Meet the Bluewater Wind Team
| Name | Position |
|---|---|
| Peter D. Mandelstam | Founder and President |
| James S. Lanard | |
| John Bodt | |
| Rob Propes | Delaware |
| Kevin R. Pearce | |
| Douglas L. Pfeister | New Jersey |
| Erich Stephens | Rhode Island |
| KC Sahl | New York |
| Dave Blazer | Maryland |
| Kris Ohleth | New Jersey |
| Rebecca Letz | |
| Nancy Carig | Delaware |
Peter D. Mandelstam
Founder and President
Peter first entered the wind industry providing consulting on project financing, leveraging his experience in real estate development. Peter worked with Atlantic Renewable Energy Corporation in securing financing for the 30MW Fenner project, New York's third wind farm. In 1997 Peter formed Arcadia Wind Power, which developed the 181 MW Judith Gap project, Montana's first wind farm.
Peter has also been a leader in the wind industry on the advocacy and policy front, serving on the Board of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) for eight years, co-founding and chairing Wind Power New York (now ACENY.org), and actively supporting successful efforts for a Renewable Portfolio Standard in New York and New Jersey. Peter is currently Chair of AWEA's Offshore Wind Working Group.
Peter attended Harvard University, and began his career as a project manager for the City of New York, building and preserving affordable housing. Peter was a founder and Executive Director of the non-profit Solar Technology Institute, which worked with the UN, U.S. agencies, and religious organizations and other non-profit groups to provide training, technical assistance, and fundraising to make solar energy available in developing countries. He serves on the Board of the Greyston Bakery, a non-profit enterprise that creates jobs for disenfranchised residents of the inner-city, and which supplies the brownies for Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream. A native New Yorker, Peter lives on Manhattan Island with his wife Dawn and son Andrew.
James S. Lanard
Jim has a long record of accomplishment working in the areas of energy and environmental policy and advocacy; government, community, public, and media relations; and project feasibility analysis and implementation. Jim has worked for The Walt Disney Company's Disney's America project as its Director of Government Relations and Environmental Programs, and has consulted for such companies as Garden State Ethanol, New Jersey Fuel Cell Council, Progress Energy, New York State Electric and Gas, and Jersey Central Power and Light. Jim also worked as Chief of Staff to a Member of the United States House of Representatives and was Executive Director of the New Jersey Environmental Lobby and the Clean Air Council (Philadelphia).
Jim was Adjunct Professor at both Rutgers and Drexel Universities where he taught environmental law courses, and has been admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania, Florida, and New Jersey. He received his J.D. from the University of Miami. Jim is an ice cream lover and believes he has the world's largest collection of T-shirts with ice-cream store logos - over 100 (size: XL!). He lives near Exit 7A of the NJ Turnpike.
John Bodt
John brings experience from a number of entrepreneurial ventures, having been a consultant to a variety of young companies in fields ranging from pharmaceuticals to software to fashion design. John also provided market research and analysis in litigation regarding the 2000 California electricity crisis. John has been a Senior Research Fellow at Yale University and Research Director at GovernanceMetrics International, a corporate governance research firm. He began his career in scientific publishing and is responsible for launching an international academic research journal, Journal of Electroceramics.
Rob Propes
Delaware
Rob began his career with Booz-Allen & Hamilton, where he served as a technical information specialist on the EPA's hazardous waste and underground storage tank regulations. Rob worked for PECO Energy as a communications and public relations consultant. He then held positions in public economic development and corporate communications, working for three Governors of Delaware and Pennsylvania. For the Delaware Economic Development Office, Rob managed a program that provided incentives to manufacturers that reduced their waste streams through pollution prevention and recycling initiatives. Rob holds a BBA from Loyola College, and Masters of Public Affairs, with a concentration in Environmental Policy, from Indiana University. He studied abroad at Assumption University, Bangkok, Thailand.
As a long-time Delaware resident, Rob is excited to have the opportunity to help shape Bluewater's Delaware project to best respond to the interests of the community. The natural environment has been a passion of Rob's since his youth, where he grew up in rural southern Maryland along the shore of the Potomac River. Rob resides in Newark.
Kevin R. Pearce
With over fifteen years of experience as a Naval Architect with private marine engineering firms, Kevin has been involved in all facets of ship design, ship repair & conversion, vessel reflagging, offshore structure design, and port logistics. He has progressive experience in structural, mechanical, electrical and habitability engineering disciplines, as well as marine transportation systems, vessel financing & valuation, and project management.
Kevin earned a B.S. in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from Webb Institute of Naval Architecture in Glen Cove, NY. He has been an instructor at the Stevens Institute of Technology, where he also earned his Master of Engineering in Ocean Engineering. Kevin is a member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers and was honored as their Gibbs Brother Scholar.
Kevin grew up living on a sailboat at the New Jersey shore. He has sailed all over the world on various types of commercial and private vessels ranging in size from 30' to 900'. Kevin currently lives ashore in New Jersey with his wife, Marni. They spend their spare time aboard their 18' sailboat with daughter, Hanna.
Douglas L. Pfeister
New Jersey
Doug earned his undergraduate degree at Stanford and a Master of Environmental Management from the Yale University School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, earning honors and scholarships at both institutions. He has worked in the areas of wind energy project development; energy efficiency contracting, and information management; and corporate environment, health, and safety (EHS) for such companies as General Electric, MCEnergy, Trigen Energy, and Trieste Associates.
When Doug worked for the New York City Parks Department in the 1990s, he managed the planting over 17,000 trees in the streets of New York and building hundreds of new green spaces in the city called Greenstreets. A lover of the outdoors, Doug keeps a Frisbee in the office for breaks down by the Hudson River, and goes running in the park near his home. He lives in New York City with his wife Rebekah and daughter Atalanta, born in April 2008.
Erich Stephens
Rhode Island
Erich was the founding Executive Director of People's Power & Light, a non-profit organization promoting renewable energy, energy efficiency, and cooperative energy buying in Rhode Island. While at PP&L, Erich was a leader in the coalition that brought about several important energy policy initiatives for Rhode Island, including its Renewable Energy Standard, and new programs for energy efficiency and low-income energy assistance. Erich led PP&L into a merger with a sister organization in Massachusetts, forming New England's largest green electricity retailer and largest heating oil buyers' cooperative. He previously had worked with wind energy developers in Maine, Vermont, New York, and Rhode Island. Erich was also a founding partner of RemodelWrights/SolarWrights, a green design/build residential construction and solar installation company that was named Fastest Growing Small Business by Providence Business News. He wrote two cover stories for Home Power magazine, a national publication covering residential renewable energy systems, and served on the on the design team for the 17 Gordon Avenue Project, a green business incubator in a low income neighborhood of Providence. He worked for several years as a consulting field ecologist for The Nature Conservancy, Ducks Unlimited, and other companies and organizations, and for two successful start-up aquaculture companies.
Erich has a degree in Marine Ecology from Brown University, where he was an author on several papers regarding community ecology, based on field work around New England. He also received training at Solar Energy International, and studied energy project finance at Vermont Law School. He served with the Peace Corps in Uruguay, working with that country's fisheries service and with local conservation organizations. Erich has sailed between New England and the Caribbean three times, and he now lives in Providence.
KC Sahl
New York
KC Sahl joined the Bluewater Wind team as the New York Project Director at the end of 2007, after 12 years of service with the City of New York. KC brings valuable government relations and operations experience to Bluewater. During his tenure with the City, KC served with the City’s Department of Parks & Recreation as an operations manager. He was the first manager of Washington Square Park, and he held titles of Park and Recreation manager and Deputy Chief of Operations and Administrator. From 2001 to 2006, KC was the Park Administrator for Riverside Park where he worked to improve the efficiency of park operations and broaden non-profit partnerships. KC completed his tenure with Parks as the Administrator of the Bronx’s Pelham Bay Park – New York City’s largest park. KC has made New York City his home since 1995, and currently lives on the lower east side with his wife and two children.
Prior to joining the City of New York, KC served at the US Embassy’s Department of US and Foreign Commercial Service in Paris. After completing college at California State University at Chico, KC traveled extensively in Europe and then served with the Peace Corps in Kenya. KC was born and raised in northern California as an avid runner and outdoorsman. As serious mountaineers, KC and his wife have climbed peaks in throughout the United States, Africa and Chile (where he proposed to her atop the Torres del Paine).
Dave Blazer
Maryland
A life-long resident of Maryland, Dave was the Executive Director of the Maryland Coastal Bays National Estuary Program (MCBP), a nonprofit organization and public-private partnership that protects the natural resources of Maryland’s coastal bays. As the MCBP Executive Director, he was responsible for overseeing initiatives to implement a long-term management plan indentifying strategies necessary for the protection of Maryland’s coastal resources.
David’s background is in fishery management issues, working as a biologist with the Department of Natural Resources and in environmental education as a science teacher and outdoor educator. He has expanded his work to address issues related to air and water quality, habitat, global climate change and land use, and now has extensive knowledge of policy, regulatory and legislative activities in Maryland. He served as the Legislation and Regulations Chief for the Maryland Fisheries Service and as the Chesapeake Bay Commission Maryland Director.
David completed his Bachelors Degree in Biology from Towson University and continued his education at the University of Maine School of Law where he completed a concentrated program focusing on Marine Resources Law. Dave and his family currently live in Ocean Pines, Maryland.
Kris Ohleth
New Jersey
Kris earned a master’s degree from the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate Marine Affairs Program and earned an undergraduate degree in Journalism from Rutgers University. She worked as an editor for the National Marine Fisheries Service in Narragansett, Rhode Island and then for The Nature Conservancy, where she served as a communication and outreach coordinator. Kris has extensive experience aboard sea-going research and fishing vessels in the North Atlantic, serving the National Marine Fisheries Service as a research technician. Inspired by her travel overseas and working on the ocean, Kris’ master’s thesis focused on the feasibility of wind energy in Rhode Island. Kris grew up in Plainfield, New Jersey.
Rebecca Letz
An experienced photojournalist, Rebecca has contributed to a number of national publications including The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The New Jersey Star-Ledger. Rebecca has received numerous awards for her work, including the New York Times Scholarship, Ford Foundation Grant, and the Puffin Foundation Grant. She has also worked with a number of non-profit organizations, including the Fiscal Policy Institute, Every Child Counts and the Labor Occupational Health Program at UC Berkeley.
Rebecca received her B.A. from Barnard College/Columbia University and then attended the Documentary/Photojournalism program at the International Center of Photography in New York. In 1998 Rebecca bicycled across the country, from Seattle to Washington DC, as part of a fundraising ride for Bike Aid. Rebecca now lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Nancy Carig
Delaware
Nancy was previously Executive Director of Early Stage East, a non-profit entrepreneurial development organization, where she was responsible for managing all aspects of the company's venture capital conferences, held twice annually. She has been a teacher, a salesperson, and a manager in the fields of information technology, finance, and consumer products. She has served as a board member of the Philadelphia New Media Association, and as a member of the Career Advisory Board at Goldey Beacom College.
A life-long resident of Delaware, Nancy has lived in towns from Wilmington to Dewey Beach, and is currently residing in Milford. She attended the University of Delaware, and has spent her entire career within the state lines. As a volunteer for the Sierra Club, Nancy organized fundraising events across Delaware.
