Douglas Jester is a principal at 5 Lakes Energy, a strategy and policy consulting firm offering services to the public and private sector respecting clean energy, environment and economic development.
Prior to joining 5 Lakes Energy, Douglas served as Senior Energy Policy Advisor to the Director of the State of Michigan Department of Energy, Labor, and Economic Growth. In that capacity, he worked to provide multidisciplinary bases for policy formulation and adoption, applying scientific, engineering, and economics principles and on use of social media in energy efficiency programs.
An experienced executive, Douglas has served as Chief Information and Technology officer for the Michigan Departments of Natural Resources and Environmental Quality, as Director of Government Application Solutions for MCI, and as Chief Technology Officer and Member of the Board of Automated License Systems, Inc., and as Mayor of the City of East Lansing, Michigan.
His previous professional work has been to develop real-time control systems at Los Alamos National Laboratory, to develop ecosystem simulation models and use them for policy analysis for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, to manage Great Lakes fisheries and water quality, to lead strategic planning for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Governor Blanchard’s cabinet council on natural-resource-based economic development, to regulate environmental and economic aspects of power plants in Michigan, and as Managing Editor of the North American Journal of Fisheries Management for the American Fisheries Society,
While working for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Douglas personally conceived and led the efforts to develop Michigan’s first-in-the-world system to automate the sale of hunting and fishing licenses, for which he was recognized by the Smithsonian Museum and ComputerWorld Magazine in 1994 as a pioneer of electronic commerce. After sale of Automated License Systems and prior to joining the State of Michigan DELEG, he was a multi-year consultant to Verizon and developed their Smart Grid product architecture, design and implementation plans.
Douglas is currently co-owner and President of Efficient Printers, Inc and of Printegrated, which is a late-stage startup providing software-as-a-service for print ordering. He is advisory board member of a new startup that is developing systems integration software for Smart Grid and a venture investor in two other technology startups. He also is an adjunct member of the Michigan State University faculty.
Douglas was educated at New Mexico State University, Virginia Tech, the University of British Columbia, and Michigan State University with major fields of study including Mathematics and Computer Science, Fine Arts, Fisheries and Wildlife Management, Statistics and Operations Research, Animal Resource Ecology, and Environmental Economics. Aside from his fine arts hobby, he has consistently focused on applications of management science to natural resources, environment, and energy systems.
As an active member of his community, he has coached soccer, served as board member and President of his neighborhood association, co-founder of East Lansing Community Unity, and board member of the East Lansing Housing and Neighborhood Services Corporation. His involvement in East Lansing city government has been as a member of the Environment Commission, member of the Transportation Commission, member of City Council, and Mayor. He is currently Vice-Chair of the Downtown Development Authority and Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, member of the Lansing Regional Smart Zone Board, and Chair of the Downtown Management Board. He is an active member of the Sierra Club and Clean Water Action.
