George Sakellaris
For more than 25 years George Sakellaris—founder of three pioneering energy services companies—has been at the forefront of solving tough energy conservation issues. He credits his time spent at Northeastern with helping him achieve his successes. That and his personal motto: “Work harder than the other guy, be persistent, and focus,” says Sakellaris.
That motto took hold in 1979, when Sakellaris founded NEES Energy Inc., a subsidiary of NEES Energy. He served as president until 1994, when he and other principals of NEES Energy converted the company into Noresco, an energy conservation company serving municipalities, government agencies, school districts, and hospitals. Sakellaris was president and CEO there until 1997. Then in 2000, his vision for a company that goes beyond energy conservation to address a company’s entire energy stream was realized in the founding of Ameresco, Inc., where he currently serves as president and CEO.
Ameresco’s 400 percent growth rate this year is marked by several recent honors. In 2004, Ameresco was awarded the prestigious Frost & Sullivan Award for Entrepreneurial Company, given to a business that has identified emerging trends before they became the standard in the marketplace. In 2005, Ameresco ranked 99 on Inc. magazine’s 500 list—the renowned annual ranking of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the United States. And most recently, the Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska awarded Ameresco the largest Energy-Savings Performance Contract project in Air Force history.
