Laird Grant (MBA’25) is a current student at the Leeds Business School pursuing the Clean Energy MBA Pathway. He recently attended the ClimateCAP MBA Summit in Michigan, a global conference discussing the effects of climate change on modern business operations, with seven other Leeds MBAs and two staff from CESR. Leeds is a leading partner of the ClimateCAP Initiative that prepares MBA students to rise to the climate challenge. In a recent interview with Grant, he took the time to reflect on his ClimateCAP Summit experience, his interesting background as both a bike shop owner and a professional bike racer, and the clean energy issues he is currently focusing his attention on.
CESR: You have recently returned from the ClimateCAP MBA Summit in Michigan? How was your experience overall? What themes stuck out to you?
Laird Grant: The conference was a fantastic networking event for meeting other students and working professionals who are interested in climate, sustainability, and energy across the country. My key takeaways fit into three different areas: (1) networking with a new community, all with similar interests; (2) focusing on meeting people who were already in clean energy jobs or have signed away for their second year and were going to be working come May; and (3) listening and talking to some of the speakers in a casual setting. In a more informal setting, many of the keynote speakers were open to sharing their experiences and talking about the specific ways their programs work. For example, I was able to hear varying suggestions for club leadership in MBA programs across the country which was extremely insightful as I am in leadership roles for a few of the clubs here at Leeds (VP of Community Outreach for the Net Impact Club, Co-VP of the Outdoor Industry club, first-year rep to the MBAA). I had lots of questions about club engagement, the events that other MBA programs lead, and the treks that these leaders organized. Additionally, it was interesting reflecting on some of the people who already had jobs and seeing what recommendations they had for a first year. Talking to some of the working professionals who participated in the panels was also very interesting. I look forward to implementing their clean energy insight into my internship and future career opportunities.
CESR: How was it being surrounded by so many students who are all dedicated to working on climate issues in their careers?
Laird Grant: I think it was somebody from Georgetown University, that commented, “It’s fantastic to be around so many people driven by their sustainable values and interests in clean energy.” I found that comment very interesting because going to CU Boulder, you self-select into things with a very specific mindset and group of people who are already focused in that direction. However, at some of the other universities, it appears that that's not the case. It feels awesome that everyone in my program is somewhat sustainability-focused, energy-focused, or focused on the environment in some manner. However, it was very interesting to see this type of juxtaposition that exists at other universities. I feel grateful to be in an environment at CU where we are surrounded by this mentality all the time. For us, it wasn’t a huge difference, but I think it was for a lot of other students.
"I feel grateful to be in an environment at CU where we are surrounded by this mentality all the time. For us, it wasn’t a huge difference, but I think it was for a lot of other students."
-says Laird Grant
CESR: Can you explain why you chose to pursue the Clean Energy MBA Pathway? Why do you find clean energy an interesting career path?
Laird Grant: I have a wild way of coming to CU. I have been in the bike industry for the past 15 years, working in bike shops, and racing mountain bikes professionally. My undergraduate degree is in geology and my interests, broadly speaking, lie more around energy technologies. So, learning about geothermal hydropower and things of that nature was very interesting, and why I initially considered a graduate program in the first place. I came back to the U.S. after living in Canada for a while and started a bike shop with a friend of mine – where I obtained a lot of really interesting and tangible business experience. Through that, I also realized that I didn't want to be in the bike industry for the rest of my life. I was looking at where I could go, and what I could do to continue my career path focused on environmental science, with an emphasis on energy. When I was applying for degrees, I quite literally just Google searched “master's degrees in clean energy.” CU popped up. I decided to come to CU because of the MBA program we have here. It seemed like an excellent opportunity to build upon the skills I learned from operating a small business and solidifying the skills like finance, marketing, and operations that I now want in my career.
CESR: What trends do you see emerging within the sustainable energy field? Where do you see big business focusing their attention moving forward?
Laird Grant: Within the energy field, I see a lot of the transition happening at the utility scale; larger projects focusing on how we maneuver away from reliance on traditional energy sources like oil, gas, and coal, and shifting more towards projects with solar and wind. Of course, battery storage is a key holder in that transition in terms of load in the grid. Right now, I'm doing some work in my internship, focusing on how we get energy from the place where it's generated to where the demand is.
It is an interesting world out there because you could have the backing from one of the biggest companies in the world and create the biggest solar farm in the U.S. However, when you conduct an electrical analysis on the facility, you realize that it only creates one hundred megawatts which is quite small for a utility scale. There are a lot of issues in terms of how everyone wants to make a big difference, but how you get that renewable energy from creation and generation to actual demand is a difficult question – and exactly where I want to spend my time in the future.
In my opinion, the biggest transition that we're seeing is understanding that we have enough generation and capacity, but creating solutions on how to get this energy into high-demand areas is the real question. This is where I see the energy field shifting their attention towards moving forward.
CESR: What advice would you give students looking to enter the clean energy field?
Laird Grant: This stems from advice I received, and it holds two parts. One of them is more general and applies to any field you want. It is a concept called the “do-say" ratio. If you say you're going to do something, then do it. This ratio should be as close to one-to-one as possible. Everyone understands that you are students, and don't have time to do absolutely everything. However, it's more about communication and commitment to your word. You may be in an internship, or a summer job and you want to get something done, but realistically, you simply may not have the time to do a specific task because you are working on something else. In this example, I recommend posing the question, “Would you value me doing what you're asking me to do right now over this? I can only commit to one right now.” In terms of showing a level of maturity to employers, this type of open communication is crucial.
The second thing is very specific to the energy industry. My advice is to completely engross yourself in the industry by reading, researching, going to talks, asking questions, etc. Unfortunately, the energy industry is acronym-heavy, so learning what all these things are, becoming familiar with the energy markets, and being able to talk the talk of the industry is important.
"It is a concept called the 'do-say' ratio. If you say you're going to do something, then do it. This ratio should be as close to one-to-one as possible. Everyone understands that you are students, and don't have time to do absolutely everything. However, it's more about communication and commitment to your word."
-says Laird Grant
CESR: Could you talk about the internship that you are currently a part of?
Laird Grant: I am working for Redeux Energy. I am a rotational intern for their team, which means I will be covering all of the aspects of their business. Redeux is an early to mid-stage developer. In other words, we find unique opportunities to build out generation or capacity projects. We source land, file interconnection requests, build out financing, file the necessary permits, and organize the PPA if needed. Once we have all of this wrapped up nicely, we sell the project LLC to a generation or capacity operator. So, we originate and develop projects, and when the "shovel is about to break ground" Redeux Energy sells the LLC to someone like NextEra, Xcel Energy, etc. Right now, I am working on market strategy, and what the company needs to know about different states (Arizona for example), or energy markets for development. I will be working on more development material, project finance, and corporate development in the future. This internship is from January-August and this level of time commitment ensures that I will have time to be a part of each team – learning from the leader and my peers in each sector.
CESR: Is there anything else you would like to share?
Laird Grant: I think CESR does a great job of engaging students in the MBA. Both businesses and business schools alike are going to continue in the direction that CESR is going in terms of sustainability, energy, and social responsibility. CESR makes this program feel very applicable to the real world.
Grant’s switch from bike store owner and professional racer to the clean energy space represents the immense value of having diverse experiences, even if not sustainability-related when entering the sustainability and social responsibility realm. His insights from the ClimateCAP MBA Summit in Michigan emphasize the importance of collaboration and industry immersion in the effort to have more climate-conscience businesses moving forward.
Explore the other MBA Pathways and learn about CESR here.