Meet the Director - Paul Stiller

Mr. Paul Stiller is one of the original Improvineers. He is a licensed Professional Engineer and holds five US patents related to his work.

After studying both engineering and business administration, he served as a member of the International Energy Agency, Working Group on Offshore Wind Generation when it was formed in 1980. He also studied one of the first microgrids, a wind turbine and diesel power system, on Block Island in Rhode Island, USA, in 1982. Mr. Stiller currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, with his wife and children, and sailing on the Great Lakes is his favorite leisure activity.

During his 45 years of experience in working to improve industrial energy performance, two opportunities for growth became apparent:

1. Engineers being held back by commercial availability

Design engineers often only focus on commercially available equipment and systems. While there are many good reasons for this approach, such as the difficulty in building a system when components are not readily available, it also limits the speed of innovation and improvement.

The very origin of Improv Engineers lies in this issue. Gathered at a Santa Rosa, California, restaurant in 2017, a group of engineers were discussing an idea to focus on the process of conceiving improvements based on technology instead of only commercially available—and so, Improv Engineers was born. Each member of the group raced back to their hotels to register the name (Paul won).

2. Lack of teamwork between engineering and business leaders

There is often weak coordination between engineering efforts and important non-technical aspects of energy management such as organization change issues, policies, performance monitoring, and stated priorities of the business. To develop truly effective energy management systems, all these aspects must be integrated. Closing this gap is the essence of Improvineering.