Biographies

Keynote Speakers

Jessie Fink

Serial Entrepreneur/ Founding Partner of MissionPoint Capital Partners

The BEEC was honored to host Mr. Fink as the 2008 E3 keynote speaker. At the heart of his address was the message that the preservation of the Earth’s natural resources is largely in the hands of the business sector.  Fink challenged attendees to face the state of our depleting resources, and consider the change that we as business leaders may affect in the way of energy and environmentally sustainable business practices and ventures.
Biography: Mr. Fink is a founding partner and Managing Director for Connecticut-based MissionPoint Capital Partners, a private investment firm which capitalizes on high-growth opportunities created by the today’s accelerating demand for clean, secure energy and the large-scale transition to a low-carbon global economy.  Mr. Fink is also President and CEO of the family office Marshall Street Management and its investment wing, MSM Capital Partners, which is a mission-oriented equity investor in the environmental finance sector and related markets such as Cleantech , environmental commodities and ecosystem services.

In February 2007, Mr. Fink received the Cleantech Venture Network’s Cleantech Leader of the Year award for his exceptional leadership and contributions to the industry. Jesse Fink is a founding partner and a member of the investment committee. In addition, he evaluates management teams during due diligence and provides coaching to portfolio company executives.

MSM Capital Partners was designed as a mission-oriented, multi-strategy vehicle to manage its investment activities in the emerging clean technology and environmental finance sectors. Jesse began his business career as a forest and land manager for Georgia-Pacific. After attending business school, he continued his career in marketing and operations management as well as business development, first with Citicorp and then with CUC International. Jesse then joined entrepreneur Jay Walker as COO of Walker Digital Inc., a leading inventor and developer of business method solutions. He was the founding Chief Operating Officer of priceline.com, running operations from inception through IPO. He then founded Marshall Street Management. Jesse is a graduate of the State University of New York’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York, where he received a B.S. in Resource Management. He also earned his MBA from Syracuse University’s School of Management. In February of 2007, Jesse received the Cleantech Venture Network’s the Cleantech Leader of the Year award. The award is presented to an organization or individual who has shown exceptional leadership in adding credibility or resources to the cleantech industry field. He and his wife Betsy manage the Betsy and Jesse Fink Foundation, which focuses on catalytic environmental and educational grant making. They serve on a number of non-profit and start-up company boards. Betsy and Jesse have established and run Millstone Farm, which is dedicated to producing organic produce and selling it to local markets & restaurants. Millstone serves as a model for land use and to promote sustainable agriculture in their community.

Barbara Batshalom

Executive Director, The Green Rountable

Barbra is the founder and Executive Director of the Green Roundtable. She collaborates with cities, institutions and companies to transform their internal practices to improve performance, profitability and sustainability. GRT organizes and facilitates a forum for proactive dialogue among diverse professions, and provides resources and expertise to the development, design and construction community. Under her leadership, GRT is New England’s regional Affiliate for the US Green Building Council, and is also active with legislative and policy initiatives.
With a diverse background in fine arts, social psychology and fourteen years in architecture and consulting, Barbra brings a variety of skills, from decision making and creative collaboration, to technical work optimizing building system integration, quality and project performance.

Nick d’Arbeloff

Co-Executive Director, New England Clean Energy Council

As Co-Executive Director for the Council, Nick drives activity in the areas of Innovation and Growth, and plays a leading role in directing the activities of the Innovation Task Force and the CEO Council. He is also heavily involved with the Council’s policy efforts. Previously, he served as the Executive Director for the New England Energy Innovation Collaborative (NEEIC).
Before joining NEEIC, he was the founder and CEO of Conjoin, a developer of sales productivity software for corporate sales teams. The company was acquired by Intranets.com (subsequently acquired by WebEx).
Previously, Nick co-founded and served as VP Marketing for Wildfire Communications, which brought to market a voice recognition-based electronic assistant for managing all of an individual’s telephone activities. Wildfire was acquired by Orange PLC, now a subsidiary of France Telecom.
Earlier in his career, he served as Vice President of Marketing for C-bridge Internet Solutions, Director of Marketing for PRI Automation, and Product Manager for Apollo Computer.
Nick is a representative of The Climate Project, trained by former Vice President Al Gore to educate audiences about the science underlying global climate change. He serves on the Board of the Carlisle Conservation Foundation and the Mass Audubon Council.

Nick holds a BA from Georgetown University.

Phil Giudice

Commissioner of the Massachusetts Division of Energy Resources

Phil was appointed Commissioner of Massachusetts Division of Energy Resources, July 2007. He is a geologist (B.S. from University of New Hampshire and M.S. in Economic Geology from the University of Arizona) and management professional (M.B.A. from Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth) with 30 years experience in the energy industry. Phil serves as board member, board executive committee member and treasurer of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative as well as a board member of both the Commonwealth’s Energy Facilities Siting Board and the Center for Effective Philanthropy. Prior to joining DOER, Phil served as board member and Senior Vice President at EnerNOC, a start-up company providing electricity demand-management services to businesses, institutions, utilities, and grid operators to obtain savings for businesses and institutions and relieve stress on the electric system. He was also a Senior Partner, and leader of Mercer Management Consulting’s global energy utilities practice.

Robert Pratt

Senior Vice President (Climate and Energy), Kendall Foundation

Rob Pratt is Senior Vice President of the Henry P. Kendall Foundation, heading up the Foundation’s climate change program. By catalyzing “massive energy efficiency implementation” in New England through programs such as the $100 million, 5 year program in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as well as advocating cutting edge, clean energy policy development, the Foundation hopes to demonstrate that significant greenhouse gas emissions

 

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