PRINCIPALS AND STAFF
EcoMotion and its principals and colleagues have a track record of steering our society toward a sustainable energy future, and a reputation of getting things done. We raise awareness and spur efficiency gains and renewable energy investments that make sense. We have an able staff, a prestigious consultant team, and a vast network of professionals in the “green space.”
Ted Flanigan
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Ted Flanigan is the founder and president of EcoMotion. Born in New York City and raised on Long Island, after graduate school Ted worked as a strategic planner for the New York Power Authority following his passion for energy efficiency. He then moved to Rocky Mountain Institute in Snowmass, Colorado where he was the first Energy Program Director, and where with Amory Lovins, he founded Competitek, now E-Source, an energy efficiency information service.
In 1990, Ted was funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to create The Results Center, a division of IRT Environment, a center focused on documenting best practices with the implementation of energy efficiency. Under Ted’s direction, The Results Center produced 128 case studies of the best efficiency programs in North America, Asia, and Europe that were used to design effective programs and to benchmark success in regulatory proceedings.
In 1998, Ted came to Los Angeles to serve as Director of Energy Efficiency for Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the nation’s largest municipal utility. He was then Managing Director of The Energy Coalition, running innovative efficiency programs for California utilities. He then worked for the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, managing a lighting transformation project in the Philippines.
In 200l, Ted formed EcoMotion with the guiding principle of “the power of the increment,” that small actions collectively make great sense for our local, regional, national, and global society. Ted publishes and lectures on a broad range of energy and environmental issues and policies. With a team of dedicated professionals at EcoMotion, and a consulting stable of the “best and brightest,” EcoMotion tackles pilot projects for scalability and broad impact. Currently, EcoMotion provides smart energy management and climate action services – from behavioral change, to efficiency, solar, and storage — to cities, corporations, and campuses.
Terry Chan
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Terry Chan PE is a Professional Engineer licensed in the state of California for 29 years. She holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from University of California at Los Angeles, an MS in Power Systems Engineering from University of Southern California, and an Executive MBA from the University of Southern California. In addition, she is a Certified Energy Manager and a Certified Green Building Professional. For 32 years, she held a number of positions within Los Angeles Department of Water and Power including responsibilities with power systems design, underground and overhead circuit design, load forecasting, rate design and customer services focused on major accounts. In addition, for the past eight years she has served as a Commissioner of Glendale Water and Power where she served two terms as President. Terry has traveled extensively on EcoMotion’s International Study Tours, has been an advisor to EcoMotion for eight years, and is fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin, Spanish, and English.
Michael Ware
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Michael Ware joined the EcoMotion team in 2007 to be an “honest broker” of solar power systems. Prior to working at EcoMotion, he worked at PermaCity Solar. At EcoMotion, Michael’s work focuses on solar opportunities, measuring potentials, and developing solar implementation strategies for organizations as diverse as Kimco, CBS, Sempra Utilities, LA Metro, and the Orange County Great Park.
Michael provides expertise in solar system site inspection. He is adept at measuring roof potential and modeling the cost-effectiveness of solar investments. His financial analyses include particular attention to electricity load profiles and rates and rate changes as a result of solar. These skills helped him successfully negotiate a 745 kW power purchase agreement for Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District, an agreement that is bringing solar to nine different campuses.
As an expert in utility rate structures and how they impact the return on investment of a given investment, Michael has developed tools for weighing the value of different components, and comparing different scenarios. Michael has developed particular expertise in analyzing and comparing solar bids. For clients, he drafts RFPs that result in useful, “apples to apples” bid comparisons. His responsibilities also include presenting solar findings to both expert and less experienced stakeholders to facilitate decision making.
Troy Strand
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Troy brings 24 years of solar experience to EcoMotion Solar Services. He’s worked many sides of the solar business, from utility to academia, as a solar developer, and now consultant. He’s worked at Southern California Edison, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and was founder and chief operating officer of Independent Energy Solutions, a photovoltaic system designer and installer that specialized in military, utility, and commercial installations.Throughout his career, he has personally overseen the design and installation of hundreds of photovoltaic, energy storage, and micro-grid power systems in the U.S. and around the world.
Mark Hopkinson
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For over 40 years, Mark Hopkinson has been a management consultant, first for a national firm, then for a small independent partnership focused on infrastructure and economic development projects, then as the CEO of an independent manufacturing firm, and finally as an independent oriented to mitigation of climate change. His practice has been concentrated in logistics, operations and financial planning and implementation, coordinating and integrating disciplines to optimize outcomes. He was one of three consultants retained by a consortium of major public OEMs (3M was the lead client) to identify and develop methods for perpetuating innovation in large organizations. Over the years, he has been a speaker at seminars on change management and strategic growth.
His association with EcoMotion dates back to 2010, when he undertook to develop “going green” business with corporate clients and not-for-profit institutions. He has developed general models for accurately assessing the viability of solar installations and for transparently determining “who gets what when” in complex multi-party installations.
In the past five years, he has been engaged in multiple projects, in the role of principal or consultant, bringing innovative products and processes to market that address environmental issues. Current initiatives include a novel low-cost technology for removing nutrients from wastewater and development of a line of solar-powered refrigerators for residential and medical applications in less-developed countries.
Simon Caplan
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Simon Caplan is a sustainable development practitioner with a resolute commitment to decarbonizing the energy sector. He’s the EcoMotion team’s newest addition, and brings an interdisciplinary perspective to it along with valuable skill sets including data analysis, geographic information systems, and legal research.
He excelled in his academic endeavors at college, graduating with honors from the Columbia Undergraduate Scholars Program with a B.A. in sustainable development from Columbia University. His studies encompassed a cross-section of different environmental and social subjects, including classes which ranged from climate science to energy law and took him to both South America and Asia for field research.
Outside of school, Simon has experience in Southern California environment and energy policy. Working with the City Hall office of Los Angeles City Council President Paul Krekorian, Simon gained experience in legal research while augmenting his knowledge surrounding some of the many energy and environment issues facing the city. He also gained valuable perspective regarding how city governance interacts with public agencies and regulatory frameworks, from the municipal level up.
Simon is happy to be working in the energy space, and grateful to have the opportunity to work towards solutions that are mutually beneficial to stakeholders while advancing decarbonization. He’s happier still to be doing so while based in the state where he grew up, working towards a more sustainable and harmonious California.
Bill Flanigan
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Bill Flanigan is an EcoMotion project manager who brings decades of experience in sound engineering and digital services including website production and social media to the team. Bill handles the back-end of Flanigan’s Eco-Logic Podcast focusing on graphics, search engine optimization, and uploading episodes to podcast platforms and social media sites each week.
Apart from his time at EcoMotion and running his own sound production company he worked for 15 years as network administrator for Solar Energy International and prior to that was Chief of Operations at IRT Environment for six years. He prides himself on meeting client expectations head on.