Mr. Chesonis is currently Chairman and CEO of Sweetwater Energy, a biochemical and biofuels technology firm based in Rochester, New York.

Mr. Chesonis also served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PAETEC Holding Corp., a Fortune 1000 telecommunications company acquired in 2011 by Windstream Corp. (NASDAQ: WIN) for $2.3 billion. Mr. Chesonis founded PAETEC in 1998. He previously served as President of ACC Corp. until it was purchased by AT&T in 1998.

Mr. Chesonis received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the Herbert W. Van Brul Entrepreneurial Award by the College of Business at Rochester Institute of Technology and was elected to the Rochester Business Hall of Fame.

Mr. Chesonis has a long history in renewable energy. His private philanthropic organization, the Chesonis Family Foundation, supports many environmental and renewable energy research projects, and has also given almost $10 million to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to support breakthrough technology research to address climate change and sustainability.

He holds a B.S in Civil Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and MBA from the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester, and an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Rochester. Mr. Chesonis is also a member of the MIT Corporation.