Team

Jason Cotrell, MBA, MSME

Founder/CEO

Jason Cotrell founded Sperra as RCAM Technologies in 2017, beginning a new chapter in a successful career in renewable energy that began in 1995 at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. At NREL’s National Wind Technology Center, Jason served in multiple engineering and management roles, ultimately leading the Innovation and Reliability Group for wind and water power technology, where his team developed advanced controls, simulation, reliability, and field testing for wind technologies.

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Also at NREL, he initiated and led a cooperative research and development opportunity for a public/private partnership to develop a new $38M wind turbine blade testing facility in Massachusetts capable of testing blades up to 90 meters long and contributed to the design of NREL’s 5-MW Drivetrain Test Facility. As a Design Engineer at NREL, Jason invented a two-bladed, teetered hub to fit on a 20 kW wind turbine, which was tested in the NASA Ames wind tunnel, producing data that is considered state of the art for unsteady aerodynamics. Through his leadership, NREL won $13 million in DOE funding for wind technology and water power research, including the DOE-funded Offshore Advanced Drivetrain project. He also served as an NREL technical liaison to the DOE.

A natural innovator, Jason became interested in 3D printing for wind turbines as the need for ever larger wind turbines continued to present challenges in transportation and production. He left NREL to pursue 3D printing for renewables, receiving a $1.25 million grant from the California Energy Commission to develop and test the technology to enable the construction of concrete turbine towers in place at a project site, greatly reducing transportation and manufacturing costs and emissions. Since that first grant, Sperra has won multiple grants from state, federal, and international governments to develop 3D concrete-printed renewable energy products and technologies. Under Jason’s leadership, Sperra has now reached commercialization stage for several products, including gravity anchors for offshore wind and floating solar deployments, 3D concrete-printed foundations for canal solar, and a fixed-bottom structure for nearshore solar deployments in coastal communities known as the Solar Reef.

Through his experience leading teams and collaborating across diverse technologies and stakeholder groups, Jason has built a reputation for reliability, creativity and trust. He endeavors to instill these values in the Sperra team by way of example.

Jason holds a B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and an M.S. in Business Analytics and MBA from the University of Colorado.

Gabriel Falzone, PhD

Chief Operating Officer

Gabriel Falzone, PhD, leads day-to-day operations at Sperra. Gabriel has experience scaling up climate-tech innovations from laboratory to the field as the former VP of Technology at low-carbon concrete startup CarbonBuilt. Gabriel led the CarbonBuilt team through the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program and spearheaded the demonstration of the carbon utilization technology at an operating power plant, which won the team $7.5 million from the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE. Gabriel holds a PhD in Materials Engineering specializing in low-carbon concrete from UCLA.

Vahid Jafari Azad, PhD, PE

Chief Structural Engineer

Vahid Jafari Azad, PhD, PE, oversees, performs and manages structural engineering design and analysis for Sperra projects. Vahid has more than a decade of postdoctoral experience in numerical modeling, analysis and design, with a focus on marine structures. Vahid holds a PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Tehran.

Mason Bell

Product Manager, Anchors

Mason Bell oversees product development of Sperra’s 3D concrete printed products, leveraging his expertise in civil engineering and 3D printing to advance innovative solutions for renewable energy. An FE-certified Civil Engineer, Mason holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Colorado.

Jacob Blum

R&D Engineer, Materials

Jacob Blum has extensive experience researching inorganic and cementitious materials, and is passionate about developing printable concrete materials with lower carbon footprints. He holds a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from UCLA.

Taylor Marchment, PhD

Lead R&D Engineer

Taylor Marchment specializes in reinforcement design of 3D concrete printing. With more than 10 years of practical concrete construction experience, Taylor takes a pragmatic approach to problem solving and R&D in automated construction. Taylor earned a PhD in Civil Engineering from Swinburne University in Australia.

Evan Marquardt

Product manager, energy storage

Evan Marquardt leads the development of Sperra’s Marine Pumped Hydropower (MPH) product, applying years of experience in computational fluid dynamics, design optimization methodologies, and project management. Evan holds an MBA from the University of Southern California, an MSc in Race Car Aerodynamics from the University of Southampton, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington.

Charlotte Marston

Technical Writer and Proposal Manager

Charlotte Marston has more than five years’ experience as a technical and grant writer in the environmental sciences sector. Charlotte graduated with honors from UC Santa Barbara with a B.S. in Biopsychology and is also a published author.

Eduardo Rangel

Mechanical Engineer

Eduardo Rangel is an experienced computer-aided design modeler and has worked at NREL, analyzing offshore wind logistics. Eduardo holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from California State University, Long Beach.

Sonoko Watanabe, PhD

Structural Engineer

Sonoko Watanabe, PhD, has extensive experience as both a structural engineer and material scientist, specifically for 3D concrete printing. Sonoko earned her PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UC Davis and an MSc in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Ritsumeikan University in Japan.