Congratulations to the 2010 Pivotal Leaders
Download the list, today!
Outstanding individuals, selected by their peers as 2010’s top prospective Northwest cleantech
business leaders. The list of leaders includes a combination of proven leaders from well-known businesses like McKinstry, Microsoft and cleantech entrepreneurs developing alternative transportation, smart grid, smart storage and alternative energy, service providers, investors and the public sector. Every person on the list is participating in a way that will improve our competitiveness in the Northwest and the United States toward a
cleaner, greener, economically stronger future.
David E. Allen
Title: Vice President
Company: McKinstry
David E. Allen is Principle and Executive Vice-President of McKinstry Company, a Seattle based construction, engineering and facility services firm. McKinstry, with sales in the $400 million range, is the market leader in the Pacific Northwest for design-build mechanical construction, energy services and facility operation and management.
In his position David is responsible for the company’s Brand development through managing its strategic positioning and overseeing its business development, community relations and client service activities. David is widely respected for his contributions to creating McKinstry positioning strategy that has resulted in the firm’s national reputation as a leader in integrated, facility services delivery and engineered solutions in the clean technology sector.
Allen Alley
Title: Chairman
Company: Pixelworks
Over the past 30 years Allen has built an experience base that spans multiple disciplines from engineering to marketing, venture capital, entrepreneurship and most recently, public service. In 1997 he co-founded Pixelworks where he currently serves as Chairman of the Board. Prior to founding Pixelworks, he helped lead the growth of InFocus into a $250 million company. Allen also had a tenure as General Partner with Battery Ventures. He was the lead investor for Oregon based InFocus and served on the InFocus Board of Directors from 1988 to 1992. In 2008 Allen was elected as the Republican candidate for State Treasurer.
Ash Awad
Title: Vice President of Energy and Facility Solutions
Company: McKinstry
With over 15 years of energy efficiency experience, Ash is responsible for evolving McKinstry’s energy efficiency, renewable energy, and facility services business lines while providing the vision and leadership for a variety of related strategic initiatives. As Corporate Vice President, he is responsible for a staff of over 325 of the finest energy and facility services professionals in the industry.
Jules Bailey
Title: State Representative
Company: Oregon State Legislature
Jules Bailey is an Oregon House State Representative. Jules co-sponsored legislation to train workers in clean energy jobs, encourage renewable industries, and build a sustainable economy in Oregon. Jules received his masters degree from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. In 2009, Jules founded the economic consulting firm Pareto Global. Prior to that, Jules was an economist and sustainable development specialist at ECONorthwest. Jules has provided policy and economic analysis, stakeholder integration, and project management for a diverse set of clean energy policy and development projects with Pareto Global, ECONorthwest, and in other roles.
Michael "Kipp" Baratoff
Title: Principle
Company: Equilibrium Capital Group, LLC
Michael (“Kipp”) Baratoff has charted a professional career at the intersection of finance and sustainability for over a decade. His passion emerged from his work in financial services, education in public policy, science, and nearly 20 years of mountaineering. He joined Equilibrium Capital Group to help build leading asset management businesses in the area of sustainability. Prior to joining eq-cap, Kipp developed an investment thesis and set of tools for mission related investing (MRI) for Meyer Memorial Trust; these tools are now part of the More for Mission Campaign. Kipp currently serves as President of Gerding Edlen Sustainable Solutions (GESS), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Equilibrium portfolio company, Gerding Edlen Development, Inc. – the leading green building developer in the United States.
Rob Bernard
Title: Chief Environmental Strategist
Company: Microsoft
Rob Bernard is the Chief Environmental Strategist for Microsoft and is responsible for defining and implementing the global strategy for the company’s environmental efforts.
Under Rob’s leadership, Microsoft has set its first carbon reduction goal and rolled out its first global campaign to engage with customers on ways to use Information Technology to reduce environmental impacts. Rob is a passionate believer in the role technology can play in enabling energy efficiency and advancing scientific breakthroughs.
Jesse Berst
Title: Managing Director
Company: GlobalSmartEnergy
Jesse Berst is one of the Northwest's cleantech pioneers. As the Managing Director of GlobalSmartEnergy, he founded SmartGridNews.com, the Internets oldest, largest and highest-ranked smart grid site. He has keynoted dozens of energy-related events in the U.S. and abroad.
Jesse provides strategic consulting to corporations, startups and investment firms looking to target their smart grid activities. National and international clients have included Lockheed Martin, Edison Electric Institute, Global Environment Fund, and many others. In the Pacific Northwest, Jesse sits on the Board of Renomics Corporation (a cleantech startup), on the Advisory Council of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (home of cutting edge cleantech research) and previously served on the Advisory Council of V2Green before it was acquired by GridPoint.
Gino Borland
Title: Co-founder
Company: Cake Ventures, LLC
Gino Borland is an entrepreneur, angel investor, and an early example of the evolutionary trend from IT to CleanTech. In 2003 he co-founded Cake Ventures to accelerate widespread clean energy. He's active in the NW CleanTech eco-system as a University of Washington Entrepreneur-in-Residence; member of Northwest Energy Angels, Environmental Entrepreneurs, Social Venture Partners; supporter of Climate Solutions and Groundwire, as well as a proud board member of Grist.org. With a 20 year background in the software industry, he leveraged this experience into the founding, funding and sale of a successful email marketing startup to a CRM company during the dotcom boom.
Bill Campbell
Title: Managing Director and Chair
Company: Equilibrium Capital Group and EnergyRM
Bill Campbell is a Managing Director of Equilibrium Capital Group, and Chair of EnergyRM. He has 30 years experience in energy and technology, high growth companies as general counsel and at the board level, including multiple generations of energy efficiency deployment and financing models. Formerly, he was chair of the Ater Wynne law firm.
Dave Curry
Title: President & CEO
Company: Demand Energy Networks
Dave was President & CEO of World Wide Packets, a layer-2, point-to-point Ethernet switch company acquired by Ciena in 2008. Before World Wide Packets, he co-founded Architel, a telecom OSS company that was taken public in 1998 and subsequently acquired by Nortel in 2000. In 1996, Dave was selected Canadian Entrepreneur of the Year for his leadership at Architel. Dave has over 30 yeas of combined Telecommunications and Software Industry experience.
Mark Edlen
Title: Managing Principal and Co-founder
Company: Gerding Edlen Development
Mark Edlen is the co-founding member of Gerding Edlen Development (GEDI) and is internationally recognized for his expertise and success in creating mixed-use commercial, residential, educational, and retail developments. Mr. Edlen directs all phases of GEDI’s projects and operations and has overseen the development of 56 projects totaling approximately $4.8 billion since the inception of GEDI. Mark has delivered presentations to groups such as the Civil Construction Group and Director of the Housing Department Ministry of Construction in Vietnam, Oregon League of Conservation Voters, Innotech Innovation Conference, National Governor’s Association Center for Best Practices and many others. Mr. Edlen received his B.S. in Finance and an M.B.A. from the University of Oregon.
Pat Egan
Title: Vice President, Customer and Community Affairs
Company: Pacific Power
Pat Egan is VP, Customer and Community Affairs for Pacific Power. Pacific Power supplies electricity to over 725,000 customers in Oregon, Washington and California. Egan is responsible for customer services and satisfaction, community relations and new energy projects. An attorney with a significant management and public policy background, Egan has served directly for two Governors as Legislative Director and was Chief of Staff to Gov. Kulongoski before coming to Pacific Power.
Mark Frohnmayer
Title: President
Company: Arcimoto
Mark Frohnmayer, President, Arcimoto: Mark holds a degree from UC Berkeley in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). After eleven years in the computer games industry and a successful exit from his first startup, GarageGames, Mark has turned his entrepreneurial energy towards sustainable business development in Oregon. His current endeavor, Arcimoto, was founded in 2007 to bring quality, affordable, sustainable vehicles to the masses and aims to be a major player in the new green transportation space.
Aaron Goldfeder
Title: CEO
Company: EnergySavvy
As CEO, Aaron is responsible for the vision and leadership of EnergySavvy.com. Aaron has been featured in the BBC, NPR and Treehugger.com and was noted as one of Jewish Seattle's "10 under 40”. Aaron has a decade of software experience, is a life long environmentalist and was previously a Microsoft Group Program Manager. Aaron holds three patents, has traveled to over 50 countries and holds a MS and BS in Mathematics from the Universities of Washington and Florida respectively.
Alan Hickenbottom
Title: President and Founder
Company: Tanner Creek Energy
Alan Hickenbottom is the President and Founder of Tanner Creek Energy, a Portland, Oregon full service energy solutions provider. The firm offers turnkey solar PV and energy efficiency projects to NW commercial, industrial and agricultural customers. Starting in 2001, after 20 years in high technology, Alan spent several years exploring the sustainable industries including the green building, sustainable agriculture and clean energy sectors. He founded his first clean tech firm, Common Energy, in 2003. In 2005, he became the NW Director of the commercial business sector for groSolar going on to found Tanner Creek Energy in 2007.
David Kaplan
Title: Founder
Company: V2Green
David Kaplan, a Seattle-based technologist focused on clean energy, founded V2Green in 2006 to deliver information technology solutions that capture the economic value of connecting electric vehicles with the power grid. V2Green achieved national recognition, delivering pioneering technology solutions to electric utilities and auto manufacturers, and was acquired by Gridpoint in September 2008. Kaplan brings to the clean energy field over 30 years of technology experience, including at Microsoft, where he helped to create SQL Server.
Tyson Keever
Title: President & Co-Founder
Company: SeQuentail Biofuels, Inc.
Tyson’s efforts in 2003 focused on building a network of 30+ SeQuential-branded fueling locations in Oregon and Washington. In 2006, Tyson expanded his operational responsibilities as GM of the 5MGY SeQuential Pacific Biodiesel plant located in Salem, Oregon. In June of 2008 Tyson led the formation of Encore Oils LLC, a cooking oil collection company to provide a direct supply of feedstock to the Salem Plant. Tyson has a BA from The University of Oregon in PPPM.
Jeff Kim
Title: President and CEO
Company: Shorepower Technologies
Jeff Kim is President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Shorepower Technologies. He manages day-to-day activities of the business and has been successful in raising over $5 million in project-related funds. Jeff has been involved with truck idle-reduction technologies and advanced vehicle technologies for more than seven years and led the design team responsible for the engineering and assembly of Shorepower's comprehensive automated payment and control system. He also has ASE (Automotive Service Excellence) certified journeyman level experience as an automotive technician and managing a vehicle repair facility. Jeff is an avid researcher and supporter of advanced vehicle technologies that both reduce petroleum consumption and emissions.
Rick Luebbe
Title: CEO
Company: EnerG2
Rick is the CEO and cofounder of EnerG2, an advanced materials company for energy storage. Prior to EnerG2, Rick was co-founder and CEO of Hubspan, a XML transaction services company. As a management consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton, he specialized in manufacturing efficiency. And as a US Army officer, he led an aeroscout platoon in Desert Storm, and later flew Apaches as commander of an Attack Helicopter Company. Rick received a BA from Cornell University and an MBA from Stanford.
Ross Macfarlane
Title: Senior Advisor, Business Partnerships
Company: Climate Solutions
Ross has worked on public policy and environmental issues for more than 25 years. He was a partner at Preston Gates & Ellis where he represented public and private clients. He also served on the management team for an agency working to build urban mass transit. At Climate Solutions, Ross builds partnerships with businesses that are building the clean energy economy in the Pacific Northwest.
Tim Miller
Title: President and CEO
Company: Green Lite Motors Corporation
Tim Miller’s 22 years of management & executive experience spans high-tech, on-line and manufacturing environments. For the last 6 years he has been 100% focused on sustainability, launching Green Lite Motors while providing business consulting to over 2 dozen clean-tech companies, non-profits, and agencies. Previously, Miller was Vice President at Citysearch.com, directing 13 offices. Miller gained high-performance management experience through 5 years at Intel. His operations experience includes establishing a factory in Mexico, and managing international sourcing for O'Neill, Inc. Miller’s formal background includes a BA in Economics and an MBA, both from Stanford University.
Kelly Ogilvie
Title: Co-founder, President and CEO
Company: Blue Marble Energy
Kelly is the co-founder, President and CEO of Blue Marble Energy. He has worked for current United States Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, nationally acclaimed former Mayor of Seattle Gregory J Nickels, co-founder of Microsoft Paul Allen's Vulcan Incorporated, and has extensive political strategy experience in local, regional and national campaigns, and has advised the Obama Administration on issues regarding advanced manufacturing.
Gregg Patterson
Title: Chief Executive Officer
Company: PV Powered
Gregg Patterson, CEO, joined PV Powered in November 2006. Prior to joining PV Powered, Mr. Patterson was Vice President of the extremely successful Printing and Imaging Group at Hewlett Packard. He has 25+ years of experience in rapidly scaling worldwide manufacturing operations, leading complex multi-site R&D development, General Management of multibillion dollar P&L’s spanning both Consumer and Enterprise segments, and success in driving key M&A projects within HP. Since taking over at PV Powered, he has lead the successful scaling of the product portfolio into both Commercial and Utility segments while driving 400% growth in revenue over the three year he’s been with the company. Mr. Patterson has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from University of Washington and a Masters in Engineering from Stanford University.
Ron Pernick
Title: CoFounder & Managing Director
Company: Clean Edge, Inc.
Ron Pernick, managing director of Clean Edge, is a market research, publishing, and business development entrepreneur with more than two decades of high-tech experience. At Clean Edge he has coauthored more than two dozen reports on clean technologies, markets, and policies and oversees the firm’s research, event production, stock index publishing, and consulting services. He is the co-author of the highly acclaimed book The Clean Tech Revolution (Collins) and is widely quoted in the media.
Roby Roberts
Title: Vice President Government Affairs
Company: Horizon Wind Energy
Roby Roberts is Vice President of Government and is responsible for ensuring the successful strategic direction and development of policy and regulatory activities in the United States and Canada. Roby leads the company’s efforts to manage interactions with policy-makers and relationships with key external stakeholders aimed at understanding market needs and driving the continued expansion of wind power in North America. He joined Horizon Wind Energy in 2010, bringing more than 20 years experience in renewable-energy policy, business development and regulatory affairs. During his career, Roberts has been president and board member of the American Wind Energy Association, the Board of Directors of the Canadian Wind Energy Association, as well as on the boards of many prominent regional renewable-energy advocacy organizations across the United States.
Skip Rung
Title: President and Executive Director
Company: ONAMI
Since 2003, President of ONAMI, which uniquely combines a themed research community (nano- and micro-scale technologies) with a commercialization gap fund. Prior to ONAMI, 25 years at Hewlett-Packard, including as Director of Advanced Research at the Corvallis facility, responsible for inkjet printing technology and new business development. BS and MSEE from Stanford University.
Derek Smith
Title: Project Manager
Company: Clean Energy Works Portland
Derek Smith is Project Manager of Clean Energy Works Portland, a public-private partnership offering one-stop energy efficiency retrofits by combining low-interest financing and streamlined service delivery. Clean Energy Works was recently awarded a $20 million ‘Retrofit Ramp-up’ grant from the US Department of Energy and is now leading the organizations scale-up which aims to create a regional platform for quick, effective energy savings, carbon reductions and job creation. Derek’s board service has included the Oregon Business Association, Portland’s Sustainable Development Commission and The Forest Park Conservancy.
David Van’t Hof
Title: Partner
Company: Lane Powell
David Van’t Hof is a partner at Lane Powell where he focuses his practice in the areas of sustainability, clean technology, energy, green building and carbon regulation. David works with a range of companies from start ups to mature companies. David draws experience from his many years as a Sustainability Policy Advisor to Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski. Dave led the Oregon’s participation in the Western Climate Initiative and in developing the state’s nationally recognized climate change, renewable energy, and energy efficiency policies. David is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Oregon Law School where he teaches a class on carbon regulation and cap and trade policy. He also is a Board Member of Green Empowerment which partners with non profits in the developing world to build rural, off-grid renewable energy and water systems.
Joe Whitworth
Title: President
Company: The Freshwater Trust
Joe Whitworth, President, The Freshwater Trust. Informed by his 19+ years of NGO work, Joe has become focused on the next generation of conservation tools that can leverage technology and finance to accelerate the pace and scale of restoring freshwater ecosystems. He co-chairs the Oregon’s Global Warming Commission Water Subcommittee, Agriculture Water Quality Review Committee, and is founding board chair of the Council for Responsible Sport. He holds a J.D. from Lewis & Clark College, and an A.B. from Dartmouth College.
Jean Wilson
Title: Vice President, Utilities and Power Plants
Company: Sunpower Corp.
Jean Wilson is Vice President and General Manager of the North America Utility Business Unit at SunPower Corporation, a global company that designs, manufactures and delivers high-performance solar electric systems. Jean oversees the strategic growth of the utility sector including project development, utility marketing, and EPC and component sales. Jean I has over 17 years of experience with solar and wind projects. Prior to joining SunPower, she served as senior vice president, renewable energy at PPM Energy (now Iberdrola Renewables), where she led a team of more than 130 people in the acquisition and development of over 2,400 MW of wind power projects, and grew a wind and solar power project pipeline in excess of 18,000 MW. Jean holds a Bachelor of Science in finance from the University of Southern California and a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University.
Darcy Winslow
Title: Founder and CEO
Company: Designs for a Sustainable World Collective
Darcy Winslow has been a pioneer and active practitioner of sustainability frameworks and principles, exploring and experimenting with the application of these to all aspects of business. Darcy worked at Nike, Inc. for over 20 years and held several senior management positions within the business. She is the founder and CEO of Designs for a Sustainable World Collective, a firm that focuses on the development of practical yet aggressive strategies for organizations to create and adopt more sustainable and ultimately regenerative business practices.
Kim Zentz
Title: Executive Director
Company Name: Sirti (Spokane Intercollegiate Research & Technology Institute)
Kim Zentz is executive director of Sirti, a Washington agency focused on the accelerated development and growth of tech-based companies in the Inland Northwest. Before coming to Sirti in 2005, Kim was the founding president and chief operating officer of Avista Labs (now ReliOn), an energy technology company offering fuel cell products for the back-up, commercial, industrial and premium power markets (50 Watt to 12 kW). Prior to helping establish Avista Labs, Kim served 18 years with Avista Utilities in various project, technical and senior management positions. From 2003-2005, Kim was CEO of the Spokane Transit Authority.
