Christopher Kemper

About Christopher Kemper

Chris is a Mission-Driven leader focused on the fulcrum of the environment, technology, and ecoomics. He\'s a Climate Activist and the Founder and CEO of Palmetto, a technology company rapidly accelerating the adoption of clean technologies. After years of working for some of the world’s leading organizations on the climate change crisis, Chris realized that stopping climate change would only be possible by leveraging technology to overhaul fossil fuel energy infrastructure. Chris has been an entrepreneur from a young age, starting sports card trading at age 8 and a real estate business at age 16. During undergraduate and graduate school, Chris also worked full-time. By age 30, Chris founded Palmetto, which he has now scaled into a multi-billion-dollar decentralized energy company serving thousands of households with clean energy sources. In addition, Chris \"Pays It Forward For Climate,\" helping other entrepreneurs and founders solve climate, environmental, and ecological problems. Having built Palmetto from the ground up, Chris learned the hard way what works (and what doesn\'t) when scaling a cleantech business. Chris lives in Charlotte, NC, with his wife and son.

Experience

1. Chairman, CEO & Founder

   Palmetto

   Feb 2010 — Present · Charlotte, NC, US

   Chris is the Chairman, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Palmetto Clean Technology, Inc. He is a mission-oriented leader focused on technology solutions to climate change. Chris’ approach blends capitalism with environmentalism, focusing on re-imagining decentralized energy systems and a decarbonized future. As outlined in his manifesto, the New Utility Revolution, technological advancements and economic advantages created by clean technology are approaching a tipping point in the global energy infrastructure. The need to democratize access to clean energy and the need to reduce global warming and emissions is quickly driving the realization that clean energy now makes good business sense for the planet’s survival.In the early days, Palmetto was focused on sourcing, financing, and developing renewable energy projects around the world, but primarily in the least developed countries. Palmetto’s technology offerings ranged from hydroelectric power to bio-gas digestion to wind power. Projects also varied in size/scope, ranging from utility-sized to residential-sized. With lessons learned, Chris closed the United Kingdom operations and returned to the United States to re-incorporate Palmetto with a focus on a scalable approach to renewable energy, focusing on the homeowner.In re-incorporating Palmetto in the United States, Chris focused on the residential solar sector through financing activities similar to the UK-based model. Starting in 2010, and over the next eight years, Palmetto grew into a vertically integrated residential solar company. In this emerging market, Chris realized that trust and transparency were needed across the board: consumers, distribution partners, build partners, and service providers; a marketplace concept was born. Chris continues to lead the company toward the marketplace, energy-as-a-service model, while ensuring the Company is grounded in values and principles - learn more at

Education

• Ball State University & CEPT University (India)

  Master's degree

• University North Carolina

  Graduate - Master's degree (in pursuit of PhD) - , Economics & Mathematics

• Rhodes College

  Bachelor's degree, Economics & History