Boise Entrepreneur Week 2021 – Cleantech Business in Idaho
Boise Entrepreneur Week is Idaho’s largest community-driven, entrepreneur-focused event. Each year, thousands of people come together to learn, support, and celebrate Idaho’s growing entrepreneurial ecosystem.
About the Speakers
For nearly 20 years, Amber Bieg has been working with companies and communities on sustainability-focused solutions ranging from developing Open Tree Map, enterprise ecosystem management software to helping to design the Food Commons regional food system. As both a left-brain and right-brain thinker with a mastery of technology and an eye for design, Amber uses Design Thinking, Scenario Planning, and other frameworks to help clients come to identify with out-of-the box ways to solve highly complex problems.
Amber has an MBA in Sustainable Management from Presidio Graduate School and a BA in International Studies and Spanish, with a focus on Economic Development and Women’s Studies from the University of Oregon.
Past and current clients include: St. Luke’s, Clif Bar, Dynamis Energy Corp, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, Idaho Department of Lands, Idaho Forest Products Commission, Idaho Climate Summit, City of San Francisco Department of the Environment, Napa Valley Transportation Authority, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), Alameda County (StopWaste.org), Bay Area Recycling Outreach Coalition, Autodesk Inc, The FruitGuys, Lumeria Resorts, Somersaults Life Company, ChicoBag, and Guayaki. Amber is fluent in Spanish.
James Wagoner is a licensed professional engineer with technical executive experience. Battery nerd on 2nd battery startup with Co-Founder Alex Livingston. First battery startup secured a $1.2B infrastructure contract in Spain. Under his leadership, Joule Case has secured several patents and large strategic customer agreements. In his free time, he enjoys skiing, hiking, biking and being on the water.
Mattie Mead is an adventure seeking entrepreneur who has a passion for reenvisioning the materials used in construction and beyond. In 2016, he was a TEDx speaker on the topic of “Building a Better World.”
Through his venture Hempitecture, he is a builder, an innovator, and is dedicated to seeing the use of sustainable, healthy building materials in our built environment. His work with Hempitecture awarded him a spot on the 2020 Forbes “30 under 30” list.
Outside of Hempitecture, Mattie serves on the Board of Directors of Idaho BaseCamp, a non-profit organization that connects underserved communities to the outdoors. In his home of Ketchum, Idaho, he serves as the Vice-Chair of the Planning and Zoning Commission, and the Chairperson of the Historical Preservation Commission. Mead is a graduate of Hobart College ’13, where he studied architecture, environmental sciences, and entrepreneurship.
Leif Elgethun is a serial clean energy entrepreneur with four successful clean energy companies, eight years of experience, and deep market knowledge in commercial and industrial lighting design and sales.
Mr. Elgethun is a licensed Professional Engineer, LEED accredited professional, and has Bachelor degrees in Chemical Engineering, Mathematics, and Chemistry, and a Masters in Engineering Management from the University of Idaho.
Mr. Elgethun is a Partner with Sprout Energy, and previously was a Partner with Bluebird Solar and Light, and Partner with Site Based Energy, all Idaho based energy services companies focusing on energy efficiency and renewable energy projects for corporate customers, was a founding partner in Intermountain Energy Partners where he developed a 330MW utility grade solar PV project in Idaho that was sold for an 8x return, was a Founding Partner of HydroGen LLC, a Boise based micro hydroelectric development firm that partnered with Lucid Energy to build the first inline micro hydro turbine for the City of Portland, and was a Co-Founder of SafeAccess, a Boise based company that commercialized a software platform to help businesses manage the COVID pandemic through symptom tracking, vaccine and testing verification, and visitor management.
Mr. Elgethun serves as Past-President of the Idaho Clean Energy Association, Board of the CleanTech Alliance where he’s Chair of the Idaho Chapter, and Board of the Treasure Valley YMCA where he sits on the Construction Task Force and Building and Properties Committee, Downtown Development Task Force, and Chaired the South Meridian Construction Task Force. He previously served as Chair of the Idaho Chapter of USGBC and has been on the board of several additional nonprofit organizations.
When Mr. Elgethun isn’t busy building Retrolux or helping improve our community, he can often be found biking, running, skiing, or rafting in America’s most scenic areas.
Dr. Michael Baskin leads the innovation portfolio for the Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES) consortium. He specializes in energy security with a particular focus on catalyzing new programs and developing intellectual capital. He previously served as the first Professor of Energy Studies at Marine Corps University, where he created energy security curriculum and innovation programs for students from multiple schools and colleges. From 2013-2015 he served as a Fellow at the U.S. Department of Energy, where he catalyzed the Solar Ready Vets program, led a renewable energy sector hiring commitment of veterans for the First Lady’s Joining Forces initiative, and served as a liaison between the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) and the U.S. Department of Defense.