Spotlight On: Richard Stuebi, Industry Relations Manager, Energy & Sustainability & Lecturer, Strategy and Innovation, Questrom School of Business – Boston University
May 2024 — In an interview with Invest:, Richard Stuebi, industry relations manager at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, emphasized the integration of real-world cleantech projects into the curriculum, aligning with Questrom’s mission to cultivate globally impactful leaders. He highlighted the vital role of partnerships with local institutions and industries in propelling cleantech and sustainable practices, essential for maintaining Boston’s reputation as a leading center of innovation.
What have been some recent successes for BU Questrom?
At the undergraduate level, Questrom was recently ranked in the Top 20 by Poets & Quants for the third consecutive year. Additionally, our part-time MBA program has been ranked by US News and World Reports as No. 1 in Boston. Many of our MBA students are looking to pivot their careers or find more meaningful work. This aligns with Questrom’s mission to nurture leaders who aim to create value not just for shareholders but for the world at large.
How does BU leverage its location to benefit its students and faculty?
Boston’s academic excellence attracts top-tier students from all over the world and fosters a vibrant ecosystem of ideas and innovation. Our proximity to renowned institutions like Harvard, MIT, and others facilitates collaboration opportunities. Largely because of the talented students that graduate from its numerous academic institutions, Boston has accumulated a strong entrepreneurial network and support system that is a valuable asset for a university based here. For example, this semester, I recruited six startup companies from the cleantech sector to serve as clients for a venture consulting course. In addition to providing invaluable student experience, this collaboration helps resource-constrained ventures better address business opportunities or challenges that otherwise may not be given enough attention. Reflecting the fact that Boston was recently ranked 6th in the world by Pitchbook as a hub for startups, this kind of student-venture engagement would be difficult to achieve in most other regions.
How does BU Questrom contribute to the economic development of the Greater Boston region?
In Boston, arguably the strongest economic sector is health sciences, and it is constantly seeking innovation and new talent. A significant portion of our MBA students are drawn to Questrom to pursue a specialized Health Sector Management MBA for careers in public health or healthcare administration, aiming to enhance healthcare delivery and effectiveness. In addition, Questrom has also historically produced many graduates in finance, consulting, and accounting, significantly contributing to the professional services sector, which accounts for many high-paying jobs that serve as a major economic driver for the region..
Personally, I am focusing on building Questrom’s depth in the cleantech sector and in the adjacencies of energy and sustainability. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts plans to invest heavily in cleantech, similar to previous public investments in biotech and life sciences, as an economic development engine for the state. This initiative aims to foster economic development and create a talent pipeline for cleantech. Questrom aims to become an important talent pipeline for the state’s growing cleantech cluster, while preparing students for sustainable practices across all professions wherever they may end up working.
How crucial are collaborations and partnerships with other institutions and industries in growing the local cleantech sector?
Collaboration between stakeholders is key, especially to accelerate commercial maturity in emerging sectors of economic activity such as cleantech. For instance, Greentown Labs, which is the world’s largest cleantech incubator, has provided invaluable startup interaction for our students. Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center provides funding to cleantech startups to support student internships, which are often critical entry pathways to employment in the sector. Companies like Schneider Electric and utilities like Eversource and National Grid, which are progressive in embracing new business areas, are also significant employers of our graduates. Additionally, the Institute for Global Sustainability at Boston University has launched a collaboration with the Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy at UMass Lowell to engage in joint research projects. Partnerships like these are essential in positioning Massachusetts as a leader in the energy transition and offer vast potential for further achievements.
What challenges does the cleantech segment face?
I see cleantech as the next significant wave of economic activity, akin to the impact of life sciences and biotech two decades ago. There are notable similarities in their potential, but the challenges in cleantech are distinctly more complex for several reasons.
Unlike life sciences, which primarily involves the chemical and biological sectors, cleantech requires a diverse range of skills across almost every discipline. This diversity complicates the development of research infrastructure for technologies, which by necessity must be highly specialized: the equipment needs of a developer of new battery systems are radically different from those exploring carbon capture methods.
Another challenge is the scale of application. In life sciences, the maximum scale is generally limited to the human body, whereas cleantech aims to address climate and energy issues on a planetary scale, often requiring massive multi-billion dollar facilities. Since there are often significant engineering challenges encountered when taking a technology from the lab to small-scale pilots to full-scale commercial deployments, this complicates the pathway from initial idea to commercial success.
Additionally, cleantech demands significantly higher capital investment. For example, Commonwealth Fusion based in Cambridge raised an unheard-of $1.8 billion in their initial venture capital round, and they likely will require many more billions of dollars over the next decade to fully establish their technology.
Also unlike healthcare, where the price of a vaccine was a non-issue during urgent needs like the COVID-19 pandemic, the competitive landscape in energy is fierce. Customers are very cost-conscious, and established players often resist new entrants.
However, these challenges aren’t unique to Boston: the city remains a prime hub for academic and educational activities related to cleantech, attracting many of the best young minds the world is producing. This has created a positive feedback loop, enhancing Boston’s status as a leading innovation center – increasingly for cleantech, building upon the successes of prior waves of innovation in digital and life sciences technologies.
What is your near-term outlook for the cleantech initiatives at Questrom and your main priorities for its advancement over the next two to three years?
My primary focus is on enhancing student awareness of the educational and then – probably more importantly, employment – opportunities they can explore and perhaps pursue in cleantech, energy or sustainability through the classes they can take at Questrom. Many undergraduate students enter without recognizing the potential careers available to them, influenced mostly by personal hobbies or family expectations. Meanwhile, graduate students may feel intimidated by the perceived complexity of the field and think it’s either too hard or too late for them to enter the sector.
A secondary priority is reimagining how employers engage with our students as they approach graduation. Traditional career fairs are no longer the dominant mode for employers to engage with graduating students, so we need innovative strategies for employer-student interaction. Recently, Boston University hosted the College to Climate Symposium, bringing together students from various disciplines and universities in the Boston area to discuss the common challenge of breaking into this field, including the participation of supportive employers from the climate sector who are aggressively seeking to attract new sources of talent. This approach, though challenging due to its scale, promises to enhance networking beyond the confines of individual campuses.
Finally, unlike many purely academic professors, I have an extensive background in business, which greatly aids me to provide pragmatic career advice. This perspective, straddling between the worlds of education and industry, is vital as we prepare our students not just for graduation but for impactful careers in their fields.
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