Joel Balbien, CFA, Ph.D. has over 30 years of cross-industry expertise, applying his quantitative skills within a number of different corporate environments, ranging from tech start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Joel’s expertise in financial management (including financing arrangements) asset valuation, microeconomic forecasting, and financial reporting complements his deep industry knowledge in the semiconductor, materials/energy (especially clean technologies), public utilities, healthcare, biotechnology, cybersecurity and e-commerce sectors. Joel is currently a consultant at TechNavi, LLC, assisting global Fortune 1000 specialty chemical companies in identifying market trends and leveraging critical technology. He is also a Principal Advisor at the Larta Institute, which helps entrepreneurs and federal agencies like the U.S. Department of Energy to commercialize new technologies. Joel co-founded Olympus Sky Global, an IoT cybersecurity company, and Smart Technology Ventures, a venture capital fund. Joel is a CFA charterholder. He earned his Ph.D. (Economics) and MS (Social Science) from the California Institute of Technology and his BA from UCSD. Joel is an Adjunct Professor of Economics at California Lutheran University where he teaches graduate level microeconomics, including courses on market structure and game-theory.