LeviTillemann

Energy and technology executive, founder and author

He spots where energy and technology are heading, then builds the strategy, funding and coalitions to get there. Ph.D., Johns Hopkins. Former Special Advisor at the U.S. Department of Energy. Now founding a company to power the AI build-out.

The new venture His career

WashingtonNational labs and offices convened in his DOE working group

¥3B

TokyoAbout $20 million secured for Ample's last-mile network

€10M

MadridSecured for Ample's urban battery-swapping network

60+

GenevaOrganizations in the World Economic Forum coalition he led

~$50M

in competitive public funding secured on three continents

$15M

California manufacturing award won on appeal after an initial denial

companies founded, the first with patents and $1M+ raised

consultants from McKinsey, Accenture and Systemiq directed at the World Economic Forum

Advisor to leadership at

AppleBPToyotaS&P GlobalLexisNexis

Five languages. Three continents.

Levi negotiates in the language of the room. He has won government funding and partnerships in Japanese and Spanish, and wrote his doctorate on East Asian industrial policy.

EnglishEnglishNative
中文MandarinPh.D. research on East Asian industrial policy
日本語JapaneseSecured ¥3 billion in government funding in Tokyo
EspañolSpanishLed market entry and a €10 million award in Spain
PortuguêsPortugueseAdvanced working proficiency

Founder, in stealth since November 2026

Power for the AI build-out.

Data centers are waiting years for grid connections. Levi is building technology to shorten time to power and make every megawatt inside the data center go further.

Request the investor brief

Second-time founder

IRIS Engines raised $1M+, earned U.S. and international patents, partnered with Chrysler, MIT and AVL, and won the ConocoPhillips Energy Prize.

Deep in the problem

Published S&P Global research forecasting AI's impact on global electricity demand, and built CERAWeek 2026's AI and data center program.

Funds deployment

Secured about $50 million in public funding at Ample, including a $15 million award won on appeal.

Career

2026, now

Founder

Stealth startup

Technology to accelerate time to power and improve energy efficiency for data centers.

2026

Senior Advisor, CERAWeek 2026

S&P Global

Designed the program on AI, data centers and quantum. Moderated CEO and cabinet-level sessions.

2020 to 2026

VP, Policy and International Outreach

Ample

Built the international policy team and led market entry in the U.S., Japan and Spain.

2019 to 2020

Lead, Circular Cars Initiative

World Economic Forum

Led a 60+ organization coalition and 12 consultants from McKinsey, Accenture and Systemiq.

2016 to now

Founder and Senior Advisor

Valence Strategic

Advises Apple, BP, Toyota, S&P Global and LexisNexis.

2014 to 2017

Fellow

New America

Wrote The Great Race. Co-authored a U.S.–German AI agenda.

2012 to 2014

Special Advisor

U.S. Department of Energy

Authored Revolution Now, created eGallon and founded the autonomous vehicles energy working group.

2009 to 2011

Founder and CEO

IRIS Engines

Patented engine technology, $1M+ raised, awards from ConocoPhillips, NASA and Dow.

2007 to 2012

Associate Director

Cambridge Energy Research Associates

Led the team behind Daniel Yergin's bestseller The Quest.

Speaking

AI, data centers and electricity demand
Electric mobility and battery swapping
China and industrial strategy
Technology and geopolitics
Scaling emerging technology

Keynotes, executive conversations, panel moderation and private briefings, in English, Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish or Portuguese. At CERAWeek 2026 he moderated sessions on ultra-fast charging versus battery swapping and on industrial AI data sharing, and interviewed Google Cloud's head of power and energy solutions.

Fox BusinessNPRMarketplaceThe Diane Rehm ShowCCTVWAMU

Dr. Levi Tillemann speaking on stage at CERAWeek 2023 — Dr. Levi Tillemann speaks at 2023 CERAWeek by S&P Global, the world’s preeminent energy conference, founded in 1983.

Check his availability

Cover of The Great Race: The Global Quest for the Car of the Future by Levi Tillemann

Levi Tillemann
Simon & Schuster

“Tillemann tells it all superbly.”Daniel Yergin, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Prize

How the United States, China and Japan raced for a century to lead automotive technology, and how entrepreneurship, policy and industrial strategy decide who wins. Simon & Schuster, 2015. Praised by The Wall Street Journal and The Economist. Robbie Diamond called it the best book out there on electric vehicles and energy policy.

In the press

Profiles, bylines and reviews. Every item opens the original.

National GeographicA Fuel-Saving Car Engine in the Blink of an IRISFeature on Levi and IRIS Engines, 2010 The New YorkerWill the Tesla Model 3 Be the First Truly Self-Driving Car?By Levi Tillemann and Colin McCormick, 2016 FortuneThis Could Be the Biggest Hurdle for Driverless CarsBy Levi Tillemann and Colin McCormick, 2016 The Wall Street Journal“Ideally cast to guide us through the big ideas”Review of The Great Race, 2015 U.S. Department of EnergyRevolution Now: The Future Arrives for Four Clean Energy TechnologiesLead author, 2013 S&P Global CERAWeekArtificial Intelligence, Real Consequences: Taking the Measure of Data Center Energy DemandSession and research, 2026

See all of his media on LinkedIn

Published in

The New YorkerWIREDFortuneWall Street JournalWashington Post

Taking the Measure of Data Center Energy Demand

S&P Global, 2026

Will Driverless-Car Makers Learn to Share?

The New Yorker, 2016

Tesla's Cybertruck Could Be Ripped, Mean, and Super Green

WIRED, 2020

Education

Ph.D., Johns Hopkins SAISEnergy, East Asia, industrial policy

M.A., Johns HopkinsInternational relations and economics

B.A., Yale UniversityHistory

Start a conversation.

Working on a technology that could make the world better, or stuck on a stubborn barrier to adoption? Tell Levi what you have in mind.

Or connect with Levi on LinkedIn

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Levi Tillemann, Ph.D.

Energy and technology executive, founder and author

Now: Founder, data center power startup
Based in: Washington, DC
Education: Ph.D. and M.A., Johns Hopkins. B.A., Yale
Languages: English, Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese

Invite Levi to speak LinkedIn

Biography

Levi Tillemann has spent his career working where new technology meets the institutions that decide whether it succeeds: markets, governments and the global companies that have to bet on it. He describes his work as pattern recognition. He reads the data, sees where an industry is heading, and builds the strategy, funding and coalitions to get there first.

He started with his hands. With his father, the Denver inventor Timber Dick, and his brother Corban, he worked on a radically more efficient combustion engine, and in 2009 he founded IRIS Engines to bring it to market. As CEO he raised more than $1 million, earned U.S. and international patents, built working relationships with Chrysler, MIT and AVL, and won the ConocoPhillips Energy Prize, NASA's Create the Future Design Competition and the Dow Sustainability Award. National Geographic profiled the company in 2010.

Alongside the company, he was completing a Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins SAIS on energy, East Asia and industrial policy, and working as an Associate Director at Cambridge Energy Research Associates, where he led the eight-person team behind Daniel Yergin's New York Times bestseller The Quest.

In 2012 he joined the U.S. Department of Energy as Special Advisor for Policy and International Affairs. He conceived and wrote Revolution Now, the department's report on the falling cost of wind, solar, LED lighting and electric vehicles. He created the eGallon metric, worked on the Quadrennial Energy Review and presidential transition planning, advised on U.S.–China trade and investment, and founded the department's Autonomous and Connected Vehicles Energy Working Group, which brought together 20 national laboratories and offices.

As a fellow at New America he wrote The Great Race: The Global Quest for the Car of the Future (Simon & Schuster, 2015), a history of the century-long competition among the United States, China and Japan to lead automotive technology. Daniel Yergin wrote that “Tillemann tells it all superbly.” He also co-authored a U.S.–German agenda on artificial intelligence commissioned by Germany's Foreign Ministry, and his analysis has appeared in The New Yorker, WIRED, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

Through his advisory firm, Valence Strategic, he has advised leadership at Apple, BP, Toyota, S&P Global and LexisNexis on emerging technology, investment and policy. At the World Economic Forum in Geneva he built and led the Circular Cars Initiative, a coalition of more than 60 public and private organizations working to decarbonize vehicles across their lifecycle.

From 2020 to 2026 he was Vice President for Policy and International Outreach at Ample, the battery-swapping company. He built its international policy function and led market entry in the United States, Japan and Spain, negotiating in Japanese and Spanish. He secured roughly $50 million in competitive public funding, including ¥3 billion in Japan, €10 million in Spain and a $15 million California manufacturing award that he won on appeal after an initial denial.

In 2026 he served as Senior Advisor to S&P Global's CERAWeek, designing the conference program on AI, data centers, quantum computing and industrial transformation, moderating sessions with CEOs, cabinet-level officials and investors, and publishing research on how AI infrastructure and electric vehicles will reshape global electricity demand.

That research led to his next company. In November 2026 he founded a startup building technology to accelerate time to power and improve energy efficiency for data centers.

Levi holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University, where he was a Toyota Fellow, and a B.A. in history from Yale. He works in English, Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese, and lives in Washington, DC.

For event organizers

Ready to paste into a program, press release or introduction.

Short bio, about 60 words

Levi Tillemann, Ph.D., is an energy and technology executive, founder and author. He has advised the U.S. Department of Energy, led a World Economic Forum coalition of more than 60 organizations, secured roughly $50 million in public funding to scale new technology, and wrote The Great Race (Simon & Schuster). He is now building a company to get data centers to power faster.

Medium bio, about 165 words

Levi Tillemann, Ph.D., is an energy and technology executive, founder and author who has spent twenty years helping governments, global companies and startups bring emerging technologies to scale. As Special Advisor for Policy and International Affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy, he authored the Revolution Now report and created the eGallon metric. He led the World Economic Forum's Circular Cars Initiative, and as Vice President at the battery-swapping company Ample he secured roughly $50 million in public funding across the United States, Japan and Spain. Most recently he was Senior Advisor to S&P Global's CERAWeek 2026, where he shaped the program on AI and data centers. He is the author of The Great Race: The Global Quest for the Car of the Future (Simon & Schuster), a two-time founder, and works in English, Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese. He holds a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins SAIS and a B.A. from Yale. He is now building a company to accelerate time to power for data centers.

Introduction for a moderator

Our next guest has spent twenty years ahead of the curve where energy meets technology, at the Department of Energy, the World Economic Forum and CERAWeek, and he is now building a company to power the AI build-out. Please welcome Dr. Levi Tillemann.

High-resolution headshots coming soon.

Languages

EnglishEnglishNative
中文MandarinPh.D. research on East Asian industrial policy
日本語JapaneseSecured ¥3 billion in government funding in Tokyo
EspañolSpanishLed market entry and a €10 million award in Spain
PortuguêsPortugueseAdvanced working proficiency