CCIA’s Energy Fellows Institute Injects New Class of Execs into Colorado's Vibrant Energy Ecosystem

DENVER - Nov. 13, 2014 - PRLog -- Golden, CO – November 13, 2014 - The Energy Fellows Institute, a Colorado-based, globally-visioned executive accelerator developed by CCIA and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), began its third year with a select group of experienced executives.

The Energy Fellows Institute continues to take talented entrepreneurs and executives through a program that guides them into the cleantech and energy sectors, stimulating new venture formation, job creation and growth of the cleantech industry. With the selection of five seasoned professionals for its third class, the Energy Fellows Institute provides more than 75 hours of education with nearly 100 speakers and tours to a dozen laboratories, academic institutions and cleantech companies.

“This is an important program that is without peers. Colorado retains a leadership role in energy and the Fellows Institute is a valuable program for Colorado’s cleantech ecosystem,” said Chris Shapard, director of the Colorado Cleantech Industries Association. “This year’s entrepreneurs and executives will use this experience as they integrate into the network of cleantech stakeholders while working on opportunities to  develop a business concept or determine where their skillsets best fits in the existing market.”

Through the Institute, the Fellows gain an understanding of the broad energy ecosystem while closely examining the regulatory, capital and structural challenges facing the cleantech industry. Participants in the program examine specific cleantech markets including: energy storage, energy efficiency and building technologies, clean energy generation and the influence of natural gas on the renewables landscape.  Alumni of the program are developing new projects, directing existing cleantech ventures and working through business concept designs across multiple industry sectors.

“The Energy Fellows Institute has been a very positive experience. Since leaving the consumer electronics industry, I've wanted to apply my product development and marketing skills in the clean energy industry,” said Nathan South, a 2014 Energy Fellow. “The Fellows Institute has given me the knowledge and insight to frame the potential market along with the opportunity to meet and discuss ideas with leaders in the clean energy space.”

The Energy Fellows Institute will open a call for applicants for its 2015 program in February 2015.

The 2014 Energy Fellows are:

Dr. Arrelaine Dameron

Arrelaine is a research scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, specializing in thin film deposition, nanoscale assembly and interfacial engineering. She applies her surface modification skills to renewable applications ranging from photovoltaic contacts to hydrogen sorption materials to fuel cell catalysts.  Arrelaine also spearheads NREL's efforts at characterizing water permeation through encapsulating layers.

David Piotrowski

David’s career in financial services began at Morgan Stanley where he worked in the institutional fixed-income side of the industry in fund management, bond sales, and capital markets distribution. David took a break from Wall Street to build DP Systems, a small company based on a portfolio of footwear patents he developed and which were licensed to the 4th largest ski boot manufacturer in the world.  A return to financial services evolved into designing, building and running a dedicated Family Office. A love of the West took him to Durango, Colorado as the Assistant Operating Director for the Southern Ute Indian Tribe Growth Fund where he helped over-see the operation of a diverse group of companies, which included energy organizations focused on natural gas, real estate, alternative energy, private equity, and construction materials.

Cassandra Quaintance

Cassandra is passionate about solving energy challenges in the built environment through adoption of integrated energy efficiency and sustainability practices.  She is an experienced leader of organizations and strategic initiatives which support business transformations.  Most recently Cassie was a director at Schneider Electric focused on energy solutions and strategy, Schneider is a global energy management company with over $30b in annual sales.

Nathan South

Nathan has twenty years of experience in the engineering and technology space. He was most recently at Cricket Communications where he oversaw corporate-wide planning, analytics, forecasting, customer experience, market research, and sales compensation. In other roles at Cricket, Nathan was responsible for a $2B product P&L and launching numerous new products. Prior to Cricket, Nathan led Dell’s worldwide consumer desktop product planning team where he was responsible for a portfolio driving over $4B in annual revenues. Nathan has worked for two start-ups, PhotoWorks.com and ProjectGuides.com during the dot.com boom. PhotoWorks was purchased by American Greetings and ProjectGuides was purchased by Onvia.

Scott Wollaston

Scott is a strategic and financial consultant and a Fellow of the Energy Fellows Institute with over 14 years of experience in corporate and operational finance. After starting his career in investment banking on Wall Street, Scott relocated to Denver in 2007 and has since focused on start-ups and emerging growth companies. Scott works closely with senior executives, boards of directors and investors on finance, strategy, and business development. His expertise includes strategy, optimizing start-up business models, budgeting, GL and back office management, financial analysis and modeling, go-to-market strategy (pricing, sales channel, and offering), sales ops, merger integration, in-depth business analysis, capital raising and public / private equity and debt transactions.

About Colorado Cleantech Industries Association 


Founded in 2008, CCIA is a statewide, industry-led, industry-focused organization dedicated to promoting Colorado’s cleantech industry. CCIA impacts Colorado’s policies, people, products and programs that drive expansion of a cleaner, cheaper, more efficient and secure energy economy. Through advocacy, public policy leadership, development and education, CCIA works to ensure that Colorado is a global cleantech leader. For more information, visit http://www.coloradocleantech.com (http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=ht...). The Energy Fellows Institute is a program of CCIA, for more information about EFI, visit http://www.energyfellows.com.