Leading Successful Energy Companies Focused on Smart Building Technology
Main photo: Stephen Lynch (left) with his mother Sara Lynch, and Keith Foulke, a former Boston Red Sox pitcher.
Stephen Lynch, E’89, electrical engineering, has successfully led companies that produce technologies to efficiently manage and distribute energy across networks of power sources, including devices on the edge. Both the technical expertise and people skills he learned while on co-op have contributed to his success.
On a rainy morning in 1987, Stephen Lynch, E’89, electrical engineering, was driving to his co-op assignment at General Motors in Framingham, Massachusetts when the car hydroplaned and skidded off the road. “The gas tank,” Lynch says, “ended up in the front seat.”
As he was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital, Lynch kept insisting the paramedics drop him at work because he was scheduled to give a presentation, a request the paramedics of course denied. At the hospital and later at home he recovered from significant injuries. But he eventually returned to General Motors to complete his co-op—and two more there later.
That focus and determination have never gone away. Those skills helped Lynch succeed as a student at Northeastern and as an executive in the energy industry. He is currently CEO of Intellastar, which is based in Buffalo, New York. The company provides services to energy service companies (ESCOs) and system operators, with a focus on real-time data integration and energy management. The team designs and delivers enterprise-scale platforms that manage and analyze data from tens of thousands of buildings across the U.S.
Lynch, with more than two decades of experience leading IoT and energy management innovations, has been pivotal to the company’s success, building a strong client base that includes a 10-year partnership NRG Energy, Inc. to monitor more than 10,000 facilities in real-time.
“When I was in school, everyone thought that energy was boring because it was old technology,” Lynch says. “Now the power grids are interactive, and it’s become one of the most exciting areas in our economy.”
As the youngest of five children growing up in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, Lynch developed an appreciation for challenging work. “From having a newspaper route as a young kid to working on the back of a rubbish truck through high school and college, I always had a good work ethic,” Lynch says.
His four siblings attended Northeastern, including his brother Patrick who has always been a special inspiration to Lynch. His brother suffered a catastrophic spinal injury in high school playing football and remains partially paralyzed. He attended Northeastern, went to medical school, and is currently a radiologist in New York.
During Lynch’s first semester at the College of Engineering, he was overwhelmed by the coursework. “Patrick took me under his wing,” Lynch says. “He taught me how to study and eventually it got easier because I learned discipline from him.”
His siblings also demonstrated the benefits of the co-op program. As an undergraduate, Lynch completed three co-ops at General Motors, which included time in the industrial engineering group focused on assembly planning and improvements.
He also worked on a plant engineering team that was planning to build a $300 million vehicle paint facility and Lynch assisted with building designs. He fondly recalls his time at GM, noting that plant managers took a strong interest in co-op students and made the effort to challenge them.
“I was not just sitting at a desk,” Lynch says. “I was engaged in the day-to-day operations of the plant and interacting with people on the plant floor.”
He also completed a co-op at the Yankee Atomic Power Co., which operates a nuclear power facility in Wiscasset, Maine. He worked with a team that designed and oversaw the construction of a large capacitor bank for the plant’s incoming power. That capacitor bank was designed to provide voltage support during an emergency.
“If the plant was kicked offline, this ensured there was adequate power to back it up if needed,” Lynch says.
One of his key takeaways from his co-op experiences was the importance of treating people with respect, regardless of stature or pay scale.
At GM, for example, he understood that workers on the plant floor saw him as an extension of management. “I learned to treat people as they would want to be treated, and before I knew it, I would go down to the plant floor and it would be a collaborative effort.”
“I realized I really thrived when working with people,” he adds.
Upon graduation, General Dynamics hired him to work in its nuclear submarine division and says the transition to full-time work was straightforward because of his co-ops.
“I had worked for a nuclear power plant, so I was familiar with the training for safety and the different concepts for working in that environment,” Lynch says.
“I had really great co-op experiences,” Lynch adds. “Co-op gave me the confidence to solve problems, build trust with others, encourage teamwork, and do things right.”
His time at General Dynamics led to him establishing Energy Curtailment Specialists in 2001. He sold the company to NRG Energy Inc. in 2013. At the time, he believed he was ready to retire, but within a month, NRG asked him to start a technology company to produce smart devices for energy consumption. That was the start to Intellastar.
Today, he has no regrets for putting aside his retirement plans. “I don’t think I could have retired, in all honesty,” Lynch adds. “It’s my personality. I need to be engaged.”