Lee Bristol
Director of Development:
Kristopher Cates-Bristol
Engineering Consultant:
Ray Walters
Electrician:
Cas Kurtz-Isbel
Lee Bristol retired on January 1, 2013 from Standard Solar to work full time as the Executive Director of Global Solace after working part time to get the organization started in 2012. He is a co-founder of Standard Solar Inc. with Board Member Neville Williams, a solar PV integration company in Rockville, MD, which has become the 73rd fastest growing company in the country as rated by Inc. magazine. With Standard Solar, Lee was first responsible for all operational aspects of the company including sales, design, construction, and management. His responsibilities at retirement included integrating advanced technologies into the product mix and engineering specialized commercial projects. Lee credits his Standard Solar partner, Neville Williams, with giving him the bug to improve the lives of people in the developing world through solar energy.
Mr. Bristol earned an Aeronautics and Astronautics degree from MIT in 1969. He worked as a systems analyst and fluid mechanics engineer on the early 1970’s before opening the first microcomputer store in Washington, DC in 1977. In 1982, he founded Leland Bristol and Associates, Inc., an IT company specializing in health insurance computer systems and software.
In 2002 he returned to his engineering roots and took a year off from IT consulting to learn about renewable energy systems; this included completing solar PV training courses at Solar Energy International in Colorado, installing solar PV and hot water on his home and starting LBA Renewable Energy Systems, Inc which installed solar PV and hot water systems. In 2006, he partnered with Neville Williams to open Standard Solar. In 2007, Lee became a NABCEP certified solar PV installer and system designer and in the spring of 2010 took the Solar Energy Institute course in Renewable Energy Systems in the Developing World.
Lee’s expertise is the engineering and construction of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems and integration of computer hardware and software. It is the marriage of these technologies which gives Global Solace a technological advantage in the design of solar PV systems for schools and health clinics in which internet access and open source software are key components.
While the majority of his experience has been providing residential and commercial PV systems in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States, he spearheaded GSI’s Haiti project and has visited Tanzania and South Africa on behalf of GSI. Lee lead the GSI team in 2013 which performed site visits and system designs for 20 rural health clinics in Tanzania for the Henry M Jackson Foundation for Military Medicine.
Neville Williams is the founder and former CEO of Standard Solar Inc., a Maryland-based solar energy services company that installs residential, commercial and utility-scale solar power systems which he launched in 2005. Standard Solar and Lee Bristol’s firm, LBA Renewable Energy, merged shortly thereafter, and Lee joined Standard Solar’s board of directors.
Williams is the author of the recently-published book SUN POWER (Forge, NY), an account of his 30 years experience in the solar electricity business worldwide and a previous book CHASING THE SUN. Mr Williams first became involved with solar energy during the Carter Administration as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Energy.
In 1990, Williams founded non-profit Solar Electric Light Fund to bring solar electricity to un-electrified people in the developing world. The organization has assisted national governments and communities in a dozen countries to implement “solar seed” projects, one of which evolved into the Solar Electric Light Company (SELCO), a profitable commercial venture in India that has brought household solar power and light to 150,000 families.
He is currently a co-developer of mid-size solar farms in New Mexico to serve electric cooperatives. He lives in Naples, Florida.
nevillewilliams@comcast.net www.sunpowerbook.com www.nevillewilliams.com
After completing his B.S. in Physics at UC Santa Cruz in 2002 and his MSC in Renewable Energy Systems Technology at Loughbrough University in the U.K. in 2004, Andrew started his career in solar as a photovoltaic (PV) installer in California. After becoming a foreman in 2005, Andrew moved to Washington DC in 2006 and joined Standard Solar (SSI) as their fifth employee.
At SSI Andrew helped grow the company while ensuring high-quality, code compliant PV installations. Initially Andrew was responsible for system design, materials procurement, permitting, system construction, system commissioning, and educating local inspectors. Over time he established Engineering, Procurement, Permitting, Construction, and Service departments as SSI grew to become a major player on the East Coast.
A NABCEP-certified PV installer since 2007, Andrew has since participated in numerous NABCEP program development committees and was elected to the NABCEP Board of Directors as an alternate in July of 2010. In October of 2010 Andrew was recognized with the Bright Light award from the Maryland Clean Energy Center for his leadership on the MCEC working group for standardizing PV permitting and inspection practices in MD.
In August of 2010 Andrew’s wife Sarah, a solar expert in her own right, was offered a job at NREL in Golden, CO. In October they moved to Colorado and Andrew began working as an independent renewable energy consultant, helping companies to further their renewable energy goals and providing expert analysis about the PV industry.
Andrew has installed, designed, managed or commissioned over 1000 residential and commercial PV system installations (over 40 MW in total) in CA, DC, MD, NC, PA, VA, CO, AZ, NM and MA. Andrew’s mission is to facilitate the installation of high-quality PV systems with an emphasis on safety, power production and customer service.
Jack Reid is the inspiration and driving force behind the efforts of St Mary’s Catholic Church in Barnesville, Maryland to twin with a parish in rural Carcasse, Haiti and to build a school for the children. The government school was damaged in a hurricane in 1990 leaving the children without a school.
Jack is currently working with the people of Carcasse to pipe water to the village from a mountain spring, building a parish house and community center for the Priest, and establishing a coffee co-operative to stimulate local business.
Bob Cissel is our fund raising expert with 15 years experience working as a Board of Directors member for several non-profits in the Washington DC area.
Bob is a proven sales executive and team builder with more than 28 years of experience in the outdoor industry managing sales, marketing, operations, personnel and merchandising on a national, regional and corporate level. For the North Face corporation, he was the senior sales executive for eastern U.S. territory building and managing a team of over 25 in-house, independent and technical sales professionals and controlled a multimillion dollar operating budget for sales and marketing.
Bos also serves or has served on the boards of the Agricultural Preservation Advisory Board, Rockville, MD, the Upper Montgomery Athletic Club, Germantown, MD, and The Dwelling Place, Gaithersburg, MD.
Outside Activities and Interests
Kris, a graduate of the University of Colorado ’00, has held fundraising roles for various organizations since 2003 including Playing for Peace-Northern Ireland, Yale University, Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and Grand River Hospital Foundation.
Currently, Kris is a Senior Development Officer in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He lives in Waterloo, Ontario with his wife Kate, son Brady, and Ruby the dog.
Mr.Walters has overseen the design and installation of over 265 renewable energy systems, including PV, solar thermal, wind, and hydro power systems. Projects have included both off grid battery based systems and grid inter-tied systems. Beginning with his first PV installation in 1986, Mr. Walters’s work has spanned from wind and solar powered water pumping systems for villages in Morocco with the Peace Corps (1988 to 1990) to commercial and utility scale grid tied PV systems in California, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Hawaii.
He has custom designed and built cathodic protection systems for the harsh conditions in the Wyoming oil fields, as well as Vehicle Integrated PV (VIPV) for electric vehicles. He developed and taught a course on PV installation for the University of New Mexico. As CEO of Solarray, Inc. Robert founded the company in 1997, incorporated it in 2004, developed a major informational web site (www.solarray.com) and continues as an engineering consultant to the Renewable energy industry. He specializes in NEC code issues, grounding, and lightning protection. He recently was assistant site manager for a 25 MW Utility scale PV Plant in Queen Creek, Arizona(value $80M).
Walters has held NABCEP solar PV installation Certification since 2004, and holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.
Walters is a licensed Master Electrician in Colorado and has earned the following certifications: Safeland Training Certificate, OSHA 30 certificate, HAZWOPER 40 certificate, and An Arc Flash 8 certificate.