#161: Rick Stockburger (BRITE) — Unleashing the Energy Revolution

Rick Stockburger, CEO of BRITE Energy Innovators. Located in the City of Warren, just outside Youngstown in the Mahoning Valley, BRITE was founded in 2010 as a non-profit focused on the acceleration of energy technology in Northeast Ohio. Since then, and under Rick’s leadership, BRITE has helped over 600 companies, creating approximately 2100 jobs, and channeling >$250 million dollars into BRITE’s network of companies. Providing signature start-up programs, a networked ecosystem, and strategic presence to unleash the energy revolution across Ohio, Appalachia, and the Midwest writ large, BRITE serves a variety of clients providing solutions to today’s challenges and defining tomorrow’s opportunities in energy storage, grid resilience, and mobility and transportation. Rick comes to BRITE as a Northeast Ohio native, a decorated combat veteran serving the US over nearly 7 years in the early 2000s and in operations across the world, as well as a kindred believer to myself, in the power of storytelling, having spearheaded an award-winning “Red, White, and Blueprints: A Rust Belt Documentary” telling the stories of some of the most innovative initiatives, individuals and ideas in the Rust Belt from Detroit to Buffalo to Cleveland and beyond! This was an awesome conversation — we cover Rick’s journey to BRITE, involving a serendipitous run-in with Dave Grohl (a fellow Warren, Ohio native), Voltage Valley, the dependency and interconnectedness of everything energy, some of the most compelling companies within BRITE’s network, including some who’s stories we’ve shared here on Lay of The Land like LAND energy (back on Episode 48), Octet Scientific (back on Episode 118) with their founders, Scott Colosimo and Onas Bolton respectively, changing perceptions about Nuclear, Rick’s learnings along the way, and ultimately the opportunity and ability for this region ability to lead in energy production, electrification of things, and energy storage going. ----- SPONSORS: John Carroll University Boler College of Business || Impact Architects & Ninety John Carroll University Boler College of Business: https://business.jcu.edu/  As we’ve heard time and time again from entrepreneurs on Lay of The Land — many of whom are proud alumni of John Carroll University —  success in this ever-changing world of business requires a dynamic and innovative mindset, deep understanding of emerging technology and systems, strong ethics, leadership prowess, acute business acumen… all qualities nurtured through the Boler College of Business! With 4 different MBA programs of study — spanning Professional, Online, Hybrid, and 1-Year-Flexible — The Boler College of Business provides flexible timelines and various class structures for each MBA Track — including online, in-person, hybrid and asynchronous — to offer the most effective options for you, in addition to the ability to participate in an elective International Study Tour, providing unparalleled opportunities to expand your global business knowledge by networking with local companies overseas and experiencing a new culture. The career impact of a Boler MBA is formative and will help prepare you for this future of business and get more out of your career. To learn more about John Carroll University’s Boler MBA programs, please go to business.jcu.edu The Boler College of Business is fully accredited by AACSB International, the highest accreditation a College of Business can have. Impact Architects & Ninety Lay of The Land is brought to you by Ninety. As a Lay of The Land listener, you can leverage a free trial with Ninety, the platform that helps teams build great companies and the only officially licensed software for EOS® — used by over 7,000 companies and 100,000 users! This episode is brought to you by Impact Architects. As we share the stories of entrepreneurs building incredible organizations throughout NEO, Impact Architects helps those leaders — many of whom we’ve heard from as guests on Lay of The Land — realize their visions and build great organizations. I believe in Impact Architects and the people behind it so much, that I have actually joined them personally in their mission to help leaders gain focus, align together, and thrive by doing what they love! As a listener, you can sit down for a free consultation with Impact Architects by visiting ia.layoftheland.fm! ----- LINKS: https://brite.org/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickstockburger/ https://twitter.com/BRITEpeople https://www.instagram.com/britepeople Red, White, and Blueprints: A Rust Belt Documentary ----- Stay up to date by signing up for Lay of The Land's weekly newsletter — sign up here. Past guests include Justin Bibb (Mayor of Cleveland), Pat Conway (Great Lakes Brewing), Steve Potash (OverDrive), Umberto P. Fedeli (The Fedeli Group), Lila Mills (Signal Cleveland), Stewart Kohl (The Riverside Company), Mitch Kroll (Findaway — Acquired by Spotify), and many more. Connect with Jeffrey Stern on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreypstern/ Follow Jeffrey Stern on X @sternJefe — https://twitter.com/sternjefe Follow Lay of The Land on X @podlayoftheland https://www.jeffreys.page/