My Origin Story. How My Background Shapes and Drives Me.

Moneer Hani Azzam

The Village Capital Thriving Communities Program includes a healthy process of reflecting upon one’s origin story and the role it plays in founding a venture.  I decided to share the product of my reflections in Beacon Climate’s blog.

I am a “problem-solver” – torn between the path of repairing problems of the past or avoiding problems of the future.  I am the son of a Palestinian refugee father who immigrated to the US at a young age and a single-parented mother from Northern Maine.  My brother and I were raised in a small cinder block two-bedroom resident director’s apartment in a girl’s dormitory at the University of Bridgeport CT.   In this environment, I was exposed to countless scenarios leading to the former “retrospective” path.  At the same time, I was also born into a family steeped with engineering backgrounds, so I was also exposed to paths representing the latter “prospective” path.  As I explored both, I found for my situation, the former fraught with temptations of revenge and retribution and the latter brimming with hope and opportunity.  I came to believe that if we could unite a plurality of people mired in past grievances to coalesce and focus on a common challenge/opportunity ahead, the differences driving current conflicts could be more effectively resolved.

Author and his father with a portrait of his late mom in the background

My father was understandably reluctant to move to the U.S.  Over more time, coming from a conflict-ridden, vengeful region of the world he came to love the American people and their spirit; their entrepreneurial drive, an indominable sense of agency, a broader sense of responsibility, an innate willingness to sacrifice for others, and a tendency to consider one’s capabilities over their background.  Despite his many reasons to despise the American government, he remains a proud patriot of the American principles and spirit.  My mother embodied those characteristics in every imaginable way.  Her slight frame and friendly demeanor betrayed the grit, creativity and wicked sense of humor she brought to everything she did. She was socially observant with an acute awareness of inequity.  While she was often quiet in conversations, when she spoke or wrote, her words always packed a punch.  Given her Maine roots, it should be of no surprise that my mom was passionate about enjoying the sea, mountains, rivers and forests while protecting them for future generations.

I started facing early career decisions amid the various energy and environmental crises of the late 70s and early 80s - like the Arab oil embargo, Three Mile Island, acid rain from power plants and lead in the air, water and building materials.  Meanwhile the Middle East conflagrations only worsened.  I determined that from where I stood, the best path I could take was to pursue a career that would lead the U.S. to weaning off fossil fuels in a way that improves the planet and empowers communities.  Amory Lovin’s book Soft Energy Paths opened my eyes to what is now deemed “distributed energy resources” (DERs).  That mindset led me to take engineering jobs with major firms in the nuclear power and photovoltaic manufacturing industries. An ingrained entrepreneurial streak prompted me to make a mid-career course correction: founding ventures that provided “high value” solar powered solutions (e.g., water purification, lighting) across the globe.  The cauldron of these experiences created the brew for Beacon Climate Innovations and its mission to build ecosystem-driven tools that give greater, more equitable agency to communities over their energy transition and climate destiny.

This reflection would be incomplete if I didn’t address my Palestinian background – something I have tried to ignore through much of my early career.  As many Palestinian descendants in the diaspora, a rare day goes by without at least a tinge of guilt about not doing more to help the plight of the Palestinian people.  More recently, with news and images from the region, I must admit to some days of gut-wrenching agony just to stay focused on BCI’s mission.  The book, the Science of Revenge by James Kimmel Jr presents a compelling argument that “revenge” is the oldest and most deadly form of physical and mental addiction.  The author cites human research that include analyses of brain center activation, psychiatric analyses that includes purveyors of mass shooting and historical reviews of authoritarian acts of revenge - all supporting his assertions.  He goes on to apply similar scientific methods to the benefits of forgiveness and the act of moving on.  Kimmel emphasizes that the true beneficiaries of forgiveness are those employing it. 

Applying Kimmel’s hypotheses, I’ve come to see the growing number of armed conflicts plaguing the world today as a struggle between the vengeful and the hopeful –– with combatants on one side and the diplomats, humanitarians, and problem-solvers on the other.  This new vantage has proven effective in resolving my dilemma. I’ve concluded that the path I’ve chosen - and that of the many colleagues I’ve been fortunate to join along the way – is a path of hope, forgiveness and universal opportunity.  While events may pull us towards guilt, ire and vengefulness, the imperative to “stay the course” has never been clearer and more present.  Climate change may represent the greatest self-made threat humankind has ever faced.  Approached with the appropriate ethos, it also represents the greatest opportunity to redirect human civilization’s path to a quantumly improved destiny.  While current evidence is discouraging, I take heart that humankind has a long track record of rising to the occasion – often at the last moment.  That is not because civilization suddenly figured out one solution or the other in a single miraculous moment, … but rather because elements of society have been working tirelessly on solutions for a long time with little to show for it until circumstances of the moment suddenly catalyzed widespread adoption.  I hope to take great pride in being one of the dedicated problem-solvers who contributed to the moment when an equitable, democratic energy transition is fully realized.