Obsessed with water and fish since birth, Abe Schneider has carried this passion through to his work today as co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Natel Energy where he is committed to his conviction that efficient renewable energy production can co-exist with biodiverse, connected rivers.
Schneider leads the company’s technical teams, including overseeing all forms of design and fish safety testing for Natel’s leading fish-safe hydro turbine.
Before co-founding Natel Energy with his sister, Gia, in 2009, Schneider worked as an engineer for more than 14 years within large firms like The Timken Company and innovative startups like Makani Power, now part of Alphabet. At Timken, Schneider worked as a senior engineer in advanced product development, designing innovative gear reducers, hybrid vehicle drivetrains and micro-scale energy harvesting systems to power intelligent bearings. At Makani, he led an engineering team responsible for aero-mechanical systems and led independent consulting projects on two small hydropower refurbishment projects in the Northeast U.S.
Schneider developed and holds numerous engineering and design patents and is the author of several hydropower and fish safety publications. In 2014, Schneider was invited to be a member of the Department of U.S. Energy’s Technology and Performance Task Force for HydroVision, a landmark report outlining the untapped potential of hydropower in the U.S. Schneider has also been a guest lecturer on the topic of hydropower at Stanford University.
Schneider earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Schneider enjoys the outdoors and is happiest surfing, kitesurfing, climbing, and fly fishing with his wife and kids. Schneider and his family live in San Francisco, CA.