Kevin Knobloch said he "put his application in" for the chief executive role of Somerville, Massachusetts-based Greentown Labs as soon as he heard of Emily Reichert's plans to step down.
He got the job.
Knobloch, a former U.S. Department of Energy official and a former journalist and editor, is scheduled to start Sept. 5 as CEO of North America's largest climate-tech incubator, currently at 57 employees across its Somerville and Houston locations.
Knobloch, a Massachusetts native and resident, plans to maintain a seat on the board of the Northeast Clean Energy Council, or NECEC, but will wind down his consultancy, Knobloch Energy LLC, before taking on the CEO role. The Boston Business Journal's Lucia Maffei reached out to Knobloch ahead of his official start date to discuss how his appointment come together, his plans for Greentown Labs and some of the incubator's controversial partnerships.
When did you first hear about the CEO role at Greentown Labs?
Greentown has been around for 12 years now. I've watched it grow in size and impact from afar over that time and I have always admired its role in helping early-stage, climate-tech companies get their footing and launch ... When I heard about Emily [Reichert] planning to step down and the board posted the opening for a new CEO, I was extremely interested and put my application in.
How does this role fit into your career path?
I have really focused on advancing clean energy, energy efficiency and climate technology as solutions to our climate crisis. That has been the case during my years at the Union of Concerned Scientists, when we were pioneers in helping design a first state renewable portfolio standards ... When I left UCS to go into the Obama administration, as the chief of staff at the Department of Energy, we spent much of our time and maybe most of our time, working with companies and national labs and research universities on advancing technology that would help decarbonize the economy.
What did you learn from your time in the Obama administration that will help you as CEO of Greentown Labs?
On my second day on the job, which was Jan. 26, 2013, President Obama went to Georgetown University and announced his Climate Action Plan. ... One of the major responsibilities of that was, Department of Energy had the regulatory authority to write energy efficiency rules for appliances, lighting, heating and cooling equipment, industrial equipment, and electronics of all kinds. Our team worked hard to strengthen 50 energy efficiency rules, and I'm very proud of that work. Those rules have since all gone into effect, and what they mean is that American manufacturers of appliances and equipment, as well as foreign manufacturers who want to sell their products into the U.S. market, are required to make increasingly more energy-efficient products ... That was, to my mind, a really impactful piece of work. What I learned from that is that thoughtful, responsibly crafted regulation can create markets for industry, new markets for industry, expanded markets — in this case, in much more energy-efficient products.
What was the key factor in your decision to accept the role of CEO of Greentown Labs?
What really was appealing to me about taking on the leadership role at Greentown is that this is a community of smart, passionate people, whether it's in the startup companies, the investors in those companies, the strategic corporations that Greentown helps partner with these companies, as well as the Greentown board and staff. It's a tremendous community dedicated to decarbonize our economy. I'm convinced that we're building from a very solid foundation; we can take this work to the next stratosphere.
What's your No. 1 priority as CEO?
My overall focus will be on looking for ways to both be more effective and supporting these companies and accelerating the pace at which they can move toward commercialization and launching.
Has Emily Reichert shared any words of wisdom about the role?
One of the things that Emily mentioned to me was that she has heard often, and I will hear as well, from people across the country, in the world, who want us to expand Greentown Labs into other parts of the country, other parts of the world. I think that's something we'll look at. In the near term, we've only been in Houston for two years, we're still establishing our role and presence in the Houston energy community, we have a great team there, we have some great initiatives underway. I want to be sure that we solidify and continue to build that presence, as well as making sure that the sum of operations is very strong. At some point, we may look at what expansion opportunities could make sense.
It sounds like opening third location is possible in the future, but it's not a priority.
That's right.
What's your message to the business community regarding climate change?
We're in the middle of an exciting revolution that Massachusetts is really at the helm of and driving in a very exciting way. Core competencies in the climate-tech space, in terms of our major companies, in terms of our early-stage companies, in terms of our research universities, are really expanding our economy, creating jobs, expanding the tax base, creating wealth. We're standing on a foundation of what's become a cornerstone of the Massachusetts economy and the sky's the limit.
Aramco Americas is now a partner of Greentown Labs. How would you respond to critics of this relationship between Greentown Labs and one of the largest oil companies in the world?
I can't speak to that partnership because I haven't started yet. What I will say is that we have some work to do at Greentown Labs to think through what standards we will apply, when we consider who we will partner with and who we will accept funding from. Greentown also has active partnerships with fossil energy companies like Chevron, BP, Shell; those companies show up in various ratings ... as middle-tier companies when it comes to climate responsibility. And that's important. I'll be looking early on to work with our team to develop some metrics, some screens, that will help us think in terms of which companies we are most aligned with.
You began your career as a newspaper journalist for several outlets here in Massachusetts, including The Berkshire Eagle. Any key takeaways from that time that you still abide by today?
I'm certainly an enormous advocate of the free press ... What I learned is how important it is to be transparent and getting facts right, being accurate, and then also, being able to get below the surface and to really understand what's happening ... I also learned in those days that people really matter.
