Donnel Baird

Donnel Baird (born 1981) is an American entrepreneur and community organizer. He is the CEO and founder of BlocPower.

Early life and education
Baird was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City in 1981 to Guyanese parents who immigrated to the United States in the early 1980s following an economic decline in Guyana. Baird is the first-born child in his family and has a younger sister. His family started life together in a one-bedroom apartment with a shared bathroom with a neighbor in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. His father worked cleaning boilers, while his mother was in a teacher program at York College. Living in a decrepit building, his family experienced leaving on natural gas powered stoves for heating during the winter, while opening windows to release harmful gas.

In the early 1990s Baird's parents divorced, and his mother and both of the children moved to Atlanta, Georgia. He attended a prep school and later moved on to Duke University. During his time at Duke, the police shooting of Amadou Diallo had a profound effect on Baird and sank him into a depression. His relationship with historian Larry Goodwyn and classmate Mariana Arcaya urged Baird to pursue environmental issues and racial equity.

Baird earned his bachelor's degree at Duke University, after which he moved back to New York City and spent four years as a community organizer, working to bridge the gap between the privileged students he encountered at Duke and the underprivileged kids he grew up with in his neighborhood. He wanted to create a business that could address the intersection of climate change, energy waste in buildings, public health, and poverty by providing employment opportunities for low-income families. Additionally, he become a political organizer with Change To Win Labor Federation, focused on partnering with the Department of Energy to help create green energy jobs under the Obama Administration. He continued his graduate study at Columbia Business School, where he earned a Master of Business and Administration (MBA) in 2013. These experiences helped him launch BlocPower in 2013.

BlocPower
During his last semester at Columbia Business School, Baird launched BlocPower, a Brooklyn-based technology company whose goal is to upgrade residential homes and buildings in underserved communities while combating the environmental crisis. This is done through installing solar panels and the retrofit of efficient electric heating and cooling systems that lower utility costs and provides financial help during installations. The company is under the support of investing groups such as Goldman Sachs and Kapor Capital.

Social impact and recognition
In 2014, Baird was named a "Champion of Change" by the White House for his efforts in advancing clean energy and economic opportunity. In 2017, Baird was recognized as a Crain’s "40 Under 40" of influential young leaders. Baird's achievements have been featured in numerous media outlets, including The New Yorker, Forbes, and Fast Company, amongst others. Baird was featured on Time magazine's 100 Next in 2022. He has also been invited to speak at events such as TED and the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Beyond his role at BlocPower, Baird serves on the board of several organizations, including the New York Federal Reserve Bank Advisory Board, Al Gore's Climate Reality Project, the Sierra Club Foundation, and The Sunrise Movement.

Personal life
Baird is married and has a son. His wife, Larcenia Cooper, played a crucial role in shaping his career path, encouraging him to pursue entrepreneurship instead of law school.