Scaling Clean

Hello #cleantechers. On today’s Scaling Clean, a discussion with Silvia Ortín. She has worked in the power sector her entire career. Silvia started as a contract trading analyst for TXU Energy in the late 1990s. Over a quarter century later, she is the CEO of RWE Renewables Onshore Wind and PV division. Silvia is the first woman to hold the position.

Our goal on Scaling Clean is to aggregate insights from CEOs, investors and advisors on building and running winning teams at clean economy companies. I am really excited to share this interview with our listeners because Silvia has experience as a key part of #cleantech teams in four countries on both sides of the Atlantic. She is a rich source of culturally-portable management lessons invaluable on the global stage.

Timestamps:

1:08 — As a female professional, the importance of having exposure to strong female role models who can show that women’s business voices deserve to be heard.

8:45 — Working in cleantech is “almost a lifestyle,” differing from other sectors because employees are passionate. That passion makes running a cleantech company easier, because employees see they’re working towards something bigger than themselves.

12:59 — Diverse teams have a more comprehensive understanding of the challenges facing their company.

20:15 — Hiring is difficult because decisions often must be made with a limited amount of interaction with a job candidate. Trust your instincts and have another interviewer in the room for additional perspective.

23:39 — Firing is the hardest part of the job. Be prepared and thoughtful, and have specific examples of what triggered the dismissal.

24:46 — Being a CEO can be a lonely position. Learn to enjoy the role. It makes making tough decisions easier. Surround yourself with people you trust, but who also challenge you and make you better.

Find out more about Tigercomm’s work at the center of the cleantech industry at www.tigercomm.us.

Hello #cleantechers! Ever heard the joke about the engineer who walked into a podcast interview and turned out to be a fountain of wisdom and soundbites? Well, our guest today is just that… except he’s no joke.

South African-native Claus Nussgruber leads Utility Global, a net-zero hydrogen company based in Houston. He spent his 31-year career working in and leading corporate initiatives focused on hydrogen and other rare industrial gasses. To me, Claus represents the influx of talent that’s coming into cleantech from other parts of the economy. They’re diversifying the available expertise and perspective, and we’re the better for it.

And you’re going to be better for listening to Claus. While we like to keep our takeaways to five or fewer, this was one of those interviews that overflowed with so many great nuggets of wisdom that we just couldn’t winnow the list past this.

Timestamp:

2:40 – How Nelson Mandel taught Claus to level set his experience of frustrating situations and irritating people.

6:19 – Corporate leadership is not about issuing instructions. Rather, it’s about creating a common goal and organizing the team effectively around it.

9:19 – Running a cleantech company is about realizing potential. Running a company in a more mature space is about maintaining the potential that’s already been achieved.

11:15 – New companies don’t have brand, so the clean economy CEO is the catalyst for the brand’s buildout.

15:17 – Why Claus hired an in-house coach and made the coach available to all of his employees.

18:19 – How opera serves the same purpose for Claus’s CEO performance as ice baths serve athletes.

Find out more about Tigercomm’s work at the center of the cleantech industry at www.tigercomm.us.

Hey #cleantechers, this week we’re back with part two of our conversation with Soluna Computing CEO John Belizaire. John’s current company is building modular green data centers that run on renewable energy. And though he just turned 50, John has already sold two companies.

Our conversation for Scaling Clean was incredibly rich. You can hear the first half of the conversation on last week’s episode. In last week’s episode, John described the attributes such as active listening and mentorship that are keys to successful entrepreneurship.

Part two is just as interesting. John and I discuss hiring, how an effective CEO inspires change in his team, and the key determinants of success in cleantech companies.

Timestamps:

1:51 — CEOs should accomplish 5 things for their company. One is being the primary storyteller, because a company is primarily defined by its story.

08:23 — When John hires, he’s looking not just for the right skills, but also the right fit with Soluna’s workplace culture. Finding the right fit requires a detailed interview process that seeks the decision-making patterns of prospective employees.

12:40 — Companies struggle to hire diverse people because people largely work through their professional networks. When people don’t have diverse networks, it’s difficult to hire diverse people. Continuously expand your network and reach out to professional organizations focused on diversity.

14:41 — Focus is a key part of success. Do something well, better than anyone else, and focus on that part of the business. Distraction can lead to disaster.

18:32 — To successfully change the sector and change the world, you need to convince people why they need to change. If there is a customer problem your company addresses, you need to talk about that problem and show how you are the team best equipped to help. When customer prospects see the problem, they’ll think of you as a solution because you already built an audience.

Find out more about Tigercomm’s work at the center of the clean technology industry at www.tigercomm.us.

Hey #cleantechers, ever hear about someone and feel at least a little bit awed by what they have accomplished in their lives? Well, we’ve got one of those folks featured in this episode of Scaling Clean.

John Belizaire is CEO of Soluna Computing, which builds modular green data centers running on renewable energy. Though he just turned 50, John has already sold two companies. In his current role, he testified before the U.S. Congress and rang the NASDAQ bell. His speaking and writing attract the interests of new and legacy media, including Cheddar News, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Plus, John is also a thoroughly wonderful human being, with an informative perspective on building and running the companies looking to grow our industry.

Our conversation for Scaling Clean was incredibly rich, so much so that our conversation ran double the normal time. When we went to cut the conversation down to our normal 30 minutes, we realized Scaling Clean listeners would benefit more if we just split the conversation into two parts. Here is the first half, in which John describes how active listening and grit are key to successful entrepreneurship.

Timestamps:

11:48 — The valuable lessons of being a boss. Leadership is about setting direction for the team, not about titles.

14:23 — The role of mentorship and how to seek out mentors. John found mentors by being proactive, cold-calling potential connections.

18:56 — So, why clean tech? What brought John to renewables? Part of John’s job is shifting people’s perceptions of the world and how energy fits therein. But how has he prioritized innovation through 25 years in the industry? Focus, and making that 1% change everyday. Show people how the industry is changing and convince them that the way you’re doing it is the right way moving forward.

28:19 — People gravitate to the safe choice. Make sure to reject the urge. Reject the conventional wisdom. What role does technology play in innovation? Sometimes it drives change, sometimes it becomes a crutch.

Find out more about Tigercomm’s work at the center of the clean technology industry at www.tigercomm.us.

Pay attention to this episode, cleantechers, because it’s a good one. As our readers know, we designed the Scaling Clean podcast to bring you management and leadership wisdom from experienced company leaders. We’ve got a heavily experienced growth company CEO for you in this episode who is lighting up the traditionally workhorse energy-efficiency sector. 

But first, a bit of context; the climate destruction crisis keeps accelerating, and yet here in the U.S. we waste an astounding 40% of all the electricity we generate. We can and should – build a lot of renewable energy capacity. But if we keep wasting nearly half of what we produce, we’re not going to move the American economy onto a more sustainable footing.

That’s why those who are driving outcomes in the workhorse sector of energy efficiency are some of the unsung leaders of the clean economy. And today I get to talk with one of those leaders who is avowedly out to build a profitable company and “save the world” from energy waste by eliminating the friction in energy efficiency.

Al Subbloie is the CEO of the energy efficiency as a service company, Budderfly, based in Shelton, Connecticut. Budderfly has 125 employees operating in 49 states with a growth rate of well over 50% for this year. And this is the third company Al’s built.

As Al describes it, he “starts companies, and then runs them for a long time.”

That’s why I know you’ll find this episode rich in lessons on how to build and run dynamic cleantech companies.

Highlights:

5:05 – Boss vs. leaders, and why leaders drive better growth companies. Bosses

manages tasks to a specific outcome, a leader develops and hold the vision.

8:26 – There are huge differences in running a clean economy company,

because you’re not just trying to drive a company’s profits, but also save the

world with the same pace as building the company. That’s an enrolling vision,

that makes it easier to lead a team because they have a shared vision.

11:10 – Energy efficiency is a neglected, but profitable opportunity because no

one measures energy waste over roughly 45 different things that a building’s

owner can do. Each requires the owner writing a check, the reward for which is a

utility bill, which is a poorly designed ROI document.

13:43 – The growth-oriented CEO is a leader who sets vision, builds a team to

executes, then communicates a lot to several core constituencies, including

board members, investors, customers and employees.

17:41 – The energy sector has “awesome” macro dynamics, something you

should look for but are hard to steer or influence.

19:32 – How multiple interviews of a candidate help with hiring for skills and

cultural alignment, because the combination makes growth much more efficient.

And cultures last a long time. Al asks candidates: “What drives you” to test for

cultural fit.

23:52 – You’ll always take longer to fire someone than you should have.

29:31 – Energy efficiency is a $250B business opportunity.

We designed Scaling Clean to bring you wisdom from clean technology leaders, and this episode won’t disappoint. 

Host Mike Casey speak to Kimberlee Centera, President and CEO of TerraPro Solutions. Kimberlee is a trailblazer in the renewable energy sector who has helped build over 10,000 renewable energy projects in the U.S. alone. She can accurately be described as an “OC,” an “original clean-techer,” and has been involved in land-use questions her entire professional life. 

If you look up “breadth of development” experience on Wikipedia, Kimberlee’s photo ought to be the visual. That’s why we were thrilled to have Kimberlee on Scaling Clean. 

Here are the highlights for our conversation with this long-time cleantech leader:

5:35 – It’s tough to address weaknesses while developing your leadership skills, but it can be an opportunity to build

your strengths.

8:00 – Ask your boss how they see your growth. Don’t assume they are paying attention.

9:20 – The work world has changed – but not enough – for women since Centera started her

career.

16:00 – Clean economy’s volatility and risk make it different than working in more mature sectors.

18:40 – How corporate values makes hiring easier, and why you can’t coach character.

24:16 – Key advice for the new CEO: There’s power in humility and listening. Talk last in the

meeting.

29:15 – Innovations + new talent coming into cleantech inspire Centera to be an optimist about the future of the clean economy.

Thanks for listening. Like and subscribe to Scaling Clean wherever you listen to podcasts. And leave a review to tell us what you think.

Host Mike Casey talks with Graham Richard, the former mayor of Ft. Wayne, Indiana. He's one of the few people in clean tech who served in elected office. After his political career, Graham took the reins at the Advanced Energy Economy, a national trade association. He's now a senior advisor at the San Francisco-based investment fund, Finite.

Host Mike Casey talks with Ken Locklin, who is the cleantech oracle you probably haven’t heard of because he has the enviable combination of foresight and humility. For more than three decades, Ken’s honed his ability to observe the major developments within multiple clean economy sectors, and then distill the trends for the rest of us. While serving as Impax Asset Management’s North American Director, he co-wrote a Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s (BNEF) 2016 “Mapping the Gap: The Road from Paris.” In clean economy, BNEF reports are the closest thing we have to religious scripture, and it’s fair to describe Ken as belonging to a small field of elite advisors and trend spotters for clean economy sectors. 

Host Mike Casey catches up with Abby Hopper, the head of Solar Energy Industries Association. That's the U.S.' main solar trade association. Abby is a lawyer by training, and a veteran of several top regulatory posts at the state and federal levels. That includes leading the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in the years that followed the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in 2010. In short, Abby’s developed an expertise in leading teams within complex organizations facing big, existential challenges. 

So far on our podcast, we’ve interviewed cleantech leaders that are in a later stage of their careers. We figured that wisdom comes from a combination of gray hair and track record. Chad Farrell is different, and that’s a good thing. As the CEO of Encore Renewable Energy, Chad’s first company is his current company. Encore develops what it calls “community-scale” renewable energy projects, often on land reclaimed from past industrial uses. But Chad’s been driving Encore’s success for almost 15 years, which is plenty of time to gather a body of lessons learned we can pass to others in his position.