Remember that piece we did about Ed Colligan / The Secret History of the First Smartphone? Well, he is at it again. Ed has joined Low Carbon as Head of Americas and as a board member. Low Carbon is a leading renewable energy investment and asset management company. They are committed to making a positive and significant impact on climate change by investing in large-scale renewable energy projects including solar, wind, waste-to-energy, and battery storage. Low Carbon is headquartered in London. Ed joins the company as they are preparing to expand into the Americas. What could this mean for Santa Cruz? Stay tuned.

Press release March 21, 2022

Low Carbon is pleased to announce the appointment of experienced impact investor and technology executive, Ed Colligan as Head of Americas. Mr. Colligan has also been appointed to the company’s Board of Directors.

Mr. Colligan brings a wealth of invaluable expertise to Low Carbon at a pivotal moment for the organisation. The California-based entrepreneur will focus on supporting the business’ growth in North, Central and South America as it works towards its ambition of creating 20GW of operational renewable energy capacity by 2030.

Having started his career in Silicon Valley at the height of the personal technology revolution, Mr. Colligan spent more than two decades building companies from the ground up. During his tenure as Vice President of Marketing at Palm Computing, Mr. Colligan helped design and launch the category defining handheld computer, the PalmPilot. Later, as the President of Handspring, Colligan led the launch of the Handspring Treo, the handset widely recognised as the world’s first smartphone. Colligan championed the transaction that reunited the Palm and Handspring organizations into one company, while establishing relationships with wireless carriers globally and driving Palm’s annual smartphone revenue to more than $2 billion. As the CEO of Palm, Colligan spearheaded the transformation that created the highly acclaimed WebOS platform and Palm Pre line of smartphones.

Recently, Mr. Colligan has been working with and invested in sectors as diverse as climate fin-tech, micro-mobility, digital entertainment and neuroscience to scale up their operations and attract meaningful investment.

Mr. Colligan’s exceptional track record of growing and scaling businesses during periods of immense market change will be especially valuable as Low Carbon continues to help its partners and markets navigate the global transition to renewable energy.

Local Legend Joins Low Carbon