008: Your network is your net worth, with Jeff Atkin of Foley & Lardner

Host Nico Johnson and Foley & Lardner Partner, Jeff Atkin.  Join in as Nico and Jeff discuss how their mutual time serving in volunteerism in Latin America (in particular, Guatemala) has informed their professional decisions.

We talk about the Horus solar project in Guatemala, one which Jeff’s team at Foley was responsible for structuring; if you’re unfamiliar with this project, it was the first major tender-awarded and utility-scale project in Central America, and it’s one of the largest in the region now at about 75MW AC.

Jeff gives his opinion on lessons learned from that project, and what he admired about the way the developer approached the project with the end in mind.

We discuss the power of initiative, and how he leveraged the power of a large organization to gain traction in an emerging industry, and subsequently, how Jeff has differentiated Foley among the pool of international firms that have a Latin America focus.

And, Jeff confirms the not-so-secret fact that the “wealthy families” are almost always the entry point for finding the early stage opportunities and localizing good partnerships, while providing great tips on how to develop and care for your own network.

We really hope you get massive value from this next episode of SunCast!

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