UFTO is a multiclient consulting program -- I act as a 'technology scout' for a group of major utility and energy industry companies. The purpose is to uncover innovative and potentially important new developments in energy technology as they might be of strategic importance to these companies.

I also work with entrepreneurs and startups, helping them to organize their plans and putting them together with potential investors, customers and partners (deal flow!). I have strong links to a number of the key investors in energy/environmental companies, and have worked closely with Nth Power since before their inception (they are a subscriber to the multiclient program).
 
 

Biographical Sketch

Edward Beardsworth is a marketing strategy and business development consultant with over twenty five years in the electric utility and energy industry. A physicist by training, he comes with interdisciplinary strengths that combine both technical and business planning perspectives.

He conducts UFTO, a multi client study on behalf of a select group of energy utilities and vendors, to seek out technologies of interest and to facilitate collaborations among utilities, government and private companies.

In addition, he works with individual utilities, investors and startup companies to help them with technology strategies and business development, with particular emphasis on the dramatic changes taking place in the power industry, in terms of both their business structures and the emerging global attention to the environment. He is a strategic advisor to Nth Power, the leading venture capital fund that specializes in energy utility-related technology.

Prior to entering private consulting in 1992, he was at the Electric Power Research Institute, initially as a Project Manager (1978 - 1984), directing a program of contract research relating to market and business planning needs of the electric utilities. In 1985, he moved to a corporate marketing and R&D technology transfer role, devising and implementing marketing and customer service activities to increase client awareness and use of R&D results.

He worked at the Brookhaven National Lab prior to joining EPRI, first in basic research in physics and later in an applied program of interdisciplinary studies involving energy systems modeling, technology assessment and analysis of developing country energy needs. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from Rutgers University.