Haas-led Solar Firm Honored by Business Times

BrightSource Energy, led by John Woolard, MBA 97, and Jack Jenkins-Stark, MBA 81, received a Green Business Award from the San Francisco Business Times on June 11.

The award comes on the heels of Jenkins-Stark being named CFO of the year among venture-backed companies by the Business Times in May. The Green Business Award honored BrightSource for excellence as a renewable energy company focused on the development of utility-scale solar projects.

BrightSource Energy's solar thermal energy plants use thousands of small mirrors, called heliostats, to reflect sunlight onto a boiler atop a tower to produce high temperature steam, which is then piped to a turbine that generates electricity. The Oakland company has signed major deals to supply energy from its plants to Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison.

Woolard shared his experiences in the energy field as the speaker at the Berkeley MBA commencement ceremony last month. To see his commencement speech, visit http://videoroom-dev.haas.berkeley.edu/video-list/2009-mba-commencement-address-brightsource-energy-ceo-and-haas-alumnus-john-woolard.

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