Lyceum Agency - Speakers

Ron Pernick

Author │Clean Tech Consultant & Pioneer │ Business Entrepreneur

Ron Pernick is co-founder and principal of Clean Edge, Inc., a leading clean-tech research and publishing firm specializing in clean technologies (solar, wind, biofuels, green building, water filtration, etc.) and co-author of The Clean Tech Revolution (Collins, June 2007).

In The Clean Tech Revolution, Pernick and co-author Clint Wilder identify the major forces that have pushed clean tech from back-to-the-earth utopian dream to its current revolution among the inner circles of corporate boardrooms, on Wall Street trading floors, and in government offices around the globe.

As the economy faces unprecedented challenges from high energy prices, resource shortages, and global environmental and security threats, clean tech—technologies designed to provide superior performance at a lower cost while creating significantly less waste than conventional offerings—promises to be the next engine of economic growth.

And when industry giants such as GE, Toyota, and Sharp and investment firms such as Goldman Sachs are making multi-billion dollar investments in clean technology, the message is clear. Developing clean technologies is no longer simply a social issue championed by environmentalists; it’s also a money-making enterprise moving solidly into the business mainstream.

A veteran of the clean-tech sector with more than two decades of high-tech and business development experience, Pernick has co-authored more than a dozen reports on emerging clean technologies and worked with a range of clients including multinationals, start-ups, government agencies, and investors since Clean Edge’s inception in 2000. He also oversees the firm’s co-production of the Clean-Tech Investor Summit, an annual gathering of clean-tech investors and businesses, and the company’s NASDAQ® Clean Edge® US Index, a benchmark index which tracks US-listed clean-energy companies.

Pernick’s clean-tech work highlights how for the first time in modern history economics and the environment are not at odds, but intricately linked. According to Pernick, those businesses that develop, deploy, and invest in clean technologies are best positioned to reap economic rewards while those that do not risk becoming extinct like the dinosaurs whose fossils fueled the last great industrial revolution.

Prior to founding Clean Edge, he ran his own consulting practice and helped build the brands of such Internet pioneers as Internet In A Box, Global Network Navigator (GNN), Preview Travel (which later merged with Travelocity), and Yahoo! Earlier, Pernick worked in the U.S. and Japan, serving a range of telecom and consumer electronics companies, including EDS and Sharp.

Ron Pernick has been an instructor at UC Berkeley Extension and New College’s Green MBA program and is currently adjunct faculty at Portland State University where he teaches a clean-tech entrepreneurship and innovation course as part of the MBA program. He speaks regularly at industry events. Recent appearances include the Robeco Clean Tech Forum, the Copper Trade Association’s 6th Annual Global Market Trends conference, The Clean-Tech Investor Summit, Clean-Tech Investing in the Northwest, SRI in the Rockies, and the Sierra Summit.

In 2006 he was named one of 50 most influential men under the age of 42 by Details magazine. He lives with his wife and two children in Portland, OR.

Selected Lecture Topics

The Future of Clean Energy: How Business, Governments, and Policymakers are Embracing the Next Wave of Innovation
The Clean-Tech Imperative: Emerging Technologies for the Developed and Developing World
Clean-Tech Markets and Innovation: The Next Big Investment and Growth Opportunity

Books
The Clean Tech Revolution: The Next Big Growth and Investment Opportunity (Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder, Collins, 2007)

Selected Clean Edge Reports and Industry Research

Clean-Energy Trends (2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003 and 2002)
Weaning the United States from Foreign Oil: An Assessment of the Impact of the American Energy Security Fund on Oil Imports, Greenhouse Gas Reduction, and Job Creation (2007)
The Solar High-Impact National Energy (SHINE) Project: A Call to Action for U.S. Energy Security and Independence (2005)
Harnessing San Francisco's Clean-Tech Future (2004 and 2005)
Building for the Future: The Case for Green Buildings and Energy Security for the University of California (2002)

For more information on Ron Pernick and his work, go to www.cleanedge.com and www.thecleantechrevolution.com.

One of the book's key strengths, simple as it is, is Pernick and Wilder's clear definition of what "green," really means in the context of technology—both in terms of sustainability and potential profits….

—Business Week

The biggest market opportunity today is to find alternatives to the earth's diminishing resources. This is the definitive guide on how to make money by protecting the environment.

—Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco

Thomas Friedman's book The World is Flat helped people recognize that globalization is pervasive. Similarly, The Clean Tech Revolution shows us that clean energy has arrived and will have a far-reaching impact on the global economy.

—Bob Greifeld, President and Chief Executive Officer, The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc.

The Clean Tech Revolution... shows the green movement not in heartstring terms but as economically profitable.

—USA Today