Sam Cohen

President / CEO

Sam founded Energy Solutions in 1995 to provide utilities, governments and businesses with Demand Side Management (DSM) program design, marketing and implementation assistance.  His vision for the company was – and still is – to create large-scale environmental benefits by creating market-driven solutions that make adopting environmentally friendly practices good for business.  Since then, Sam has grown Energy Solutions from a one-person company operating out of his home to a nationwide company with expanded solutions that deliver best-in-class upstream programs, energy-efficiency codes and standards expertise, and demand response solutions to support renewables in the power grid.

As Energy Solutions has scaled, the company’s mission and culture have not changed.  In 2013 Sam created an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) that made Energy Solutions’ employees owners in the business and, literally, invested in its success.

Sam received a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley and worked at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory while earning a master’s from the Energy and Resources Department at UC Berkeley.  After completing his degrees, he went to work at a large consulting firm for three years before leaving to pursue his vision of creating a mission-focused company dedicated to addressing climate change.