CW

Carter Williams

Harnessing the forces of Creative Destruction

St Louis, Missouri

Work Experience

  • CEO and Managing Director

    2013

    The iSelect Fund provides qualified individual investors with access to a diversified portfolio of promising early-stage private venture investments that have been evaluated by an elite committee of successful entrepreneurs and accomplished venture investors.

2010 - 2014

  • Senior Managing Director

    2010 - 2014

    Led investment banking for early- to mid-stage companies in the fields of software-as-a-service, clean tech and defense.

  • Managing Director

    2004 - 2013

    Provide entrepreneurship and Open Innovation advisory services for startups and R&D organizations focused in areas of energy efficiency, smart grid, demand side management, smart meters, windmills, fuels and energy analytics. Frequently lecture on entrepreneurship and CleanTech at MIT. Perform strategic engagements primarily focused on establishing technology plan, re-organizing team, establishing fundraising strategy, and achieving first customer sale. Carry out due diligence for various VCs investing Smart Grid and Smart Building investments. Launched a $55M venture fund with EPM, a major utility in Latin America.

2009 - 2010

  • President

    2009 - 2010

    Developed and implemented strategy to take successful regional energy efficiency firm national. Won $30M in new demand side management small business energy efficiency contracts in New York and Texas. Completed 30,000 small business energy upgrades in Los Angeles, California and recycling of 250k appliances. Built broader management team to include Chief Technology Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Vice President of Sales, Vice President of Strategy, Director of Marketing and additional of successful national sales force. Implemented Palm Desert PACE program achieving $7M of municipal debt/tax bill financed energy upgrades. Leveraged PACE program results to influence Federal Homestar program model. Implemented on-bill financing model for demand side management measures. Successfully traversed major economic downturn during fiscal crisis.

  • Director Energy, SmartGrid, Renewables and Technology

    2006 - 2010

    Facilitated client growth in the emerging smart grid, energy, and renewable market. Led a team of experts in one of the nation’s top independent investment banking firms for the middle market, whose professionals owned and operated 30+ companies and closed 200+ M+A transactions. Assisted large companies looking to acquire game changing businesses that deliver revenue and EBITDA. Helped high growth emerging companies maximize value through acquistion. Aided management teams, of all size companies, reshape their strategies to drive real growth and value in energy related opportunities.

2004 - 2008

  • President

    2004 - 2008

    Lead various aspects of sales, marketing, strategy, fundraising, technology strategy. Company acquired by Johnson Controls in October 2008. Targeted C-Level, resulting in a substantial increase in average deal size and growth in sales. Worked with industry groups, government, universities and partners to define new industry solutions. Achieved worldwide awareness for the Gridlogix solution. Gridlogix’s product allows enterprise systems (ERP, CRM etc) to integrate with HVAC, Security, Lighting, etc, delivering energy conservation of 10-20% and maintenance reduction of 20-60%. Our largest customer integrated 16M square feet and 1,000 buildings into a single integrated framework, while leveraging existing building controls and applications. Delivered payback <2 years. Customers include Government, Universities, Corporations, and Commercial Real Estate. Key technologies include Demand Response, SOA, Web Services, LON, BacNET, Modbus, Zigbee.

1997 - 2004

  • Director Boeing Ventures

    2000 - 2004

    Founder/Director for Boeing wide new business incubator based on Open Innovation strategy. Benchmarked and developed program for Boeing CTO/CFO. Targeted $1B in equity value over 5 years while creating a more entrepreneurial and risk taking culture. Included: • Submission of 1,000+ new opportunities • Implementaiton of 190 opportunities ranging, from simple technology plays to new major business segments • 100’s M of value created • 70 entrepreneurial teams comprised of >400 employees • New Businesses: Jeppesen Marine; GPS solution providing world wide 1 cm level accuracy; Engineering PDM offering 40% gain in engineering productivity (www.procelerate.com); Reverse engineering solution for managing out of production parts (www.realadi.com); Middle East strategy for deploying homeland defense applications into Iraq, UAE, Saudi Arabia, etc.; Video display company for visualization applications; High Speed Machining company (www.techmanufacuturing.com)

  • Manager - Phantom Works Technology Planning

    1997 - 2000

    Developed and led Chief Technology Officer's technology planning process controlling Boeing's annual R&D investment in core technology. Integrated technology planning across merged components of Boeing, McDonnell Douglas and Rockwell under Phantom Works. Eliminated an estimated $40M of redundant R&D expense, while increasing R&D throughput. Re-aligned investment strategy and portfolio around key technology domains including: Aerospace Support, Advanced Manufacturing, Autonomous Systems, and real time systems. Prepared Chief Technology Officer’s Executive Council and BOD presentations summarizing Boeing's technology strategy and plan.

2003 - 2004

  • Founder and President of MIT Corporate Venturing Consortium

    2003 - 2004

    Consortium focused on best practices for corporate venturing, with a specific focus on efforts to increase internal growth

1996 - 1996

  • R&D Portfolio Management

    1996 - 1996

    • Developed portfolio methodology for managing and funding R&D projects based on market and organization impact. • Established key technical metrics for detecting gaps between technology capability and market needs.

1989 - 1995

  • Senior Engineer

    1989 - 1995

    Developed, implemented and managed the F/A-18 E/F Design-for-Manufacturing/Assembly program - the first large scale application of Lean and Six Sigma principles in Aerospace. Reduced part count 40% and defects 50-70%. Estimated savings in excess of $400 M for prototypes and $1-2 Billion in production. Designed the F/A-18 Lean Manufacturing Plan: an eight month strategic planning effort defining the F/A-18 E/F’s implementation of Lean Manufacturing and aspects of the Toyota Production System. Worked with engineering and manufacturing teams to develop manufacturing methods and design modifications which improved manufacturability and reduced cost. Won McDonnell Douglas Leadership Award (3 Times): Development of E/F Lean Manufacturing Plan; Implementation of Geometric Tolerancing; Implementation of Variation Simulation Analysis.