White House Author

Donnel Baird is the founder and CEO of BlocPower, and early stage startup that markets, finances, and installs solar and energy efficiency retrofits in churches, synagogues, non-profits, and small businesses in financially underserved neighborhoods. BlocPower connects portfolios of these clean tech installation opportunities to impact investors via an online marketplace. Donnel is an Echoing Green/Open Society Foundation BMA Fellow and the first Entrepreneur in Residence at Jalia Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in for-profits with a social and environmental mission. Donnel spent 7 years as a community and political organizer. He is a recent graduate of Columbia Business School, where he was a Board of Overseers Fellow and a recipient of investment from the Lang Fund for Entrepreneurial Initiative.