General Investing >> Money Manager Interviews >> November 2, 2010
Michael Eckhart is Founding President and a member of the board of directors of the American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE). He is also Co-Chairman of the World Council for Renewable Energy (WCRE), a member of the Steering Committee of the REN21 global policy network and Co-Head of the North American Secretariat of the Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP). Mr. Eckhart is a 2008 recipient of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, a 2006 recipient of RSA's "Good Deal for All Award" and a three-time participant in the Clinton Global Initiative. In 1998 Mr. Eckhart was named "Renewable Energy Man of the Year of India" for his work in bringing financing to solar energy markets, and in 1999 he formed a $50 million joint venture between Shell and Eskom in South Africa that electrified 10,000 off-grid homes with solar home systems. He has over 25 years of experience in renewable energy, power generation, high technology and finance. Previously, he was Chairman and CEO of United Power Systems, Inc., Co-founder and Vice President of the venture capital firm Arete Ventures, Inc., Manager of Strategic Planning for the power systems sector of General Electric Co., and a Principal of Booz Allen Hamilton's energy practice, where he conducted many of the original national studies in the 1970s on emerging energy technologies, including solar PV, solar heating and cooling, solar thermal-electric, wind power, hydropower, geothermal energy, cogeneration, energy storage, advanced coal combustion, gasification, liquefaction, synthetic fuels and advanced nuclear. Mr. Eckhart served in the U.S. Navy's Submarine Service. He received a B.S. in electrical engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Profile
TWST: You are the Founding President of the American Council on Renewable Energy. What is that?
Mr. Eckhart: ACORE is a true nonprofit organization, what's called a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which means we
