Hello Class! My name is Michael Pittman.  I am 36 years old and I live in Columbia, Illinois.  Columbia is a suburb of St. Louis located about 15 minutes southeast of downtown.  I grew up in Murphysboro, IL which is about another 90 minutes further southeast.  My wife Sara and I have been married for nine years and have two daughters.  Molly is 8 and Eve is 5.  I spent years working in finance and banking.  I was incredibly unhappy with that career choice so in 2012, I left the industry and became a 911 dispatcher for the City of Columbia with the idea of finding something I loved and going back to school to pursue a new career path.  I found the ESP program at Penn State and knew it was the reason I made this decision.  If I could pick my own career path tomorrow, I really believe that I would like to start my own energy efficiency consulting firm.  Through my ESP studies, I have come to believe that while renewable energy is important, efficiency is equally important.  I also believe it is an easier sale to your typical business owner.  I am really excited about this course because I recently took a position as VP of Business Development with a start up LED lighting and solar company.  I have high hopes that this class will have real world application to our new business and help me in my business development role.  I am very happy that this course is a requirement for the ESP degree.

In addition to the LED lighting business (which I can’t really say I started because I am not an investor) I have very little experience with starting a business. I have been a skateboarder my entire life.  Several years ago, I started a company the designs and manufactures skateboard decks.  It did turn a small profit but was really never much more than a hobby and has really taken a backburner to school, especially since I decided to go fulltime last year.

I briefly mentioned it earlier but I really think the idea of efficiency consulting could play a huge role in a sustainable energy future. Reducing energy consumption will make the complete conversion to renewable energy sources much easier.  It is also an easy sell to business owners whose main goal is profits.  If you can go into a business and show them how investment in renewable energy and more efficient buildings/lighting can have long term cost savings along with short term payback period for their initial investment it almost sells its self.

Here is a picture of me and my family from a trip to Chicago earlier this summer..