Ron Hofmann

Senior Advisor

Ron Hofmann specializes in business development and technology assessment in the energy sector.  Mr. Hofmann has extensive experience in developing new businesses and markets from the ground up.  In the recent past, he has been a member of two Boards of Directors (Power Standards Laboratory & Sentient Energy) and one Board of Advisors (Strategen).  He has also served on two PV-related Boards of Advisors (PowerLight and PVT Solar).  He also is a pro-bono advisor to several emerging energy-related technology companies and projects, and was involved in an ARPA-E project related to Micro-PMU’s.  Through CIEE at the University of California, he helped the California Energy Commission’s PIER program develop RD&D projects and through Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, he advised regulators on the implications of Smart Grid technologies especially those that involved controls & communications.  He has also been a Venture Advisor for Claremont Creek Ventures. 

Over the past 50 years, Mr. Hofmann has started several successful enterprises.  In the early seventies, he helped pioneer the commercialization of engineering simulation software (PISCES) through direct sales and the use of CDC Cybernet (an early worldwide computer network of mainframes).  In 1974, he co-founded and co-managed a SAIC office for 9 years.  Among his long-term clients were EPRI for nuclear reactor safety software development (STEALTH codes) and ONWI/ERDA for nuclear waste isolation simulations.  In 1983, he was a co-founder (and the original CEO for 10 years) of EnergyLine Systems, Inc.  ELSI, acquired in 1998 by S&C Electric, developed smart (communicating) controls for commercial and industrial HVAC equipment (e.g., chillers, unitary equipment, VAV boxes, etc.) and electric utility power-distribution controls for sectionalizers (IntelliTEAM), capacitor banks, reclosers, etc.

Mr. Hofmann has a mechanical engineering degree from the University of California in Berkeley and did post-graduate studies in thermo sciences at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.  For many years, he was an active (and charter) participant in the CEO Forum sponsored by the Santa Clara University Business School.  In his career, he has held technical, marketing, sales, and management positions in large and small companies.