Case Studies

Clean Energy Fellowship

Challenge:

Our client, the New England Clean Energy Council, was in the early stages of developing a pilot Clean Energy Fellowship to bring entrepreneurs to the sector and needed help executing the program. Both the timeline and budget were tight.

Approach:

  • Structure committee meetings, capture information and manage committee communications
  • Receive all applications, interview candidates with team and select Fellows
  • Develop curriculum with team, source classroom space and schedule all lectures
  • Organize field trips, including a trip to NREL, and frequent networking sessions
  • Manage communications with Fellows, lecturers, committees, field trip sites, and advisors
  • Develop password-protected blog to enable access to all presentations, lecturer bios, recommended reading and other resources
  • Manage reporter access to program and Fellows and distribute all press
  • Edit and rework several Fellows' final presentations
  • Prepare all reports and paperwork for submission to funders
  • Develop and manage surveys to assess success of program
  • Facilitate alumni communications

Results:

According to virtually everyone surveyed, the Clean Energy Fellowship was well-run and organized. It was completed on time and under budget. The ultimate result was 6-8 new cleantech ventures in various stages of development, and a successful second iteration of the program with 25 Fellows in 2009. According to Steve Kropper, Founding Fellow and CEO of newly-formed company WindPole Ventures, "At the program level, Laura and Helen provided detail oriented management of the Fellows program which made the 'clean energy boot camp' a flawless and information rich program. On a corporate level, they provided a dispassionate, big picture critique as we packaged our venture for investors." See our News page for coverage of the Fellowship in The Economist, the Boston Globe, Mass High Tech, WBUR and National Public Radio's Marketplace.