MANAGING DIRECTOR
Carbon Finance Strategies LLC, Washington, DC
After receiving high school golf All-American Honors, Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Honors, and Collegiate Golf All-American status at the University of Virginia, Fred spent almost a decade in the golf industry, playing professionally in events throughout North America. During that time he also formed several golf enterprises that provided him bottom-up understanding of the business creation process and established his reputation as a successful serial entrepreneur.
Fred left the professional circuit in 2001, and returned to his academic roots in Virginia. As a graduate of Fairfax County’s nationally-recognized magnet school for science/technology, he already was aware of critical connections between technology, economic growth, and the environment. He observed that the implications of these linkages were systematically being underestimated by major real estate development and construction industry participants. He concluded that resource management and sustainable construction, based on lifecycle and operational costs, were largely ignored. This became the focus of his MBA, which led to consulting engagements with several residential developers operating in the Mid-Atlantic region, as well as a non-profit startup, Green Advantage, which is dedicated to providing green construction training for contractors and subcontractors. Fred’s work for Green Advantage required him to become an expert in multiple classes of the LEED rating system and to build relationships within the USGBC. To better serve his growing clientele, he formed a virtual consultancy, providing strategic advice and investment due diligence services to real estate developers and property managers with a focus on water use, energy management, and on-site power generation.
Fred’s work within the, then nascent, green construction industry caught the attention of management at Pulte Home’s Mid-Atlantic Division where he was hired to provide strategic advice and due diligence on sustainable construction practices. Fred’s responsibilities were eventually expanded to analyze and evaluate the business case for Pulte’s land acquisition group to develop wind projects in western Maryland. This was followed by a similar engagement where the feasibility of integrating solar thermal and PV into residential offerings was the focus. A comparable, but more extensive engagement with KB Home followed in 2006-7, with energy efficiency and commercial solar PV financing being added to the client’s list of interests. During the course of the KB Home contract the decision was made to include solar thermal applications on over 60% of the residential units planned, roughly 1500 units of 2 collector systems, representing an aggregate annual production of 360 billion BTUs. The plans Fred generated with the developer also included ~2500 kWp of PPA financed solar PV located on retail roofs and parking decks. Among many others, he has worked with the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Army, NASA, AECOM, Peterson Companies, Pulte Home, KB Home, the University of Maryland, and Johns Hopkins University.
Fred’s unique proficiencies translated into renewable energy consulting engagements with several construction companies and A&E firms pursing LEED certification across various building types. The Tecta America Corporation, the U.S.’ largest commercial roofing company, hired Fred to develop strategic and tactical plans for Tecta’s roofing divisions to enter the solar contracting market. Tecta’s national footprint required Fred to review and analyze dozens of states policies regarding solar projects and then to cross reference this information with Tecta’s customer portfolios which included Coca Cola, Prologis, and several of Walmart’s primary U.S. suppliers. The engagement also required Fred to qualify and coordinate responses to RFPs, develop equipment supply relationships, and review LEED submittals relating to solar energy and energy efficiency contributions.
Fulfillment of these engagements required Fred to develop a knowledge base and skill sets that were very unusual and generally not available through traditional resources. Fred has carefully followed the development of the entire solar value chain with a sharp focus on systems integrators and commercialized products. In order to keep his market analysis accurate and current, Fred has built solid relationships with industry participants that now occupy positions of influence within the solar market. Because he has remained financially independent from equipment manufacturers, finance providers, and other industry heavyweights, he is uniquely positioned objectively to assess deal structures, equipment choices, warranties, installer credentials, financiers, and the like.
