved with the successful start up and financing of a further six companies (Mitra Energy, Malaysia now Jadestone Energy, Canada; MPX Limited, UK now Zennor Petroleum, UK; ZinMac - now Strategic Oil and Gas, Canada; Greenfields Petroleum, USA; CaribX Limited, UK and Helium Resources Ltd, UK).

Chris brings a wealth of exploration and successful small company business experience. PhD., BSc. SID