Search past winners/finalists


  • MESA logo

Energy Control

Company: Energy Control Inc., Albuquerque, New Mexico
Company Description: ECI is a smart building, smart energy company that invested major resources to help solve the U.S. energy challenge and still grew 400% in five years. Its CEO is Chairman of US DOE GridWise Architecture Council working on what Al Gore calls “Electranet”. He speaks worldwide on buildings and climate change. ECI uses IT / Web Services to improve productivity & business performance in buildings.
Nomination Category: Company Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Overall Company

Nomination Title: Reinventing a Building Technology Company


  1. Tell the story about what this nominated company achieved since January 1 2007 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

    Energy Control Inc. (ECI) is an award winning energy technology company that 
    achieved 43% growth in 2007. This resulted from following through on
    business strategies conceived and launched by ECI’s CEO in2001. After 25
    years of consistent revenue from its core business, ECI saw an opportunity to
    reinvent itself. The company hired a new CEO who developed and implemented a
    broad-based set of market initiatives resulting in 400% growth and a tripling
    of employees. Along with a relentless focus on growth, ECI also reinvested in
    employees by focusing on promotion from within, and investing in training and
    professional development.

    ECI’s focus was building automation, though its’ first name was energy, and it
    had carved out a stable niche working primarily on temperature control and
    comfort. Reinvention focused on smart building solutions for commercial
    buildings, education and campuses including comfort and, a new area,
    electronic security which changed ECI into a “system integrator”. SDM
    Magazine name ECI to its’ list of Top 100 System Integrators in North America
    for the fifth year in 2007. ECI next expanded system integration to include
    smart energy technology. ECI has benefited from a renewed interest in energy
    efficiency and green buildings, but also had a defining role in shaping these
    trends. The company CEO publishes a dozen articles each year in trade
    publications, and speaks about the impact of buildings and electricity on
    climate change to audiences nationally and worldwide. This aspect of
    reinvention established the company as a national smart energy leader and
    resulted in a strategic alliance in 2007 with Constellation NewEnergy (CNE), a
    $14 billion energy trading company. CNE hired ECI to help them leverage the
    power of companies that sell building automation to accelerate market adoption
    of smart energy Demand Response. Demand response is an emerging multi-billion
    market, and ECI will see significant revenue from this opportunity through the
    CNE relationship.

    ECI established a business relationship with CNE in 2007 because of its
    ongoing commitment to reinvention. ECI is a unique small company, because it
    invested significant corporate resources to address a major energy challenge
    facing our nation. In 2007 ECI’s CEO was named Chairman of the US Department
    of Energy GridWise Architecture Council www.gridwiseac.org working on an
    initiative that Al Gore has called the “Electranet”. Through GridWise and
    ongoing publishing and speaking, ECI established itself as a smart energy
    leader, which opened the opportunity with CNE. ECI also completed the first
    smart energy project in the U.S. that combined a large campus user and a
    utility in 2007. ECI leverages understanding of building and information
    technology (IT) systems, to implement projects that bring benefits by
    improving building environments and impacting productivity and overall
    business performance. By leveraging the power of systems that it has
    installed for 32 years, ECI is helping to create the next frontier and expand
    Smart Building technology to Smart Electric Grid technology. Smart Grid Web
    Services will allow ECI customers to save money and improve energy reliability
    in buildings and allow ECI to continue to grow.

  2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

    ECI Partnering 
    http://albuquerque.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stories/2007/12/10/story1.html

    ECI Involvement in Smart Grid Conference
    http://albuquerque.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stories/2007/11/05/daily25.html

    ECI Hosts Mayor in Washington to Sign GridWise Constitution
    http://albuquerque.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stories/2007/04/23/daily37.html

    ECI CEO Newsmaker of the Year
    http://www.automatedbuildings.com/news/may07/articles/mcgowan/070429025303nmoty.htm
    -

    Smart Energy Project
    http://albuquerque.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stories/2007/10/01/story6.html

    ECI Dozens of articles at http://www.automatedbuildings.com/
    Go to Online Resources and click on Editors and Jack Mc Gowan to see dozens of
    articles relating to ECI and projects.

    Green Intelligent Builings http://www.greenintelligentbuildings.com/
    see McGowan article on front page "Proactive with your Profile"

    ECI Viva Award
    http://albuquerque.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stories/2004/10/25/daily15.html

  3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader of this nominated company:

    Jack McGowan is ECI’s CEO and is Chairman of the U.S. Department of Energy 
    GridWise Architecture Council. He is an author with 5 published books and
    over 125 articles. Mc Gowan is an internationally known energy, buildings and
    technology expert, and was chosen by his peers as 2006 Visionary at the
    Builconn Intelligent Buildings event. The Association of Energy Engineers
    admitted him to the “International Energy Managers Hall of Fame” in 2003 and
    named him “International Energy Professional of the Year” in 1997. He also
    sits on Technical Advisory Boards and is a Contributing Editor with several
    magazines.