EY Recognizes Renovate America’s Co-founders, J.P. McNeill And Nick Fergis, With 2016 Entrepreneur Of The Year® Award In San Diego
The co-founders of Renovate America, the leading U.S. provider of residential Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing, have won the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2016 Award in the financial services category in San Diego.An independent panel of judges selected Renovate America Chief Executive Officer J.P. McNeill and Chief Operating Officer Nick Fergis for the award, which recognizes outstanding entrepreneurs who demonstrate excellence and extraordinary success in such areas as innovation, financial performance, and personal commitment to their businesses and communities. McNeill and Fergis formally received the honor at a gala event at the Fairmont Grand Del Mar on June 20, 2016.
“Renovate America was created with a vision to help homeowners invest in their homes to save energy and water. We are fortunate to partner with cities and counties to provide affordable financing for improvements which promote energy and water conservation goals, spur economic growth ,and upgrade our nation’s residential infrastructure,” said McNeill. “Winning this award is a great honor, recognizing the innovation and entrepreneurship of the 650 people at Renovate America who work every day to make this vision a reality.”
Renovate America is the provider of the HERO Program, Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing that enables homeowners to make energy- and water-efficiency improvements or install solar panels and pay for the upgrades over time through their property tax bills. HERO has helped fund residential efficiency projects in 66,400 households in California, totaling more than $1.5 billion in financing. By stimulating home renovation activity, the HERO Program increases demand for local contractor services. HERO is estimated to have spurred the creation of more than 13,300 jobs in California since beginning in December 2011. Cities and counties benefit through economic stimulus and local job growth while helping their communities reach government water and energy savings goals.
Each year, millions of U.S. homeowners will replace systems in their homes that affect energy or water consumption – such as Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning (HVAC), windows, roofs, and water heaters – in most cases because existing products are failing. Unfortunately, the majority of homeowners still select the least-efficient solution because homeowners are not sure how long they are going to stay in their home. These solutions end up being the most expensive when taking into account the total cost of ownership when energy or water costs are factored in. The HERO Program provides crucial options to homeowners to choose more efficient improvements: HERO finances 100 percent of the home improvement, requiring no cash payment upfront; the term of the financing is based on the useful life of the product, and all of the installed products have been certified to meet state or federal efficiency standards.
“We wanted to build a business that not only provided a solution to a marketplace failure, but also created clean energy jobs, helped grow small businesses and positively impacted the environment,” said Nick Fergis. “We recognized from day one that we could only reach these goals with an amazing team, so we work to be a good employer as well.”In addition to administering the program, Renovate America has developed custom software with automated underwriting and product approvals, trained a network of 8,000 registered contractors, created industry-leading consumer protections and real-time economic and environmental impact reporting. The HERO Program is made possible through a public-private partnership between Renovate America and 425 cities and counties and is available to 87% of California households.
Since 1986, EY has honored entrepreneurs whose ingenuity, spirit of innovation and discipline have propelled their companies’ success, invigorated their industries, and benefited their communities. Now in its 30th year, the program has honored the inspirational leadership of such entrepreneurs as Howard Schultz of Starbucks Coffee Company, Robert Unanue of Goya Foods, and Mindy Grossman of HSN. Recent US national winners include Reid Hoffman and Jeff Weiner of LinkedIn; Hamdi Ulukaya, founder of Chobani; and 2015 winners Andreas Bechtolsheim and Jayshree Ullal of Arista Networks.
As San Diego award winners, J.P. McNeill and Nick Fergis are now eligible for consideration for the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2016 national program. Award winners in several national categories, as well as the Entrepreneur Of The Year National Overall Award winner, will be announced at the Entrepreneur Of The Year National Awards gala in Palm Springs, California, on November 19, 2016. The awards are the culminating event of the Strategic Growth Forum™, the nation’s most prestigious gathering of high-growth, market-leading companies. The US Entrepreneur Of The Year Overall Award winner then moves on to compete for the World Entrepreneur Of The Year Award in Monaco, June 2017.
