Power Efficiency’s management team is comprised of professionals with decades of experience in entrepreneurial companies, motor controls and automation, finance and law.
Steven Strasser
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Prior to becoming the Company’s CEO in October 2004, Mr. Strasser was the Managing Director, founder and majority owner of Summit Energy Ventures LLC (“Summit”), the largest shareholder in Power Efficiency Corporation. Summit is a private equity firm focused on investments in companies with energy efficiency technologies. At Summit, Mr. Strasser spent four years, from 2001-2005, evaluating and investing in energy technology companies and serving on the boards of portfolio companies. Mr. Strasser has been a director since August 2002.
From 1984 through 2000, Mr. Strasser was the founder and CEO of Northwest Power Enterprises. Over its seventeen-year history, Northwest Power Enterprises and its predecessor companies were involved in multiple aspects of the energy development business.
Mr. Strasser received law degrees from McGill University, Montreal, Canada and the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
BJ Lackland
Director, Chief Financial Officer, and Secretary
Prior to joining Power Efficiency, Mr. Lackland was the Vice President and Director of Summit Energy Ventures, a private equity firm that is the largest shareholder in Power Efficiency Corporation. Summit focuses on investments in companies with energy efficiency technologies. Prior to Summit, Mr. Lackland was the Director of Strategic Relations at Encompass Globalization and the Director of Strategic Planning and Corporate Development at an Internet business development consulting company. Mr. Lackland also worked at The National Bureau of Asian Research, an internationally acclaimed research company focusing on U.S. policy toward Asia.
Mr. Lackland earned an M.B.A. from the University of Washington Business School, an M.A. in International Studies (Asian Studies) from the University of Washington’s Jackson School of International Studies, and a B.A. in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Claremont McKenna College.
Usen Udoh
Chief Technology Officer
Prior to joining Power Efficiency, Mr. Udoh was the Managing Director at Riddhi Partners, a venture firm focused on assisting both seasoned clients and early stage companies to develop, incubate and commercialize intellectual property.
Prior to Riddhi Partners, Mr. Udoh was a contractor to NASA Ames Research Center where he managed early stage programs sponsored by NASA, Dept. of Homeland Security and DARPA in areas involving wireless platforms for data acquisition in orbit and for terrestrial use. Mr. Udoh was employed at the National BioComputation Center at Stanford University from 2002 to 2005 as a Senior Research Engineer focused on the development and commercialization of remote monitoring platforms.
Mr. Udoh spent seven years at IBM from 1995 to 2002. As a Program Manager for IBM Technology Group, he assisted the internal IBM Research teams to create new channels and partnerships for patents created by IBM. He was focused on the power management architecture, wireless platforms and IBM's Options products.
Mr. Udoh received a Bachelors Degree from Purdue University and Masters Degree from North Carolina State University in Electrical Engineering. He holds several patents in wireless technologies, protocol optimization and control systems.
Alan Taylor
Senior Vice President of Business Development, Vertical Transportation
Prior to joining Power Efficiency Corporation, Mr. Taylor was an associate at HKA Elevator Consulting Inc. and Principal at Barker Mohandas LLC - both vertical transportation consulting companies. Prior to his work in the consulting field, Alan held numerous positions in the elevator/escalator industry – Vice President International Technical Services (ITS) China, at ThyssenKrupp Elevator (TKE), at which his responsibilities included managing day-to-day operations of newly created ITS, and developing a highly trained field engineering staff to successfully support the TKE Asian Maintenance staff. Previous positions Mr. Taylor has held were Chief Technology / Production Officer for a TKE joint venture in Seoul Korea, Operations Manager / Regional Trainer and various other positions.
Mr. Taylor has over 30 years of professional experience in the Elevator and Escalator industry and has traveled for work to over 30 countries, including South Korea, China, Saudi Arabia, Australia, and Thailand.
Mr. Taylor earned his post graduate studies in Lift Engineering at Northampton University in England and is presently writing his dissertation for his Masters of Science in Lift Engineering.
Jack Barrett
Vice President of Industrial Sales
Mr. Barrett joined Power Efficiency in October and brings over 30 years’ experience in sales and marketing of automation products. Most recently, Mr. Barrett was at Danaher Motion, where he held various positions including Director of OEM Sales for the Kollmorgen division and VP of North American Sales for the Portescap division. Prior to joining Danaher, Mr. Barrett was with Parker Hannifin for 18 years where his last position was Business Unit Manager, Servomotors.
