Board of Directors
Scott Edward Anderson
Founder
VerdeStrategy
Scott founded VerdeStrategy, a consulting and advisory firm focused on the cleantech, energy, and environment sectors, and the popular blog “The Green Skeptic” (http://thegreenskeptic.com). He is also a frequent commentator on Fox Business Network.
He has over 20 years experience in management, marketing, fund raising and business development. He has held management positions for large institutions, such as The Nature Conservancy, the world’s most successful global conservation organization, and Ashoka, a social venture capital organization with operations in 72 countries worldwide, and has consulted with dozens of businesses and social entrepreneurs around the globe.
Scott is also an entrepreneur, having developed several successful ventures in print and online media, and launched the Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, a regional business network for entrepreneurs, investors, and service providers working in the alternative energy sector.
In addition, Scott has served as an Advisory Board member for GoodCompany Ventures, a social enterprise incubator, and GreenMicrofinance, LLC, which develops alternative energy projects in the developing world.
While at The Nature Conservancy, he was part of the Global Climate Change and Global Marine strategy teams, which developed high-level global strategies for the organization, and was a John C. Sawhill Conservation Leadership Fellow.
He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as at conferences and workshops around the country, and is a frequent speaker and panelist at such venues as the Aspen Environment Forum, the Salzburg Global Seminar, and the Global Forum, among others.
Scott is also an accomplished and award-winning poet with many publications credits and public readings.
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Joe Babin
Chief Executive
Opis Advisors
Joe Babin is a senior /Chief Executive with 23 years of P&L experience with operating, growing and transforming early stage and investor backed expansion phase companies. Industry experience includes alternative energy (photovoltaic), energy efficiency (Esco), financial services, financial transaction processing technology, construction management, facilities maintenance.
Joe is the Chief Executive of Opis Advisors a strategic consulting firm focused on emerging technologies in clean technology (Cleantech) and financial transaction processing (FTP). Services include interim Senior Executive and Board level positions. Advisory services include strategic planning, R&D to commercialization strategy, operational optimization, M&A due diligence, and fund-raising.
He is the former CEO of Blue Square Energy and a founding Board member. Blue Square Energy is a Solar Cell and module manufacturer located in Northeast Maryland. Blue Square Energy has developed a disruptive high-performance thin-film crystalline silicon solar cell technology named Bright Point.
Joe is the former President and the current Chairman of the Board of Directors for Kinetix, a well established federal government contractor with lines of business in facilities maintenance, life safety systems, and energy management. Kinetix client base includes The General Services Administration(GSA), The Department of Defense ( DOD) The Department of The Interior, The Veterans Administration ( VA ), The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA ), The Smithsonian Institute, The Department of Homeland Security (DHS ).
Joe also currently serves as the Executive Vice President and an equity partner in Electronic Payment Exchange (EPX), an international full-service electronic payment processing company. EPX provides fully integrated straight-through electronic payment processing that enables businesses to accept every form of electronic payment through any of the business distribution channels.
Joe has a proven history of operating and growing successful companies. Prior to EPX, he was the founder, president, and CEO of Cross Commerce Group, an e-business incubator/accelerator and affiliated entity to Norman-Spencer McKernan. He also served as President of Norman-Spencer McKernan (NSM), a $300 million commercial property and casualty insurance program underwriter.
Joe serves on numerous other boards including Elwyn, Inc., nationally recognized as a pioneer in developing groundbreaking programs for children and adults with disadvantages and disabilities; Exceptional Care for Children (ECC), state of the art residential healthcare facility serving technology-dependent children; Blue Square Energy (BSE), a manufacturer and developer of high performance silicon solar cells (photovoltaic) for the international market; and Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic (CAMA).
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Kevin P. Brown
Senior Partner
Hobbs & Towne, Inc.
Kevin is an experienced executive search professional who joined Hobbs & Towne, Inc. in March 2003 to expand the burgeoning technology and energy practices as well as lead the development of the company’s life sciences executive search business.
Kevin has 19 years of experience in executive search and is expert in working with early stage companies and their investors. Kevin has been instrumental in helping Hobbs & Towne’s grow its reputation as one of the most highly regarded boutique search firms in the country and the leading cleantech and renewable energy search firm in North America.
In just over seven years, Kevin has developed and expanded client relationships with 5AM Ventures, Acorn Energy, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, AquaSpy, Blue Square Energy, BP, Catalent (formerly Cardinal Health), Cisco Systems, CMEA Ventures, Coalogix, Cyrium Technologies, Cytheris, Daiichi-Sankyo, DataCeutics, Emerald Technology Ventures, Inflection Point Ventures, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Morgan AM&T, Milestone Venture Partners, Osage BioEnergy, Pangaea Ventures, Pfizer, Shire plc., Schering-Plough Corporation, SkillSurvey Incorporated, Taro Pharmaceuticals, Waste Management and Wildcat Discovery Technologies.
Search assignments have included the following: CEO, Board Member, CFO, COO, CTO, CIO, Medical Director, VP Regulatory Affairs, SVP Global Quality, VP R&D, VP Human Resources, Vice President Business Development, among others.
Prior to joining Hobbs & Towne, Kevin was a Principal and equity owner of one of the fastest growing Human Capital Management companies in the country. During his 12 year tenure, Kevin was a key factor in the growth of this company, founded as an executive search firm with 9 employees when he joined them in 1991 to over 750 people. He co-founded their pharmaceutical and information technology search practices. He was consistently one of the top producers in the company and the youngest partner in the history of the firm.
Kevin lives in Strafford, PA (just outside Philadelphia) with his wife Courtney, son Tripper and their twin daughters, Chloe and Claire.
He is a product of Drexel University, is founder and co-chair of the Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic (CAMA), he was the co-founder of Renewable Energy Business Network Mid-Atlantic, he is a member of the Advisory Board of the Southeastern PA Smart Energy Initiative and Energy Advisory Committee of the Ben Franklin Technology Partners.
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Ronald Fisher
Founder
MillCrest Law LLP.
Ron has 18 years of experience as a counselor and attorney-at-law, primarily as a transactional, corporate and commercial lawyer. Prior to founding MillCrest Law, Ron practiced with prominent AmLaw 100 firms, including Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and, most recently, Blank Rome LLP where he led that firm’s energy industry group. He has advised on transactions involving less than a million to several billion dollars, both within the United States and offshore, including in the power industry in which he has negotiated asset and financing transactions involving dozens of power plants.
Prior to entering the practice of law in 1991, Ron was an executive with Team, Inc., a NASDAQ-listed specialty industrial services company active in the electric power, refining, petrochemical, pipeline and related industries. While at Team, Ron served as an executive with senior management responsibility for the company’s Northeastern U.S. operations, then comprised of about 150 management, sales, technical, and administrative personnel.
Ron is also currently active as an alternative energy industry investor, specifically in the carbon credit markets, an evolving investment platform in which he has developed business expertise.
In sum, Ron’s background as an executive, as an attorney and as an investor for over three decades gives him a unique and in-depth understanding of the business, legal, regulatory and policy issues and problems faced by businesses, small and large, in today’s dynamic markets.
Ron is admitted to practice law in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the States of Delaware and New Jersey. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, a non-profit business association established to foster contacts among Cleantech and renewable energy professionals in the mid-Atlantic region, and Support Center for Child Advocates, a non-profit agency that provides legal and social services to abused and neglected children in Philadelphia County. Ron also acts as corporate counsel to the Board of Directors of Legal Clinic for the Disabled, a non-profit agency that provides legal services to southeastern Pennsylvania’s disabled community.
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Barbara Merle Gilmore
Merle Gilmore & Associates
Merle Gilmore’s career includes over 25 years of entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial management and consulting achievement built on a foundation of Fortune 1000 operations and planning experience. As Principal of Merle Gilmore & Associates, a specialized consulting firm, she provides management and expertise to the firm’s clients.
In recent years, Merle’s practice has focused on strategic planning, corporate development and performance improvement for high-growth and emerging enterprises, as well as providing sophisticated support for businesses undergoing transition or fundamental transformation.
Merle’s clients comprise alternate energy concerns, bioscience, financial services businesses, cable and entertainment conglomerates, a rapid-growth US retailer with 400+ stores nationwide and a major domestic transportation company. Most recently, she and her colleagues prepared strategic and business plans for a start-up renewable energy venture, a SaaS start-up, a strategic minerals company, an established utilities services company seeking growth funding, a marketing plan for a VC-backed high-growth software firm as well as for an on-line professional education company and a specialty care clinical network.
Merle is a founding member of the CleanTech Alliance Mid Atlantic and she presently serves on the Board of BalletX and CADEKids. Merle is a member of the Forum of Executive Women and the Mid-Atlantic Capital Alliance (MAC). She is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Wynnewood Civic Association, the Board of Directors of the Forum of Executive Women, the Philadelphia Clan Advisory Board of the Carnegie Mellon Alumni Association and has served as a volunteer consultant for Business Volunteers for the Arts.
Merle holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, studying on a Dean’s Fellowship. She has completed additional advanced study at Harvard University. She earned her undergraduate degree from Carnegie Mellon University.
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Kevin M. McPoyle
President
KMRD Partners, Inc.
Kevin is a founding partner and President of KMRD Partners, Inc., a Bucks County Property & Casualty agency focused on reducing the cost of risk for organizations with complex risk management requirements. KMRD Partners supports a unique mix of higher hazard clients, both public and private, including manufacturers, distribution companies, contractors, financial services firms, professional service firms, companies with international exposures and technology companies.
McPoyle started his career in manufacturing, safety and quality control with Air Products in Lehigh Valley, PA. In the insurance arena, McPoyle is acknowledged for his ability to blend his manufacturing / risk management expertise into a coherent well thought out risk management program.
A former attack helicopter pilot, he has a BS in Engineering from the United States Military Academy (West Point, NY) and an MBA in Finance and Marketing from Wilkes University. He has been quoted in the Philadelphia Business Journal regarding Directors & Officers liability coverage and in The Prime Solution, a training book for sales professionals.
KMRD Partners has also been featured in the Doylestown Intelligencer business section for the agency’s unique approach to supporting clients and deploying innovative technology in that effort. In addition to the CAMA Board, Kevin is a board member of The Bucks County Housing Group, coaches basketball, and is active in his church. He and his wife, Heather, and four children live in Doylestown Township.
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Douglass Smith
Vice President
Hobbs & Towne
Mr. Smith is a Vice President with Hobbs & Towne, the leading North American cleantech and renewable energy search firm. Doug has a 20-year track record in the industry and has led searches for a number of high-profile clients and completed executive level searches as well as led technical team build-outs. His focus has been biofuels, advanced battery, solar, wind, and clean coal. He is the firm’s in-house expert on gasification and catalyst technologies.
He has worked with technology and IP spin-outs from Berkeley, Cal Tech, Penn State, University of Colorado, and University of Illinois.
In addition to the Board of Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, Doug was a Board member of the Renewable Energy Business Network (Mid-Atlantic), and works with the Leeds Business School and the Demming Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Doug attended Temple University and lives in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.