RICHARD EIDLIN
BIOGRAPHY

Richard is the Founder and President of The Progress Group. He has worked at the intersection of business, politics and sustainability for over twenty-five years. His experience in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors provides him with a keen appreciation of how to forge effective national coalitions. Richard is a creative, global thinker who translates corporate and community strategic visions into practical action plans. He focuses much of his work on building markets and promoting policies that increase social justice and enable clean energy technologies, sustainable businesses and green products to gain wider acceptance. As a natural convener of people and ideas, Richard is a master at organizing conferences and programs that catalyze thinking and progressive action around issues of sustainability, environmental stewardship, social entrepreneurship and capital mobilization. He is a long-time advocate for the adoption of triple bottom line business practices.

Richard has developed a specialty in linking business with environmental and community organizations.  As a consultant to the Apollo Alliance from 2005 to 2009, Richard was responsible for recruiting hundreds of private companies and business trade organizations to support Apollo’s federal and state clean energy-good jobs policy initiatives. His work included directing the AFL-CIO supported 2007 ‘Labor Capital Clean Energy’ program as well as coordinating Apollo’s corporate fund raising effort. He also developed the business outreach strategy for Apollo’s Green Manufacturing initiative, which has led to the introduction of several pieces of federal legislation. Richard also developed several white papers this spring for Oakland-based Green For All, highlighting how business and foundations could support its Capital Access Program. As part of the management team of the recently formed American Sustainable Business Council, Richard is helping lead the policy and fundraising efforts for this national effort.

His experience in the renewable energy industry began in 1995 and includes working for several leading solar energy system integrators. This includes Denver based SolSource, Inc. where he worked as the firm’s business development consultant and legislative analyst for four years. Richard served as Vice President of Sales and Strategy for Solar Works, Inc., in the Northeast (now Alteris Renewables) as well as for Colorado-based, Altair Energy (now the Alpha Group) . Richard developed the product launch strategy for the nation’s first grid-tied PV inverter to OEMs, utilities and solar dealers in 1997-98. He has helped lead several successful state efforts to have renewable energy portfolio standards adopted, as well as net metering legislation and ‘solar on school’ programs. Richard served on the Board of the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association for several years and has testified before several state legislatures and US Senate committee hearings.

Richard’s international experience began in the early 1980’s conducting research at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs on European energy and trade policy. Once having moved to NYC after graduate school, he worked for a political risk-consulting firm and then some years later as a staff member at the UN Environment Programme in the late 1980’s and 1990’s. At UNEP, Richard directed a series of groundbreaking conferences that brought together hundreds of corporations, investors, NGOs, U.N. agencies and national and local governments to develop sustainable development programs. He was involved in establishing the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives and UNEP’s Finance Initiative. Richard attended the 1992 Earth Summit in Brazil.

His experience in working in the public sector includes four and a half years with the NYC government as a senior policy analyst. He split his time between the Department of Investigation and the Department of General Services. Both experiences honed his skills as an organizational troubleshooter and program analyst.

Richard has been involved in the field of corporate citizenship and social responsibility since the mid-1980’s. Richard was an adjunct faculty member with Boston College’s Center for Corporate Citizenship from 1995-2000 years, teaching courses as well as consulting to Fortune 1000 firms on tri-sector partnerships. He was a Board Member for several years of the New Hampshire Business for Social Responsibility organization and helped found the Community Capital Bank in Brooklyn. For the past four years, Richard has been a board member of CORE; Colorado’s leading business sustainability trade association. He has served as program chair for the annual Sustainable Opportunities Summit since 2007. He also teaches an online graduate environmental policy and management course at the University of Denver’s University College.

As a political consultant and fundraiser, Richard co-directed the Colorado chapter of the national Clean Tech for Obama 2008 effort. He is a member of the national Clean Economy Network. He served as a consultant on renewable energy and economic development issues to candidate (and now Governor) Bill Ritter of Colorado in 2006 and was one of the principal authors of the ‘New Energy Economy’ blueprint.

Richard earned a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Wisconsin and Bachelors in Government from the University of Maryland. He has been living in Denver since 2003 with his wife, Heather.

Richard can be contacted at:

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1400 S. Monroe Street, Denver, CO 80210