Executive Team and Board Members

  • Photo of Kevin Wolf

    Kevin Wolf

    CEO & Co-Founder

    In 2006, Kevin co-founded Wind Harvest International and became its first CEO. He later became the VP of Business Development and then Chief Operations Officer, overseeing the company’s engineering, project development, marketing, sales, and science. He returned to the CEO position in 2019 to take the lead again in raising capital.

    From 2015 to 2021, Kevin facilitated the engineering team that developed the Wind Harvester Model 3.1. With his deep knowledge of the technology and markets, he wrote the grants, papers, led the sales and marketing team and developed the relationships and projects in Scotland, Barbados, and California. His science degree, environmental background, consensus-based facilitation expertise, and years of work with the company help in his leadership role with Wind Harvest, where he now leads the capital raising campaign and manages the Company. Kevin graduated with honors from UC Davis in 1980 with a degree in Evolution and Ecology. His summer work as a river guide led him to become the Director of Organizing for Friends of the River through 1990. For the next 15 years, his company, Wolf and Associates was well known for its work in helping organizations be better organized. He now volunteers as the chair for the California Clean Money Action Fund, which works on campaign finance reform. He is the co-chair of the Ocean Iron Fertilization Alliance, which works on increasing phytoplankton health and abundance to feed fish and sequester carbon. He co-founded and lives at N Street Cohousing in Davis, CA.

  • Christine Nielson

    Christine Nielson

    President, Wind Harvest Pilot Project / Board Member

    Between 1987 and 1990, Christine started and directed a non-profit in the Mixteca Alta region of Oaxaca, Mexico, working with Triqui women on a project focused on wool weaving and natural dyeing.

    She founded Coyuchi, Inc. in 1991. It was the first US company to manufacture and sell quality bedding and bath products made from organic cotton. The business not only pioneered the use of organic cotton but was one of the first to promote Fair Trade- produced fiber and finished products. This contributed significantly to an improved quality of life for farmers in India who grew cotton and supported their biodynamic farming practices. Christine became a founding member of VermiVision, a vermicompost research company that spent 3 years studying and documenting the agricultural benefits of high-quality vermicompost on horticultural crops and turf. Currently, Christine focuses her time on issues related to climate change and voter turnout. She also serves on the boards of several green companies. She has been a long-time investor in and advisor to Wind Harvest International and is currently serving as President of their subsidiary Wind Harvest Pilot Project Inc.

  • Cornelius Fitzgerald

    Cornelius Fitzgerald

    Board Member

    Cornelius joined Wind Harvest’s management team in 2013. In his previous role as CEO, he led the negotiations with new partners, secured financing, and worked to bring Wind Harvest’s turbines to the commercial market.

    He now uses his expertise to align the company’s interest in large-scale projects with Clean Energy Holdings, LLC, and Blair Energy, LLC, where he holds senior-level positions. Cornelius holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Arizona and an MBA in sustainable enterprise from the Dominican University of California. He lives in San Anselmo, Calif.

Leadership Team

  • Dr. Olamide Ajala

    Principal Engineer

    Olamide joined Wind Harvest in 2021 and now supervises and coordinates the engineering team.

    Mentoring under Dr. Malcolm, she has become the company’s second expert on our aeroelastic models. She has over 14 years of engineering experience throughout multiple industries. In 2019, she graduated with a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering.

  • Wind Harvest Executive Headshot

    Pronita Saxena

    Chief Development Officer

    Pronita is a cleantech entrepreneur and systems innovator with experience building solutions in energy, water, and waste management. At Wind Harvest, Pronita leads commercialization and development strategy, bringing cross-sector expertise that supports the company’s growth and its expanding partnerships with tribal nations and renewable-energy developers.

    She has worked in global policy research with MIT’s Poverty Action Lab and the Center for Global Development, helped scale international demand-response operations at EnerNOC, contributed to early-stage civic-tech and infrastructure startups, and founded Citizengage, a waste-to-resource company recognized by agencies across the U.S., Europe, and India.

  • Tom Williams

    Vice President of Operations

    Tom Williams is a 20 veteran of entrepreneurial ventures in renewable and distributed energy, and brings over 30 years of experience in management and consulting for clean technologies and projects.

    In 1999 Tom joined Continental Capital in Toledo, Ohio—a regional private equity and brokerage firm as an internal consultant for private equity clients and became licensed as General Securities Principal. In 2003 he founded North Coast Wind & Power LLC which specialized in wind and hybrid wind/solar/storage installations. From Sept. 2011 – March 2017, Tom was the CEO of Ventera Wind, Inc. Ventera manufactured a groundbreaking 10 kW wind turbine. Operations were terminated in early 2018 due to a variety of market conditions impacting the entire small wind turbine industry. Tom’s rich experience in all aspects of wind turbine design, manufacturing, installations, sales and maintenance make him an important special advisor to the company. Find his resume at the link below.

Team Members

  • Pat Felsher

    Operations Associate

    Pat brings his wealth of experience to provide support for database management, communications, and more.

    Pat is a longtime Davis community member and manager at Davis Cards and Games

  • Lucy Latuff

    Site Visualization and Prospecting Assistant

    Lucy joined Wind Harvest soon after graduating from Davis High School with a 4.0 GPA, initially as an intern. Her talent for visual design and quick grasp of technical tools made her a natural fit for the team.

    Using SketchUp and Google Earth, Lucy creates site-specific graphics that show how Wind Harvesters would look within real-world landscapes. Her work helps stakeholders visualize the potential of our technology on their properties. Over time, Lucy has developed a strong ability to evaluate site suitability for vertical axis wind turbines, producing early-stage prospecting reports that support our development pipeline. Her attention to detail and curiosity continue to make her an invaluable asset to our mission.

  • Ionut Munteanu

    Mechanical Engineer (Consulting), Evotech Engineering Services

    On a shoestring budget, Ionut took on the design and much of the engineering work for the first cantilever and the largest VAWT (Vertical Axis Wind Turbine) the company had.

    Despite lacking an aeroelastic model, he relied on aerodynamic force estimates from Haris. At that time, Wind Harvest had not yet hired Dr. Malcolm or acquired his Eole suite of code. This full-scale prototype reached Technology Readiness Level 6 before Ionut transitioned to a full-time position at Space Applications Services, where he applied his engineering skills to projects for NASA and ESA. In 2021, Ionut returned to Wind Harvest as a consultant, contributing to the design of Model 3.1. He remains a valued member of the engineering team and has played a crucial role in the design and engineering of the Wind Harvester 4.0. Ionut is listed on nine pending or granted patents. Based in Belgium, where his consulting company (Evotech Engineering Services) is located, he continues to work full-time for Space Applications Services. Ionut earned his engineering degree in 2008 from the Aerospace Faculty of Bucharest, Romania. Throughout his career, he has also worked for Airbus and IBM. His main career focuses are mechanical design, static structural analysis, and random vibration.

  • Antonio Ojeda

    Chief Engineer (Consulting)

    Antonio Ojeda has been instrumental to Wind Harvest since he began consulting for the company in 2014 on the Model 3.0 in Denmark...

    …He was involved in securing the strain gauge and field data and soon became proficient with the FEA structural simulation code “Midas NFX” and other engineering tools. The acquired field data validated this sophisticated computer-aided engineering model and the Eole suite of VAWT aeroelastic code brought to the company by Dr. David Malcolm. Antonio became the Lead Engineer on Model 3.1. He designed and made the glass fiber composite transition fairings in his workshop in Spain. He was on site for the installation of the sensors and 3.1’s assembly and installation. Antonio continued with the team as Chief Engineer on the design of 4.0. He is on all 9 pending or granted patents and is the lead inventor on two of them. When he isn’t consulting for Wind Harvest, Antonio is the CEO/Co-Founder of GoAhead Engineering. This startup is focused on inventing and developing hydrogen gas containers that are safe, easy and inexpensive to fill and transport. Antonio received his mechanical engineer degree from the University of Seville in Spain.

  • wind harvest social media

    Jake Weatherman

    Social Media Strategist

    Jake helps spread the Wind Harvest mission to the masses, keeping it on message through various campaigns and continued social media and marketing strategies.

    A film major at Hunter College in New York City, he has done project management and marketing work in various industries coast to coast. He brings his creative flair and passion for sustainability issues to Wind Harvest to bring it to new audiences.

  • Omar Garcia

    Field and Mechanical Engineer

    Omar Garcia began with Wind Harvest as an on-site engineering intern.

    During his time with the company, he has grown into a valuable and intuitive engineer, developing intelligent solutions to critical needs for our Model 3.1 and new Model 4.0.

  • Mark Chang

    Lead Electrical Engineer (Consulting)

    Mark is a talented Electrical Engineer. In 2012, he designed and built the controls and electrical system used on the Wind Harvester Model 1.0 and 2.0 turbines installed in Finland. He recently designed and built most of our Model 3.1 turbine controls.

    Mark has a mind for complexity, math, and detail. He found his calling in electrical engineering after graduating with an EE degree from UC Davis. He has a wealth of experience in many aspects of controls and electrical projects, making him an excellent asset to Wind Harvest. When Mark isn’t moving renewable energy projects forward, he plays the piano and enjoys being in nature.

    Experience:

    1995–1999 | Lead Electrical Engineer for Schilling Robotics in Davis, CA

    2000–2002 | Electronics design engineer for Onix Microsystems (MEMS based fiber optic technology)

    2003–2007 | Responsible Design Engineer for Northrop Grumman Space Technology (formerly TRW Space Systems) in Space Park Redondo Beach CA

    2007–present | Principal Owner, MWC Engineering (specializing in high reliability control systems, high speed, low noise electronic hardware and systems, RF systems and circuits, ESD and lightning protection, and all other areas of electronic product design) Avid electronics hobbyist and electronic technology historian since 1978.

  • Dr. David Malcolm

    Senior Engineer (Consulting)

    David had a 40-year career in the field of engineering and design of wind turbines. He began working on vertical axis wind turbines in 1981 with Indal Technologies Inc. in Ontario, Canada...

    …and worked closely with Sandia National Laboratories on the structural dynamics of the Darrieus rotor, authoring several reports and papers on the subject.Shortly after retiring in 2015, he joined Wind Harvest as senior engineer on Model 3.0 of the company’s new cantilevered H-type turbine, bringing with him his extensive experience in critical aspects of design and engineering. He received his BSc in civil engineering from Bristol University in England, a master’s degree in structural engineering from McGill University in Montreal, and his Ph.D. in solid mechanics from the University of Calgary in Alberta. He lives in Seattle, Wash., and is an avid bike rider and skier.

    Publications:

    On the structural response of two- and three-bladed vertical axis wind turbines
    David Malcolm, Wind Energy, August 2019

    Validation of a suite of codes for the structural response of vertical axis wind turbines
    David Malcolm, December 2017

    Wind Harvester v3.1 Design Evaluation – Design for Fatigue
    David Malcolm and Antonio Ojeda, Wind Harvest International, February 2017

    Wind Harvester v3.1 Design Evaluation – Structural Design Methodology
    David Malcolm and Antonio Ojeda, Wind Harvest International, February 2017

    Wind Harvester v3.1 Design Evaluation – Extreme Loads
    David Malcolm and Antonio Ojeda, Wind Harvest International, February 2017

    Wind Harvester v3.1 Design Evaluation – General Turbine Description for US
    David Malcolm and Antonio Ojeda, Wind Harvest International, February 2017

    Predictions of peak fatigue stresses in a Darrieus rotor wind turbine under turbulent winds
    David Malcolm, January 1990