Investing in human capital to grow the cleantech industry

The Pivotal Leaders business network aims to grow the Northwest cleantech industry by cultivating leadership in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and British Columbia. Through this twice-monthly column, members of the Pivotal Leaders network take turns discussing some of the most pressing issues and trends facing cleantech entrepreneurs in the Northwest and beyond. Gregg Semler, managing director of Pivotal Investments, an early stage venture capital firm, kicks off the series. 

With the many information sources in our world today, it can be challenging to know where to look for answers. In the coming months, Sustainable Industries and Pivotal Leaders through this column will feature insights into how the Northwest region’s clean technology businesses are shaping the region’s sustainable economy. The 2010 Pivotal Leaders are a select group of men and women that were nominated by the community and selected by their peers as the top entrepreneurial business leaders most likely to lead successful cleantech companies in the Northwest in the next three to five years.  

This impressive group includes professionals from well-known businesses such as McKinstry and Microsoft, where they’ve worked within the ranks of industry to drive change. Others are entrepreneurs on the cutting edge of new technology development for alternative energy, smart grid, smart storage and alternative transportation companies.

The list also includes forward-thinking investors, service providers and champions of cleantech in the public sector. Each of the Pivotal Leaders is contributing to the growth of the Northwest’s sustainable economy. Their work serves as a beacon for investment in the rapid development of a clean, green, economically strong future for the Pacific Northwest region and the rest of the nation. 

Since we first announced the Pivotal Leaders in late May 2010, many people have approached me wanting to know why the network was created and what the Pivotal Leaders will do. I always have a quick answer to the first question: In order to realize our economic potential, we must invest in our most important asset—our leaders.

The key to our economic future in the Northwest is the development of strong entrepreneurial leadership. Given the Northwest’s track record in technology and its ethos around sustainability (Forbes magazine ranked Oregon and Washington in the top three “greenest” states in the United States), the region should be at the forefront of delivering solutions for the rapidly growing global markets for clean technology.

However, many other regions have already shifted their focus to this emerging opportunity and there is a legitimate concern that the Northwest is moving from leader to laggard. This is not due to a lack of fresh ideas. Investors see a tremendous amount of innovation in the cleantech arena. The challenge is in actually converting these ideas into globally competitive solutions. The key question is, What can we do to help these ideas—and the Northwest entrepreneurs behind them—grow into the successful cleantech companies of tomorrow?

To realize a sustainable, clean technology-based economy in the Northwest, the region needs both sufficient investment capital and human capital, according to the Carbon Free Prosperity Report authored by Climate Solutions and Clean Edge and sponsored by Pivotal Investments. The success of the region’s cleantech industry depends largely on the skilled workforce and entrepreneurial CEOs and CTOs who have the business acumen to drive successful cleantech companies. My partners and I at Pivotal Investments, along with our presenting sponsors, launched the Pivotal Leaders network with this need in mind. We built the concept around two principle aspirations: 

1) Demonstrate to investors and the business community that the Northwest has a wealth of talented leadership, people who have the knowledge, skills, motivation and business acumen to lead successful clean technology companies.

2) Create a mechanism to help these leaders identify each other and the resources they need to realize their goals in leading clean technology companies here in the Northwest.

The first step is identifying and recognizing talented prospective leaders and giving them opportunities to learn, collaborate and develop connections across the Northwest and around the world. That is what the Pivotal Leaders network is all about.

This brings me to the second question: What will the Pivotal Leaders do? The simple answer is, Get connected. The network’s success is rooted in creating an environment where these talented individuals attract the necessary resources (financial and human) to grow thriving companies in the Northwest. As part of the network, the Pivotal Leaders are participating in networking opportunities—both live and virtual—bringing them together to collaborate and share ideas.

While we don’t know exactly what they’ll come up with, we are confident that, like any successful recipe, combining the right ingredients creates something far greater than the sum of its parts. It is our hope that the alchemy of global opportunity and competition, dynamic personalities and compelling ideas will spark new developments and successful partnerships. We aspire to create opportunities that will drive the leaders, the network and the Northwest’s cleantech economy to global competitiveness.

We also see a tremendous opportunity for the Pivotal Leaders to be spokespeople for the Northwest’s clean technology future. Toward that end, this Sustainable Industries column will give the Pivotal Leaders a unique forum to reach out and share their perspectives, ideas and solutions, helping us follow and support their efforts as they build great cleantech companies of the future in the Northwest.  

Gregg Semler is co-founder and managing director of Pivotal Investments, an early stage venture capital firm dedicated to identifying and partnering with the most promising entrepreneurs to build companies, primarily in the Pacific Northwest, that will deliver innovative, sustainable solutions for the world’s growing demand for resources such as energy, water, and materials.