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
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
|