Clifford J. Aron, Principal and Founder, is an energy policy and investment professional who has 30 years experience advising on energy efficiency and renewable energy policy and regulation, scoping out energy project development opportunities, and coordinating investments for a wide variety of private investors and international financial institutions.
Since 1996 he has split his time between Brooklyn, NY and Warsaw, Poland, providing management services exclusively to international clients. Cliff has served as adviser to private investors such as Honeywell, Siemens Building Technologies, Energy Investors Fund, Mid Europa Partners, Royalton Partners, Enfinity, Martifer Renewables, RP Global, Elliniki Technodomiki Anemos, FERSA Renovables, WHEB Ventures, Aurelian Partners, Kinersis, Avanzalia, Madhvani International and others on renewable energy and energy efficiency project investments.
He is widely recognized as a leading expert on the design and introduction of energy efficiency and renewable energy finance in emerging economies. He has worked extensively on these issues as an advisor to the World Bank, IFC, EIB and the US Trade and Development Agency since 1999, pioneering the development of sustainable energy financing products in Hungary, Poland, Estonia, Turkey, the West Balkans and Argentina and reviewing potential investment projects throughout Eastern Europe, Latin America, the MENA and Sub Saharan Africa regions.
From the establishment of CJ Aron Associates (now GreenMax Capital Advisors) in 1994, Cliff was a leader in restructuring of the power sector in New York representing the largest private owner/operators of publicly assisted multifamily housing before the Public Service Commission. Earlier, he spent thirteen years leading BEI Energy Corp., a successful New York-based ESCo he founded in 1982. As one of the pioneers of the US energy services industry and the founding President of the New York Energy Efficiency Council, Cliff helped develop the statutory framework authorizing implementation of performance contracts by public facilities in New York State. He also was actively involved in gaining regulatory approval for the implementation of Demand Side Management programs and the competitive acquisition of DSM Resources by electric and gas utilities in New York State. In 1989, his firm delivered 3.5MW of reduced power consumption or "negawatts" to Con Edison. BEI also operated a variety of DSM programs for area utilities and government agencies on a contract basis and installed, financed and operated 22 small gas-fired co-generation units.
An honors graduate in Political Science and International Relations from the State University of New York at Binghamton, Cliff continued his graduate studies at the New School for Social Research, Baruch College and the Parsons School of Design. Cliff speaks Polish and reads French, Spanish and German.

Jacek Kostrzewa, Principal, an energy sector business and technical expert, is an engineer and MBA with over 25 years of energy efficiency and renewable energy experience in Central and Eastern Europe. Since joining GreenMax, Jacek has been responsible for wind and biomass energy transactions on the Polish and Romanian markets, for overseeing the due diligence of solar energy projects in the SEE region and is our resident biofuels expert. His assignments have included market assessments of the Polish wind sector for Electricite de Portugal, Mid Europa Partners and Royalton Partners and management of the on site review of a portfolio of Czech, Slovak and Bulgarian projects for acquisition by a P.E. fund. At GreenMax Jacek has also has managed international technical assistance programs, including leading energy project loan due diligence activities for IFC partner banks in Central Europe. He designed a self energy audit program at Raiffeisen Bank for Hungarian blockhouse apartment buildings. Together with Dutch International Guarantees on Housing he worked on Housing Energy Efficiency Finance programs in Ukraine and Romania. Jacek has also supervised the impact analysis for an energy efficiency home improvement loan product offered by Opportunity Bank in Montenegro and provided technical support for the development of a EIB/KfW sustainable energy fund.
Jacek commenced his career as a researcher at the Polish Building Research Institute where his focus was the energy efficiency potential of buildings, including the legal, technical and economic impacts. Following this he worked with the Polish Development Bank to launch a pilot credit line for the housing sector, before setting up the Polish National Energy Conservation Agency and its commercial business subsidiary the National Energy Conservation Agency. From 1994 to 1997 Jacek managed the European Commission PHARE Multi-country Energy Program Unit, coordinating all aspects of the program activities in 13 East European countries. In Warsaw Mr. Kostrzewa worked for National Power as a business development manager and for a listed trader and producer of biofuels as the President.
Jacek earned a Msc. in Environmental Engineering from Warsaw Technical University and a dual diploma MBA from the Romanian-American Business School of the University of Washington and the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest. In addition to his native Polish he is fluent in English and German and conversant in Russian, French and Romanian.