Ian Bowles

Ian Bowles is co-founder and Managing Director of WindSail Capital Group, a firm that provides growth capital to small cap clean energy companies. With over 30 years of experience in the energy and environmental sectors, he focuses on sustainability and climate change. Before founding WindSail, he served as Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs. In this role, he created the first state cabinet agency encompassing both energy regulation and environmental protection, setting the highest standards in the nation for greenhouse gas emissions and building codes. Under his leadership, Massachusetts ranked highly in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and greenhouse gas emissions reductions. He was also chairman of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and the founding chairman of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.

Additionally, Bowles is the Senior Director at the Albright Stonebridge Group, a global strategy firm based in Washington, D.C. Earlier in his career, he served on the National Security Council staff of President Bill Clinton as the principal international environment and natural resources policy advisor. He also held a position as Vice President at Conservation International, contributing significantly to the creation of the four million acre Central Suriname Nature Reserve. His editorial contributions on energy, environment, conservation, and sustainability have appeared in professional journals and popular media, including the New York Times.

Bowles has been recognized with several awards, including the Hall of Fame award by the Northeast Clean Energy Council and Conservationist of the Year by the MA Chapter of the Nature Conservancy. He is a board member at the New England Clean Energy Council, Longroad Energy, and the Museum of Science, and advises several other leading clean energy companies. He holds an A.B. cum laude from Harvard College and a Master's degree from Oxford University, and an honorary doctorate from Emerson College. A native of Woods Hole, MA, he currently resides in Dover with his wife and two children.