Richard C. Niess, Secretary / Treasurer

Dick is a co-founder, principal and senior technical consultant with APOGEE and serves as the firm's Secretary/Treasurer. Through Apogee, Dick assists in the development of many of Apogee's products, and consults on new and innovative concepts prior to and after commercialization.

A distinguished Tau Beta Pi graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, Mr. Niess began his technical career with York International in sales, engineering and product management, where he was responsible for York's centrifugal and absorption chillers and alternate energy projects including geothermal and gas-engine total energy systems. He later joined Westinghouse Electric Corp.'s Air Conditioning Division, progressing to divisional and corporate marketing positions. He then transitioned to McQuay (who purchased this Westinghouse Division) until joining Joel S. Gilbert at Dames & Moore in early 1985.

In 1990 they formed the consulting firm of Gilbert & Associates, where he provided consulting services to over 150 electric utilities, industrial firms, hotels, schools, universities and hospitals on energy related matters. Specialties encompass electro-thermal alternatives, including absorption, electric- and engine-driven chillers, boiler analysis, cogeneration systems, heat pumps, heat exchange, and thermal storage. As they branched out into analytical software and interactive multi-media Susan Gilbert joined them, and the firm transitioned to Apogee Interactive, Inc.

Dick is a Fellow of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), is a past Chairman of the Applied Heat Pump and Heat Recovery Technical Committee, and serves on the Geothermal Energy Utilization and Centrifugal Machines Technical Committees. He has authored numerous articles and publications for such associations as ASHRAE, EPRI and NRECA.