Tod Hynes, President & Founder
Tod manages XL Hybrids’ corporate strategy and operations. He also recruits the company’s team of employees and advisors and coordinates relations with key customers, stakeholders and investors. He lectures at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has taught the graduate course “Energy Ventures” for four years. Tod was the director of alternative energy at Citizens Energy for five years and started that company’s wind development business. Before working with Citizens Energy, Tod founded a consulting and engineering company in the distributed power generation market.
Tod also co-founded the MIT Clean Energy Prize and co-chaired the Energy Committee of the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Conventions (CERC), the organization that greened the 2004 U.S. presidential Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee. He has a Bachelor of Science in management science from MIT.
Justin Ashton, VP Business Development & Co-Founder
Justin leads market strategy and new product planning and serves as the head of sales and marketing, managing customer relationships and market research. Prior to co-founding XL Hybrids, Justin founded NanoPur, a startup commercializing disruptive membrane technology for water desalination markets. NanoPur was a finalist in the MIT Clean Energy Prize. Justin has also advised a number of companies in the transportation, water, biofuels and electric utility sectors, as well as venture capital firms and angel investors looking to invest in clean energy technology companies.
Previously, Justin served six years as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force, leading multinational teams and managing intelligence operations in 26 countries. Justin earned his Master of Business Administration from MIT Sloan and bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and Latin American studies from the University of California, San Diego.
Clay Siegert, VP Supply Chain & Co-Founder
Clay is responsible for leading product development and engineering, component selection and sourcing, supplier relationships, and logistics. Prior to co-founding XL Hybrids, Clay had 12 years of experience with three companies, including Hudson Capital Group, an energy commodity trading firm; SmartEnergy, a deregulated electricity and gas supplier; and consumer products company Start Space Games, which he founded.
Clay earned a master’s degree in engineering in supply chain and logistics from MIT, and a bachelor’s degree from Trinity College. While at MIT, Clay conducted his thesis on strategies for grid-scale energy storage applications. Clay also co-authored an MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics research study on vehicle-to-grid opportunities for corporate fleets.
Robert Santry, VP Finance
Bob manages investor relations and product distribution. In addition, he assists with sales to major corporate customers. Prior to joining the company, he spent four years in asset management at Goldman Sachs. He also spent a decade in education, teaching math and coaching at New England independent schools, and four years working for General Reinsurance Corporation as a property underwriter.
Bob has a Master in Business Administration from The F.W. Olin School of Business at Babson College, where he was granted the Olin Scholarship, and a bachelor's degree from Williams College, where he was an All-American lacrosse player and captain of the hockey and lacrosse teams.
Neal Brenner, Director of Engineering
As director of engineering at XL Hybrids, Neal leads product engineering and the development of fleet data analytics capabilities. He manages XL Hybrid’s electrical, mechanical and software development resources and takes projects from the concept stage through commercialization. Previously, Neal worked at Texas Instruments in the field sales organization, where he was responsible for microcontroller products with more than 500 customers.
Neal studied electrical engineering and computer science as an undergraduate student at MIT, and earned his Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago, where he was a Siebel Scholar.