In addition to founding Kachuwa in 2005, Blake also co-founded four other cooperative enterprises: (1) Namaste Solar, an employee-owned cooperative; (2) Clean Energy Credit Union, a federally chartered credit union and a solely web-based financial services cooperative; (3) Amicus Solar Cooperative, a purchasing cooperative; and (4) Amicus O&M Cooperative, a resource-sharing cooperative. He is a 2010 Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” award recipient and has a BE in Civil Engineering from Vanderbilt University.

​Blake began his career in 1996 as a civil engineer at Halliburton/Brown & Root in the oil and gas industry, which included a two-year project assignment in Egypt. After alife-changing epiphany, he decided to leave the oil and gas industry and pursue a career in renewable energy. Following a brief stint at Level 3 Communications in the telecom industry, he moved to Nepal in 2001 and spent three years implementing solar, wind, hydro, and electric vehicle technologies.

In 2004, Blake returned home to the U.S. and co-founded Namaste Solar, a solar electric company and certified B-Corp that is democratically owned and governed by its employees. Among its business practices are a 6:1 cap for highest-to-lowest pay, donating 10% of after-tax profits to the community, and being 100% transparent with all company information (including pay transparency). Due to its unique business model, Namaste Solar has earned widespread recognition including a “Best Place to Work” award from Outside Magazine (2013-2016), a “Best for the World” designation from B Lab (2012-2014), a “Most Democratic Workplace” award from Worldblu (2010-2014), and a #56 ranking on the “Inc. 500” (2009).

During his 11-year tenure as CEO of Namaste Solar, Blake led the cooperative’s growth to over $50M in annual revenue and raised $4M in preferred equity from 125 mission-aligned investors. As an impact entrepreneur, he experienced first-hand the challenges associated with financing a rapidly growing impact company while also trying to stay true to a unique culture, mission, and set of core values. Each year, Namaste Solar received numerous investment inquiries from traditional sources such as venture capital firms, private equity firms, and larger “strategic acquirers.” However, Blake believed that Namaste Solar couldn’t accept any such investment offers because it would have required that they share control, change the unique way in which they operated their business, grow as fast as possible, and then sell the company 5-7 years later. At first, Blake doubted the possibility that any investors might want to invest in Namaste Solar, but later, he was pleasantly surprised at how many investors wanted to support their unconventional, B-Corp certified, and employee-owned cooperative. In 2016, after 11 years and learning many valuable lessons about running an impact company, Blake stepped down as CEO of Namaste Solar in order to expand Kachuwa and to serve as volunteer Board Chair for Clean Energy Credit Union. Blake continues to work part-time at Namaste Solar, and Blake also enjoys providing technical assistance to companies that are exploring the possibility of converting to employee ownership.

Lastly, in addition to being an impact entrepreneur, Blake also considers himself to be an impact investor who has become disenchanted with the so-called “socially responsible investing” (SRI) opportunities that are available on Wall Street. As a result, over the past decade, Blake has been gradually transitioning his personal financial holdings into impact investments in privately held companies. In fact, Kachuwa’s initial impact investment holdings were all previously Blake’s personal holdings until he transferred them into Kachuwa in mid-2017. While Blake has neither professional investment experience nor a Master of Business Administration (MBA), he has learned a lot from his entrepreneurial and personal investing activities. Ultimately, he believes that his experiences give him a unique ability to empathize with both impact entrepreneurs and impact investors. He is excited to apply these experiences to help fulfill Kachuwa’s mission.