• office and light industrial space in buildings powered by renewable energy and renovated using green building practices that incorporate Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification;

• provide incubation space and managed solutions for startup companies focused on developing green technology, products and services; and

• access to a range of support solutions that reduce energy use, save money, and increase efficiency; and

• opportunities for communication and collaboration between people and organizations with similar visions by providing the necessary tools, conference, and meeting space.

Greendustry Park allows its tenants to align their practices with their visions and focus on their core business / mission.

Management and Start Up Team:

John Laux: Principal - CEO

John has owned and operated technology businesses ranging in scope from multimedia application development to industrial automation and security product development and manufacturing as well as experience in the restaurant & hospitality management fields. While working for the University of Massachusetts he was responsible for long distance satellite communications and large scale website design and development. He has over 25 years in developing commercial websites and the implementation, integration and management of large scale business platforms including accounting, eCommerce, digital communications and automation as well as facilities, and staff management.

Ronald Feldman: Board Chairman, Real Estate and Community Development
Ronald Feldman has been involved as an executive and principal in all aspects of the commercial real estate business for over 25 years. His experience encompasses all aspects of development from project conceptualization and entitlement through construction and leasing. He has over 10 years experience in community development and has worked with the states of New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Louisiana on projects that revitalize distressed and underutilized properties with the integration of community based businesses and organizations.

Eric Fogg: CTO - Chief Technology Officer

Eric owned and operated a high precision construction drilling company. He sought and obtained several patents for his technology that is capable of high precision pinpoint accuracy while drilling through rock and concrete. Some of the many contracts included the state of Massachusetts Big Dig Project in Boston as well as various regional telecommunication companies. He also has experience in industrial demolition and construction as well as mill building redevelopment. He has over six years experience in the super precision 5 axis machining, process engineering and prototype engineering. He has contracted and managed projects for the aerospace, defense, medical and Bio-fuels industries, including but not limited to Boeing, Sikorsky, NASA, Space Ship One and Kollmorgen as well as the US Government.

Jeff Gelbard:  Embedded Systems Designer

Jeff has been a technology developer for over 30 yrs, since his pioneering work at Bell Laboratories in the early 80's in real-time digital audio systems and the implementation of speech synthesis and speech editing tools. Through his diversity of expertise and mastery of software design, he was a founding partner in several startups ranging from economic modeling to search and filtering, to emergency response systems for retirement communities utilizing embedded Linux clusters, to web-based, collaborative language translation systems. He was a principal software architect for the filtering side of Sovereign Hill's search engine (Inquery), originally from the University of Massachusetts that was the foundation of Infoseek, and went on to develop an email filtering engine for the Department of Defense. His most recent venture, Bytespin, has been producing innovative, low-power embedded Linux devices for the health care industry (Eyecuity) for the past 6 years that are marketed worldwide. His expertise delivering full featured, networkable, secure but upgradeable Linux implementations on flash media is currently state-of-the-art.

Karen Ribeiro: Board Treasurer - Marketing and Sales

Karen is a local commercial lender and has 5 years experience with both local and international banking. She also has 13 years of local marketing and broadcast advertising experience and ran a strategic marketing practice specializing in import/export and contract packaging business development. She has been active on various boards and community development committees and is currently coordinating a sustainable investment summit in the Pioneer Valley. 

Advisory Group:

Robert Hopley: Isenberg School of Management, UMass-Amherst / ALBA "Athens Laboratory of Business Management"

Robert has 16+ years’ experience in the business plan development and management fields. He is also a visiting professor in entrepreneurship and field/consulting project director for ALBA. Robert is past Director of the UMass chapter of the Small Business Institute.

Doron Goldman: Isenberg School of Management, UMass-Amherst

Doron has been teaching marketing for 10+ years. He is currently a Lecturer in Marketing.

Barbara Murphy-Malinak: Independent Financial Manager

Carolyn Cushing: Progressive Communicators Network – Director

Carolyn brings 15+ years’ experience in non-profit administration and management, including grant writing for national foundations and state entities.

Jeremy Smith: Facilities Manager / Public Relations

Jeremy was instrumental in starting and managing the non-profit Flywheel Arts Collective and has served on the Board of Directors for seven years. He was also the front office manager of the Media Education Foundation for three years. He has 10 years’ experience in managing detailed film production projects with a two-year lifespan. Jeremy managed an intern program for six years, handling over 150 students.

Greendustry Park will:

• be an engine that will help drive organizations and businesses to truly jump-start the green industry sector in Western MA.

• employ local Holyoke & regional residents who need high quality green collar jobs.

• be a place to coalesce green thinking and help spawn newly found synergy amongst the businesses and organizations that work there.

• be a model of reusing the mill buildings that once were the engines of our economy in a way that meets the ideals and needs of a new green economic system.

• show once and for all that doing the right thing is profitable while meeting the needs of the local and regional community.