Our People

Having dedicated her career to fighting climate change and advancing new cleantech solutions, Alicia Barton brings extensive clean energy leadership experience from both the public and private sectors to her role as CEO of FirstLight Power. She has held high-profile public service roles – most recently serving as the President and as CEO of the New York Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and previously as CEO of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), where she helped both New York and Massachusetts to advance and implement nation-leading clean energy strategies. Alicia’s prior private sector experience includes serving as Co-Chair of the Energy and Cleantech Practice at Foley Hoag LLP and as Chief of Operations of the Global Utility business unit at SunEdison, where she oversaw teams building utility-scale wind and solar projects.

Building on a career of advancing new clean energy projects and markets in areas such as offshore wind, solar, energy storage, building electrification, and accelerating clean technology innovation, Alicia joined the FirstLight team to leverage the full potential of the largest fleet of clean energy assets in New England and to make FirstLight a market leader in designing and delivering the next generation of integrated renewable energy and storage products to accelerate the decarbonization of the electric grid. She also serves on the Board of Directors of prominent climate-focused organizations, including serving as Chair of the Board for Greentown Labs, the largest climatetech startup incubator in North America.

As a proud mother, she’s dedicated to building a cleaner, brighter future for the next generation. In her free time, she enjoys helping her young son explore the natural world around New England through hiking, cross-country skiing and paddling, and cheering for the Ohio State Buckeyes.

A senior financial executive with over 20 years of energy industry experience, Chris’ experience in energy ranges from corporate financial planning, controllership and M&A integration with high market cap companies such as Engie/GDF Suez, International Power and TransCanada. Chris is a CPA in Massachusetts, and his public accounting experience was with Deloitte.

Chris started in the energy sector with the liquefied natural gas (LNG) importer, Distrigas, and has had the opportunity to progressively transition his career toward a focus on renewables and clean energy is excited to be part of FirstLight’s mission to accelerate the decarbonization of the electric grid.

Chris enjoys range of outdoor activities from walking his two dogs to climbing Mount Rainer and canoeing in Northern Maine. He feels it is important to maintain our outdoor spaces for future generations including his two grown daughters. In addition to his love of the outdoors, Chris plays ice hockey, is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and enjoys movies and travel.

In his role as Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, Stephen is committed to leveraging his deep experience and leadership in the clean energy sector and his legal expertise to help support FirstLight’s strategic mission and vision. He joins FirstLight after leading Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) as CEO for the past six years. In addition to his deep expertise in the dynamic renewable power and clean technology sector, Stephen brings over a decade of experience serving as outside general counsel to privately held and publicly traded companies, advising on transaction, commercial and operational matters, focusing primarily on financing transactions and mergers and acquisitions.

Prior to joining MassCEC in 2013 – originally as general counsel – Stephen served as a partner at law firm Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge where he focused on venture capital, mergers and acquisitions and other areas of corporate law. He also served in the Weld administration in the 1990s where he worked as assistant to EEA undersecretary and then as legislative director of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.

Peter is Vice President of Commercial Operations at FirstLight, responsible for commercial strategy, analytics, origination, the power desk and financial trading. Prior to joining FirstLight, Peter was the Director of Operations and Optimization for Engie North America, a competitive power generation company, where his accountabilities included optimizing the dispatch and value of Engie’s North American power generation fleet, managing the commodity and emissions requirements for Engie’s operating assets.

Prior to joining Engie, Peter worked in investment banking holding management positions with Bank of New York and Deutsche Bank Securities. Peter has over 15 years of commercial experience in both the energy and financial markets. Peter received a B.A. in Marketing and Management from Fairfield University.

Justin is a proven energy industry executive with nearly 15 years of operations, project management, and control room experience, including five years as an officer in the U.S. Navy. He has worked in the hydro, wind, solar, energy storage and nuclear power sectors.

At FirstLight, Justin oversees the day-to-day operations of the 1.4GW portfolio of pumped storage, conventional hydro, battery and solar facilities. In this capacity, he oversees a team of 100 energy professionals who safely operate, optimize, and maintain the fleet. Prior to joining FirstLight, Justin spent nine years in various roles with Brookfield Renewable Power.

Justin received his BS in Economics from the United States Naval Academy and an MBA from the University of New Hampshire. When not leading the effort to decarbonize the electric grid, Justin can be found hiking and skiing the mountains of New England with the goal of completing the 48 different 4,000-foot mountain hikes with his wife and son.

Tom has 30 years of industry experience in both regulated and competitive power companies. Tom served a lead role in the restructuring of the New England Power Pool (NEPOOL) arrangements into the competitive wholesale electric market, including serving as NEPOOL expert witness at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Chairman of the NEPOOL Participants Committee, Chairman of the Board of the New England Power Generators Association, and Vice Chair of the NEPOOL Markets Committee. Tom continues to lead initiatives within NEPOOL.

Throughout his career, Tom has been committed to the benefits of competition. In addition to his extensive involvement in the New England wholesale electric market, Tom also served lead roles in GridFlorida, SeTrans and Southeast RTO efforts.

Tom sees competitive markets as critical to reliably and efficiently achieving a clean energy future.

Matt has dedicated his entire career to the clean energy space, bringing nearly a decade of diverse experience to his role as FirstLight’s Head of Corporate Strategy. He has worked across the public and private sectors to enable clean power growth in the U.S. and abroad, covering the full market spectrum from public policy to asset management.

Most recently, Matt was a Senior Advisor for Large-Scale Renewables at the New York Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), where he developed and implemented policy to drive some of the nation’s most aggressive clean energy targets. In his previous roles, Matt was an investment professional for Capital Dynamics and GE Energy Financial Services, where he worked to unlock value in solar, wind, storage and hydro projects.

Matt sees a vital role for FirstLight in the clean energy systems of tomorrow and is thrilled by the opportunity to support the region’s next steps towards a cleaner and more sustainable future. Matt balances his professional life with a rowdy house of dogs, music and books.

Len has spent more than 15 years working in various capacities advocating for clean energy policy and in state government, most notably as the State Representative for Connecticut’s 105^th District and on numerous boards and commissions in his home state.

Len is responsible for the development and implementation of FirstLight’s external affairs strategic plan, government affairs, community relations, stakeholder engagement, and media communications. He graduated from the University of Connecticut with a B.A. in Political Science and History and earned a Master of Public Administration degree from Norwich University. When he’s not advocating for a cleaner future, Len spends his time trying to keep up with his two daughters, coaching girls’ softball, and trying to get to Fenway any chance he gets.

In 30 years as an Human Resource professional Steve has been committed to supporting organizations and their leaders in attracting and developing the talent necessary for success. Steve has experience in all functional areas of HR including employee & labor relations, compensation, benefits, organizational development, and is proud to have built HR teams dedicated to enabling leaders and engaging employees.

Steve graduated from Memorial University of Newfoundland with a Bachelor of Commerce in HR Management and received a Master of Industrial Relations degree from the University of Toronto. Prior to joining FirstLight and our sister company H2O Power in Canada, he held HR management roles in the technology and manufacturing industries, most recently as HR Director for Royal Building Products in Toronto, Canada. Steve is a proud father of three sons and grandfather of one boy, and enjoys music, travel, and is a long-suffering fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

John has over 40 years of experience in hydroelectric operations and maintenance, engineering, dam safety and regulatory compliance. Having managed large pumped storage, conventional hydro, and solar he is responsible for the day-to-day operations of FirstLight’s fleet of assets and the team of employees who oversee them.

Previously he supported a large multi-national energy company to achieve a successful energy transition and operational excellence of their hydro fleet, validating technical assumptions on large capital projects presented to their investment committee and providing management and technical assistance to their global business units.

John has co-authored papers on subjects ranging from maintenance of underground structures to using pumped storage for regional bulk power reliability along with several presentations at industry conferences.

He received his undergraduate degree in engineering from the United States Coast Guard Academy and an MBA from Western New England College.