Brad Mattson is described as a “Silicon Valley Legend” because he’s the only person to have taken two companies from his garage to Nasdaq. Brad’s also been a VC and has led two clean economy companies. Plus, he’s a thoroughly wonderful person and a fountain of wisdom. Thanks, Brad, for talking with me.

The Journey from Garage to Nasdaq: A Discussion with Brad Mattson

Host Mike Casey catches up with Bob Fishman, a veteran leader of energy companies. His background includes stints at Ausra, General Atomics, and the NAES Corporation.

Clean economy leadership insights with Bob Fishman

We're up with our third episode of Scaling Clean, where I spoke with former CEO of Hemlock Semiconductor, Mark Bassett. During his impressive tenure, Mark saw sales surge even in the face of the COVID recession. He’s worked most of his career in heavy, mature industries, including 11 years rising through the ranks of Dow Chemical.

And he’s actually Dr. Mark Bassett, with a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering and 10 peer-reviewed journal articles on non-linear dynamics and chaos in electrochemical reactions. I thought all of that made him a compelling interview for our Scaling Clean listeners, given how many companies in our sectors are growing manufacturing firms with a highly technical product line.

The Business Case Against Being a Jerk

So far on our podcast, we’ve interviewed cleantech leaders that are in a later stage of their careers. We figured that wisdom comes from a combination of gray hair and track record. Chad Farrell is different, and that’s a good thing. As the CEO of Encore Renewable Energy, Chad’s first company is his current company. Encore develops what it calls “community-scale” renewable energy projects, often on land reclaimed from past industrial uses. But Chad’s been driving Encore’s success for almost 15 years, which is plenty of time to gather a body of lessons learned we can pass to others in his position.

The keys to leadership with Chad Farrell

Host Mike Casey catches up with Abby Hopper, the head of Solar Energy Industries Association. That's the U.S.' main solar trade association. Abby is a lawyer by training, and a veteran of several top regulatory posts at the state and federal levels. That includes leading the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in the years that followed the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in 2010. In short, Abby’s developed an expertise in leading teams within complex organizations facing big, existential challenges.

Navigating the Rough Waters of Cleantech

Host Mike Casey talks with Ken Locklin, who is the cleantech oracle you probably haven’t heard of because he has the enviable combination of foresight and humility. For more than three decades, Ken’s honed his ability to observe the major developments within multiple clean economy sectors, and then distill the trends for the rest of us. While serving as Impax Asset Management’s North American Director, he co-wrote a Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s (BNEF) 2016 “Mapping the Gap: The Road from Paris.” In clean economy, BNEF reports are the closest thing we have to religious scripture, and it’s fair to describe Ken as belonging to a small field of elite advisors and trend spotters for clean economy sectors.

The Oracle of Cleantech Speaks…. You Might Want to listen

Host Mike Casey talks with Graham Richard, the former mayor of Ft. Wayne, Indiana. He's one of the few people in clean tech who served in elected office. After his political career, Graham took the reins at the Advanced Energy Economy, a national trade association. He's now a senior advisor at the San Francisco-based investment fund, Finite.

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