The Inspiration Behind Our Clean Energy Podcast
In March 2022, Tigercomm launched “Scaling Clean, one of the best cleantech podcasts for clean economy CEOs, investors & the people who advise them.”
You can find episodes on Apple, Spotify, Radio Public, Amazon Music, and iHeart.
Think of this clean energy podcast as a cross between NPR’s “How I Built This” and the New York Times’ “Corner Office” interview series. We’ll glean lessons and best practices from experienced cleantech leaders and curate them for the next generation of sector leaders – all in a compact, rich 30 minutes.
Some context…. If I don’t count the college car washing business I had with my buddy, Mike Duffy, Tigercomm’s the first business I’ve ever run. When I started this firm, it took me a few years to understand that working on the business was an actual skillset that took time and effort to develop.
The more we’ve executed for CEOs, the more I’ve admired their skill and fortitude. Theirs is a tough job. Stay on their “A game” 90% of the time. Handle the customer crisis that develops 15 seconds after the red eye flight lands. Terminate the well-liked, under-performing member of their leadership team. Be good at 10-15 things. Be great at another 3-5 things.
As a group, they’re impressive people. Not perfect, not always right, sometimes impatient. But on an individual level, I find them fascinating and inspiring. That’s why we’re focusing on the lessons they’ve learned about some of the basic components of building, leading and running companies.
Inside Scaling Clean – A Top Cleantech Business Podcast
- Evaluating members of inherited leadership teams
- Leading people
- Hiring and firing
- Properly defining the role of the CEO
- Advice for up-and-coming corporate leaders
- What makes leading clean economy companies different (or not)
- What’s more important: what they do or what they don’t do
#Cleantechers –
My most recent Scaling Clean guest is a rare, career-long cleantecher. Zoe Gamble is a lawyer-turned-CEO who now serves as president of CleanChoice Energy, founded by my long-time friend, Tom Matzzie. But this isn’t her first time leading a company. Zoe already served as CEO of Pine Gate Renewables, where she grew the company from 8 to 86 employees in just two years. I think you’ll find her a wealth of management experience.
Read more in the writeup here.
#Cleantechers -
We have had guests on Scaling Clean with a lot of different backgrounds, but I think my most recent guest is the first who combines journalism, corporate communications, legal, renewable energy development, and an operations background on her rise to be the CEO of Indianapolis-based Geenex Solar. If we've ever had a Renaissance CEO on the show, Emily Williams is it.
Read more in the writeup here.
Cleantechers -
My most recent Scaling Clean guest started in software and then migrated to digital marketing. But for the last 15 years, she's helped lead GroundWork Renewables, a California-based company offering on-site solar meteorological stations for utility-scale power developers, operators and owners. I had the pleasure of meeting Ann last year at RE+, and within five minutes of talking with her, I knew we had to have her on the show.
Read more in the writeup here.
Cleantechers -
On the show, we've had leaders with a variety of backgrounds. Some, like my guest in this episode, have come from investment and finance. But few have achieved so much so quickly in their careers as Jo-Jo Hubbard. This McKinsey veteran got her start in a fintech startup, then moved into renewable energy finance. From there, she helped found the UK-based Electron, a SaaS company, out to transform energy trading to make the grid cleaner.
Jo-Jo now runs Electron as CEO. Her company helps grid operators and municipal suppliers with what it calls “local flexibility markets” to help them adapt to our renewables-heavy grid.
Read more in the writeup here.
#Cleantechers -
My most recent Scaling Clean guest has a compelling background. You might say he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty.
Russ Bates grew up in the southern Indiana coal fields, starting his career as a union electrician, then moving up the ladder to foreman, and eventually VP. At the 26-year mark, he moved into company ownership, and he's now the founder of the Cleveland-area NXTGEN Clean Energy Solutions. NXTGEN is a one-stop shop for solar, wind, battery storage, and EV charging station projects.
Read more in the writeup here.
My most recent Scaling Clean guest has been at the helm of her company for 16 years. Geraldine Gray runs Endiem, a Salesforce practice based in Houston. Her company works to help companies drive commercial growth by aligning their strategic goals with their Salesforce options. She has served clients in a wide number of sectors, not just in cleantech.
Geraldine has also been very public about her successful battle with cancer, and I want to acknowledge her courage in sharing that story on LinkedIn. From several friends of mine, I've learned that overcoming such a challenge often brings an exceptional level of perspective and wisdom.
Read more in the writeup here.
My newest Scaling Clean guest is Katie Mehnert. She got her start in oil and gas, and she’s become a leading thinker and evangelist for growing the clean energy talent pool as CEO of Ally Energy, a global consultancy based in Texas. Katie’s journey through the incumbent parts of the energy sector has given her an enhanced perspective on being a clean economy CEO.
Read more in the writeup here.
#Cleantechers -
My recent Scaling Clean guest, Scott Case, is deeply experienced in starting successful ventures. He came to cleantech by way of Priceline, as that company’s founding Chief Technology Officer.
Among nearly 20 other different experiences, Scott now runs ZettaWatts, which has pioneered what it calls the “Additionality Rec Market” (AREC). It's offering fixed-price forward contracts to buy AREC from new projects under development. ZettaWatts is based in the National Capital Area, where I live and work, so it was good to have a neighbor on the show.
Read more in the writeup here.
Cleantechers –
If you've worked in the U.S. clean energy industry, my most recent Scaling Clean guest will be familiar to you — and I'm not bashful about saying he's a great addition to the show. That's because George Hershman is one of the most prominent leaders in U.S. clean energy. He spent his career running SOLV Energy, formerly known as Swinerton Renewable Energy. He also recently served as the Chairman of the Solar Energy Industries Association.
SOLV is a widely recognized EPC. It has built 8 GW of utility-scale solar capacity and now manages over 9 GW across more than half the states in this country.
If there is anyone who has collected a lifetime of leadership and management wisdom, it's George.
Read more in the writeup here.
#Cleantechers –
My most recent Scaling Clean guest is someone I’ve known for 20 years, Stephen Lacey, who has a perspective on clean economy like no other.
He’s covered our sector as an editor and early podcaster at Renewable Energy World, then editor-in-chief for Greentech Media, and now he's the founder of a new media and research company, Latitude Media. Stephen's not only covered our CEO audience, he's joined their ranks as a founder.
Read more in the writeup here.
Cleantechers -
My most recent guest on Scaling Clean has been an advisor to three Seattle-area companies, a policy lead for the e-mobility leader Lime, as well as an official in four municipal transportation departments. He's also the CEO of an innovative camper van sharing company, Cabana.
On a recent episode of This Week in Cleantech, I nominated Scott Kubly for “Cleantecher of the Week” because he courageously authored an open-kimono post on LinkedIn about Cabana’s ending.
Here's the thing about cleantech: It's hard. We're disrupting powerful, mature, incumbent sectors, and it's not like the disrupted are passively waiting around for us to put them out of business. Oh, and add to that difficulty the normal challenges launching companies within new industrial sectors.
Everyone is going to have failures. We're going to lose jobs, accounts and companies. I've learned that there are more lessons for improvement available from failures than wins. Scott continues to display that courage and openness by agreeing to be our Scaling Clean guest. He's the first to talk with us about lessons learned from a significant, recent loss. I'm grateful he's done that.
Read more in the writeup here.
On Scaling Clean, we have the pleasure of interviewing people with a variety of backgrounds. One less-represented experience on our podcast are PhD-ers turned CEOs.
That’s why I’m excited to talk to Mahesh Konduru, who is the former CEO and now board chair of ProSep, a global energy services company focused on water treatment and chemical efficiency.
Mahesh's company is private equity financed, with operations and subsidiaries in four regions around the world. He's also CEO of Momentum Technologies, a company that processes critical minerals and metals into high-purity materials with a heavy initial focus on recycling lithium batteries.
Read more in the writeup here.
As listeners know, our show engages CEOs in conversations that harvest best practices and usable tips to successfully build, run and lead companies. Our diverse lineup has featured power sector veterans, techies, individuals with finance and energy trading backgrounds, among others. Now, we introduce our first CEO with an environmental consulting background, Robin Laine. She’s also possibly the youngest CEO we’ve had on the show.
Robin now runs the renewable SaaS company Transect. She founded her company with a mission to revolutionize the way traditional environmental consulting firms evaluate potential development sites for renewable energy projects. After dedicating 11 years to three different traditional environmental consulting firms, Robin recognized the need for change.
Read more in the writeup here.
Over the last 2 years of interviewing clean energy CEO’s, Sean Kelly is our first with the background as a veteran energy trader. In fact, Sean has traded or managed traders for over 7 different companies in his career.
I brought Sean on the latest episode to speak about his background in energy trading and how that helped equip him for his role as co-founder and CEO of Amperon for the last 6 years. He describes Amperon as “the forecasting company for the energy transition.”
Read more in the writeup here.
We've had serial entrepreneurs, power sector veterans, techies, and people with finance and energy trading backgrounds, but Nikhil Vadhavkar is one of the few first-timer CEO’s we've had on the show. Not only is he an alumnus of academia at a very high level – Johns Hopkins, MIT – but he leveraged that background to start Raptor Maps.
This SaaS company provides owners and operators of both utility-scale and C&I projects with digital solutions to boost production and manage the health of their assets. Raptor Maps plays a vital role in scaling the industry through software that records and tracks asset performance, digital solutions for asset management and remediation challenges, and the deployment of solar robotics.
Read more in the writeup here.
#Cleantechers —
In a tight labor market, how should clean economy companies acquire talent? I recently interviewed Paige Carratturo, the San Francisco-based co-founder of “talent venture” company Sea-Change. Paige’s firm provides broad talent acquisition services to investors, their portfolio companies, and several Fortune 500 companies.
If anyone has timely advice on how to address this prevalent issue, it’s Paige.
Read more in the writeup here.
#Cleantechers-
In our most recent Scaling Clean episode, we talk with Hala Ballouz, who has spent the last 15 years growing Electric Power Engineers – EPE, as it’s known among developers – from a consultancy of 10 staff to a national presence of over 200 grid connection experts.
Hala is the CEO of two companies, EPE and ENER-i.AI. She has also led both GridNEXT and the Texas Renewable Energy Industries Alliance. In her current role, she helps developers connect to the increasingly complex power grid through both consulting services and SaaS offerings.
Read more in the writeup here.
#Cleantechers –
As promised, we have a Part II with the brilliant Tom Starrs. Tom’s interview was so rich in information on cleantech government affairs and communications that we split this episode into two parts.
Read more in the writeup here.
#Cleantechers –
Ever started a book that was so interesting, you couldn't put it down? There are people like that, too. And a delightfully large number of them work in a clean economy.
Tom Starrs is one of those.
On Scaling Clean, we typically interview CEOs, investors, and external advisors to companies. Today we're interviewing somebody who has not only been a CEO, he’s also advised other CEOs on marketing and public affairs. This is something he continues to do at his present employer, EDP Renewables.
And Tom Starrs is our precedent-setting guest for a reason: He’s spent the better part of 30 years trying to use public policy to accelerate climate solutions technologies. Talking with him, you quickly understand that this isn’t someone who’s just marked time in the latter part of his career. No, Tom Starrs has spent three decades actively seeking new ideas, techniques and approaches.
But unless you’ve worked for Tom or sat in an association board meeting with him, you don’t have access to his institutional knowledge and peripheral vision. With this conversation, I want to change that.
Read more in the writeup here.
If you want a boring guest, you should skip this episode. My guest has worked in over 10 countries on three continents – in the private sector, non-profits and in government across multiple cleantech sectors. After all of that, you might expect David Arfin would be picked to star in the next round of Dos Equis commercials as “The Most Interesting Man in the World.”
Read more in the writeup here.
Over the last 17 years, Nick Cohen has held leadership positions in five companies, with four of them in clean energy. He's now the president and CEO of Doral Renewables USA, which is developing the appropriately named Mammoth solar project at 1.3 gigawatts. It will be America's largest utility scale solar farm. I've wanted Nick on the show since I first talked with him last year.
Read more in the writeup here.
Jeff Wolfe is an "OC" – an “original cleantecher.” This entrepreneur has three companies under his leadership belt, including two that he founded. Jeff’s work has spanned solar installation, EV fast charging and investment considerations for Shell New Ventures. His current company is Veloce Energy, which offers easy-to-install EV fast charging infrastructure that's designed to speed the electrification of America's vehicle fleet.
Strap in for some well-earned wisdom on building and running successful companies.
You can learn more from the writeup here.
Most of our guests to date have led companies that develop renewable energy plants, sell cleantech equipment, or provide energy services. But today our guest is a pure play. She's a career-long investor who served in leadership positions at sequential investment funds, and she now serves as the co-founder and CEO of the DC-based Galway Sustainable Capital. Jennifer Von Bismarck's shop invests in companies, projects and assets that drive environmental and social resilience at the local level. I wanted to learn from Jennifer how a career in investment shaped her views on running a successful company.
You can learn more in the writeup here.
#Cleantechers, Scaling Clean listeners know that we seek out clean economy CEOs for their lessons on building teams and running companies. All our guests to date have developed their leadership abilities by ascending a career ladder, and they’ve done that across several companies.
Today’s guest has instead learned his leadership lessons on the job, so to speak. Jesse Grossman founded Soltage LLC 17 years ago, and he’s led since then as Chairman and CEO. Soltage is a New Jersey-based utility-scale solar IPP company that was founded on the belief that capital cost shouldn’t stop the spread of solar.
You can learn more in the podcast writeup here.
In Miranda Ballentine, we have a CEO with “.com,” “.org” and “.gov” experience. Most know her as the head of the Clean Energy Buyers Association (CEBA). But Miranda’s experience runs a gamut that includes stints as a sustainability director of Walmart, a consultant through David Gardner Associates, and as Air Force Assistant Secretary managing energy budgets for 170 military installations. She also was CEO of Toronto-based Constant Power that develops distributed energy projects.
You can learn more in the podcast writeup here.
Kevin Smith, CEO of Lightsource bp, is one of the few people in cleantech who's led two major solar companies. Kevin’s a great interview in part because of the depth of his background: fossil fuels and renewables, Europe and the US, and experience in two different types of solar. Throughout it all, he's proven to be an impressive company builder who draws consistent praise from the people who work for him.
You can learn more in the podcast writeup here.
Today, we are bringing you perspective from Jing Tian, who co-founded her own company early in her career and also led the U.S. presence for three different international cleantech firms. And Jing Tian is also Dr. Tian, who earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from Drexel University and served as a postdoctoral fellow in the Chemistry Department at Princeton University. Jing is now the chief growth officer of Tigo Energy, a company accelerating the adoption of solar energy worldwide through innovative solar power conversion and storage products. She has a wealth of insights from her career of building and managing teams in the clean technology sector, some of which were international in their scope and their focus. You can learn more on the podcast writeup here.
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. You can learn more in our podcast writeup here.
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. You can learn more in the podcast write up here.
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. You can learn more in the podcast write up here.
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. Here is the first half, in which John describes how active listening and grit are key to successful entrepreneurship. You can learn more in the podcast write up here.
You can learn more in the podcast write up here.
You can learn more in the podcast write up here.
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. You can learn more in the podcast write up here.
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. You can learn more in the podcast write up here.
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. You can learn more in our podcast write up here.
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. You can learn more in our podcast writeup here.
Host Mike Casey catches up with Mark Bassett, the former CEO of Hemlock Semiconductor. During his tenure, he saw sales surge even in the face of the COVID recession. He's worked most of his career in heavy, mature industries, including more than a decade rising through the ranks of Dow Chemical. You can learn more in the podcast write up here.
Host Mike Casey catches up with Bob Fishman, a veteran leader of energy companies. His background includes stints at Ausra, General Atomics, and the NAES Corporation. you can learn more in the podcast write up here.
Brad Mattson has been appropriately described as a Silicon Valley legend. He’s founded and run two renewable energy companies. Before he shifted his energy over to solar, Brad took two semiconductor companies from his garage all the way to NASDAQ. You can learn more in the podcast write up here.