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Plug-In Solar for All of Us
WHO WE ARE
Reshaping clean energy markets to benefit every American
Many of us feel powerless as electricity bills rise. We think the best chapter of this fight is just beginning, because the technology we spent decades fighting for has finally arrived and increasingly costs less than the fossil fuel alternative.
IN GOOD COMPANY
We are driving the national coalition
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THE TEAM
Serial founders putting mission first
Bright Saver was founded by technology entrepreneurs who have built and scaled companies before, now channeling that experience into decarbonization that pays for itself.
Kevin Chou
Co-Founder. Kevin is a serial entrepreneur who has built several tech startups from the ground up. He has grown companies from zero to $400 million a year in revenue, run organizations of 1,200+ people, and served on several for-profit and nonprofit boards including the Board of Trustees of UC Berkeley.
Rupert Mayer
Co-Founder. Rupert is a former software entrepreneur turned climate tech investor, executive and evangelist. After building one of the 1,000 fastest-growing U.S. companies, he pivoted to climate solutions in 2022 and has become an expert and advocate for solar, storage, and home electrification.
Cora Stryker
Co-Founder. Cora is a serial founder and leader of social mission-driven organizations. She thrives on building win-win strategic partnerships to drive measurable impact, investing in growth strategies, and fostering a collaborative, supportive, and inclusive organizational culture.
Wesley Schrock
Business Development. Wesley is a mission-driver investor with 10+ years of experience across the US and emerging markets at Kiva.org, where his work focused on the intersection of climate change and inclusive finance. He returns to his roots as an operator of innovative, high-growth organizations with Bright Saver.
Kristy Leong
Marketing. Kristy is a seasoned analytical marketing leader experienced in growing businesses, acquiring customers, and delivering operational excellence. She also excels in optimizing businesses and amplifying the impact of mission-driven organizations committed to positive societal and environmental change.
Raj Jambotkar
Product. Raj is a veteran product leader who’s passionate about using technology to scale mission-driven organizations. In past leadership roles at social ventures and nonprofits, he’s envisioned cleantech and fintech product strategies, accelerated revenue growth, and championed impact initiatives.
Hannah Ellis
Campaign & Policy. Hannah Ellis brings a background in sustainability, community-centered technology, and climate justice to their work at Bright Saver. She holds a Master’s of Information Management and Systems from UC Berkeley’s School of Information, where she focused on climate and food systems, agrivoltaics, and community-driven alternatives to incumbent infrastructure — including a capstone project on community networks as alternatives to large private ISPs. Prior to graduate school, she spent three years at BSR (Business for Social Responsibility), leading sustainability and human rights initiatives for global companies.
Diane Tavenner
Board Member. Diane is the CEO of Futre.me, an organization helping young people launch fulfilling lives. She has two decades of non-profit experience, including as Chairperson of the Board at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Chair of the Board of Trustees for Minerva University. The co-founder and former CEO of Summit Public Schools, Dianne co-hosts the popular podcast Class Disrupted.
Phillip Hyun
Board Member. Phillip has been a passionate supporter of Latino and Hispanic communities in his work as a board director at HSF for the last 9 years. He also brings 18 years of energy experience to Bright Saver as cofounder and executive board at PacificWest Energy Solutions, a leading provider of comprehensive energy conservation, power generation, and energy consulting solutions.
Advisors
Nick Josefowitz
Nick is the CEO of Permit Power, a non-profit working to make it cheap and easy for Americans to power their lives with clean electricity. He also serves as the Commissioner and Vice Chair of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. Previously, Nick was Chief of Policy at SPUR and served on the boards of BART, Bay Area Regional Collaborative (BARC), Water Emergency Transportation Authority.
Kamal Kapadia
As the Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer of Terra.do, Kamal is working to get 100 million people tackling climate change this decade. Prior, she was Communications and Research Lead at Blue Planet Foundation and started her career in the solar industry in India, Sri Lanka and the UK.
Daniel Gerber
Daniel is a Power Electronics Research Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a leading expert on plug-in-solar technology. He got his Masters in Electrical Engineering from MIT and his PhD from UC Berkeley. Daniel has published extensively on energy efficiency and power distribution.
Jennifer Loo
Jennifer is a finance executive with a track record of scaling high-growth companies at the cutting edge of innovation and impact. She has led fundraising, financial strategy, and operations for disruptive D2C companies tackling big challenges—from revolutionizing financial access to democratizing legal services.
Wendy Nguyen
Wendy is the CMO of Hello Heart and President of Asian Americans Rise. She brings decades of building mission-driven brands and movements to Bright Saver’s strategic communication and advocacy work.
Ashwin Manthripragada
Ashwin is Development Director at the Environmental Defense Center, a nonprofit advancing environmental justice. He brings extensive nonprofit experience, having served in executive, development, and program leadership roles as well as in on-the-ground roles in teaching, organizing, communications, conservation, and farming. He holds a PhD from UC Berkeley.
Bill McKibben
Bill is co-founder of Third Act, which mobilizes people over 60 for action on climate and justice. He’s the author of The End of Nature and 20 other books, and has received numerous honors, including the Right Livelihood Award and Gandhi Peace Prize.
Paul Rice
Paul is a pioneer in the global fair trade and sustainability movements, with more than four decades of work building models that use business and consumer choice to reduce poverty and protect the planet. In 1998, he founded Fair Trade USA in a one-room warehouse in Oakland, growing it into the leading fair trade certifier in North America and partnering with more than 1,700 brands and retailers to support more responsible global supply chains.
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