Whit Allen

Founder and CEO @ SpectraGrow Inc.

About

”Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” - Howard Thurman "Give your customer the ability to do what they can't currently do, but would want to, if they only knew it was possible" - Daniel Burrus in Flash Foresight “People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it." - Simon Sinek

Country

United States

City

Denver

Industry

Farming

Skill

Productivity Improvement, Personal Development, Motivational Speaking, Sales Motivation, Team Motivation, Start-ups, Cleantech, Strategy, Business Strategy, Business Development, Entrepreneurship, Energy, Strategic Partnerships, Management, Business Planning, Marketing Strategy, Sales Management, Power Electronics, International Business, Electronics

Experience

Founder and CEO

SpectraGrow Inc.

2019-4 - Present · 7 yrs 6 mos

Denver, Colorado, United States

SpectraGrow brings precision LED lighting to controlled environment agriculture, helping greenhouses and indoor farms to improve yields with greater consistency and less wasted energy. We have an experienced team bringing a vertically integrated advantage in engineering, manufacturing and supply chain to solve the lighting challenges of controlled environment growers.

Board Member

Portuguese Creek Management LLC

2009 - Present · 17 yrs

Gooding, Idaho

Pilot stage, environmentally-friendly mining project in Gooding, Idaho that is developing platinum group metals for the clean energy and environmental technology industries.

Vice President Sales

Component Distributors, Inc. (CDI)

2012 - 2021 · 9 yrs

Denver, Colorado

Distributor of electronic components (power electronics, RF, LED lighting, wireless sensing) * Led global sales team (25 outside + inside) and salesforce effectiveness (CRM tools)

General Manager – LED Lighting Solutions Business Unit

Component Distributors, Inc. (CDI)

2015 - 2018 · 3 yrs

Denver, Colorado

* Created new business unit, including strategic vision and business plan

Federal Cleantech Lobbyist – Technical Sales and Project Proposal Lead

Whit Allen & Associates, Inc.

2003 - 2011 · 8 yrs

Golden, Colorado and Washington, DC

Part of the #3 cleantech lobbying group in Washington representing utilities, telecoms, OEMs * Won $1B (billion) in government contracts for group clients

Vice President Sales, Business Development and Marketing (Worldwide)

Sure Power Corporation

2000 - 2003 · 3 yrs

Danbury, Connecticut

VC-funded pioneer of high availability distributed generation for mission-critical applications * Built global sales team, JV and commercial alliances across USA, Europe, Asia * Developed data center project with Exodus, EPRI and ORNL; won $2.2M DOE grant

Global Sales Vice President (Asia, Europe, Latin America)

Lucent Technologies

1999-5 - 2000-9 · 1 yr 5 mos

Singapore / Miami, FL

Leader ($1.6B/year) in power systems for telecoms, OEMs; part of $38B Fortune 50 * Managed $250M/year international sales, service and support organization (60 in matrix) * Led turnaround of sales in Asia from $35M to $83M/year (China, India, Japan, Philippines)