AGE: 32
TITLE: President and Co-Founder
COMPANY NAME: Greenskies Renewable Energy
COMPANY’S LOCATION: Middletown
RESIDENCE: Westbrook
What do you do? I run the daily operations of a company called Greenskies. We finance, design, engineer, construct and maintain solar power generating assets throughout the northeastern United States. Our core business is to own the solar assets and to sell the electricity they produce to a select set of desirable clients like utility companies and major commercial entities. We’re creating a new type of electric utility — a solar utility. Instead of have one centrally-generating power plant, we have many positioned on roofs, landfills and other vacant spaces near where our customers use electricity.
What do you want to be doing in 10 years? I would like to see Greenskies expand to a global platform where we can have an effect on a wide range of developed and emerging markets.
What is your biggest strength? My biggest strength is probably my research and writing skills. I’m an academic at heart and enjoy the creativity and planning that can be done with a couple hours of research and writing. Those are the skills I lean on the most when I’m at Greenskies.
Where do you go for new ideas? I always pay attention to what the big guys are doing. When Elon Musk and Richard Branson both decide to start private space exploration businesses — it’s either the next hot industry or some sort of trend for entrepreneurial billionaires. I also think there’s enough happening right now between the web and smartphone apps and energy that a creative mind should be able to pluck a new idea from thin air…
What is the best advice you received? “Don’t sweat the little $#@%” – my mother. I’m a passionate person and used to get worked up over every little discussion and every little thing. One day, she looked me in the eyes and said that and for whatever reason, it sunk in. I try to live by it now.
What service or charitable cause has your attention? Africa is so fascinating to me. I’ve been there a few times and I’m so curious about the place that I find myself wondering how to associate with that continent more and more. It’s no secret that there are a lot of needs on that continent – education, health, energy… I would like to do more for that interesting place.
