Contact us

Our Company

Our people are innovative visionaries with an unwavering commitment to securing a clean energy future.

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR PRESIDENT
key dates

History

2017
2017
  1. Founded by Robert Cruess and Vonn Christenson in Porterville, CA.
  2. Began raising capital to build the company.
2018
2018
  1. Opened the first corporate headquarters in Porterville, CA.
  2. Launched proprietary battery technology with first major forklift partner.
  3. Unveiled ZeroNox’s prototype electric forklift utilizing the electric powertrain platform in a private presentation with the Premier of British Columbia, John Horgan.
2019
2019
  1. Formed electrification partnership with Tuatara UTV.
  2. Formalized distribution agreement with Tuatara and began growing product demand for the Tuatara electric UTV line.
  3. Received first electric UTVs at new assembly location in Porterville, CA.
  4. Created the ION luxury UTV Brand.
2020
2020
  1. Delivered the ZeroNox LFP Battery Technology to first major fleet customer.
  2. Unveiled the first all-electric Tuatara UTV powered by the ZeroNox Electric Powertrain Platform (ZEPP) at the World Ag Expo. 
  3. Moved corporate headquarters to a 42,000-square-foot facility in Porterville, CA to grow the electric powertrain platform team. 
  4. Raised Series A funding.
2021
2021
  1. Built and tested the company’s first prototypes for the patent-pending Vortex Infusion Chamber and Iron Vault Energy Storage System.
  2. Signed strategic alliance agreement with Tuatara Machinery, LTD to take over global distribution of all its UTVs including the electric version powered by ZeroNox.
  3. Porterville Distribution Center team lands first dealership to sell the all-electric Tuatara UTV.
  4. Landed partnership to develop an all-electric forklift brand, PEAK Material Handling. 
2022
2022
  1. Raised Series B funding.
  2. Established agreement with Jospong Group of Companies in Ghana, to electrify 1,000 of their refuse trucks with the ZeroNox Electric Powertrain Platform (ZEPP) technology.
  3. Established first major distributorship for PEAK Material Handling forklifts. 
  4. Established partnership with major UTV brand to electrify its line of utility vehicles. 
  5. Built the company’s first patent-pending Thermal Energy Conversion System (TECS).
previous arrowprevious arrow
next arrownext arrow
meet our people

The Team

leading the charge into the future.

learn more
Why Zeronox

Testimonials

Hear about our impact first-hand
from people who have
experienced it.

YouTube

The experience with ZeroNox has been wonderful. We have a very tight relationship. It's almost like a family.
We provide wheelchair service to disabled passengers for any airliners at Tom Bradley International terminal (LAX). We chose ZeroNox because it's a lithium battery, [and] it lasts longer. In my calculation, I was able to pay that off within three months of the operation time. We have now updated all the vehicles that we use inside of the terminal with ZeroNox lithium batteries.

Jake Yoon
Chief Financial Officer, Airport Terminal Management
PlayPlay
YouTube

I've been waiting for years for a better product, one that was more durable. And then, the electric Tuatara came out from ZeroNox and it was an unbelievable experience.
It's quiet, I can talk on the phone and I can have a business meeting while I'm doing my work.

Jim Harding
Rancher
PlayPlay
YouTube

We went to the lithium battery because of the charge time… [We] charge it for a few hours and it's ready to go for a full 14 hour shift.
[We] save about 40 minutes a day per lift [without battery changes]. Those are man hours that are being put into production.
By the end of this year, we'll have converted the entire fleet to lithium. So every [electric] forklift… will [have] a ZeroNox battery.

Mark Teixeira
General Manager, Frontier Cooling
PlayPlay
previous arrow
next arrow

HELP US CREATE A BETTER TOMORROW.

JOIN US

  • The experience with ZeroNox has been wonderful. We have a very tight relationship. It's almost like a family.

    We provide wheelchair service to disabled passengers for any airliners at Tom Bradley International terminal (LAX). We chose ZeroNox because it's a lithium battery, [and] it lasts longer. In my calculation, I was able to pay that off within three months of the operation time. We have now updated all the vehicles that we use inside of the terminal with ZeroNox lithium batteries.

    Jake Yoon

    Chief Financial Officer, Airport Terminal Management

    item1

  • I've been waiting for years for a better product, one that was more durable. And then, the electric Tuatara came out from ZeroNox and it was an unbelievable experience.

    It's quiet, I can talk on the phone and I can have a business meeting while I'm doing my work.

    Jim Harding

    Rancher

    item1

  • We went to the lithium battery because of the charge time… [We] charge it for a few hours and it's ready to go for a full 14 hour shift.

    [We] save about 40 minutes a day per lift [without battery changes]. Those are man hours that are being put into production.

    By the end of this year, we'll have converted the entire fleet to lithium. So every [electric] forklift… will [have] a ZeroNox battery.

    Mark Teixeira

    General Manager, Frontier Cooling

    item1

EMPOWERING COMMUNITIES
THROUGH INNOVATION

Technology

Solutions

Company

Karna Patel

Chief Financial Officer
Karna Patel is a seasoned finance executive with more than 17 years in leadership positions covering finance, operations, and business analytics across multinational public companies. Karna served most recently as Senior Director of Finance at Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) and CFO of the Compute and Gaming business unit. His responsibilities included leading planning, budgeting, forecasting, pricing, accounting, reporting, and analysis efforts.

Karna holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Engineering from Mumbai University (India), a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Southern California (USC), and an MBA from the University of California – Irvine (UCI).

VONN CHRISTENSON

Co-Founder & CEO
Vonn Christenson is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at ZeroNox, where he leads day-to-day operations and key strategic initiatives. A passionate advocate for his local community, Vonn founded ZeroNox in 2017 with Robert Cruess, with a mission to contribute to the development of world-class green-energy technology in the San Joaquin Valley and beyond.

An experienced attorney and partner at the Christenson Law Firm, LLP, Vonn was selected by Super Lawyers as a Southern California Rising Star for 2012-2013 and named a Northern California Rising Star for 2015 – 2019.

Vonn holds a B.S. in Mathematics, magna cum laude, from Brigham Young University and a J.D. from Harvard Law school.

ROBERT CRUESS

Co-Founder & President
Robert Cruess, co-founder and President of ZeroNox, is a visionary entrepreneur with a passion for making a positive impact in his local community of Porterville, CA. Along with Vonn Christenson, he founded Zeronox in 2017 with a focus on electric powertrains, batteries, microgrids, and other clean technology solutions. Robert leads the company’s strategy, product development, and industry parternships.

A serial entrepreneur with wealth of experience, Robert has launched over 15 business and co-owns 3 property investing companies. He is also an active philanthropist, supporting education, youth outreach, and community development.

With a Bachelor’s degree in business from the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Robert holds multiple patents in the clean technology sector and has successfully led business deals on 4 different continents.

Jason Eggett

Chief Operating Officer
Jason Eggett is the Chief Operating Officer at ZeroNox and is focused on driving revenue growth, optimizing operations, and accelerating the company’s strategic initiatives.

Jason has a technology background with several years of experience at Microsoft where he worked with Fortune 500 companies across many different industries. Jason’s prior experience includes product marketing and corporate strategy at Dell Technologies and product management for an enterprise technology company.

Jason holds an MBA from the Marriott School of Business at Brigham Young University.

Jacob Gotberg

Chief Technology Officer
Jacob Gotberg is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at ZeroNox and leads the development of our electric powertrain platform and green technology R&D. He is an engineer with experience working at SpaceX, GE, academia, and the Department of Energy.

Jacob earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Southern California (USC) and has over 15 years of experience guiding teams to solve novel problems.

Andrew Chandler

Director of Information Systems
Andrew Chandler is the Director of Information Systems at ZeroNox and is focused on helping drive technology innovation and keeping ZeroNox on the cutting edge of technology in the EV market.

Andrew has several years experience leading technical teams and projects, including instrumental work on large-scale integration and business applications for Countrywide Home Loans (Bank of America loan servicing) and the Tulare County Office of Education.

Andrew holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from UC Irvine and is completing graduate studies in Data Science at Western Governors University.

Zakary Smith

Director of Product Development
Zakary Tyler Smith is the Director of Product Development at ZeronNox and is focused on integrating the ZeroNox Electric Powertrain Platform into a diverse range of vehicle types and energy storage applications.

He works in tandem with Engineering to design, develop, test and scale next generation ZeroNox proprietary technologies. Zakary has successfully launched over 100 products from concept through products, including some notable products such as the Tesla Model 3 Battery Pack, Google X Loon, and Samsung Smartwatch.

Zakary holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and Technological Entrepreneurship from Northeastern University in Boston, MA.

Jose Daugherty

Director of Sales Engineering
Jose Daugherty is the Director of Sales Engineering at ZeroNox and is focused on building relationships with external business partners, suppliers, and distributors as well as developing strategies to optimize workflow and workforce operations.

Jose has several years of experience in management consulting with Accenture where he honed his skills in data engineering and data analysis, business process design, and supply chain planning across many different industries including healthcare, utilities, technology, and consumer packaged goods. His prior work experience includes supply chain and portfolio management at Johnson & Johnson.

Jose holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial & Systems Engineering from the University of Southern California (USC).

Dale Chiu

Director of Battery Technology
Dale Chiu is the Director of Battery Technology at ZeroNox, focusing on applying ZeroNox’s battery technology to various vehicle models and energy storage products. He works primarily with R&D and Engineering to test and maintain ZeroNox’s battery systems.

Dale has successfully launched a variety of lithium battery products in the automotive, industrial and energy storage industries, from conceptual design to production and maintenance. Some notable products include a double-decker bus battery pack, truck battery pack, van battery pack, forklift battery pack and energy storage system battery pack. He has over 10 patents to his name for his inventions in the lithium battery product industry.

Dale holds a bachelor’s degree in Information Engineering from Fengjia University in Taiwan, a master’s degree from the Institute of Advanced Management of Chunghwa University in Taiwan, and a doctorate in economics from Soochow University.

James Kerton

Senior Engineer
James Kerton is a Senior Engineer at ZeroNox, and the inventor responsible for a variety of ZeroNox clean technology innovations. James spent time in the Aerospace industry optimizing and developing new gear box designs, tail and blade designs for early generation wind turbine systems. He has accomplished several industry related certifications in different engineering disciplines including Aerospace, tool and die design and setup, and environmental safety in industrial environments. He has been scouted by the DoD DTLe program for advanced defense innovations to help modernize our national defense systems.

For the last 16 years, James has been advancing his education and knowledge base as an inventor, accomplishing complex advanced fluid dynamic innovations with regards to internal combustion and turbine-based systems.

James holds various engineering and industry related certifications from Kwantlen College, VIU and is currently enrolled at MIT advancing his knowledge base to current industry standards.

Yen Chang

Principal Precision Controls Engineer
Yen Chang holds a PhD from University of California, Los Angeles in Mechanical Engineering, with a specialization in precision control, optimization, IoT, and AI.

Yen has commercialized both software and hardware products in those fields, including IoT platform commercialization and government adoption, CNC precision motion control optimization with MATECH, medical robotics adopted by Sofie Med, and an artificial intelligence-based optimization venture Algolift, with a $10 million exit.

Yen's range of expertise and experience with agile product development has made it easy to rapidly bring products from concept to mass production.

Gene Cuelho

Director
30+ Years of manufacturing experience where he built his company Premier Trailer, into the largest trailer manufacturer company in California.

Kelley Ivankovich

Director
40+ Years in the agricultural industry including running his own highly successful farm operations in the San Joaquin Valley. Kelley owns property world wide and is a veteran in project development.

Dana Barsky

Director
Ms. Barsky has served as a member of G4G's Board of Directors since January 2022 and as G4G's President from January 2022 to June 2023.

Colleen B. Brown

Director
Ms. Brown currently serves on the board of directors of TrueBlue, Inc. (“TrueBlue”), a specialized workforce solutions provider. She has been serving on the board of TrueBlue since July 2014. From 2017 to 2022, she served as chair of the Innovation and Technology Committee of TrueBlue.
Ms. Brown also serves as a director of the publicly traded Spark Networks SE, and the publicly traded Big 5 Sporting Goods Corporation, and the privately held Port Blakely, the venture capital firm SpringRock Ventures. She currently serves as a Director of a nonprofit organization, Delta Dental of Washington. Ms. Brown is a member of NACD, WCD, IWF, and C200. She has been recognized by National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) as Director of the Year for the Pacific Northwest. In addition, she was selected by the NACD as a Top 100 Corporate Director for the United States.
In 2020, she was identified as “Most Influential Director” by Women’s Inc Magazine. Previously, Ms. Brown served as Director, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Fisher Communications, a public multimedia and technology company. Ms. Brown has served as Chair of the board of directors of American Apparel, as a Director of CareerBuilder, and as a Director of Classified Ventures. She was the founder and Managing Director of Marca Global, an internet technology company. Her community activities have included the Washington Roundtable, a nonprofit public policy organization representing major private sector employers throughout Washington State, and the United Way of King County. Ms. Brown is a Henry Crown Fellow and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network at the Aspen Institute. She also holds a cyber certificate from Carnegie Mellon.

Rahul Kakar

Director
Mr. Kakar has served as the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operations Officer of The Growth for Good Acquisition Corporation since its inception.
Skip to content