Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Alumni
  • Login
  • Volunteer
  • Clubs
  • Reunions
  • Magazine
  • Class Notes
  • Help
  • Give Now
  • Stories
  • Alumni Directory
  • Lifelong Learning
  • Careers
  • Programs & Events
  • Giving
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Alumni→
  • Stories→

Stories

Stories

26 Aug 2020

Empowering Rural Communities

Re: Chris Riley (MBA 2008)
Topics: Energy-Energy GenerationGeography-RuralEnergy-Renewable Energy
ShareBar

Chris Riley (MBA 2008) didn’t have any experience with renewable power when he cofounded Guzman Energy in 2013. Riley, who had spent most his career as an officer in the US Navy and later as director of investment banking at Guzman & Company, was more concerned about the type of company he wanted to launch than the sector in which he would be working. “We wanted to start a company that helps people and benefits society,” he recalls. The energy sector, which was at the beginning of what Riley calls the “renewable power revolution,” seemed ripe for that kind of disruption.

Riley and his cofounders saw an opportunity to create a new kind of energy company—a hybrid of a traditional utility and a financial entity. Guzman Energy, a subsidiary of Guzman & Company, would not be weighed down by the same legacy investments in carbon-based power generation of many traditional utilities, nor would it be limited by the financial restrictions that govern nonprofit electrical cooperatives. Instead, the company would have both the incentive and the flexibility to bring renewable power to communities that would benefit economically from the change.

To date, the company has focused its efforts on rural communities in the American West, in places not unlike the small coal town in Utah where Riley grew up. He knows that his business model to provide cheaper green energy will hurt the job prospects in communities like his hometown. But Riley thinks Guzman Energy has a role to play in that transition. “I’m trying to cultivate a culture inside of the reusable-energy sector that advocates for these changing communities and helps them find ways to move forward, too.”

Support the next generation of leaders Make a gift now
ShareBar

Featured Alumni

Chris Riley
MBA 2008
Login to send a message

Post a Comment

Featured Alumni

Chris Riley
MBA 2008
Login to send a message

Related Stories

    • 23 Jun 2020
    • Business Day

    Bridging Nigeria's Infrastructure Gap

    Re: Tariye Gbadegesin (MBA 2006)
    • 22 Jun 2019
    • Wall Street Journal

    Building the Wind Turbines Was Easy. The Hard Part Was Plugging Them In

    Re: Michael Skelly (MBA 1991)
    • 01 Dec 2017
    • HBS Alumni Bulletin

    2017 in Energy: A Future of Lower Energy Prices

    Re: Sarah Wright (MBA 1997); Richard H.K. Vietor (Paul Whiton Cherington Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus); By: Sarah Wright (MBA 1997), founder, Hull Street Energy
    • 01 Sep 2017
    • HBS Alumni Bulletin

    Research Brief: As the Wind Blows

    Re: Geoffrey G. Jones (Isidor Straus Professor of Business History)

More Related Stories

 
 
 
ǁ
Campus Map
External Relations
Harvard Business School
Teele Hall
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
Phone: 1.617.495.6890
Email: alumni+hbs.edu
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
  • Terms of Use
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College.