Richard Adams

Richard is the Director of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (IEC) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), a Department of Energy (DOE) National Laboratory managed by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy.

The IEC is externally focused with a mission to identify gaps in the clean energy/cleantech ecosystem; and to utilize the resources of the Lab, and/or the resources of partners to help fill those gaps.

In this role he oversees the Innovation Incubator (IN2), a unique and highly successful technology incubator in partnership with Wells Fargo, and the Shell Gamechanger Accelerator powered by NREL (GCxN). His team also conducts the NREL Industry Growth Forum, and manages the Investor Advisory Board and relationships with the financial community. He also manages programs dedicated to regional and national incubators and the clean energy and cleantech startup communities.

Richard is a leading expert on cleantech/clean energy commercialization, entrepreneurship and investment; and is regularly invited to participate as a speaker at international and U.S. events. He draws on his 30 years of international experience with small, medium, and large corporations across a broad range of industry sectors. He is recognized as a strategic thinker, skilled operational leader, and outstanding communicator able to influence all levels of an organization; and as a proven driver of organizational performance. He is the author of “Results Ladder” – a model for successful strategic planning and execution.

Before moving to the United States, Richard lived and worked in Australia where he founded and ran Arts Capital, an investment bank and held a variety of senior positions in financial services institutions including Rothschild and Westpac Banking Corporation.