Phil LaRocco is the Founder (1994) and CEO (through 2009) of pioneering not-for-profit energy investment company E+Co, which operates in sub-Saharan Africa, Central America and Southeast Asia. He has directed investment in over 150 energy enterprises in more than 20 companies; built relationships between large institutions (e.g., Rockefeller Foundation, UN Environment Programme, European Development Finance and Development organizations, United States Agency for International Development, World Bank Group and International Finance Corporation) and more than 150 small and medium-sized energy enterprises (e.g., SELCO-India, Toyola-Ghana and La Esperanza-Honduras).

LaRocco has over 30 years of experience at the intersection of the public and private sectors—leveraging public purposes and private sector initiative, and blending financial, economic, social and environmental returns. He was director of trade and economic development for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey from 1970 to 1990, where he managed the World Trade Center; developed inner city industrial parks in the South Bronx, Yonkers and Elizabeth; developed Essex County’s 2,250 ton-per day waste to energy facility with a staff of 550 in 12 units managing $750 million per year. He understands big, complex organizations and public purposes. And, in 1990, create a project management firm that led to E+Co.

LaRocco is committed to making training, education and capacity building materials readily available to energy entrepreneurs, and other sector professionals. He has:

• Created Money Management for Energy Enterprises, a step-by-step guide that begins with receipts and daily cash recording and works its way through to leveraged internal rate of return.
• Prepared for UNEP, UN Foundation and others a Toolkit for Energy Entrepreneurs
• Authored, with Maria Salinas, UNFCCC technology transfer financing guidebook Guidebook on Preparing and Presenting Proposals
• Authored (with Jennye Greene, Ellen Morris and Gina Rodolico) MyBusinessPlan, an on-line training and coaching program for energy entrepreneurs.

In addition to the Clean Energy Solutions Center, his recent assignments and clients have include the Secretariat of the UNFCCC, the Caribbean Community Climate Change Center, SIDSDock.org, the Energy for Sustainable Development in the Caribbean Project, the Miller Center at the University of Santa Clara, Embark Energy and the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP).