Our Team
What to Learn More About the Team Members
Antonio Dixon is an MIT-trained, award-winning entrepreneur, and economist with experience in healthcare (telehealth), renewable energy, and international trade which has led him to work over 20 international markets, and travel to over 60 countries. Mr. Dixon was recently recognized as a Top 100 Startup Changemaker from Harvard and MIT and recognized by the UN as a Young Pioneer, the winner of the Frost & Sullivan Emerging Market Innovation Award. His company, SolarFi is the only company with less than $50,000,000 in revenue to be invited to the UN’s SDG Innovators Program. Mr. Dixoon serves as an Executive-in-Residence at Columbia University and NYSERDA (The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority) and as a professional advisor at MIT’s Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship. He is a SOCAP Scholar that has advised on Presidential elections in Africa.
An expert change-maker and serial entrepreneur, Mr. Dixon has always had an abiding interest in sustainability. To that end, as co-founder of SunPowerd Mr. Dixon developed alliances to provide solar grids to developing countries and orchestrated key partnerships with Microsoft, Royal Dutch Shell, USAID Power Africa, and the United Nations. Based on his experiences as a resident in Africa where access to the internet and even continuous power is sometimes a luxury, Mr. Dixon saw an opportunity and leveraged his deep knowledge of technology to co-found SolarFi.
SolarFi has the life-altering potential to bring energy and economic development to developing countries and seeks to connect the under-served and unconnected populations in Africa through solar-powered technology stations which have become the swiss army knife for impacting communities
Russ Klein is the former Director of Innovation and Research at Sensi Tech Hub, supporting the first and only innovation center and its startup investment fund in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Mr. Klein is a professional innovation consultant who brings technology and best-practices to under-developed and under-served markets. He empowers people by inspiring them to experiment with disruptive tools and processes and by supporting them as they apply 21st-century technologies to create a better world for themselves. A serial entrepreneur, over the last 25 years Mr. Klein has founded more than a dozen startup technology companies developing software and information products for the private investment industry on Wall Street, as well as mobile banking, e-commerce, machine learning, multifactor security and biometrics, education, communications, and media systems. His skills include rapid development and agile methodologies, software design and engineering, information architecture and knowledge discovery in data, messaging and intranet platforms, web and mobile app development, Internet of Things solutions, OTT communications applications, and social media marketing. Mr. Klein has personally developed, produced, managed, and led hackathons for private companies, governments and NGOs, and for the public in the USA, Algeria, Turkey, Poland, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere. Mr. Klein is also an accomplished writer, focusing on research and analysis in emerging technology and emerging markets.
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Advisors
What to Learn More About our Advisors
Dr. Sam Oboche Agbo is a Public health expert and Child Specialist with a strong background and work experience in Epidemiology; Primary Health Care, UHC, Health Policy and Financing and Business management in Africa and the UK. Dr. Agbo is chief of health and child survival and development for UNICEF, where he is responsible for planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of integrated management of childhood illness, immunization, and emergency preparedness and response. Agbo’s experience includes 16 years in various roles at UNICEF and over 30 years on the front lines in the fight against polio. He previously worked as head of health and HIV at Save the Children, as a community health officer with the World Health Organization (WHO), as an independent policy and health advisor in the UK, and as head of health for Merlin. He is an Aspen Institute New Voices Fellow, and a technical advisor at SolarFi.
Glenn Butler, CTO is an industry vendor and inventor of the VendScreen Revolution
smart device for new and existing vending machine. Early in his career, Butler co-founded Streamware, served as president of Cantaloupe, and was vice president and CTO of Crane Merchandising Systems before co-founding VendScreen. Butler holds a degree electrical engineering and computer science and has served as an advisor to several companies. As a technical leader I have architected and hired / managed engineering teams building the entire ecosystem of connected solutions, including:Web, cloud, and mobile (iOS and Android) software utilizing both Microsoft and Open Source platforms; High availability / high scalability systems; device hardware, industrial design, electrical, and software / firmware; Connectivity utilizing cellular, BLE, WiFi, ZigBee and industry specific hardware.
Alex Pischalnikov is an expert specializing in utility strategic planning, operational improvement, regulatory policy, distributed energy resource integration, energy storage, and smart grid technology. Alex has led the development of strategic initiatives and regulatory filings for smart meter deployment, demand response, and electric rate design at both investor-owned and municipal utilities across North America. Alex has helped utility Customer Care organizations realize cost savings while enhancing the customer experience. Mr. Pischalnikov has conducted and published innovation research on energy storage deployment strategy, wearable technologies for utilities, and the connected home. Alex is based in Los Angeles office and has performed a variety of rate and regulatory comparative analysis on California’s utilities and energy.
Mark O’Luck, is Chief Executive Officer of Spectrum Personal Communications Corporation (“Spectrum”) a diversified business consulting firm he founded in 1994 that provides consulting services to large construction companies, large construction projects, government agencies, and Fortune 500 companies. Prior to starting Spectrum, he was co-founder and President of SBMA, Inc., a small business consulting firm, and worked as a business consultant and senior management consultant in Corporate America. In June 2009, Mr. O’Luck was nominated by Governor David A. Paterson as a Trustee of the Power Authority of the State of New York, and was confirmed by New York State Senate to serve a two-year term beginning April 2010. At the time of his confirmation, Mr. O’Luck was the first minority and MBE Trustee in NYPA’s 79-year history. His term expired on June 26, 2012. Recently, he founded the NYC Monthly “The MWBE” Networking & B2B, a forum which brings together NY agencies and authorities, prime contractors, and DMWSBE businesses in an informal setting that encourages joint ventures, partnerships and further collaborative relationships.
Mr. O’ Luck is a member of the New York Committee of the Regional Plan Association. Some of the other boards and capacities in which he has served include: Chairman Emeritus & Past Chairman of the Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation; Vice Chairman, Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce; Regent, Long Island College Hospital; Director, Brooklyn Bureau of Community Service; Director, Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corp. and several others.
He also previously served on the NYS Public Service Commission Consumer Advisory Council; an advisor to NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s Municipal Entrepreneurial Testing System (METS), Con Edison Business Advisory Board; Independence Community Bank Business Advisory Board, and the Kings County Overall Economic Development Planning Committee. In 2007, he served on the Spitzer Paterson M/WBE Transition Team Working Group. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce’s Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Award, the 2006 MBE Award of Excellence from the XIII Annual Competitive Edge Conference, the 2003 Brooklyn Economic Development Corp. Service Award, et al.
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