Colorado Cleantech Industry Association Announces the Winners of the 2012 Annual Cleantech Leadership Awards

Online, October 23, 2012 (Newswire.com) - The Colorado Cleantech Industry Association (CCIA) presented awards to fourteen recipients last night at their annual Colorado Cleantech Industry Awards Celebration.

"We are proud to recognize this year's winners for their significant efforts in expanding the cleantech ecosystem in Colorado," said Christine Shapard, CCIA's Executive Director. "These individuals and companies represent the best and brightest in Colorado and the nation throughout the cleantech sector."

This year's winners were selected on a variety of factors including their ability to impact the marketplace with innovative clean technologies, successful fundraising, ability to scale their technology, and a company's job creation success. Individuals were selected for their commitment to expanding Colorado's cleantech industry and their dedication to the growth of their respective organizations.

Winners were chosen by a group of industry peers that ranged from venture capitalists and corporate strategists to current and former cleantech CEOs.

CCIA's Leadership in Advancing Cleantech Award winners are:

National Cleantech Leadership:

Center for the New Energy Economy
Founded in February of 2011, the Center for the New Energy Economy is a privately-funded initiative to support the growth of a cleantech economy across the United States. The Center, a part of Colorado State University, is led by former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter and is assisted by some of the nation's most important thought leaders in clean energy research, development and commercialization.

Governor's Award For Excellence in Cleantech Leadership:

Robert Fenwick-Smith
Robert Fenwick-Smith founded Aravaipa, an efficiency-tech investment fund in Colorado, in early 2008. With 20 years of global experience acquiring, founding, building, merging and selling companies, Robert is frequently invited to serve on cleantech investing panels and juries.

Cleantech Corporate Champion:

Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo offers customized commercial banking products and services to businesses that manufacture, market or develop clean technology products and services. It is with their generous support that programs such as the Cleantech Open, CU Cleantech, NREL Industry Growth Forum, and Cleantech Fellows Institute that cleantech ventures in Colorado can sustain funding.

Investor of the Year:

9th Street Investments
9th Street is a non-traditional venture capital group born out of CoorsTek, Inc, headquartered in Golden. 9th Street primarily focuses on businesses in the advanced materials sector and has invested in Boulder Ionics, ALeco Container and more.

High Impact Cleantech Company of the Year:

Albeo Technologies
Based in Boulder, Colo., Albeo designs and manufactures highly efficient LED lighting solutions focusing on the commercial and industrial sectors. Albeo's primary goal is to enable businesses to simultaneously lower their total operating costs and help the environment.

Breakout Cleantech Company of the Year:

Boulder Wind Power
Boulder Wind Power creates utility-scale permanent magnet generator technology that will dramatically reduce the production cost of wind energy. The company works with wind turbine manufacturers to deliver simpler, more efficient and cost-effective ways to maintain systems than existing wind turbine technologies.

Emerging Cleantech Company of the Year:

SkyFuel Inc.
SkyFuel, Inc. is a solar thermal power technology and service provider founded in 2007. SkyFuel solar collectors harness solar radiation to produce steam for electricity generation and industrial applications. The company is a leading supplier of utility-scale concentrating solar power (CSP) systems.

Colorado Cleantech Entrepreneur of the Year:

Hans Mueller, EcoVapor Recovery Systems
Mueller is the founder of EcoVapor Recovery Systems, a state-of-the-art recovery technology for oil and gas wells. He has established an industry-leading economic return technology that also addresses increased environmental regulations.

Colorado Cleantech Executive of the Year:

Mark Verheyen, TerraLUX
Mark Verheyen joined the TerraLUX team in 2011 with extensive experience in the illumination market and a proven track record penetrating and expanding new growth markets across Asia/China, South America, North America, and Europe. Mark has more than 20 years of sales and senior management experience.

Political Advocate of the Year:

State Representative Brian DelGrosso
Brian DelGrosso is a member of the Colorado General Assembly representing the Loveland area. Brian is a successful small business owner and a pragmatic legislator with a reputation for common sense solutions to grow Colorado's economy. Additionally, this year he was the sponsor of a bill signed into law to cut red tape to make it easier to expand alternative fuel vehicle infrastructure.

Excellence in Commercialization:
Colorado State University - Dr. Eugene Chen
University of Colorado - Dr. Ryan Gill
National Renewable Energy Laboratory - Dr. Charles Teplin
Colorado School of Mines - Dr. P. Craig Taylor

About CCIA
The Colorado Cleantech Industry Association represents the interests of the state's cleantech industry. Its mission is to further establish Colorado as a world leader in clean technology by providing representation and advocacy, a unified voice, relevant programming and capacity development. For more information, visit http://www.coloradocleantech.com.