Company

Jeff Ressler, Chief Executive Officer

Jeff Ressler is Chief Executive Officer of Clean Power Research. In his more than ten years at the company, he has overseen the inception of the SolarAnywhere® and WattPlan®® software families, and grown PowerClerk® from a nascent, online incentive processing tool into a powerful, general purpose energy program automation solution. A software industry veteran, he has a track record of delivering highly available cloud-based solutions to customers as well as deep experience building effective functional teams across engineering, product management, sales, marketing, business development, support and operations.

Jeff’s career includes stints at both Oracle and Disney in addition to more than 10 years at Microsoft. During his tenure at Microsoft, Jeff served as Director of Product Management for Exchange Server and Lead Product Manager for SQL Server, among other roles. For more than two years, he was the speech manager for Bill Gates, who was Microsoft’s Chairman and Chief Software Architect at the time. Jeff holds a degree in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University.

Learn more about Jeff in his own words in this Suncast interview with Nico Johnson, “From Redmond to the Sun: Why Jeff Ressler Left Microsoft to Focus on Clean Energy.”

Tom Hoff, Founder and Chief Research Officer (CRO)

Tom Hoff is the founder and chief research officer of Clean Power Research. He’s a pioneer in the science of valuing distributed solar generation, and holds a number of patents in the area of PV fleet power estimation. Tom’s research is proving vital to utilities and ISOs faced with the challenge of maintaining reliability while integrating ever-increasing levels of PV generation on the grid.

Tom takes an analytical approach to problem solving and his mathematical models and methodologies are frequently integrated into the company’s commercial software products, making them readily accessible to the solar industry.

Tom’s passion for innovation in the area of clean energy system analysis has made him a sought-after industry speaker and consultant for the PV industry, and he has published extensively for more than 25 years. His numerous research topics include: valuation of photovoltaics and distributed generation, risk management and renewables and, most recently, methods to characterize PV output variability. In performing his research, Tom has been known to test hypotheses using the PV and electrical systems in his own home.

Tom began his career at Pacific Gas and Electric Company. He holds a Ph.D. in Engineering-Economic Systems from Stanford University’s School of Engineering.

Alan Saunders, VP, Sales and Business Development

As the vice president of sales and business development, Alan leads account teams focused on helping our customers navigate the energy transformation. Alan’s team drives revenue for the company while identifying new market opportunities and seeking out partnerships that enable our SaaS products to solve enterprise-level problems for our customers.

Alan is a passionate veteran of the clean energy space and the utility business. Prior to joining CPR, Alan led global energy and utility industry strategy, product marketing and business development teams at design software leader Autodesk. Previously, Alan led initiatives in energy efficiency, system planning, operations and customer service for two leading utilities. Alan holds a degree in Mechanical and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Joseph (Joe) Beer, VP, Product Management

Joe Beer is the Vice President of Product Management and Customer Success at Clean Power Research.  He is a technology industry veteran with 30+ years of leadership experience in product development, solution architecture and delivery, IT management, and consulting across multiple industries.

Joe was the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Worldwide Technology Leader for the Power and Utilities (P&U) vertical business and, prior to AWS, Joe was Chief Architect/CTO for Puget Sound Energy (PSE) responsible for directing IT strategy and architecture. While at PSE, he was pivotal in leading their digital transformation and initiated their move into the AWS cloud. 

Joe has held significant technology leadership roles at firms such as Washington Mutual, Group Health Coop (now Kaiser), Ernst & Young, and ARCO.  Joe holds an MBA in Technology Management from USC and BS in Business Admin from CSULA. He is also a Standford Certified Program Manager and held PMI’s PMP certification for two decades.