Ingrid Vanderveldt is CEO of Clean Air Conversions, an alternative energy company. She is the host of the daily business web show “On the Road with iV” and of CNBC’s first Original Primetime Series, “American Made”. She provides consulting to start up companies at Game Change Ventures.
She is also known as a patent holder (United States Patent 6266668- “System and method for dynamic data-mining and on-line communication of customized information”). Ingrid is a fundraiser, sky-diver, motorcycle racer, snowboarder and red-headed entrepreneurial Supergirl! She is Founder of The Billionaire Girls Club and Founder of The Vanderveldt Sisters Foundation who contributes 10% of their resources to fund women entrepreneurs through micro lending programs. The Foundation works with The WHOLE PLANET FOUNDATION (WHOLE FOODS MARKET’s philanthropic organization). Ingrid Vanderveldt’s passion is game changing, creative entrepreneurship and her business is money.
ENERGY
She is currently focused on solving the United States reliance on foreign oil with technology solutions that produce and distribute renewable fuel and energy sources. Along these lines, she joined the Executive Team of Ken Losch and Richard Otto along with inventor and technologist, Roy McAllister- founder of The American Hydrogen Association to bring his CNG, LGN and other systems to market. With over $30M invested, they have developed products that create fully renewable fuel and also products that can get that fuel and energy into the market.
Form this, Ingrid is primarily focused on the distribution of a product through Clean Air Conversions. The product is called “The Multi’ Fuel Spark Injector” that, when installed in an engine along with a CPU and appropriate storage systems, enables that vehicle or co-gen system to run on any alternative fuel source without any other retrofitting to the engine. Which means, for example, for trucking companies spending $50M a month on fuel- they can now save over $16M/month on fuel costs, increase their horsepower by 15-40% and decrease harmful emissions by over 90%. All in the time it takes to do a tune up on a vehicle.
Furthermore, she shares an interest in waste to energy systems as a means to creating fully renewable fuel sources.
MEDIA
“Media is the best means I know of to convey a message to a large group of people, quickly. Its entertaining, but more importantly a great educational tool. People learn through the examples of others. So I like to use the media as a way to showcase stories about strong entrepreneurs so that others can learn and put that insight into practice” says Ingrid Vanderveldt. She has been featured in, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, CNBC, THE TODAY SHOW, CLOSING BELL WITH MARIA BARTIROMO, THE DONNY DUETSCH SHOW, USA TODAY and other media.
This passion has lead to years involved in the social media would as well as traditional television. In architecture school Ingrid created the first ever “Women in Architecture” video. This video was her way of creating stronger awareness of women in the field in an effort to encourage more women to practice the profession and to take proactive measures to stop the drop-out rate of women in the field once they left school (30% of the students in school were women but only 8.9% of them actually practiced in the profession). This video has become a staple in schools across the US.
Being mentored by one of the best mentors in the business, Dr. George Kozmetsky (who also mentored Michael Dell) inspired the idea of a television show. “I felt that if I could capture these incredibly valuable mentoring sessions on film- I knew the difference they made in my own career- imagine the difference we could make around the world if people simple had access to the information” said Ingrid. With this thought in mind- she created, sold, produced and hosted CNBC’s first Original Primetime Series about the stories of successful entrepreneurs, “American Made”. Here she featured people including Howard Schultz of STARBUCKS, Willie G. Davidson of HARLEY DAVIDSON, John Paul DeJoria of JOHN PAUL MITCHELL SYSTEMS, John Mackey of WHOLE FOODS and others.
American Made inspired the now daily web show that Ms. Vanderveldt hosts, “On the Road with iV”. “Our followers and fans wanted to see more from emerging entrepreneurs that they felt they could better relate with as they would be closer to the real situations viewers were facing. So we created “On the Road with iV”. This show features game changing entreprenuers from all over the world. Season 3 begins airing in tandem with South by Southwest in Austin Texas starting March 13, 2010. The show has to date has filmed over 200 episodes and featured over 70 guests.
VENTURE DEVELOPMENT
Her mission to show that “anything is possible” in this world and to help current & aspiring entrepreneurs make great things happen. More specifically- her interests are in finding the game changing people and ideas who have the potential to impact and create positive change to big problems. Her commitment is to making things happen and she has committed to insuring that projects she is involved with involve and are executed at the highest quality.
To date, Ingrid has helped launch Game Change Ventures, a venture development firm that provides support, access to capital and help to start up companies. The company is focused on two key areas: energy and social media. GCV has a unique set up in that the Managing Partners split equity in the portfolio companies with the Global Advisory Board. Together, the partners and the Advisors work to provide expertise and access to resources to enable companies to succeed.
FOUNDATION
Erin and Ingrid Vanderveldt are on a mission to inspire and empower women to achieve their full potential, creating fulfilling lives with supportive infrastructures for themselves, their families and their communities. The Foundation designs and implements programs that help female entrepreneurs through critical micro-financing and mentoring activities, ultimately helping provide the resources they need to change their lives. The Vanderveldt Sisters Foundation especially looks for ways to provide a hand-up to women in economically- or geographically-challenging situations, helping them leverage any and all resources to create maximum impact and sustainable incomes.
THE FOURTH GRADE...
In the 4th grade I rode the “special bus to the special school” and was told that I was “special” because I was born with “learning disabilities” and was behind everyone in my class. After the school helped fix the issue (hearing problems) I became one of the top students. In college, my first architecture professor told me that I shouldn’t waste her time trying to be an architect and should focus on being a wife and mother. I used that motivation to become one of top students in my class and was elected National Director of The American Institute of Architecture Students and The American Institute of Architects and created the first ever Women in Architecture Video. When I started my first technology company, an advisor told me I need to dress and talk like a man to compete in the male tech world and a venture capitalist told me I would never get funded in that town if I didn’t. I cut my hair, bought a dark blue suit and acted like the men - same results. So I went back to dressing like a girl and went on to receive millions of dollars in venture funding and was named by the Austin American Statesman as a “Top Star to Watch”, was named an Austin’s 40 under 40 recipient and I received the Technology of the Year Award (previous winner was Michael Dell). I also made the cover of Women’s Enterprise Magazine and Digital South Magazine and got featured on the Tech cover of the Wall Street Journal.
I am mentored by Red McCombs, Founder of Clear Channel Communications (former mentee of George Kozmetsky) and I am blessed to sit on the board of WorldBlu.and am writing my first book called “the Aha Moment”. I am the Annual emcee of MOOT CORP, the world’s largest business plan competition and I get to speak to entrepreneurial audiences around the country.
Ingrid Vanderveldt has two Masters (Architecture and Business), and dropped out of law school when building companies became more fun. She has raised millions in capital for investments, sales and philanthropic initiatives.