Cleantech Fellows Institute Graduates Inaugural Class

DENVER, CO, January 11, 2013 (Press-News.org) Today, the Cleantech Fellows Institute, a Colorado-based executive training program aimed at creating startup companies in the cleantech sector, will graduate five fellows from its inaugural class.

The Cleantech Fellows Institute is the nation's first cleantech-focused program educating experienced executives and entrepreneurs from other industry backgrounds in several sectors of cleantech. This program is built to promote new ventures, create jobs and grow the clean technology industry. The inaugural Fellows Institute class completed more than 150 hours of training with 165 speakers, and toured 30 laboratories and cleantech companies. The institute offered unique access to an ecosystem including over 20 venture capital firms and more than 10 technology partners.

"This program immerses executives and entrepreneurs in the cleantech ecosystem by getting them into innovative labs, connecting them with industry leaders and educating them in key areas of the industry," said Wayne Greenberg, director of the Cleantech Fellows Institute. "These five fellows now possess the tools to create and lead the next generation of cleantech companies."

The graduating fellows are:

Tony Formby
Fort Worth, TX
Tony Formby has more than 25 years' experience in startup companies. He began by co-founding Postech Corp., where he helped develop the Squirrel Touch-Screen POS System - a blueprint for many commercial and industrial touch-screen and process control systems used today.

As founder and CEO of Merrimac Hospitality Systems, Formby designed the Fusion computer workstation that is used in hotels around the world. He has invested in numerous companies including NGRAIN (Vancouver), Ravenbrick (Denver), SunCentral (Vancouver), and Rahr & Sons Brewing (Fort Worth).

Tom McKinnon
Boulder, CO
Tom McKinnon has more than 10 years' experience with early-stage cleantech businesses. In addition to founding and co-founding five companies, he has taught and conducted research at the University of Colorado, and is Professor Emeritus at the Colorado School of Mines.

Most of McKinnon's startup companies have been directed at addressing climate change: Novare Biofuels developed carbon-neutral technology to convert cellulosic biomass into drop-in biofuels such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. Fullerene Sciences developed a process to make carbon nanomaterials for lithium ion batteries. Boulder ElectroRide developed a high-performance electric motorcycle.

Henry Mouton
Ft. Collins, CO
Henry Mouton is an environmentally focused senior executive with more than 20 years' experience in developing, planning, branding and launching six hospitality ventures. As COO and director of sustainability for the Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant chain, Mouton guided the company in doubling its size in five years to its current six locations in Colorado. He also helped launch the new upscale, Oaxacan-inspired restaurant in Ft. Collins, El Monte Grill and Lounge.

John Tuttle
Malta, NY
John R. Tuttle, Ph.D., has more than 25 years' experience in the semiconductor and photovoltaic industries. He was the co-founder of DayStar Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: DSTI) and formerly its CEO and chairman. Prior to DayStar, he was a senior scientist at NREL, where he focused on thin film CIGS-based solar cells. His research guided the fabrication of PV devices with world-record efficiencies.

Duer Reeves
Boulder, CO

Duer Reeves is a seasoned enterprise technology executive with 24 years experience in business operations and finance. He previously was a senior director at Sun Microsystems.

Based on his Sun experience and passion for cleantech, Reeves' primary interest is in the application of web, mobile and internet technologies to energy and transportation. Through the Fellows Institute, he was introduced to the Research Applications Lab at NCAR and on January 1, 2013 incorporated WeatherCloud Inc., to commercialize a set of NCAR technologies which treat cars and trucks as mobile road weather sensors and will provide a service to drivers to alert them of road hazards such as black ice, ground fog, crosswinds, and freezing rain in near real time.

"The Cleantech Fellows Institute has been an amazing entrepreneurial catalyst. The program's incredible curriculum, the opportunity to investigate some of Colorado's coolest technologies and introduction to an invaluable community in the cleantech industry has enabled me to form a company coming out of the program. Without reservation I would recommend the Institute to anyone," said Reeves.

The Cleantech Fellows Institute was created by the Colorado Cleantech Industry Association (CCIA) and is supported by the Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Advanced Energy Economy (AEE), a national business organization of which CCIA is a founding chapter.

About Cleantech Fellows Institute
The Cleantech Fellows Institute is an exclusive program designed to facilitate the creation of venture-backed clean technology companies. The Institute will educate a highly select set of proven executives from across the country, and from a wide variety of industry sectors, that are interested in making the transition to cleantech. For more information, visit http://www.cleantechfellows.com.

About Colorado Cleantech Industry Association
The Colorado Cleantech Industry Association (CCIA) represents the interests of the state's cleantech industry. Its mission is to further establish Colorado as a world leader in clean technology by providing representation and advocacy, a unified voice, relevant programming and capacity development. For more information, visit http://www.coloradocleantech.com.