Michael Caslin

In 2008, Mike founded URGENT VC to support the development of sustainable cities. URGENT VC does this through supporting green venture development in the CleanTech-Alternative Asset Investment Class category. He brings his 30 years CEO, entrepreneurial and environmental leadership in the business and academic sectors for the support of sustainable cities to build great companies for green cities. URGENT VC's operations are focused on: Sustainable Community Plan Consulting and Carbon Management Advisory Services, Green Venture Development and Green City Fund #1.

He has served as a featured speaker for the Harlem Business Alliance- Business Economic Summit on the Green Economy and Babson College's- Green Business Panel and serves as Advisor to the SJF CleanTech Fund and New York City's CleanTech Corridor. Mike's environmental leadership extends back to 1998 where he helped the launch and has served as the Board Chair of the Urban Ecology Institute at Boston College which provides 50 Public Schools, their teachers and their 5,000 students with leading edge urban environmental curriculum. In 1999, he served as an inaugural member of the Norfolk Trust Global Fellowship on Sustainable Cities a 12 city/4 continent field to observe first hand why cities thrive or die.

Mike has enjoyed sharing his experiences with his students as a joint Professor at Babson College, Arthur Blank Center for Entrepreneurship (Ranked #1/2,000+ college/universities) and CUNY-Baruch College-Zicklin School of Business (Ranked #9/2,000+ colleges/universities), where he teaches Entrepreneurship, Social Enterprise Management and Sustainability at the graduate and undergraduate level. Mike is a graduate of Manhattanville College in Economics and Political Science and was a Summer Fellow at both Georgetown University and University of Arizona Economics Science Laboratory.

Mike's expertise in entrepreneurship started with the founding of his first major enterprise a corporate turnaround and crisis management consulting firm - The Caslin Group. As a member of the Turnaround Management Association, Mike's firm served 40 clients, from 12 different industry segments specializing in small business corporate turnarounds, mergers and acquisitions, bankruptcy re-organization, and small business growth strategies. In 1988, Mike switched gears to become a Social Entrepreneur and helped the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. He helped lead the company from insolvency in 1988 to $20 million annual revenue with a $10 million endowment by 2008. As CEO for 14 years, he helped raise over $125 million in private sector sponsorships and an additional $5 million from the Federal, State and City Sectors. Students reached has grown by 1,000X and revenue by 100X over this 20 year period. NFTE now operates with a global system wide budget of $26 million in 13 countries and 31 states

Serving as a featured speaker at the United Nations Economic Commission of Europe (UNECE), a co- founder of Aspen Institute's Youth Entrepreneurship Strategy Group, and a past Policy Advisor to the UK's DEMOS Institute, Mike is a globally recognized leader on the forces related to Entrepreneurship Development. Outcomes of his work has been been featured by dozens of media outlets including the BBC, New York Times, National Public Radio, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times andCNNfn. In addition, Mike has provided expert witness testimony to the U.S. Congress, The White House, The US Departments of Commerce, Labor, Small Business and The United Nations - UNDP & UNECE.

Charlie Lord

Charlie Lord is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review. After clerking on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Charlie founded Alternatives for Community & Environment (ACE), an environmental justice center based in Roxbury, and served on ACE's Board until 2004. In 1998, Charlie founded the Urban Ecology Institute at Boston College, and he served as Executive Director until 2008. He taught environmental law and policy and environmental legal history at Boston College Law School from 1993-1998 and is now both a Visiting Scholar at the Law School and a lecturer in the Environmental Studies Program at Boston College. Charlie was also a founding board member of the Community Rights Council in Washington, D.C., and has published numerous articles on environmental law, environmental justice and environmental policy. At home in Boston, he enjoys spending time with his family, playing guitar, and running.

Stephanie Ligon

Stephanie completed her undergraduate work at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she graduated Cum Laude with a double major in Law & Society and Sociology. Part of her student career entailed time abroad, as well as time spent living and working in Washington D.C. for Diligence USA - a private, Intelligence and Risk Management firm founded by former CIA and British MI5. Post graduation, Stephanie moved to London where she worked for an Australian-born, Engineering Consultancy - The Robert Bird Group. Now back in the states, Stephanie joins the Urgent VC Team, bringing with her a passion for early-stage business ventures, branding, and public policy. Outside of UVC, Stephanie enjoys traveling, running, and spending time with what she calls her "source of inspiration" - family and friends.

Joe Szocik

Joseph J Szocik's professional background features 30+ years experience in the private, public and non-profit sectors including consulting with businesses to deploy competitive improvement programs, Organizing jewelry companies in MA, RI, NY and CA to compete as networks, serving as technical adviser on public financing & development to 18 manufacturing networks in MA and consulting with NPO's, Businesses and Unions on Strategy, Grantsmanship, Negotiations, Board Development. He has a Masters in Education from Boston University, an MPA from Harvard University, and did graduate level studies in Systems Theory, Organizational Development and Organizational Change at MIT's Sloan School of Management. He has also been a professional grant writer and licensed certified social worker counseling ex-offenders, juveniles, welfare recipients, unemployed adults.

Matthew Ritter

Matthew Ritter, a mechanical engineering major at the Olin College of Engineering, focuses on energy and sustainable technology. His experience in the field began in 2006, when he co-organized the first MIT Vehicle Design Summit, which brought together 53 engineering students from 21 universities, spanning 15 nations, to build four alternatively powered vehicles. A summer later, while working at GreenMountain Engineering, a CleanTech consulting firm in Boston, Matthew realized he wanted more field experience to complement his studies. He took a leave of absence from Olin to work at the MIT Media Lab and manage the indoor environment for MIT's entry in the Solar Decathlon, an international competition for solar houses. He also consulted for a solar concentrator startup out of MIT known as RawSolar. Now back at Olin, Matthew works part-time for UVC, evaluating CleanTech ventures from a technical entrepreneur's perspective. Although spare time is rare for Matthew, he enjoys bicycling and catching up on his sleep whenever possible!