As a kid, I developed a passion for Nicaragua while twice accompanying my mother to the Caribbean Coast where she was documenting the Rama Indians’ dying language. Later, as an undergraduate in engineering I discovered that wind power afforded the perfect mix of technical challenges, international adventure, and social and environmental benefits. I was instantly hooked. In graduate school, I dreamed up a way to utilize my passion for wind power to help the impoverished region I connected to as a kid by organizing an interdisciplinary team in a class to develop the concept of what would become bE. Since finishing graduate school in 2003 I have labored around the clock to bring bE to life. I have experienced how emotionally draining and all-consuming launching a new organization can be. Despite the constant demands and non-existent pay, I have never wavered in my commitment to blueEnergy. In fact, my experiences during the startup phase have only emboldened me to expand my vision for blueEnergy. Under my leadership blueEnergy has opened its first manufacturing plant, hired and trained 14 local employees and built and installed 8 energy systems. I am excited to now be taking blueEnergy into the water space; combining locally produced wind power and water purification was my original vision for blueEnergy back in 2002. This biosand filter water project is only the beginning but it’s a promising sign of things to come.
As a kid, I used to travel to the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua with my mother who worked there as a linguist. I developed a strong bond to the region and spent considerable time out in the communities following my mother as she searched for the last remaining native speakers of the Rama language. Back in Bluefields I established lifelong relationships with my mother’s counterparts in academia and other sectors. These relationships have helped me understand the complicated landscape of constituents that this project intends to serve. I have leveraged these relationships over the last 3+ years to build strategic partnerships with academic and non-governmental institutions, as well as with communities that share many of blueEnergy’s objectives.
I want to see forgotten peoples in remote communities gain access to basic services, such as energy and water, so that they have opportunities to develop along their self-determined path.
Mathias Craig started blueEnergy as a nonprofit corporation in late 2003. As Executive Director and Chairman of the Board, he provides the organization with administrative, programmatic and fundraising leadership. Mathias has over seven years of involvement in wind energy and has significant living experience throughout Latin America. He has spent a considerable amount of time in Nicaragua and has strong ties to the peoples of the Caribbean Coast. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mathias is fluent in English, French and Spanish.
