DETROIT ? Ryan Waddington, who headed up alternative energy investing for NextEnergy, has left the incubator to join Ziff Brothers Investments in New York where he will lead the firm’s newly created alternative energy department. His first day on the job was Monday.
Waddington said Ziff Brothers approached him through his network of contacts in the alternative energy industry and made him an offer he couldn?t pass up.
?I was contacted by four other firms after I accepted the job, which shows there is a tremendous amount of interest by big business in the alterative energy field,?? Waddington said. ?It is a further indication that more traditional investors and pools of capital are making a more concerted effort in alternative energy and clean investments as a profit center.?
Waddington said he signed a confidentiality agreement with Ziff Brothers and could not discuss the investment plan now under development.
Ironically, the publicity shy Ziff Brothers are the heirs to the Ziff-Davis Publishing empire built by William Ziff Jr. The group had published well-known magazines, like PC, Car & Driver and Boating. Dad Ziff sold the company for $2.1 billion in 1994, and retired to Florida. The three billionaire brothers inherited the loot.
Now they invest proceeds via Ziff Brothers Investments. Strategy: hire money managers, like Waddington, to run onvarious funds, invest in corporate debt, tech stocks, private companies, including DreamWorks SKG.
Waddington had joined NextEnergy in January, the alternative energy R&D incubator at Wayne State University in Detroit, to direct its Entrepreneurial programs. Waddington was responsible for developing and executing NextEnergy?s business accelerator services program and its seed and venture funding activities.
Waddington spent more than six years at DTE where he identified and evaluated clean and alternative energy technology investment opportunities and managed investments in the Michigan corporation?s $100 million venture capital fund.
Waddington also managed several advanced energy technology demonstration projects, including a systems dynamics project to model the impact of distributed generation on the electric grid, and a systems thinking initiative around energy technology and sustainability as part of a corporate-wide long-term strategy development project.
But has been the case too often for Michigan, the call of much bigger opportunities elsewhere has cost the state another very valuable professional asset.
?For Venture Capital and alternative energy, there are not many jobs in Michigan,?? Waddington said. ?My jobs at DTE and NextEnergy might be the only two. Hopefully that will change.?
Waddington said NextEnergy will keep doing what they are doing and replace him, a point agreed upon by a NextEnegy spokesman. The spokesman also said NextEnergy hoped to continue to work with Waddington in his new job to get promising Michigan alternative energy companies funding from Ziff Brothers, providing a silver, or perhaps even gold, lining to Waddington’s departure. Only time will tell.
For more on NextEnergy, click on NextEnergy.Org
