Officers

Matt Golden, Chair
Recurve, Inc.
San Francisco, CA
Matt Golden is the co-founder and president of Recurve, Inc. (formerly Sustainable Spaces), a leading provider of home energy audits and Home Performance retrofitting in the San Francisco Bay Area. Matt has been recognized by the Building Performance Institute as the first ever recipient of the Tony Woods Award for Excellence in Advancing the Home Performance Industry. He speaks extensively on building science and integrated green design to such groups as the American Institute of Architects, West Coast Green and Build It Green. He has written numerous articles for Home Energy Magazine and has been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, Forbes, the New York Times and the Ellen DeGeneres Show. Matt currently serves on the boards of the U.S. Department of Energy, the Home Performance Council, the Building Performance Institute, the California Building Performance Contractors Association, Build It Green and the Fine Home Building Magazine Green Building Advisory Board. Matt holds a bachelors degree in foreign relations from Georgetown University.

Mike Rogers, Vice Chair
Green Homes America
Syracuse, NY
Mike Rogers is the Senior Vice President for Market Development with GreenHomes America. GreenHomes improves the comfort, energy efficiency and durability of homes, and is a leading U.S. home performance contractor. Coming from a family contracting background, he has extensive experience in Home Performance retrofitting, from individual homes to the state and federal level. For GreenHomes, Mike has led the creation of business systems across all aspects of the company, guided operations at the incubator location in Syracuse, New York, and managed a 10-point increase in gross margin and a nine-point increase in EBITDA. For 10 years he has been a frequent presenter at national conferences and meetings in the energy efficiency, green building, and indoor air quality industries. Prior to joining GreenHomes, Mike had an 11-year affiliation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in various full-time and consulting roles. In particular, he was a lead developer and primary supporter of the Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program jointly run by the EPA and the Department of Energy. Mike has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Illinois and an MBA from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.

Rick Gerardi, Policy Chair/Second Vice-Chair
Masco Home Services
Daytona Beach, FL
Rick Gerardi has over 25 years of management experience implementing innovative strategies for improved energy efficiency and building performance in the nation’s residential sector, while also pioneering creative strategies to address the special energy needs of low-income households. Since February 2009, he has been part of a strong team building a new Home Performance division of the Detroit-based Masco Corporation. As a key member of the Masco Home Services team, Rick is helping the company build a national network to deliver energy efficiency and Home Performance services to American homeowners. Prior to his move to MHS, Rick established and managed the Residential Building Performance Group for Lockheed Martin, and from 1998 to 2007 he established the Residential Energy Affordability Program at NYSERDA, which by 2006 administered more than $70 million per year of public and ratepayer funds for residential and consumer energy efficiency efforts that drove over $250 million per year in work and services. For his work in energy efficiency programs for low-income households and other aspects of energy retrofitting, Rick has been honored with the Rebuild America 2002 Person of the Year award from the DOE, the 2004 Michael Thompson Visionary Leaders award from the EPA, and the Alliance to Save Energy 2005 Unsung Heroes in Energy Efficiency award. In 2008 he was inducted into the BPI Energy Efficiency Hall of Fame.

Bill Asdal, Treasurer
Asdal Builders
Chester, NJ
Bill Asdal has been a builder since 1973 and has worked actively as an industry leader, including past roles as president of the Community Builders Association of New Jersey and chairman of the NAHB Remodelors Council (now known as NAHB Remodelers) representing the remodeling interests of the 200,000+ member organization. He has served as an officer of the Energy and Environmental Building Association and Chairman of the Industry Committee of the Partnership for Advancing Technology Housing administered by HUD. A former teacher and a licensed secondary school principal, Bill is a frequent speaker on building and remodeling issues and has dedicated much of his time to industry research and the creation of better builder relationships, which enhance supply chain success. Bill has completed a number of industry research projects including advocacy of the Rehab Code, energy efficiency in existing homes, new product testing, systems design, and a number of demonstration projects for national trade press. He has been honored as Remodeler of the Year by the NAHB Remodelors Council and Green Remodeler of the Year by NAHB’s Green Building Conference, and has received an achievement award for “Educating an Industry” from Reed Business Information System. He holds a bachelors degree in Industrial Education and a master’s degree in Administration and Supervision, and in 2007 Bill was inducted into the NAHB Remodeling Hall of Fame.

Helen Perrine, Secretary
Affordable Comfort Institute
Waynesburg, PA
Helen Perrine is the executive director of Affordable Comfort, Inc. In 1986, Helen was instrumental in the creation of the nationally recognized Affordable Comfort Home Performance Conference as the Director of Energy Efficiency Programs at ACTION-Housing, Inc. In 1992, the organization expanded its reach nationally and was incorporated as a not-for-profit residential energy efficiency training organization. Under Helen’s leadership, ACI has provided training in retrofit techniques and best practices to more than 30,000 clients in 25 states through its regional and national training events. Helen has worked in the field of energy and environmental education since 1978, and has served as the program director at Conservation Consultants, Inc. She was the president and a charter board member of the Dollar Energy Fund, and has served on various utility consumer advisory boards, the Pennsylvania Weatherization Assistance Program Advisory Council, and the Sustainable Development Program of Slippery Rock University. She is an author of two white papers on workforce development for home energy retrofitting and a contributing author for Home Energy magazine. At present, Helen is an officer of the Building Performance Institute (BPI) and director of Efficiency First. Helen is an energy and environmental educator with an M Ed from the University of Pittsburgh and a B S from Slippery Rock University.

Board of Directors

David Bangs
Home Performance Washington
Seattle, WA
David Bangs, a former Microsoft engineer and manager, is a clean energy investor focusing on residential energy services. After investing in home performance companies nationally, David founded Home Performance Washington to bring together service providers and other stakeholders to jumpstart a whole-house energy retrofit industry in his home state. Home Performance Washington is a founding chapter of Efficiency First, which David has been serving as chair of the national Best Practices committee.

Richard Burbank, State & Local Action Chapters Committee Chair
Evergreen Home Performance

Richard Riegel Burbank founded Evergreen Home Performance LLC in 2006. The company provides building diagnostics; building performance evaluations; energy audits; and modeling, training and building envelope installation and renovation for residential, multifamily and commercial buildings. As a building analyst and auditor, he has evaluated the full range of home types as well as hospitals, schools and. multifamily buildings. Evergreen’s building envelope projects range from installing cellulose in new construction and retrofits, air leakage reduction in residential and commercial buildings, and moisture mitigation. He is one of the first Building Performance Institute certified Building Analysts and Building Envelope Specialists in Maine, a BPI certification proctor, an ASHRAE member, and an affiliated contractor with Maine Home Performance with ENERGY STAR and ZeroDraft. He is a consultant on building envelope air tightness and testing for ESCOs, architects, and builders. In the fall of 2008, he founded Evergreen Building Science Trainings, a BPI affiliate that offers BPI training and certification testing for Building Analysts and Building Envelope Specialists.

Jordan Frugé
Standard Renewable Energy
Houston, TX
Jordan Frugé is senior vice president for business development and co-founder of Standard Renewable Energy, where he has led the strategic development of the company in both the energy efficiency and renewable energy industries. Since its start in 2006, SRE has grown to over 300 employees and has offices in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas, making it one of the largest distributed energy services companies in the nation. Prior to helping launch SRE, Jordan worked for several Fortune 500 firms in management and logistics positions. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Distribution from Texas A&M University.

Bob Knight
CA Building Performance Contractors Association
Oakland, CA
Bob Knight is president and cofounder of Bevilacqua-Knight, Inc. (BKi), an energy consulting firm based in Oakland, California. Bob has over 25 years of professional experience in planning and evaluating innovations in transportation, electricity use and land use. He has been responsible for many studies of both the market potential and adoption effects of such technologies as rapid transit, fuel cell and electric vehicles, and comprehensive home energy retrofits. In addition, Dr. Knight has consulted extensively in the commercialization of a variety of end-use technologies for the electric power industry. He holds a Ph.D. in urban systems analysis from Northwestern University's Technological Institute. He also holds an M.S. in industrial engineering and management and a B.S. in civil engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

Joe Kuonen
CLEAResult Consulting, Inc.
Little Rock, AR
Joe Kuonen is program manager for residential and commercial/industrial programs for CLEAResult Consulting. He was cofounder of a home performance contracting company where he sold over one million dollars annually and hosted a live radio call-in show. Joe was director of the ACI webcast training series,Duct Camp.

Greg Thomas
Performance Systems Development
Ithaca, NY
Greg Thomas has 25 years of experience in building performance, as a consultant, trainer, heating contractor, director of an energy service company, energy conference planner, as well as a program designer and software developer. He is past president of Affordable Comfort Inc., the largest residential energy efficiency conference. He has been educational program director for a number of national and international conferences, including the USGBC Greenbuild Expo, and has served as an advisor to a wide range of national and state entities including the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the U.S. Department of Energy Weatherization Assistance Program, the Energy Foundation and the California Energy Commission.

Dan Thomsen, National Membership Chair
The Building Doctors
Los Angeles, CA
Dan Thomsen is the president and founder of The Building Doctors, a Home Performance contracting company that provides building performance testing and energy efficiency retrofitting. Dan is a lifelong environmentalist from the time he was a Boy Scout and achieved the Eagle Scout ranking. Dan received a Bachelor of Science from the College of Agriculture and Forestry at West Virginia University and a Master of Science from the School of Forestry at North Carolina State University. He is a member and trainer with the California Building Performance Contractors Association (CBPCA); he is certified with the Building Performance Institute (BPI) as a Building Analyst Professional; and he is certified through the California Home Energy Efficiency Rating Service (CHEERS) as an existing home rater to prepare the HERS reports required for Energy Efficient Mortgages. Dan is also a certified Green Building Professional with Build It Green, and a founding member and National Membership Chair of Efficiency First. He has completed a course in infrared imaging for home inspectors, energy audits and disaster restoration contractors with the Infrared Training Center, has received a certificate of appreciation from the City of Los Angeles for his volunteer work planting drought-tolerant gardens, and has an active Real Estate license.

Larry Zarker
Building Performance Institute
Takoma Park, MD
Larry Zarker is the chief executive officer of the Building Performance Institute, the professional credentialing organization for both the weatherization and Home Performance contracting industries. He directly oversees BPI’s national expansion of affiliate organizations that deliver training and credentialing services in key markets throughout the country. He is responsible for the development of BPI’s national standards relating to weatherization and Home Performance work, the certification process for weatherization and Home Performance professionals, the accreditation of Home Performance contracting companies, and independent third-party quality assurance covering the work of BPI Accredited companies. Prior to joining BPI, he worked for nearly 20 years with the NAHB Research Center and served as vice president of marketing for more than a decade. In this role, he managed construction of a national demonstration house in 1990 with products made from post-consumer recycled materials, and in 1994 he developed a series of townhouses featuring a building-integrated photovoltaic roof. Throughout his career, he has helped initiate and manage programs in green and sustainable building and remodeling, certification and accreditation programs for the building industry, and advanced technologies including the Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH) program.

Staff & Advisers

Jared Asch, National Director
San Francisco, CA
For more than a decade, Jared Asch has been an entrepreneur, organizer, political adviser and fundraiser dedicated to community responsibility, innovative marketing and business development programs, and progressive environmental and energy policy at the local, state and national levels. Jared has served as a policy consultant for presidential candidates, U.S. Senators, U.S. Representatives and many Florida legislators, and has prepared grants on behalf of nonprofits and municipalities targeting the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and nearly a dozen state agencies. He has appeared as a lecturer with Green Tech Academy, a nonprofit organization providing professionals with expertise in clean technology, and he teaches a course entitled “Politics of Going Green” in the Sustainability and Energy Management program at the University California-Berkeley. Additionally, Jared has earned LEED®AP certification from the U.S. Green Building Council and has hands-on experience in green construction, home retrofitting and residential solar installation. He has a master’s degree in public administration from American University and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Florida State University.

Kara Saul Rinaldi, Government Affairs Consultant
Environmental Resources Management (ERM)
Washington, D.C.
Kara Rinaldi has more than a dozen years of experience in advocacy strategy development, lobbying and media relations. She has directed national policy, communications and grassroots campaigns leading advocacy efforts with the Administration and Congress on tax, appropriations, authorization and climate change policy for national and international NGOs and corporations. Prior to joining ERM, Kara was the Director of Government and Public Affairs for Owens Corning, a Fortune 500 company that is a leader in insulation technologies. She also held the position of Senior Director of Policy for the Alliance to Save Energy, a bipartisan, nonprofit coalition of prominent business, government, environmental and consumer leaders who promote the efficient use of energy worldwide. Kara also has worked on the Climate Change Campaign for the World Wildlife Fund and in the offices of Rep. Lynn C. Woolsey (D-Calif.) and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). She holds a masters degree from the London School of Economics and a bachelors from the University of California, San Diego.

Elizabeth Redman, Public Policy Consultant
San Francisco, CA
Elizabeth Redman specializes in collaborative economic development strategies and policies to promote sustainable industry growth. Much of her work focuses on setting the policy context to create new business opportunities and engage a variety of regional stakeholders in the development of joint social, economic and environmental goals. She has worked with a broad range of industries, from high-tech areas like software and biotech, to natural-resource-based clusters like tourism, forest products, and agriculture, to a range of newer industries, including renewable energy, green building, and energy efficiency. As a graduate student at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, she is currently focused on understanding how “green jobs” workforce development programs can be tailored to meet the needs of the rapidly evolving energy efficiency and clean tech industries. She believes the best solutions require cross-sector collaboration and that environmental policy will be an essential driver of economic growth in the years to come.