Team
Bob has over 35 years experience in finance and business innovation and is a co-founder of Catalyst Financial Group, Inc. Over the last 28 years, his work has focused on financing renewable energy (solar, wind, hydro, co-generation), energy and water efficiency as well as recycling and pollution prevention projects. Catalyst has arranged financings and has been lead financial advisor on more than $1 billion in projects. His clients have included hundreds of businesses, major utilities, the U.S Department of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, major trade associations and State and City energy offices.
As a financial advisor, one of Bob’s projects was to advise and arrange funding facilities for the installation of solar and energy efficiency equipment in homes, businesses and public sector buildings participating in the City of Santa Monica’s $1.5 billion Solar Santa Monica initiative.
His venture capital experience has been focused primarily on energy, including a $10.5 million equity round for a development stage ethanol company that was subsequently sold to a public company giving investors a 15X return in 3 years. He was also co-founder and principal of a boutique investment firm in 1992 that financed energy efficiency projects for the commercial and public sectors. Most recently Bob co-managed an $11 million energy Revolving Loan Fund for Delaware’s Sustainable Energy Utility.
Bob has served on the Board of Directors or Advisory Board of numerous financial institutions including: Community Capital Bank; the Highland Expansion Fund; People’s United Bank’s Socially Responsible Lending Fund and the Flexible Capital Fund that provides financing to growth companies in Vermont.
Bob is a founding member of Investors’ Circle (the largest angel investing network in the United States focused exclusively on socially responsible businesses) and a founding member of Social Venture Network (a multi-country social change business network comprised of the leading social entrepreneurs in the U.S. and overseas). He is a frequent guest lecturer, trainer and keynote speaker on energy finance issues. Bob holds a B.A from Pace University, and is a 1991 graduate of the National Association of the Small Business Investment Companies Venture Capital Institute’s training program.
Bob is located in the Putney, VT office.
Neil has been designing energy finance programs and arranging project-specific financing for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects since 1985. Catalyst, a specialist in energy and water conservation projects, has arranged financings for over $1 billion. His clients include U.S. EPA ENERGY STAR®, U.S. Department of Energy, the Inter-American Development Bank, over 20 electric and gas utilities, engineering companies and vendors, and hundreds of companies, States and municipalities. Neil has trained over a thousand marketing and sales people on how to use financing to sell their products.
Neil was co-designer and manager of Delware’s energy efficiency financing programs which included the creation of a state revolving loan fund, helped design on-bill recovery (financing) program for five Illinois utilities, and is part of DOE’s EECBG/SEP task force providing financial technical assistance to ARRA grantees.
Neil speaks regularly for organizations including the Government Finance Officers Association, the Association of School Business Officials, National Association of State Energy Officers, Association of Government Leasing & Finance, Eastern Association of Equipment Lessors, and the Council of Great City Schools and was on the task force of The American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment/Clinton Climate Initiative program. He has written extensively on financing energy efficiency projects, which have been published in a variety of media including the Government Finance Review, Energy User News, Energy & Power, Monitor, and Electroindustry.
Neil is fluent in Spanish and helped design financing programs for energy projects in Mexico, Peru and El Salvador. Neil has a BA in Finance from Long Island University (LIU) and has completed post-graduate studies in marketing at the Arthur T. Roth Graduate School at LIU.
Neil is located in the Danbury, CT office.
Alan has been working in energy, finance and the environmental sector for over thirty years. He began working in the regulatory sector providing environmental assessments and mitigation measures for developers of hydroelectric power, cogeneration and transmission facilities. Subsequently, he joined with the Catalyst principals as a co-founder of an energy efficiency finance company that provided capital and financial services to Energy Service companies and commercial, municipal and institutional customers primarily in the New York metropolitan area.
Alan was also a co-founder and principal of an early and mezzanine stage investment firm and a specialty finance lending company. The early focus was on small companies seeking growth capital and consolidation opportunities in the energy and environmental sectors, primarily manufacturers developing products using specialty and recycled materials. He has served on several boards of early-stage companies, been a consultant to several municipalities, and is currently a member of the National Advisory Board of the Union of Concerned Scientists. Alan holds undergraduate and M.S. degrees in Biology and Environmental Affairs from Clark University.
Alan is located in the Greenwich, CT office.
