Ed White – Chairman of Board
Ed White is Chairman of the Board of Field2Base, Inc., a Morrisville, NC based technology company that uses tablet PCs, wireless communications and software to support the mobile work force. He is also the founder and principal of White Ventures LLC, a private equity and commercial real estate development company. In 1980, after working for Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Ed founded Utility Translation Systems, Inc. (UTS), a successful remote-meter reading software company headquartered in Raleigh, NC. In 1996 he sold UTS to Itron, Inc., a leading supplier of energy information and communications solutions to the utility industry. He served as Itron’s Chairman of the Board until retiring in 2003 and has been a frequent speaker on metering and deregulation of the power supply industry at industry conferences throughout the world. Ed is a graduate of the North Carolina State University School of Engineering, and is immediate past president of North Carolina State University’s Engineering Foundation’s Board of Directors. He is on the Board of Directors of Morrisville’s Chamber of Commerce and is their former chairman. He is also on the board of directors for Stewart Engineering, American Institute of Health and Fitness, and is a former director of eMeter. He also serves as the Chief Advisor to EMC for their electric utility marketing vertical focused on Smart Grid.
Alistair Milne
Alistair Milne is a serial entrepreneur and investor. Over the last ten years he has founded and/or invested in over ten technology/media/telecoms start-ups in the US, UK and India. These include Oxis Energy, a pioneer in high-capacity lithium sulfur rechargeable batteries for future electric vehicles and Evosite, a successful website design & development agency with a broad range of international customers. While at university he founded a ‘social networking’ website for students and teenagers in Europe which he sold shortly after graduating in Computing Science from UMIST – Manchester (UK). From 2000 to 2003 he was an Executive Director at Stream Group Plc, helping them to their £15 million IPO in 2001 on the London Stock Exchange. Alistair represents and leads a consortium of European investors in GRIDiant.
Winston Hickox – California Strategies
Winston H. Hickox joined California Strategies, LLC as a partner in 2006, bringing with him experience in environmental policy and regulation, as well as a strong background in pension fund investment management. His environmental policy experience includes five years as Secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA); seven years as a Special Assistant for Environmental Affairs to Governor Jerry Brown; and two years as an alternate to the California Coastal Commission. Winston recently completed a two year assignment with the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) Investment Office where he assisted with the design and implementation of a series of Environmental Investment Initiatives in the Private Equity, Real Estate, Global Public Equity, as well as Corporate Governance segments of the fund’s $240B investment portfolio. He is presently on the Board of Directors of Sacramento County Employees Retirement System, Thomas Properties Group Inc., Cadiz Inc. and The Climate Trust. He also serves on Advisory Boards for FTSE’s Environmental Markets Index Series, Sustainable Conservation, Malk Sustainable Partners and Paladin Capital Group.
Grant Sardachuk – Centurion Holdings Ltd.
Mr. Sardachuk currently is a Managing Director of Centurion Holdings Ltd. and its associated Wild Rose Investments, LLLP, both Family Office owned investment entities of the Sardachuk family based in Calgary Canada and Scottsdale, Arizona, a position he has held since 1994. In addition, since 2009 Mr. Sardachuk has served as a Managing Director of the Optimus U.S. Real Estate Fund, which is a private investment fund which is mandated to invest in distressed U.S. real estate properties. From 1986 to 1994, Mr. Sardachuk successively held several senior executive positions in various publicly held subsidiaries of Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (formerly known as Brascan Corporation) a $28 billion Toronto, Canada based investment company and merchant bank. During his tenure, Mr. Sardachuk served in senior executive capacities at Hees International Bancorp Inc., Carena Developments Ltd., BCE Development Corporation, Brookfield Development Corporation and Coscan Development Corporation These corporations were majority owned or controlled by Brookfield and were largely involved in merchant banking, real estate investment and development. Mr. Sardachuk served as the Managing Partner, Real Estate for the Brookfield organization and was involved in several multi-billon dollar corporate restructurings, including BCE Development Corporation and Coscan Development Corporation. In his capacity in Brookfield’s merchant banking operations he was involved in numerous corporate and project financing and corporate reorganizations. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Calgary, (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) and a Master of Business Administration from New Mexico State University.