Girish Nadkarni (pictured), formerly president of Switzerland-based power and automation group ABB’s corporate venturing unit, ABB Technology Ventures, has joined France-based oil and gas producer Total to lead its corporate venturing subsidiary.
Nadarkani said he would move to Paris, France, this month to take the president position at Total Energy Ventures (TEV). Francois Badoual, former chief executive of TEV in France, has moved to San Francisco to be president of Total New Energies Ventures USA.
After Nadkarni’s departure in October 2016, Grant Allen stepped up to head ABB Technology Ventures. He has increased the amount the group invests to about $50m per year, including six to eight direct deals and $10m for external venture capital funds.
A member of Global Corporate Venturing’s Powerlist 100 in 2016, Nadkarni had been president of ABB Technology Ventures since 2009, instigating its relaunch, and made strategic equity investments in areas including alternative energy, clean energy, smart grids and superconductivity.
Prior to setting up ABB Technology Ventures, Nadkarni was senior vice-president of ABB’s robotics division. He also worked at venture capital firm View Group, and as an entrepreneur at startups VSimplify and Uniprise.
Nadkarni’s past roles included work at industrial conglomerate GE, financial group Prudential and law firm Shearman & Sterling. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and studied law, economics and statistics at University of Mumbai.