Richard Amato

Bringing together his background and expertise in clean energy and business development, Amato heads up the IC2 Institute’s energy initiatives, including the World Bank Climate Innovation Center Program and the Energy Incubator at ATI. In addition, Amato also provides support for the programs in India focused on developing the infrastructure necessary to support a robust, entrepreneurial clean-tech environment targeted at solving India’s critical energy issues. Prior to joining IC2, he founded and served as President and CEO of Venti Energy, a renewable development company dedicated to increasing the supply of clean and reliable energy.

Previously, Amato founded the Clean Energy Incubator (CEI) at The University of Texas at Austin in 2001. Being the first incubator of its kind, Amato established a successful program for clean energy ventures to accelerate their time to market. At the national level, Amato was involved with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in the creation of the Clean Energy Alliance (CEA), a group of leading U.S. business incubators dedicated to providing business and financial services tailored to the needs of the clean energy community. Amato’s introduction into the energy industry began as an engineer in the Natural Gas and Gas Products Department (NG&GP) at Conoco Inc. in the early 1990’s.

Holding worldwide acclaim for his groundbreaking involvement in clean energy business development, Amato has been featured as a keynote and panelist in various conferences
throughout the world: India, Malaysia, Denmark, Norway, Japan, Italy, and Kazakhstan. In addition, he is or has been involved in a variety of boards in the clean technology space including: CEI, CEA, CEDC, RMC, TXROSE, TXSES, TREIA and The Wind Coalition. Amato holds a MBA in Entrepreneurship and Management from the University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University.