Meet our Founder and Guide

Who am I?

Serial founder and board member, award-winning professor, former environmental private equity investor, former impact investment banker, and former rainforest researcher, with $1B+ of investment experience, 80,000 students taught, 25 years of meditation practice, and humility, too (despite this long bio section).

Also an expert in failure, with way too many mistakes to keep to myself: Startups that didn’t work out. Big deals that didn’t close. Business partnerships that fell through. Visions that lacked operational follow-through. Capital raises that missed the mark. Trust that was breached.

The Business Bio

My focus is climate tech, renewable energy infrastructure, impact and ESG investing, corporate sustainability strategy, and green real estate.

In addition to being the Founder of Entrepreneurs for Impact, I’m also an Executive in Residence at the Fuqua School of Business, an Associate Professor with the Nicholas School of the Environment, and a Gosnell Visiting Professor at the Department of Economics at Duke University; Cofounder and Board Member of Terraset, the anti-GHG NGO that prepurchases carbon removals; a Professor of the Practice with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) Kenan-Flagler Business School; Board member at World Tree (regenerative forestry); Board advisor at DG Matrix (next-gen power electronics); Senior Advisor at Javelin Capital (investment banking); former Director and Senior Advisor at Cherokee Investment Partners, a private equity firm that raised over $2 billion in private equity funds and, separately, founded or invested in over 150 startups and venture funds; one of the earliest LEED Accredited Professionals with the US Green Building Council; a certified Mastermind Professional via Tony Robbins; course creator for Coursera with 2,500 ratings at 4.7 stars. I am a frequent speaker at energy and finance conferences and TIME Magazine's Person of the Year in 2006 (go ahead, Google it, laugh a little).

My studies include a BS summa cum laude in Environmental Science from Western Kentucky University, where I was a national Goldwater Scholar in Math and Science. At UNC, I earned an MS and PhD focused on business and strategy in real estate and clean energy.

On the Personal Side

Husband of 20 years. Father of three. Global citizen — 24 countries, 3 languages. Japanophile. Kentucky roots. Chapel Hill transplant. Hiker. Full of dad jokes. 2x axe throwing champ. Trained as a Buddhist monk, including time spent with Thich Nhat Hanh, Taktser Rinpoche, Palden Gyatso, and the Tassajara Zen Center. Forest gardener. Hoping to inspire our kids to be world changers.