Officers
Greg Thomas, Chair
Performance Systems Development
Ithaca, NY
Gregory Thomas is CEO of Performance Systems Development and Performance Systems Contracting. He was a founding board member of Efficiency First and served as a member of the Efficiency First Policy Committee and as Vice Chair before becoming Chair. He was a founding board member of Affordable Comfort Inc. and also served as board chair. He is a member of the RESNET board and a member of the National Home Performance Council Forms Committee. He received the Building Performance Institute Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010.
Brian Bovio,Vice Chair
Bovio Advanced Comfort & Energy Solutions
Sicklerville, NJ
Brian J. Bovio is the Operations Manager of his third generation family business, Bovio Advanced Comfort & Energy Solutions. Brian graduated from The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in 2001 with a BA in economics, and has 15 years of expertise in the HVAC industry. Together Brian and his family, have transformed the company from a traditional heating & air conditioning company to a home performance contracting business focusing on the whole house approach, that also offers weatherization and insulation services to maximize homeowner energy savings. Brian is a BPI Certified Building Analyst/Envelope/Heating/Air Conditioning Professional as well as a NATE Certified Heat Pump Technician.
Matt Golden, Policy Chair/Second Vice-Chair
San Francisco, CA
Matt Golden is the co-founder and remains on the Board of Directors of Recurve, Inc. (formerly Sustainable Spaces), a leading provider of home energy audit software. 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 Home Performance Resource Center, the National Home Performance Council, the Building Performance Institute, the California Building Performance Contractors Association, and Affordable Comfort, Inc. Matt holds a bachelors degree in foreign relations from Georgetown University.
Lauren Carson, Treasurer
New York, NY
Lauren uses her expertise in sales and building management to develop strategic relationships and manage the sales team nationwide. Lauren has more than five years of expertise in residential real estate acquisitions and property management where she implemented green management practices and energy efficient improvements. Lauren was a Partner of CleanEdison, a nationwide leader in Green Jobs Training and Workforce Development. Prior to joining CleanEdison, Lauren spent six years at Lehman Brothers where she was vice president of Interest Rate Derivative Sales and a mortgage analyst. Lauren graduated from Trinity University with a BS in Finance and Economics.
Stephen Crouch, Secretary
Johns Manville
Denver, CO
Stephen Crouch has been the Residential Marketing Manager for Johns Manville since November 2007. In this role, he leads marketing and business development activities for the DIFM side of the new construction and existing home retrofit insulation market. He finds the existing home retrofit portion of his work particularly rewarding, in part because of the complexity and opportunity associated with getting the Home Performance industry off of the ground, and also because of a personal passion for the work of retrofitting homes. He currently represents Johns Manville in the HOME STAR task force for the Council of NAIMA and the Building Insulation Committee for NAIMA. Prior to the reorganization of NAIMA he was also a member of the Building Codes and Existing Homes Subcommittees of NAIMA with Chairman responsibility for the Existing Homes Subcommittee. Prior to working for Johns Manville, he worked for the Appliance Solutions division of Emerson Electric in a variety of roles ranging from finance to business development to marketing and sales.

Board of Directors
David Bangs
Home Performance Collaborative
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 Chair
Evergreen Home Performance
Rockland, ME
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.
Jonathan Cohen
Imagine Energy, LLC.
Portland, OR
Jonathan Cohen is a principal and chief engineer for Imagine Energy, LLC in Portland, Oregon. He founded the company in 2003 and has established a new market for energy consulting and contracting in the residential and small commercial sector. Jonathan offers knowledge in building science and energy efficiency, solar PV, solar thermal, wind energy, heat pumps (including geothermal), and other energy technologies. Jonathan has a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University and M.S. studies in the same. He has served as a test engineer at Sun Microsystems in Menlo Park, CA and the National Wind Technology Center in Boulder, CO. He is an instructor at Oregon institute of Technology's renewable energy engineering program, teaching practical PV design and installation, as well as serving as chair of OIT's Industry Advisory Committee. He helped develop the Home Performance Contractor's Guild, where he acts as a board member, and was instrumental in developing policy for Clean Energy Works Oregon program, the Oregon Solar Energy Code, and permitting of solar installations on standing-seam metal roofs without roof penetrations. He and his wife, Jessie, also own and operate a neighborhood coffee shop, Posies Cafe, in North Portland, where they live.
Doug Donovan, Best Practices Chair
Interplay Energy
Denver, CO

Doug is the CEO and Co-Founder of Interplay Energy, a product and consulting company in the residential energy efficiency industry.

Doug’s background includes directing the Residential Division of Greener Dawn, Inc. where he developed the Building Performance Institute (BPI) training program for energy efficiency contractors and provided other residential energy efficiency consultative services. Prior to joining Greener Dawn, Doug ran a home energy efficiency product company, Jumpstart to Green, LLC.

Doug’s professional past includes launching two start-ups companies and providing equity research at the investment bank, Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (now CSFB). Doug is currently a partner at Echo Mountain, a Colorado ski resort which he developed and managed.

Doug holds a BA from the University of Virginia, and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
Sam Flannery
Building Science Energy Services, LLC and Building Science Academy, LLC.
Sparta, MI
Sam has more than 20 years experience in the construction trades and deep experience as an energy auditor and trainer. Sam has participated in the Michigan Public Service Commission Energy Optimization Steering Committees, Michigan Saves Steering Committees, the Michigan Retrofit Ramp Up $30M grant for DELEG, Department of Education and several other State of Michigan Energy Efficiency and Neighborhood initiatives. Certifications include Building Analyst, Envelope Professional and multiple Sales and Training designations. Sam has extensive hands on experience in energy efficiency as the original founder and owner of Michigan Energy Savings, a company who performed energy audits and managed energy improvements on over 250 homes and businesses over the last four years. Sam is an accomplished speaker having addressed audiences across the U.S. in energy efficiency education such as the Michigan Green Jobs Conference in Lansing, Mi, Weatherization Training Conference’s, Workforce Development Organizations and State Agencies & Commissions. Sam has launched and helped guide the Michigan Efficiency First Chapter on a successful path, and he is currently working to increase Efficiency First's impact across the Midwest region and elsewhere..
Allison Haugh
Home Energy Licensed Professionals
Las Vegas, NV
Alison Haugh is a native Las Vegan. She was an elementary school teacher for ten years then spent six years in business development and office administration for an MP&E engineering firm where her interest in the building industry grew. She is a BPI Certified Analyst. She is a founding member and Past President of the Southern Nevada Building Performance Professionals trade association and recently held a seat on the Board of HomeFree Nevada, the local Home Performance with Energy Star sponsor. She volunteers with the Susan G. Komen Foundation, and she is the 2011 Incoming Chair for the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce Green Initiative Committee. Alison and her husband, Jim, own and operate Home Energy Licensed Professionals, an energy auditing firm. In addition to her work on local industry issues, Alison is also active in the Efficiency First Real Estate Council. She has also engaged with Majority Leader Reid's office on Home Star and other national issues..
Damian Hodkinson
True Energy Solutions, Inc.
East Rochester, NY
Damian Hodkinson has over 20 years experience in the implementation and construction management services, with the last five dedicated to energy efficiency consulting and demand side energy reduction projects. He has expertise in field and theoretical building energy analysis, energy modeling, building diagnostics, and the coordination and management of multi-faceted projects, with thousands of single family, multifamily, commercial, and municipal projects completed. He holds BPI Building Analyst, Envelope, Multifamily Analyst, Heating and A/C or Heat Pump certifications, EPA Lead Safe Worker certification, and he is RRP Lead Certified. He holds a B.S. in Geology from the University of Maryland and has earned a M.Sc. Geosciences (Structural analysis, Geochemical & thermal modeling) from the University of Arizona.
Mike Rogers
GreenHomes 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 locations in New York and New Jersey. For 15 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.
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.
Peter Van Buren
TerraLogos Energy Group
Baltimore, MD
Building on an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies and a Masters in Sustainable Landscape Design and Planning, Mr. Van Buren brought his 25 years of experience in sales and customer service to TerraLogos. As President of the company, he focuses on business development and marketing, coordination of the inspection/report/contractor process, and quality assurance of all aspects of work. Trained as a home energy auditor, he has a thorough knowledge of building sciences and the energy-efficiency problems in Maryland.
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

Jay Murdoch, Executive Director

Jay has over seventeen years of private and public sector experience impacting federal, state and local policy and regulations and over seven years of experience in residential and light commercial design, construction, and project management.
Before joining Efficiency First, Jay helped lead business development and government affairs at Masco Home Services for its existing home service offering, WellHome, and its new homes program for builders, Environments for Living. He also spent ten years at Owens Corning serving in a variety of roles including sales, marketing, codes and standards development and support, as well as providing support on government and regulatory affairs issues. While at Owens Corning, Jay served on the committee that crafted the NAHB Green Building Guidelines, and helped develop and deploy builder-friendly tools to assist them in securing state and federal tax credits for energy efficient homes.
Jay previously worked at the NAHB Research Center and the National Association of Home Builders where he supported the building industry on codes and standards; provided policy and compliance guidance under the American’s with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Fair Housing Act accessibility guidelines; and represented builder interests relating to electric deregulation. He worked four years at the US Access Board, a small federal agency charged with the development of federal accessibility requirements for buildings and facilities. Further, Jay assisted in the development of policy positions as well as education and compliance tools at the Building Owners and Managers Association, specifically on the ADA. Finally, during and after attending Architecture School at the Catholic University, Jay worked for home builders, remodelers, and commercial contractors and architectural firms in the Washington DC area and the Turks & Caicos Islands, BWI.
Coby Rudolph, Director of Chapters and Grassroots
Coby's career in politics has been focused on engaging people in the political process. In college he recruited Californians to join the campaign for a renewable portfolio standard. Between 2004 and 2006, Coby directed grassroots campaigns in seven states. Since then, Coby has led grassroots work for the Save Darfur Coalition and the Alliance for Climate Protection ("Repower America"). At Efficiency First, Coby spends his time working with existing and prospective members; helping Efficiency First members grow and expand state and regional chapters; and mobilizing members and others in favor of policies that will grow the Hone Performance industry. Coby holds a B.A. in Politics from the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Melissa Pawson, Project Coordinator
Melissa Pawson joins Efficiency First as a Project Coordinator and Development Associate. She is responsible for supporting Efficiency First membership, as well as managing accounting and administrative activities. Melissa has a background in climate science, energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies.
Most recently, Melissa has served as the Sustainable Communities Associate at Strategic Energy Innovations, where she supported home performance workforce development. Melissa has also previously worked at the Redwood Coast Energy Authority and Sonoma County Regional Parks. She graduated with honors, from Humboldt State University, earning a bachelor’s of science degree in Environmental Science with an emphasis on Energy and Climate Change.
Kara Saul Rinaldi, Government Affairs
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. Kara is the President and CEO of the AnnDyl Policy Group, an energy and environmental policy strategy firm. Prior to joining AnnDyl, Kara directed the energy and climate policy efforts for the environmental consulting firm ERM.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.