Clean Solutions' mission is to provide solutions that positively impact the well being of the planet and empower communities worldwide.
Clean Solutions was formed from a deep commitment to create practical solutions to problems facing our planet. We are a company that transforms hope to action. We firmly believe this can be done from a place of positive outcome for everyone. Our experience has taught us that it is possible to combine smart practical business sense with heart. We hold a big picture vision of healing the planet by turning the biggest problems we face into our biggest asset.
Our team combines a wealth of successful and diverse backgrounds. We bring knowledge and experience from the worlds of construction, management, engineering, chemistry, electric utilities, marketing, finance, manufacturing, software design, IT, human resources and sales. This combination of talent allows us to bring years of experience and a wide range of ideas and insight to focus on effective solutions.
Jeff Robertson, Partner, brings more than 35 years of experience in management, sales and marketing to Clean Solutions Co. He is a skillful entrepreneur who has run various successful businesses. Jeff holds a Journalism degree from the Newhouse School of Public communications and is a Syracuse University graduate with a degree in Latin American Economic Studies. In the construction and real estate fields he has championed new technologies. Since the first oil crisis he has marketed alternative technologies. He has managed real estate development projects from concept to build-out. His experience includes working on projects from the federal, state and municipal contracting levels. Jeff’s passion for new technologies that make a difference globally lead to the formation of Clean Solutions Co.
Kathleen Jakse, Partner, holds a BS degree from St Cloud State University, MN. Kathleen’s philosophy is to never lose track of the bigger picture and the opportunities being presented. Kathleen’s strengths lie in her highly developed intuition and ability to approach a project from a holistic perspective that optimizes results. She has a multi-disciplined background in human consciousness/potential that encompasses more than twenty years of training in areas including abundance, win-win approaches, holistic healing and creating and living from the heart. Her insight and advice started with the formation and vision for the company.
Craig Sweet has devoted more than five years to researching and creating the wealth of detailed information that serves CSC. Before CSC, Craig ran a series of mortgage offices and was responsible for compliance and training of a large staff. This provided invaluable experience in managing personnel and implementing a variety of systems for compliance and performance. Also relevant to the CSC perspective Craig has years in the industrial supply field. He was Marketing Director for a company servicing the forest products and related industries. One of his primary roles was researching and installing strategic campaigns for commercial product sales, service and distribution. As his products and service developed he started acting as Program Designer researching and building high level industry training curriculum and materials. Craig also brings considerable experience and knowledge in the realms of residential and commercial developments as former owner of Pin Point Development. For a seven-year period Craig worked in and ran a mortgage company with up to 150 employees. He managed and oversaw a central processing center, 17 branch operations throughout Oregon Washington and Idaho, evaluated selected loans to guarantee state compliance, and developed marketing strategies to be used in area campaigns. He also brings 9 years of field experience creating as well as implementing sales and marketing strategies targeting buyers for industrial equipment and hardware, sales and product distribution. His duties included everything from promotional materials to product distribution. Presently Craig is a founding partner in BioChar Global Solutions a "green" technology company.
Marc Strauch has developed executive leadership, strategic planning, marketing, business development and sales expertise that focuses on developing, commercializing, and promoting emerging technology throughout his 25-year career. As part of the Clean Solutions team, Marc uses this experience to help companies make a successful transition from an R&D or product development organization to a sales- and market-driven company. Marc served as a founding partner and CEO of Topaz Bridge, a Seattle-based privately held enterprise software development company and as Chief Marketing Officer for NS8 Corporation, a publicly traded digital media distribution software company. In 1998, Marc founded a value-based marketing consultancy where he worked with Cisco, Intel, and mid-tier IT companies and clean-green technology start-ups. Marc also served as a marketing advisor and integral member of the Business Value team at Microsoft Corporation, where he developed go-to-market campaigns and business value-related sales readiness plans for the Microsoft® Office System and four versions each of Windows Server™ and Microsoft Windows client products.
For 7 years, Marc worked in consumer advertising with Ogilvy & Mather, Young & Rubicam and other leading US advertising agencies on broadcast TV advertising campaigns for the Fortune 500 including the Walt Disney Company, Chevron, Quaker Oats and Levis. Early in his career, Marc worked with community organizations, municipal governments, and regional planning authorities doing public policy strategy and organizational management in housing and economic development and regional land use and environmental planning. Marc earned a master’s degree in Urban Planning from CUNY and B.Sc, in Environmental Science and Public Policy and B.A. in Economic Geography from SUNY; he has additional coursework in finance, marketing, organizational development and film/video/multimedia production.
Simon Kechloian has perfected the art of the deal in West Coast commercial, residential, and agricultural real estate for more than 25 years. His financial experience and talent for delivering sustainable projects bring business development insight and project packaging savvy to Clean Solutions ventures. Most recently Simon sourced and helped develop a large environmentally sustainable real estate project In the Napa Valley as a joint venture of Pacific Union College and Triad Development Inc. Since 1980, Simon’s business development efforts have included:
A five-year project of sourcing, capitalizing, and negotiating terms for a California-based master-planned community of 1,000 homes, a retail center, commercial properties, a golf course, and more than 1,200 acres of open space.
Creating an investment group that purchased the Napa Valley’s renowned Juliana Vineyard.
Helping a major Pacific Northwest commercial builder liquidate a diverse portfolio valued at more than $220 million.
Identifying investment opportunities and closing deals in West Coast commercial and retail real estate development markets for a Portland, Oregon-based regional investment bank.
Negotiating the purchase and development of resort properties valued at more than $100M in Napa Valley, California, Park City, Utah, and Seattle, Washington.
Earlier in his career, Simon formed WRK Commercial Real Estate Inc., where his work emphasized debt and equity placements, helping a local land syndicate liquidate their $50 million development portfolio, and restructuring $65 million of debt for a Seattle office building owner. Simon graduated with a Bachelors of Science degree in from Chico State University.
Our Consultants
Steve McAdams, Process and Chemical Engineering. Recognizing the importance of oversight and technical experience we have a highly experienced Chemical and Process Engineer with the relevant background and experience to act as an advisor and project reviewer. His background in the thermal process field coupled with his experience designing and managing large-scale projects for Dow Chemical, makes him more than qualified to take the lead in the technical arenas. Under his supervision CSC has and will continue to utilize several specialized engineering firms when needed.
Neal Anderson, PhD., Chemist. Neal consults to the pharmaceutical and fine chemical industries on developing and trouble-shooting processes for the effective and efficient preparation of drug substances and intermediates on a large scale. Prior to consulting he worked at Bristol-Myers Squibb for 17 years. During that time he had extensive hands-on experience with chemical process development in the lab, pilot plant, and manufacturing sites, including 12 manufacturing start-ups and process development for four major drugs and many new drug candidates. Neal is co-author on six US patents, has co-authored and presented sixteen professional papers at technical symposiums, and is the author of Practical Process Research & Development. Neal has proven success in developing practical, cost-effective processes, for example, savings of about $3.7M annually through the design and implementation of the simplified captopril (Capoten®) process. Neal also has extensive start-up experience including 12 processes introduced to Bristol-Myers Squibb manufacturing or pilot plant facilities in Ireland and Puerto Rico and more than 20 years of practical, hands-on experience in developing industrial chemical processes. His background in biology is another extreme plus in developing the specialized bio chars that will be most effective.
Charles Douglas Smith, Engineering. With nearly 25 years of expertise in multiple aspects of engineering, operations, manufacturing, marketing and executive management ranging from conventional engineering to alternative fuels, Charles has worked with leading companies such as Lucent, Tyco Electronics Power Systems, Witco, and Landstar Polymer Recovery as well as Simclar de Mexico. Charles’s most recent experience is as an operating partner for Polymerix Resource Recovery where he led a variety of research & development efforts in recycling, alternative fuels and infrastructure development including waste water collection and treatment. Charles earned his MBA in marketing and finance from Syracuse University and his BS in Ocean engineering from Texas A&M University.
Hope Robertson, Energy and Utilities. Hope is a specialist in electric power regulatory policies influencing electricity supply and demand, renewable energy technologies and markets, transmission markets, independent power, and environmental issues in the power industry. She has authored numerous research reports related to the power sector over the past 20 years, including analyses of resource adequacy rules, the future of concentrating solar power, applying feed-in tariffs to the US renewable markets, the role of energy efficiency and demand-side policies, the changing attitudes about water use in power production and transmission planning policies, for-profit business opportunities in transmission, the future of clean coal technologies, the impact of mercury regulations in the power sector, generating plants and grid interconnection policies, and green power. She has consulted in the energy and environmental fields, analyzing a variety of business, financial, environmental, and legislative issues for national and international clients, including utilities, government agencies, independent power producers, international resource agencies, and multinational corporations. She developed Robertson's Current Analysis, an information service that tracked competition in the US and Canadian electricity industries which was used as the basis for launching MW Daily. She holds a BS from Cornell and an MA from Harvard University.
