Directors
Richard Hansen - Executive Director
Titus Brenninkmeijer - Director
Titus is a social entrepreneur whose work has focused on assisting global entrepreneurs to grow sustainable businesses through the development of commercially viable applications. In 2005 he founded Solgenix, LLC, to support solar energy entrepreneurs in emerging and developed markets around the world. Mr. Brenninkmeijer holds a BA from Boston College, and a MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. He serves as board member and advisor to many organizations including Accion International, a leading micro-finance organization and Technoserve, a non-profit which supports agricultural entrepreneurs in the developing world.
Harish Hande - Director
Richard is a pioneer in the application of PV technology combined with micro-finance to increase access to electricity in developing countries. Starting in 1984, he led a non-profit program to introduce PV technology with micro-finance in the Dominican Republic. He then replicated this model in Honduras in 1989 under a contract with the U.S. Department of Energy. This work led to significant replication globally. In 1993 Richard founded Soluz Inc., a Massachusetts corporation, whose mission is to assist the global transition to sustainable energy. Soluz, Inc. provides consulting services to advance energy access. In Honduras, Central America, Soluz, Inc. has a subsidiary social enterprise Soluz Honduras, established in 1994 that supplies PV products and related micro-finance products. Through Soluz, Inc. Mr. Hansen has provided advisory services for major institutions including USAID, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Nepal, Nicaragua, the Philippines, and elsewhere. He holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts and a master's degree in business administration from Boston University.
Harish is the CEO of the SELCO Foundation which was established in India in 2010. The SELCO Foundation uses soft funding and flexible capital to develop robust and field-proven technological and financial models in the field of energy and sustainability. He is the Chairman of SELCO Solar Pvt. Ltd, a company he co-founded in 1995. SELCO Solar is a social enterprise that provides sustainable energy solutions and services to under-served households and businesses. SELCO has provided solar PV for over 400,000 households. Dr. Hande earned his Doctorate in energy engineering (solar specialty) at the University of Massachusetts (Lowell). He has an undergraduate degree in Energy Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur. Dr. Hande serves on the boards of many international organizations.