Two decades of building companies and opening markets.

Biography

Dr. Mischa Paterna is a German entrepreneur and senior executive with more than twenty years of experience in company building, market development and commercial leadership.

He began his career in key account sales at VIAG Interkom, the joint venture between VIAG and British Telecom, during its entry into the German telecommunications market. From 1999 to 2002 he worked as Director at iVAST in Santa Clara, California, a company backed by investors including Paul Allen. He then spent five years as Partner at MASAÏ and one year as Partner at INVERTO, the strategy and procurement consultancy later acquired by BCG.

In 2009 he founded Suncycle and built it into a leading specialised provider of photovoltaic after-sales, testing, repair and maintenance services, serving manufacturers, insurers, project developers and industrial customers. Under his leadership the company expanded across Europe and into the United States. Suncycle was successfully built and later sold.

At H2APEX he was Head of Sales & Marketing and Managing Partner, part of the executive leadership, positioning the business in the emerging hydrogen market and contributing to its IPO at approximately €100 million market capitalisation. From 2021 to 2025 he founded and led the Hydrogen Energy Cluster Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as Managing Director, growing it to 50+ international members — among them Airbus, Siemens and Air Liquide — and connecting 120+ stakeholders across industry, research and government.

As Chief Sales Officer at Infener AG he built the commercial organisation from scratch for hybrid energy systems across hydrogen, BESS and digital infrastructure, establishing a pipeline of 40+ sites representing approximately €50 million. Today he works as Senior Executive Consultant and GTM Lead DACH at BattMan Energy, a developer of utility-scale renewable energy storage.

He studied business administration and earned his doctorate at the University of St. Gallen, focusing on internationalisation strategies.