About

VerdeStrategy

Scott Edward Anderson, Founder & Principal

For the past decade, I have been deeply engaged in helping visionaries and entrepreneurs articulate their value proposition, realize their vision, scale their businesses and social enterprises, and connect to the resources they need to succeed.

Most recently, with EY’s Power & Utilities group over the past 3+ years, I developed and scaled a technology-as-a-service solution, Digital Grid Services, and grew this smart metering managed service business model from a single engagement in South Africa to a partnership with Microsoft and multiple, global multimillion dollar engagements.

This solution solves real-world problems faced by emerging market municipal utilities that prevent them from extending their networks to more people – and more electricity = more productivity = more potential for economic prosperity and alleviating poverty.

I joined EY to be part of its Cleantech Center in 2012, where I curated and managed an annual CEO Retreat, a mini-incubator designed to help CEOs with their toughest challenges and business issues. The three-day retreats brought in potential channel and strategic partners, corporate VCs, OEMs, and business and government experts in a closed-door, intimate setting that has been called the best “un-conference” by more than one participant.

Prior to joining EY, I had my own consulting and advisory practice, VerdeStrategy, with a focus on emerging growth companies, funds, and social enterprises in the cleantech, energy, and environment space. Our emphasis was on value proposition development, marketing, and capital raise lead generation. This consultancy was, in fact, a pivot from a social enterprise idea I had been bootstrapping – a web marketplace for clean energy investing, aka “the KIVA for Cleantech,” that became the unfortunate victim of the financial market collapse.

My work with VerdeStrategy, along with a business association I launched called the Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, brought me to the attention of EY’s Cleantech Center, a small group of analysts, advisors, and business development professionals dedicated to fostering cleantech companies.

Before VerdeStrategy, as Ashoka’s VP of Global Development and member of its management team, I worked with high net worth donor-investors to help the social venture capital organization identify, fund, and nurture social entrepreneurs at varying scales of their development. And, as an early board member of the Philadelphia-based social enterprise incubator, GoodCompany Ventures, I advised socially oriented and cleantech companies participating in an annual, summer-long incubator.

Based in NYC, I am deeply committed to social impact, with a strong business acumen, team building, and leadership skills. I have managed multiple teams of as many as 10 direct reports during my career, and have personally raised and helped others raise hundreds of millions of dollars in capital and operating revenue.

I have a deep and abiding philosophy about philanthropy and capital raising, and the purpose of putting capital to work as an investment in values, which I developed over 15 years with The Nature Conservancy and carried into all my work since. Simply put, it is rooted in helping others act on their values and seeing the relationship between donors and organizations, investors and companies as transformational rather than transactional.

I’m currently looking for clients that allow me to combine my rich and diverse experience -- in both for-profit and non-profit organizations -- with my storytelling, capital raising, leadership skills, and business acumen in a purpose-driven way.

In addition to my direct work experience, I have served as an Advisory Board member for SXSW ECO, the Energy Collective, and GreenMicrofinance, LLC, which develops alternative energy projects in the developing world.

While at The Nature Conservancy, I was part of the Global Climate Change and Global Marine strategy teams, which developed high-level global strategies for the organization. I have taught at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as at conferences and workshops around the country, and am a frequent speaker and panelist at such venues as the Aspen Environment Forum, the Salzburg Seminar, and the Global Forum, among others. And for three years, I was a regular commentator with Varney & Company on Fox Business.