FROM CAROL CLARK, a Columbus-Ohio-based serial tech entrepreneur who started an angel investment group and made individual investments, one of which was in TechGROWTH client Ecolibrium. Through a very long and fraught time before that company was sold, John and Carol shared Board membership and Executive Committee leadership with the firm. The first note below was written in response to a request for memories for children and grandchildren; the second was written earlier to John in thanks for his untiring Board membership and leadership over all those years.
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We have known each other since early 2013, I think, when Ohio TechAngels and others first invested in Ecolibrium Solar, Inc. From the start you were the Secretary of the Board and the Minutes you have documented over the years are a marvel unto themselves, more like telling a story than merely writing company Minutes: verbose, chatty, discrete, perceptive, sometimes indirect, true. You also had a stint as Chair, but Secretary and chronicling those endless meetings were really your forte.
During the first year of Ecolibrium, 2013, events were a foretaste (or foreboding?) of things to come:
• The Board was formed (and the Chair of the Board was “retired”)
• Staff were hired, including a new CEO
• Finances were put in order, never to be that orderly again
• M&A was started, seemingly unending until a deal was done, seven long years later.
All the seeds were sown in 2013 for the future of the company: staff turmoil, financial turmoil, Board turnover unlike any I have experienced, endless M&A activity.
During all of these events, John, you were our calm rock, responsible, always dependable and following up when you said you would, seeing all sides of a potential decision, offering creative solutions to problems (sometimes, too creative and you left us behind), tactful (sometimes to a fault so we missed the point).
Oh, I almost forgot, John, your sense of humor – ironic but always gentle.
Finally, the assets of the company were sold in 2020, ending our regular formal relationship.
During this time I knew very little about your personal life. I knew you and Faith as separate people. One meeting between Faith and me, she mentioned that you and she were Life Partners; I was so very pleased to learn this!
We started out as colleagues, John, but I think we ended up as friends.
Journey on, John, and know that you have many friends like me.
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