About

Clifford Federspiel is an accomplished entrepreneur and technologist with over 20 years of experience in energy management and HVAC. He is currently the President and CTO, as well as a co-founder and board member, of Vigilent, a company that pioneers the use of IoT and artificial intelligence to deliver dynamic cooling management in mission-critical facilities and commercial buildings. With his leadership, Vigilent increases reliability, unlocks stranded capacity, and helps with the decarbonization of data center and telecom facilities worldwide. In people-centric commercial buildings, Vigilent helps ensure healthy indoor air while improving energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions. Their mission is to increase the profitability of their customers and create a more sustainable planet. Before co-founding Vigilent, Clifford worked as a Research Specialist at UC Berkeley, where he managed research projects on energy efficiency, indoor air quality, and wireless sensing and control. He also managed the research activities of 14 graduate students and chaired ASHRAE SSPC 55 on thermal comfort. Later, he worked as a Senior Member of the Technical Staff at Johnson Controls, where he conducted research on ventilation effectiveness and the impact that control performance has on thermal comfort complaints and facility management. He developed algorithms for VAV control and for the performance of field tests of new products and was a member of ASHRAE SSPC 62 while at JCI. Clifford holds a Ph.D. and an SMME in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as a BSME from California State Polytechnic University. He is highly skilled in automation, controls, energy management, and HVAC, as well as product and technology innovation and business development. He is a highly effective communicator and has relevant experience as a Senior Software Engineer, Research Scientist, and Software Engineer, totaling over 30 years of experience in the field.