Ryan Sander | March 19th, 2018
Ringing the doorbell, I hear the interior echo of a friendly chime, and am soon met with a warm welcome by the face of a mentor and friend. Mr. de Sola Pool, or more informally, Adam, is one of the many incredible people in energy that I’ve met so far at MIT, but that’s not what makes him such an important role model in my life.
Last year, one of the MIT Energy Club’s VPs, Arturo, organized the club mentorship program, in which club members have the opportunity to connect with specialists in the energy sector on an individualized, meaningful level. I was fortunate enough to be paired with Adam, the CEO of Environmental Investment Partners and a long-time affiliate of MIT and the MIT Energy Club. He has been a panelist at the MIT Energy Conference, he currently works with the Clean Energy Venture Fund (CEVF), and he mentors several renewable energy startups (such as OffGridBox, a company that has been developing renewable energy micro-units for developing countries). I think it’s safe to say that this guy is pretty well-versed in the axioms of energy and energy entrepreneurship.
But it’s not his energy accolades or the successes of the companies that he’s helped to get off the ground that make me so admirable of Adam: it’s his relentless drive to solve the world’s energy problems. Adam isn’t an entrepreneur just looking to make a quick buck; rather, he’s the one who’ll be turning our global energy crisis on its head. Adam’s dedication to bettering the world through energy has inspired me to view the field no longer as just a career path, but as a means of facilitating service to others if done properly. I can see this zeal just by talking to him, watching his eyes light up as he explains a novel micro-grid technology to me, and I can’t help but feel excited about all the potential that energy has for helping the world. Adam has a lot of positive energy for Energy, and I can only hope that one day I’ll follow suit. Thank you for everything Adam!
