Personal Experience Working with
Green Technology

by Samantha Simonnet, Director Cleantech

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Weapon of Mass Seduction

As an executive recruiter, I am tasked with finding critical talents with the engineering, scientific and managerial skills in renewable energy (solar, wind, biomass, marine), energy storage, energy efficiency, water technology etc. that translates into finding people that can build photovoltaic or concentrated solar power plants, wind farms, that can design battery or fuel cells for electric car applications, that can implement a smart metering and smart grid strategy at utility-level or discover the next generation Reverse Osmosis membranes as a few examples.

My responsibility is also to build a community and ecosystem for economic development, therefore I attend cleantech conferences such as the CleanEdge Investor Summit or the Clean Tech Open and participate as a speaker on green jobs panels - links enclosed. (In addition)...I am a committee member and partner of several cleantech organizations whose missions are to advance the innovation, business and public policy in cleantech such as The California Clean Innovation, the Anaheim Center for New Energy technologies, the USGBC or OCBC, right now working on Fueling California and identifying issues such as: What policies and incentives do we need to support to reinvigorate greater green job creation, biomass fuel production, municipal solid waste, to fuel production, green manufacturing, and green economic impact?

With regards to green jobs, although there is a high percentage of the population unemployed right now, the people needed in cleantech are not presently trained to do so and there is an existing gap especially among the GenXers who traditionally shied away from STEM studies (science, engineering, technology and math) and went to law, marketing or finance. That's why we see an increasing amount of incubators such as CACI or AC-NET or Cleantech LA that partner horizontally (universities, government, business) to address and foster technology transfers as well as incentives and education.

www.fuelingcalifornia.org

/www.cleantechsummit.com

www.cleantechopen.com/app.cgi/content/home/index

http://brightgreenfuture.net/

http://www.prlog.org/10273011-rick-farrell-and-ecotek-lighting-receive-green-engineering-finalist-award-from-techamerica.html

http://www.cacleaninnovation.com

http://www.techconnectworld.com/Cleantech2010/
sponsors.html?id=55

http://www.usgbc.org/

_________________
Samantha Simonnet
Director Cleantech
Bridge Gate LLC
949.553.9200 x236 Office
949.660.1810 fax
949.698.3238 mobile
Email
www.bridgegate.com .

Samantha  Simonnet - CleanTech Brief

Samantha  Simonnet is the Director of BridgeGate Executive Search
Clean Technology and Alternative Energy Practice and in that capacity, she assists companies in that space with finding critical talent with the engineering and managerial skills around renewable energy, energy storage, energy efficiency , green buildings, clean transportation, water technologies and smart power. Some roles that she has worked on include a VP Engineering for the US bio-energy business unit of a large  French  conglomerate with an aim to develop and build 12 50MW biomass power plants , a COO Engineering, Procurement and Construction for the US operations of a Spanish solar PV leader for utility-scale projects; a Director of Development for a non-profit accelerator and incubator, a Chief Technology Officer for a China-based lithium ion battery technology company for the electric vehicle market .

Moreover,  Samantha  is an instructor with the University of California Irvine Extension and she is developing courses in clean technology for the Sustainability leadership Certificate Program. She is also a committee member of the Clean Tech Open whose mission is to find, fund, and foster the big ideas that address today's most urgent energy, environmental, and economic challenges.