Founders

Walker Gross

Walker began his life a short time ago in York, Pennsylvania. In high school, he moved to Georgia and, in 2008, he graduated from Valdosta State University with a degree in Philosophy and Religious Studies.

During his time in college, Walker pursued two important endeavors that helped him realize his sustainable business ethic. The first was a rental home cleaning, dispossession and repair business that he began with two close friends. The second was the design of various wind turbines and generators that awakened what would be a lifelong interest in renewable energy systems.

Walker presented his sustainable business ethic to the Council on Undergraduate Research and was a keynote speaker at Valdosta’s Earth Day celebration in 2008.

After graduating, Walker promptly packed his things and drove cross-country to pursue the wind and sun. He stopped in Cheyenne, Wyoming where he registered for a wind energy program at Laramie County Community College. He earned his certificate after an internship that involved maintaining, troubleshooting and repairing utility scale wind turbines at a farm maintained by AES in Arlington, Wyoming.

Walker currently designs renewable energy systems, the mounting hardware proprietary to SoleVento, and handles sales, business development, and integration. He loves his life, work and team.

Cynthia Reffler

Cynthia was born a long time ago in New Jersey. She attended Boston University where she received a B.A. in Biology and Psychology, and had plans to attend medical school.

Shortly after graduating, she packed up and moved to Vail, Colorado where she existed as a ski bum for several years. While there, Cynthia took note of the dichotomy of the housing situation. On one side, there were enormous, unoccupied mansions that were built only to be used a few weeks each year, yet the lights were always on and a comfortable temperature was maintained. On the other side, poorly built, inadequately insulated and improperly oriented structures inhabited by the local population.

With the realization that the building industry needed a few more “good brains”, Cynthia promptly “postponed” her medical school plans and enrolled in the Construction Management masters degree program at Colorado State University. Over nine years ago, she began working for a green builder in Fort Collins, where she met Bruce Brown. Together, they started CJR Homes.  She and Bruce have built and altered scores of homes in Colorado pushing the limit on energy efficiency and natural material use.

Cynthia is currently writing her masters thesis on small wind systems in urban settings.

Bruce Brown

Bruce was born even longer ago in Seattle, Washington. He received his B.S. in Biology from the University of Washington and came to Colorado for graduate work in Entomology.

During graduate school, Bruce volunteered to teach people how to weatherize and improve the energy efficiency of their homes. Following graduate school, he worked with the Governor’s Office of Energy Conservation in Larimer County doing heating, insulation and air filtration upgrades on homes for low-income families. Having seen so many poorly constructed old and new homes, he began working for a local green builder in 1999, where he met Cynthia and later started CJR Homes.

Bruce has extensive experience building and installing solar systems (the thermal kind, not celestial), working with both passive solar and photovoltaic systems.

In addition to CJR Homes and SoleVento, Bruce also runs The Bee Team, which removes bees from homes and businesses. He is an avid beekeeper and works for the next stage in life and family.