Ep. 64 — Mr. Mike L. Andrade is currently the CEO of Morgan Solar, a solar energy company, and has over 30 years of experience in the technology industry. Mr. Andrade previously held several high-ranking positions at Celestica Inc. (“Celestica”), most recently as President of Diversified Markets. He was part of the founding management team at Celestica, leaving IBM Canada Limited in 1994. He has extensive experience in sales, engineering, finance, operations management, mergers and acquisitions, and commodity management.  Mike believes that climate change is the defining issue of our generation, and is applying his knowledge of commercialization of technology products to the cleantech space, both in his role at Morgan Solar as well as other companies where he is an investor.  

 Mr. Andrade is a member of the Professional Engineers of Ontario. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering Science degree from the University of Western Ontario, and a Master of Business Administration degree from the Schulich School of Business. Mr. Andrade is also active in manufacturing and technology sector, including being on the Boards of the Next Generation Manufacturing, Building Energy Innovators Council and a founding member of the Canadian Council of Innovators.

Ep. 63 — Dr. Timothy D. Unruh is the Executive Director of the National Association of Energy Service Companies (NAESCO).  In this role, he manages the representation of its member Energy Service Companies.  NAESCO provides advocacy for the industry at the Federal, State and Local levels, and provides for member company Accreditation.

Really enjoyed spending time with Timothy learning about how he got started in the industry, what its like working for the Federal Government and discovering what he wants his lasting legacy to be. This is an episode you don't want to miss!

Ep. 62 — Mr. Lynn Mueller is CEO & President of SHARC Energy Systems in Vancouver, British Columbia. SHARC Energy Systems has grown from an idea Lynn had 11 years ago to the largest and most successful wastewater energy exchange company in the world.  SHARC Energy is a global leader in carbon reduction and energy efficiency. Previously, Lynn was President of Water Furnace International, following that he was the President of Earth Source Energy Inc. Lynn is responsible for a large number of advanced sustainable energy systems using SHARC technology including the DC Water Headquarters LEED Platinum 170,000 square foot building and Wall Centre Central Park, a city block of 1000 apartments in Vancouver, and Borders College in Scotland where SHARC was able to offset 95% of the natural gas usage for building heating.

Lynn’s current passion is SHARC Energy Systems which is working to recover the 100s of billions of dollars’ worth of waste energy that goes down the drain every year in the world.  Lynn continues to press hard in his quest to make re-use of energy the norm for buildings of the future to reduce CO2 emissions and global warming. Lynn has four children and three granddaughters, so his personal mission is to do all he can to make the world more livable for them and others.

Ep. 61

Ep. 60 — Kison Patel is the Founder and CEO of M&A Science, with a passion to drive the M&A industry forward. He was an M&A advisor for ten years in which he sold larger companies such as commercial banks and hotel chains. In 2012, he noticed teams lacked efficient technology to manage deals and created DealRoom, an M&A lifecycle management platform. In 2016, he started the M&A Science podcast devoting his time to creating a platform where all the best practitioners could share their best practices and lessons learned from real-life deals. Kison then created The M&A Science Academy in 2020 to offer step by step training to those looking to master M&A featuring courses created by top level practitioners. Through developing technology, educational content, and industry training, Kison aims to bring better practices to an industry with growing market pressures, transaction values, and competition.

Ep. 59 — Todd Jarvis, CEM, CSR-P

Chateau Energy Solutions, Chief Operating Officer

Todd has more than 25 years of experience in the Energy Efficiency, EV charging, Microgrid, and Sustainability market. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer at Chateau Energy Solutions. Todd is recognized as a subject matter expert with expertise in sales strategy and operations management with a proven track record in leading successful companies. Through his 25 years in the industry, he has built and led teams that provide decarbonization consulting services, turnkey implementation of energy projects, and ongoing analytical managed services.  He is a Certified Energy Manager and Certified Sustainability Practitioner.

Chateau Energy Solutions works with clients to architect an energy strategy for their business and help them implement it. There are three primary areas of focus: Energy Efficiency, EV Charging, and Microgrids. All of these offerings can be provided through an Energy as a Service offering to achieve financial and decarbonization results.

Ep. 58 — Greg Elliott has more than 10 years of facilities maintenance management experience with a focus in operations and service. He is currently the Commercial Executive, Americas Region for JLL. As a Commercial Executive, he will partner with leadership to strategize how to continually provide more value while increasing profitability. Prior to this role, he was the Director of Engineering Solutions.  During his time within engineering, he was be responsible for growing the department through partnerships with current and future JLL account teams. 

Before joining JLL, Greg was the Director of HVAC Solutions and EMS at FacilitySource.  He developed solutions for several clients to improve their HVAC strategy. Additionally, he managed the energy management systems (EMS) 24/7 monitoring team which serviced 11 different clients, over 20 different control systems, and over 10,000 locations.  

Prior to FacilitySource, Greg was the service manager for Carrier covering Central and Southern Ohio. Before Carrier, he was a Service Account Manager for Siemens Building Technologies. 

Greg began his career at Horizon Engineering Associates where he was a field engineer performing commissioning services at several high-rise buildings in New York City.

Education and Affiliations

Greg completed obtained Bachelor of Engineering degree from SUNY Maritime College.  He completed his Master’s in Business Administrations from Ohio Dominican University in Columbus, OH. He also is a Certified Energy Manager from the Association of Energy Engineers and holds his EPA refrigerant certification.

Personal Life

Greg and his wife, Anna, moved from New York City to Ohio in 2010 and have lived in Sunbury since 2014. Anna grew up in Westerville, OH moved to New York City to dance with the Rockette’s where she met Greg. They now have three children, Lucy, Gabe and Evey. 

Ep. 57 — Mr. Eckert has over 15 years of Public Finance experience, all of which has been spent working with a client base at the national level. His ability to connect and add value to clients at the Federal, State and Local levels allows him to be a great partner to the servicing company and end user. He is a graduate of Ohio University. He resides in Charlotte, North Carolina with his wife and two children, Spencer (7) and Sutton (5).

Huntington’s Public Capital (“HPC”) provides streamlined leasing process to make it user-friendly and cost-effective way to help government and Not For Profit Issuers working to obtain financing to various types of equipment financing by ESCO and Renewable Energy Companies.

Ep. 56 — Keith is a Sales Director with Black & Veatch’s Transformative Technologies group. His focus is the business development of projects to include battery EV & fuel cell vehicle infrastructure and distributed energy resources. He brings over 30 years of expertise in engineering, operations, sales and strategic business development with companies such as Siemens, Schneider Electric and Verizon. Keith holds a bachelor’s degree in Engineering Management from the University of Alabama.  He served as a search and rescue aircrewman in the U.S. Coast Guard. Keith is based in Atlanta and enjoys cycling, trail running and hiking.

Ep. 55 — Adam started his journey March 16 1975, in Warren, Michigan. Grew up in the Northern Detroit Metro suburbs of Fraser, Troy and Heartland. Graduated from Avondale High School 1993 and went straight away to complete a Bachelors in Geology/Earth Sciences from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI in Dec 1997. 

Since that time, he has focused his career on building a diverse platform of skills that can transcend multiple industries. This skill set consists of:

1.       Sales/marketing

2.       Project/Program management 

3.       Energy Engineering (audits, planning, financials)

Achieving (PMP) Project Management Professional status with the (PMI) Project Management Institute was very important for his career and personal growth. Additionally, attaining (CEM) Certified Energy Manager status with the AEE was also a proud moment. Holding both certifications for well over 15 years. 

"I want to give so much love and thanks to my wife Carrie, daughters Chloe and Danielle and our dogs Molly and Pepper. I thank my Parents and Brother also."

Ep. 54 — Alex Cheimets is the co-founder and CEO of Vata Verks, which develops non-invasive water and natural gas meter data acquisition sensors.  Vata Verks solves the cost, difficulty and disruption of accessing real-time high-resolution data for plumbed utilities.

 Prior to co-founding Vata Verks, Alex spent the bulk of his career on the "dark-side", developing inefficient luxury appliances for Thermador, and many of the biggest brands in North America. He co-founded Synergy Construction, a firm specializing in Deep Energy Retrofits of existing homes, and co-founded Water Hero, a firm specializing in the development of home water leak detection. You may know him from his Discovery Network's "Green Planet" covered home renovation in partnership with the regional Gas and Electric Utility, NStar, and the State of Massachusetts.

 Alex received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and an M.B.A from the University of Michigan. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts with his family of current and future Michigan alumni.

Ep. 53 — Brad is a dedicated sales leader with a 29 year history of team building, problem solving and strategic decision making within the Energy Efficiency arena. As the leader of Grainger’s Energy Services business, Brad has relied on an exemplary work ethic to achieve bottom-line results for North America’s largest Industrial Distributor. After 20 years of focus within the Lighting Services industry, Brad is currently responsible for a complete portfolio of Conservation and Efficiency measures assisting America’s top companies in meeting their Sustainability goals.

Ep. 52 — Dara O’Neill is a partner and executive leader in a Fintech company, Empower Equity, (EMPEQ.CO)  specializing in National energy project finance combined with software tools to automate the lending and site survey process by auto capturing data to accelerate the sales process. Responsible for all Strategic Partnership development, including Utilities, agencies and distribution channels,  Developing and implementing engagement strategies and campaigns for a wide variety of strategic partnership initiatives and projects. 

 Prior to joining EMPEQ, O’Neill served as the leading Business Development Executive with, Comfort Systems USA, Strategic Accounts the Nations largest mechanical contractor, securing partnerships with leading global multi-site retail and commercial brands. In this role the focus was on energy efficiency, building automation and preventive maintenance contracts to lower costs and maintain the highest possible indoor air quality for its clients. 

 As a founder in multiple other Energy and Sustainable Property Development companies, O’Neills background is steeped in advancing the pursuit of energy efficiency in many forms, including advanced Building Automation with wireless web based control systems and environmentally friendly construction projects spanning three continents and five different countries. 

In his early career as a professional golfer O’Neill aspired to compete at the highest level before founding the largest independent developmental Professional Tours in both the US and Europe. His passion for competition and drive to succeed still keeps him highly motivated to this day.

Ep. 51 — Dr. Karma Sawyer is the Director of the Electricity Infrastructure and Buildings (EI&B) Division, responsible for shaping and managing a vision and strategy to assure that PNNL addresses DOE's most important energy efficiency, clean energy and electricity infrastructure challenges. The EI&B Division consists of more than 330 staff members in five technical groups. 

Prior to joining PNNL, Karma served as the Program Manager for Emerging Technologies at DOE's Building Technologies Office. In this role, she developed and executed multi-year R&D strategies across a range of building technologies. She also worked collaboratively with the national labs and external stakeholders to advance cross-cutting initiative, such as the Grid-interactive Efficient Buildings, Advanced Building Construction and Grid Modernization Initiatives. From 2010-2013, Karma served as an Assistant Program Director and Fellow at ARPA-E, focusing on carbon capture and thermal storage technologies.

Dr. Sawyer earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 2008. She also holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Syracuse University.

Ep. 50 — José Ramos was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and was raised in both Puerto Rico and Costa Rica. He is currently Program Director at MIT’s Industrial Liaison Program. In previous roles, he worked in building technology R&D teams, Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) and Mechanical/Electrical/Plumbing (MEP) firms. Invariably, his focus has been energy conservation and sustainability. In his current role, he works with large corporations to advance innovation by accelerating the adoption of MIT’s research and startup technologies around the world.

 José earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at MIT, a M.A. in Spanish at Boston College, and completed a one-year Icelandic language program at the University of Reykjavik.

Ep. 49 — Jesson Bradshaw is the CEO of Energy Ogre, an electricity management company that uses proprietary systems to ensure its customers are always getting the best prices on their energy electricity.

Energy Ogre has helped over 100,000 Texans save up to 40% on their electricity bills, over $150M since its founding. 

Jesson hopes to bring attention to Texas’s deregulated electricity industry by discussing topics such as renewable energy, future technologies, and consumer services.

Jesson’s network is over 15k, and he would be happy to let them know to listen in!

Ep. 48 — Before becoming an entrepreneur, Alex worked in management and operations in multiple industries (Energy, Telecom, Construction, Retail, Education) for Fortune 100 corporations.  

 In 2008, Alex co-founded EIS Americas, Inc. (dba Facility Integrated Solutions) to provide sustainable energy solutions for commercial & industrial customers.  Facility Integrated Solutions (FIS) now specializes in providing electrical and mechanical services with expertise on national capital rollouts for large accounts.

 In 2015, Alex became a principal of Metrotech Media & Light (MT), an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) of LED fixtures with a certified Underwriters Laboratory (UL) assembly location.

 In 2016 Alex led the acquisition of Energy Automation Systems, a company that was founded in 1978 and had an extensive network of affiliates throughout the world in the energy efficiencies industry.  The new company, Energy Integrated Solutions (EIS) expanded its portfolio to include gas, water and asset management and strategy products and services. 

 In early 2021, FIS acquired a residential HVAC (Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning) company and rebranded it No Excused Heating & Air, to expand its mechanical services contracting.

 Alejandro holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering (EE) along with a master’s degree in EE and an MBA, all from Cornell University. He speaks Spanish and French. He holds or has held community board positions including Sandy Springs Education Force, Junior Achievement, Boys Scouts, National Society of Hispanic MBAs, Certified Literate Community Program and is a winner of the Georgia Outstanding Citizen Award.

Ep. 47 — Eric is a dedicated customer advocate, helping educate the industry on the use of technologies to optimize both experience and efficiency. Eric brings 5 years’ experience in building control systems installation and management to the real estate market to bridge the gap between information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT). He is currently Director of Client Services at Intelligent Buildings, helping solve clients’ real estate technology challenges.

About IB: We help our real estate customers and stakeholders manage risk, enhance occupant well-being, and continually improve performance by providing unmatched expertise, practical recommendations, and targeted services that leverage digital transformation.
www.intelligentbuildings.com

Ep. 46 — James Beale is a leading expert in the window film industry and specializes in helping companies evaluate and implement energy efficiency technologies. His expertise comes from more than 15 years of industry experience and founding NGS, the nation’s largest and fastest-growing window film company. www.filmsandgraphics.com His customer-first approach has helped him become the go-to solar window film consultant for multiple Fortune 500 companies.

Ep. 45 — Andrew Robertson is the Senior Director – Enterprise Sales at Redaptive where he specializes in structuring large-scale energy programs for the F1000. Prior to Redaptive, Andrew spent 5 years with Graybar Electric where he led the energy team in Northern California. Prior to entering the workforce, Andrew graduated from Georgia Southern University with a bachelors in Logistics and Supply Chain Management.

In October of 2020, Redaptive completed a $150M Series C round led by the CarVal Group, CBRE, Engie, and others.