GOLDEN – Boulderite Steven Berens has been selected as the executive director of the Cleantech Fellows Institute in Golden.

The institute, established in 2012, offers an educational program to help business leaders prepare to enter the clean-tech – the term generally used for renewable energy.
Berens said he plans to expand the program to other locations in the United States and other countries. He also wants to expand the focus of the program to include natural gas and water, according to a press statement about his new job.

"The combination of the institute's network and curriculum provides the perfect collision of talent and opportunity through which we can support the development of innovative clean-tech leaders and businesses," Berens said in the press statement.

The institute partners with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado State University in Fort Collins, University of Colorado-Boulder, Colorado School of Mines in Golden, nonprofit trade groups and others. Public and private sponsors provide funding for the program.

Berens is known in the Boulder business community as the co-founder of Power Tagging Technology Inc., a Boulder-based company that develops software for the power grids. He also is on the advisory board for the Leeds School of Business Deming Center for Entrepreneurship at CU-Boulder. Berens previously was the chief executive of Privacy Networks Inc. in Fort Collins, an email and computer security company.