Thomas R. Blakeslee is president of The Clearlight Foundation and the author of technical and popular books that have been published in nine different languages. He earned a degree from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California in 1962. After working for IT&T in Antwerp, Belgium, he moved to Silicon Valley where he helped found several startup companies as Engineering Vice President. In 1980 he used his own money to found Orion Instruments Inc. He served as President and then Chairman of the Board until he retired in 1998. A prolific inventor, he holds patents in such diverse fields as photography, hydraulics, electronic circuits, information display, digital telephony, instrumentation and vehicle guidance. Since retiring from Orion, he has focused on managing his own and others investments. After years of successfully investing in oil and gas stocks, he came to the realization that the burning of fossil fuels was ruining our planet through pollution and global warming. His search for practical solutions led him to geothermal energy, where he found an amazing gap between its potential and present reality. Impatient at the slow pace of clean energy development, he went on a search for other technologies capable of providing faster results. The Clearlight Foundation is his vehicle for change: investing his own and friend’s personal savings for the good of the planet.
