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It was an honor to serve the Element 8 membership in 2015, which marked my first full year as the Executive Director of this outstanding organization. A year on the job has made me even more inspired by the dedication of Element 8 members to catalyze change toward more sustainable business through cleantech investment. I’d like to share with you some of the highlights of the past year: Deal flow has improved as Element 8’s reputation as a smart, fair, group of angels in the cleantech community grows. We saw deals from the East Coast, Mid-West, West Coast, and Canada. Deals in agriculture, water, and smart buildings were more prevalent, and I predict we’ll see more deals in these sectors in 2016. We welcomed new members, many who dived in as active participants in screening calls, member meetings, follow-up meetings and due diligence processes. We held an Element 8 due diligence process workshop attended by new and old members, and will host another session soon. To improve information management and communications among members and with entrepreneurs, we migrated from the Gust.com management platform to the Proseeder.com platform. Proseeder provides a better events calendar and archiving of deal information. We appreciate your patience as we all familiarize ourselves with this new tool and request your feedback about how it can be improved. Looking forward to the rest of 2016, the Board has identified growing Element 8’s membership as a priority to increase the organization’s impact. To that end, we surveyed the membership to understand better the factors that attract and retain members. Look for new activities and use of technology to improve your membership experience. I am very grateful to our sponsors, who provide so much to Element 8 through their expertise, venues, and connections. Without our Sponsors, we would not be able to advance Element 8 mission to, “Focus on early-stage cleantech companies whose innovation will increase the sustainability and health of our planet.” Element 8 is blessed with talented and dedicated Fellows who bring diverse skills and experience to the organization. These individuals provide invaluable support to me and the Element 8 community through their work on due diligence and marketing. The Fellows give great value to Element 8; I encourage the Element 8 community to give back to the Fellows, reach out, network and help them pursue their goals in the cleantech sector. Thank you for your support of Element 8. We look forward to your continued involvement in making Element 8 an even stronger organization in 2016. |
 
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