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Last summer, 12 entrepreneurs gathered under the auspices of the New England Clean Energy Council’s inaugural Clean Energy Fellowship Program, which takes experienced, CEO-level entrepreneurs from other industries and trains them in the nuances of clean technology and alternative energy businesses.
Council president Nick D’Arbeloff said the goal was to inject some seasoned leadership into a fledgling cluster whose founders had skewed young. “We’ve got lots of young graduates doing good work, but unless we have some senior executives the industry won’t grow in the short term,” D’Arbeloff said.
Trish Fleming, executive director of the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge, compared startup formation to a Red Sox team with a deep bench: Having enthusiastic young entrepreneurs backed up by experienced executives helps a startup succeed. “If everybody is trying to learn by the seat of their pants, you have a greater risk of failure,” Fleming said.
As fellows, Aaron Bent and his 11 colleagues were required to put in 20 hours a week, meeting with venture capitalists and clean tech companies in a three-month crash course on green technology. “We had to build networks from scratch,” Bent said.
The “Dirty Dozen,” as the founding fellows call themselves, still meet regularly, Bent said.
Now, with the second 25-member class just under way, Mass High Tech looked at where the first year’s class of fellows ended up, and how many of them are actually working in the clean tech industry.
Aaron Bent
Aaron Bent had been working in telecom for nearly a decade when he found that the sector had become commoditized. The innovative field of clean tech seemed like an exciting opportunity, so he left Polatis Inc., where he was general manager, and signed on to be one of the 12 founding fellows.
“The business plans were being rewritten,” he said. “It was almost like the Wild West.”
Being a fellow allowed Bent to make the transition to clean tech, and find and build an opportunity. An engineer by training, Bent spent the last 18 years in the advanced materials business, so his skills were a natural fit for clean tech, he said. In April, Bent was named CEO of MIT and Boston College spinout GMZ Energy Inc., a Waltham-based company using thermoelectric nanomaterials to turn waste heat into electrical power.
The connections he made in the program have paid dividends since he’s left. “I’ll need to go out and raise money, and having these connections, I’ll be able to do that,” he said.
John Strauss
John Strauss was working with a group building companies in Western Pennsylvania when he heard about the fellowship program. Strauss e-mailed D’Arbeloff, asking, “Why don’t I know about this?”
A year after becoming a fellow, Strauss is now juggling three startups — Clean Combustion Tech, ThermoGen Hague Inc. and Interactive Machines Inc., working in CEO roles in the first two and a business development role in the third.
“New tech is what I’ve had the most fun with,” Strauss said.
Clean Combustion Technologies is developing more efficient coal burners. ThermoGen is developing technology to turn coal into synthetic natural gas. And Interactive Machines is developing linear friction welding technology — which uses friction to join pieces of metal — to make titanium more widely available as a manufacturing material.
The program’s payoff may be hard to see a year out but will come into sharp relief with time, Strauss said.
“Two or three or four years from now, I think it’ll pay big benefits to the region,” Strauss said. “It was a lot of fun for us, too.”
The fellowship program gave Strauss a network of contacts and an invaluable clean tech education.
“A year ago, I wouldn’t have had a clue about photovoltaic technology or thermal technology, or a structural change in the marketplace. I didn’t have any perspective,” he said.
Rick Daniels
Rick Daniels had already been involved in clean tech before contacts in the venture capital world suggested he enroll in the fellowship program. Just prior to becoming a fellow, Daniels sold coatings company MultiLayer Coating Technologies LLC, which he had spun out of Polaroid Corp., to Konarka Technologies Inc.
Daniels said the networking the fellowship afforded him was outstanding. The program helped him navigate the industry and was “unparalleled in putting energy and clean tech in perspective in terms of what to work on and what to avoid,” he said.
Armed with that perspective, Daniels chose to work on advanced materials — he’s developing intellectual property and a strategy for a materials project.
Steve Kropper
Steve Kropper wanted to get back into clean tech because he saw opportunity in what he calls the impending energy crisis. He said the emerging middle class in India and China want a similar lifestyle to that in the U.S., which calls for energy.
“That tilts the demand curve way up,” he said. “The current recession notwithstanding, the energy ‘crisis’ we felt last year, and the one that awaits us next year is for keeps.”
Kropper, who managed energy for Boston City Hospital, the city of Boston and private firms in the past, calls the fellowship a boot camp that compresses two years of education into three months. Kropper has since founded WindPole Ventures LLC, which is developing wind farms on former sites of the AT&T Inc. microwave network.
David Olsson
Before the fellows program, David Olsson had been CEO at AnchorPoint, a telecom expense management company, which merged with Mer Telemanagement Solutions Ltd. in January. Olsson said he was in a position where he could transition to an area of personal and social concern to him. “Clean energy has been an interest of mine for quite some time. Industry transformation is a vital imperative for our nation’s security, economic, geopolitical and environmental interests,” he said.
Since leaving the fellows program, Olsson has started EnerStream, a business and IT consulting firm catering to companies in the energy services industry, and those looking to enter it. Like his CEC colleagues, Olsson said his general business expertise was transferable — he also said the condensed education and contact list the fellowship gives was crucial.
Chuck Digate
Chuck Digate, a 2005 Mass High Tech All-Star, had been working on a consumer Internet venture called Skitster when an executive recruiter referred him to the fellowship. He credits the program with giving him the background needed for his new project, involving energy efficiency and carbon emission reduction.
“I broadened my perspective by adding clean tech domain knowledge to my software expertise, including a new network of relationships as well as fundamental understanding of the technologies, policies and business issues,” Digate said.
Paul Fenton
Paul Fenton had previously served as CEO of Axya Medical Inc. He is now at work on a solar technology startup.
Joseph Krivickas
Joseph Krivickas was formerly CEO of Segue Software Inc. He is starting a clean tech investment fund on behalf of a large corporation.
Perry Solomon
Perry Solomon founded HR Logic Inc. and is the former CEO of BostonCoach. He is now an executive-in-residence at Battery Ventures and is focusing on clean tech.
David Tolwinski
David Tolwinski had previously served as CEO at Tenor Networks Inc. and Legra Systems Inc. According to the council, he is still looking for the right opportunity in clean tech.
John Van Siclen
John Van Siclen, one of the few fellows not working in clean tech, is CEO of DynaTrace Software Inc. He had previously been CEO at Adesso Systems Inc. and Interwoven Inc.
Per Suneby
Per Suneby co-founded Indus River Networks Inc.and has worked at SiCortex Inc., Converged Access Inc. and Flagship Ventures. He’s chairman of LiquidPiston, building a clean engine.
Editor's note: A previous version of this article reversed the company activities of ThermoGen Hague Inc. and Interactive Machines Inc. ThermoGen is developing technology to turn coal into synthetic natural gas. And Interactive Machines is developing linear friction welding technology to make titanium more widely available as a manufacturing material.
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