About Empowered Energy Solutions
Empowered collective team has over a century's worth of experience in sustainable building practices and building healthy residential and commercial buildings.
By automating the analysis process, Empowered drastically reduces the cost of creating sophisticated energy efficiency proposals, creating new markets and a lower-cost business model. Empowered has also developed innovative project financing programs that immediately reduce client energy costs and payback periods. Competitors include solar installation companies and general contractors who are unable to create optimal solutions and achieve matching client return on investment. Without optimization software, competitors cannot create cost-effective proposals that make financial sense for lenders and clients.
Our Mission
To show our clients how to save money, energy, and the environment through comprehensive energy efficiency project specification, implementation, and financing.
To always treat our clients and employees like family, creating a company that proves that the interests of our community, economy, and environment are not opposed, but rather perfectly aligned.
Our Team
Dr. Jose Torre-Bueno, PhD
CEO, Chairman of the Board and Vice President of Research and Development
Dr. Jose Torre-Bueno received a Ph.D. in 1969 from Rockefeller University in physiology, specializing in energy metabolism and heat transfer. He founded, managed, and eventually sold American Innovision, a medical instrument company that developed the first color image analyzer in biomedicine. He has been the Chief Technical Officer and the Chief Information Officer of Clarient, a leading developer of cancer diagnostics, and has managed the technical and IP aspects of several merger and acquisition deals for Clarient as well. About one-third of all breast cancer cases in the U.S. are diagnosed using algorithms he developed.
Dr. Torre-Bueno is a prolific inventor with over 40 issued and pending patents in his name. One of these is Energy Optima©, the pending patent on using advanced mathematics from the biomedical field to optimize the energy improvements to a building, which is the core of Empowered�s proprietary technology. Torre-Bueno has also designed and built two advanced sustainable homes for himself.
Additional Certifications: BPI Accredited Building Diagnostician
Ted Torre-Bueno
President
Ted Torre-Bueno has worked his entire professional career as a contractor, building diagnostician, energy auditor, or manager in time-critical project management applications such running film sets or technology development projects. He is an industry representative at the Residential Retrofit Advisory Committee at CCSE, as well as on the finance subcommittee, and an advisory board member of the US Green Chamber of commerce.
He is a frequent and popular guest lecturer at local colleges that are increasingly offering courses in green building, sustainability, and energy efficiency.
Alan Schmidt
Responsible Managing Officer
Alan Schmidt received his BA from Stanford in 1967, and founded Distinctive Builders as a general contracting firm in 1978. In 2009 Empowered Energy Solutions merged with Distinctive Builders to create a full-service energy efficiency analysis and contracting firm.
For more than three decades, Schmidt�s firm has been on the cutting edge of efficient and renewable construction, building environmentally conscious custom homes, churches, tenant improvements, and public projects. A recent project was the Begole Archaeology Research Center at the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in Borrego Springs--the first passive solar-designed, super insulated straw bale construction on State Park land.
Megan Crump
VP of Operations
As the Efficiency Analyst for Empowered Energy Solutions, Megan Crump raised the bar for organizational efficiency at Empowered, implementing both administrative and project management systems that are still in effect today. Crump was promoted to VP of Operations in April 2011, and continues to bring forth her expertise and knowledge to the company.
Crump holds a BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering with a minor in Business from the University of Utah. She has broad experience, including engineering and management, in both structural and transportation design firms. Crump has also worked for Engineers Without Borders as both a Project Manager and Implementation Trip Planner for water resource projects.
Damian Comito
Efficiency Manager, Energy Star Portfolio Manager
A second-generation native San Diegan, Damian Comito is committed to improving our community and educating property owners on the benefits of a sustainable future. Damian comes from an environmental science background, having an AS in Environmental Horticulture.
Certifications: BPI, HERS, EnergyStar
Avery Kintner
Business Development/ Executive Financial Officer/ CPA
Mr. Kintner currently specializes in business development and strategic planning for several growth companies which provide innovative technology, product and service solutions to the building industry. He joined the Empowered Energy team in 2010 and has worked with EES leadership to position the company to secure growth opportunities and implement scalable operating practices.
An active member of the USGBC, Build It Green, AASHE and Efficiency First, Mr. Kintner has worked diligently to develop viable financial solutions for the emerging �green� market and to promote integrated building solutions that yield optimal financial returns.
A Certified Public Accountant, Mr. Kintner has focused his efforts throughout his career to develop financially sustainable growth strategies and to drive technology efficiencies into ongoing operations. Mr. Kintner's experience includes strategic planning, financial analysis and reporting, operations and risk management, and customer fulfillment strategies. He is intensely dedicated to integrating sustainability practices within the building industry and is an advocate for emerging energy efficiency technologies.
Mr. Kintner graduated in Accounting from Southern Methodist University, and worked with Arthur Andersen & Co�s manufacturing and health care audit group. His building and construction career spans more than 20 years and includes experience in the growth and development of twelve homebuilding operations, as well as operational roles at two master-planned communities in Southern California.
Walter Wang
Attorney
Walter is the founder and managing director of Sunflower Tax, a renewable energy tax and finance consultancy based in San Diego, California. Walter is also the managing editor of the CleanTechies blog. Walter is active in the San Diego clean technology community, participating in events sponsored by CleanTech San Diego, EcoTopics, and Cleantech Open San Diego. He has also been a presenter at numerous California Center for Sustainability (CCSE) programs. Walter is also an adjunct professor at the University of San Diego School of Law where he teaches a course on energy taxation and policy.
Walter earned his J.D. and LL.M (Tax) from the University of San Diego School of Law and a B.A. from Colby College.
Natural Selection
Natural Selection, Inc. is a private firm founded in 1993, specializing in the application of computational intelligence and machine learning methods for industrial, medical, and defense-related problems. The firm is a recognized leader in these areas, and has been selected as a partner by Empowered Energy Solutions for their ability to bring rapid solutions to real-world problems, and for their diverse prior applications in the industrial optimization sector.
Additional information on these applications can be found at natural-selection.com. Dr. Gary Fogel, CEO of Natural Selection, serves as the lead point of contact regarding this partnership.
