This company is dedicated to the memory of Robert "Bob" Preston. Bob was a dear friend. An always willing and helpful friend who knew New Energy, investing and Wall Street as well as anyone I've ever met - with his own unique perspective you could not find anywhere else. Bob's ideas were original, his research second to none, and he could zero in on what was important long before anyone else could. My first ride in an EV, Bob was at the wheel. My next was in a Tesla Model S after Bob passed on.
Bob was instrumental in my approach to new energy. When I was offered a new energy "hedge fund" start-up two decades ago, which I had significant reservations in doing, Bob neither tried to talk me into doing a hedge fund which he would have benefited from, nor did he try to talk me out of it which I ultimately did. Bob just loved to meet and talk new energy. Bob could take you through the history of global oil, but he always referenced oil in terms of decline and what was in the inevitable new energy pipeline. My trepidation had to do with the "timing" of it all. We were always way ahead of the curve. An opportunity to run a hedge fund was there. But a return-on-investment in fuel cells, still years away.
We talked Wind, and Fuel Cells and Hydrogen. And a lot of things Bob was just flat-out smarter than me on. Smarter than most anyone on. He knew too that long-term I'd made my bet on Fuel Cells and Hydrogen. So when he called me and asked me to come hear a round table he'd organized on Wind -- a meeting he insisted I must attend no matter what.