You would think that a University of Michigan graduate (1996) would at least look around before saying, “Go Green” but this “Michigan Go Blue” alum doesn’t even blink. In fact, Dianne Peck, business development manager for Solar Water Energy—a company that uses solar power to convert ground and ocean water into drinking water, and stored energy into electricity—has always staked a “green” claim on behalf of the environment. From age ten, she helped captain boats throughout Michigan’s Northern Lower Peninsula scouting out the best fishing sites for weekend adventurers who docked at her Dad’s marina. Fast forward to a family vacation today and she’s busy teaching her kids all about nature and water in her old stomping (or fishing) grounds in Oscoda, Michigan.
After earning a degree in psychology, Peck discovered that she was a natural when it came to building relationships as an SBA 8(a) program administrator at a local energy and environmental company. Another career move to a Detroit engineering firm complemented her 8(a) skills with project management work and generated even more relationships within the federal government.
With the confidence of a sea captain, she ventured out on her own to chart a course as a partner in D & D Restoration in 2007, an underground construction and demolition firm. The economic downturn presented some business challenges to the upstart, but it also gave her the chance to bring more balance into her life. So, some late evenings (not all) were spent coaching her daughters’ softball team and cheering on the Red Wings. She even found time to train her Cockapoo, Maggie, who she named after her favorite Detroit Tiger, Magglio Ordonez.
An opportunity to work with Solar Water Energy proved too good to be true and in 2009, she joined the SWE crew. Finally, she had landed with a firm that merged her personal and professional goals: caring for the environment, networking with people and agencies worldwide to solve water and energy shortages, and taking on new, innovative challenges. Her biggest one to date: demonstrating all of the cost savings and environmental advantages of solar distillation systems over reverse osmosis. Or, as she likes to say, helping the world Go Green.
