Who We Are

Larry Stapleton, President, spent three years as Optimum Energy’s vice president of sales and marketing before taking the helm in 2018. He came to Optimum with an outstanding background in global sales leadership with high growth companies. Larry served as president of Ballard Fuel Cell Systems where he led the U.S. based subsidiary, Ballard Power. Larry brings to Optimum over 25 years of experience in sales, engineering, marketing, and product development. Prior to Ballard Power Systems, Larry led worldwide sales & marketing for the software firm, BSQUARE, where he increased sales from below $30M to over $100M in five years. Larry has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from San Jose State University, and an MBA from University of Washington Foster School of Business.

Ben Erpelding, P.E., C.E.M, Chief Technology Officer, Ben has over 15 years of experience in energy efficiency, chiller plant optimization, and combined heat and power. Ben has worked on over 1000 chilled water plants throughout the United States, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Ben received his Master of Science, with an emphasis in combined heat and power, a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering, Magna Cum Laude, from San Diego State University. Ben is a registered professional mechanical engineer in the State of California.

Sarah Greenewald, Chief Financial Officer, joined Optimum Energy in 2012, bringing a strong drive for environmental change. She has held various roles at Optimum in finance and operations, overseeing finance and accounting, M&A, investor relations, project management, sales operations, pricing, and human resources. Sarah brings over 12 years of experience in corporate finance across a wide range of industries. She has a BA in Finance, summa cum laude, from Portland State University.

Anthony MacDonald, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, brings more than 20 years of experience in the energy and facilities to Optimum Energy®, where he guide’s the company’s sales and marketing startegy, team development and revenue growth. MacDoanld is a certified Energy Manager in the Association of Energy Engineers, and previously served as the Vice President of Enterprise Sales at GridPoint. Prior to that, he held energy and sales leadership positions at EnerNOC (now Enel), and Target.

Jason Whittier, Vice President of Product Development, has over 20 years of experience developing platforms in the building space to make buildings integrated better, more energy efficient, and smarter. Prior to Optimum, Jason worked at Buildings IOT and Tridium, Inc to help them develop cutting edge platforms that are used worldwide. Jason has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and a Master of Science in Information Management from Arizona State University.

Jesse Ohm, PE, CEM, LEED AP, Principal Engineer, comes to Optimum Energy with 12+ years of experience in the HVAC industry, with the last 5 years focusing on central plant optimization design and execution. His expertise include analyzing & re-designing industrial chiller plants, optimizing plant operations, maximizing system efficiency, and data analysis verifying energy savings. His skill set highlights include; Industrial system design, leading projects through execution, commissioning, measurement & verification, and utility incentives. Jesse has performed 70+ detailed site surveys with detailed analysis on chiller plants ranging from 500-ton chiller plants to 56,000-ton multi plant district cooling systems throughout the country. Within the 5 years experience at Optimum, he has performed 200 optimization retrofit studies and executed 25 large scale central plant projects from initial findings through verified savings. Jesse is a licensed professional engineer in Pennsylvania, with passionate in-depth experience in industrial central plants and energy savings.

Ian Dempster, Sr. Director of Product Innovation, Ian manages product development at Optimum Energy from ideation and development to distribution and support. In 2005, Ian became one of the first members of Optimum; now he directs multiple simultaneous R&D projects, drawing on a 16-year engineering career that spans three continents. After graduating from the University of Johannesburg in South Africa, he spent the next eight years applying his interest in controls to increasingly large and complex industrial plants and building systems across Johannesburg and London. Ian, a certified energy manager (CEM), maintains Optimum’s industry-leading standards and collaborates with all stakeholders in the product development process. His projects realize 30% to 60% reductions in HVAC energy consumption.

Danielle Ullmann, Controller and HR Manager, comes to Optimum Energy with 12 years of accounting expertise. Prior to joining Optimum Energy she has worked primarily for start-up technology companies. Danielle started in the accounting department but with strong personnel skills and business background, she transitioned into also managing the HR team. Danielle has a BS in Accounting from Northern Arizona University.