The Clean Dozen: First Class of Cleantech Fellows Comes to Boston

Back in April, we reported on the New England Clean Energy Council’s new fellowship program, which is designed to train experienced businesspeople in the art of cleantech entrepreneurship. Now the NECEC has announced its charter class of fellows who will take part in the pilot this summer.

It’s a three-month, half-time classroom program that will run through mid-September and will also include visits to local cleantech companies, universities, and the National Renewable Energy Lab in Colorado, as well as projects in conjunction with local VC firms. The program is being coordinated by Peter Rothstein at Flagship Ventures and Nick d’Arbeloff, executive director of NECEC (and an Xconomist). Pending passage of the Green Jobs Act—a bill sponsored by Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, part of which has been earmarked to support the fellowships—the training sessions will be run twice a year for the next five years.

We thought you’d like to know a little more about this distinguished group of entrepreneurs who could help shape the cleantech industry in the years to come. So without further ado, here is the inaugural class of Clean Energy Fellows (you might call them “the clean dozen”):

—Aaron Bent, North American GM, Polatis Photonics

—Rick Daniels, founder of MultiLayer Coating Technologies; VP of Strategy and Development, Polaroid

—Chuck Digate, founder of Beyond and Convoq; CEO, MathSoft

—Paul Fenton, founder and CEO, Axya Medical

—Joseph Krivickas, President and COO, FAST; CEO, Segue Software

—Steve Kropper, founder of Domania

—David Olsson, founding board member, Massachusetts Telecommunications Council and Telecom Expense Management Industry Association; executive at AnchorPoint and Verizon

—Perry Solomon, CEO, Boston Coach; CEO, HR Logic

—John Strauss, board member, MOCA Systems; president of business units, Erie Management Group

—Per Suneby, business development executive, LiquidPiston and SiCortex; cofounder and CEO, Indus River Networks

—David Tolwinski, VP and General Manager, 3Com Switching Division; CEO, Tenor Networks

—John Van Siclen, executive, Wyse Technology, NetFRAME Systems, Informix, and Interwoven

Congratulations, Fellows. Welcome to Boston (though most of you are from the area), and may the cleantech force be with you.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.