July 2021

TAE Technologies Expands Executive Team with William Coaker as Chief Investment Officer

New Role Adds Investment Expertise to Support TAE’s Growth and Innovation

FOOTHILL RANCH, CALIF. (September 7, 2021) – TAE Technologies announces the appointment of William Coaker as the company’s first Chief Investment Officer.

Coaker comes to TAE with over two decades of senior level experience in the investment field, most recently as Chief Investment Officer for the San Francisco Employees Retirement System (SFERS), a $34 billion public pension plan. During Coaker’s tenure, he earned SFERS a ranking in the top 1% over the past 1, 3, 5 and 7 years versus other public pension plans, posting more than $5 billion in excess returns versus the median public pension. In the last fiscal year alone, SFERS investments returned 33.8%, with the venture capital portfolio returning over 87%, and the overall plan achieving approximately $9 billion in investment gains and $1.5 billion in excess returns.

“TAE is the most transformational business I have ever seen,” said Coaker. “TAE is a platform company at the epicenter of clean energy, technology, software, science, big data, and machine learning. Through TAE’s unique approach to fusion, the company is poised to meet the existential issue of our time—namely, how to meet the vast need for energy, grow economies and improve living standards, while also protecting the environment. These are enormous markets with urgent needs, and I think TAE has the technology to solve them.”

“In their quest to commercialize fusion, TAE has also developed technologies that provide substantial value in other large, adjacent industries, including electric vehicle design and ultrafast charging; energy efficiency and storage solutions; and an emerging biologically-targeted radiation therapy aimed at treating difficult cancers. TAE is poised to provide clean, affordable, reliable, and abundant carbon-free energy, accelerate the transition to electric vehicles, and improve outcomes for certain cancer patients,” said Coaker. “I am honored to join such a distinguished team that is poised to make a significant contribution to the world.”

“With the confidence we earned in achieving our ‘long enough, hot enough’ milestone, demonstrating our fusion technology on an industrial scale, and receiving robust scientific validation from our independent science panel, TAE is quickly moving toward fusion commercialization. This, along with the ‘fusion-born’ technology applications in energy storage, transmission and e-mobility, presents a unique opportunity for a clean energy future,” said TAE Technologies CEO Michl Binderbauer. “Bill deeply understands the transformational, ready-for-market nature of our technologies and how to communicate with investors and the marketplace. As such, his leadership and vision will play a central role in realizing TAE’s capabilities to make an immense contribution to humankind.”

Coaker has received numerous awards and distinctions in his career. Earlier this year, he was named to the Power100 by AI-CIO. In 2019, SFERS was named Small Plan of the Year by Institutional Investor. Regarded by peers as a futurist investor, Coaker has been a regular speaker at the Milken Conference, Institutional Investor, and Pension Bridge, among others. Coaker believes that the speed, scale, and impact of innovation is being significantly underestimated, and he advocates investing in science, technology, and leaders in innovation to achieve high investment returns.

For more information on TAE Technologies, please visit tae.com or contact us.

ABOUT TAE TECHNOLOGIES
TAE Technologies (pronounced T-A-E) was founded in 1998 to develop commercial fusion power with the cleanest environmental profile, and represents the fastest, most practical, and economically competitive solution to bring abundant energy to the grid. With over 900 issued patents, more than $880 million in private capital, six generations of National Laboratory-scale devices, and an experienced team of over 250 employees, TAE is now on the cusp of delivering this transformational energy source capable of sustaining the planet for centuries. The company’s revolutionary technologies have produced a robust portfolio of commercial innovations in other large adjacent markets such as power management, energy storage, transmission, electric mobility, life sciences, and more. TAE is based in California, and maintains international offices in the UK and Switzerland. Multidisciplinary and mission-driven by nature, TAE is leveraging proprietary science and engineering to create a bright future for us.