About Arno Harris

I'm CEO of Recurrent Energy, a distributed power company and industry pioneer in Solar as a Service. We own and operate onsite solar power systems, selling clean electricity to large energy users and utilities at competitive rates. By overcoming the barriers preventing widespread adoption of distributed solar power, Recurrent Energy makes solar a practical and cost-effective source of electricity.

Prior to Recurrent Energy, I ran EI Solutions (now SunTech Energy Solutions), the solar power systems division of Energy Innovations. While at EIS, I delivered record growth and industry milestones that included the sale of the largest US corporate solar power system to Google. EIS was formed following the sale of Prevalent Power, a solar power system integration business I founded in 2001, to Energy Innovations.

Before solar my background was in technology startups. I've raised (or helped to raise) over $140MM in equity financing for startups over the past decade or so. One company I co-founded, RedEnvelope.com, had an IPO in 2003. The other, Novo Media Group, was sold several years ago to Publicis, one of the world's premier marketing and media companies. I've also had my share of challenges along the way--my firsthand experience of a failed IPO registration for Novo and the collapse of a well-funded dot-com called WineShopper.com have helped to season me as an entrepreneur and a leader.

Functionally, the bulk of my experience is in marketing, business development, and sales with a good dose of general management and finance gleaned from my startup adventures. During that time I've had the opportunity to work with clients like Toyota Motor Sales USA, GlaxoWellcome, MCI, Apple Computer, Hewlett-Packard, Nikon Precision, IKEA International, HGTV (Scripps) and NBC Digital Publishing. My background has been particuarly useful to me in the emerging clean energy industry where many of the business challenges are centered around market entry and initial sales traction.

As an entrepreneur, I am passionate about startups and passionate about clean technology, but I have zero patience for dreamy ideas or unfocused execution. I'm a regular speaker at energy industry events and I'm now sharing more of my thinking via my weblog Clean Energy Future. I'm a graduate of UC Berkeley, a published author, private pilot and proud father of twin boys.