SolaREIT Spotlight: November
Guillermo Coustasse
At SolaREIT, our mission to accelerate the clean energy transition is powered by a diverse team of passionate and talented individuals. Each team member is crucial in delivering innovative financing solutions to solar and battery energy storage developers and landowners. As a minority and women-owned business, we know that the unique contributions of every person on our team drive our collective success.
This month, we’re happy to shine the spotlight on Guillermo Coustasse, our General Counsel. With his brilliant legal mind, extensive connections, and deep industry experience, Guillermo brings a dynamic energy to our team.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background.
After abandoning my dream to be an astronaut, my mother prohibiting me from becoming an architect and realizing that becoming a musician was not in the cards for me, I went to law school right out of high school back home, in Chile. After living in Argentina and Denmark, I moved to Austin, where I volunteered in family violence and political asylum issues. Eventually, I ended up moving to DC and went back to school to get my JD.
Tell us about your journey and what inspired you to join SolaREIT?
At home and here, I had the opportunity to work for and be trained by the lawyers that created the structures we use every day in corporate and project finance. When I learned about SolaREIT, I was immediately attracted to the company’s personality and how people that have had remarkably successful careers in very complicated markets figured out a way to offer products in a way that is fast, simple, effective, cost-sensitive, and has an immediate, day 1, impact for every single one of our customers and actually accelerate the deployment of solar and storage projects. The market talks a lot about accelerating the energy transition, SolaREIT makes it happen every day.
What has been your most rewarding project or experience at SolaREIT, and why?
Our most recent financing was great. We embarked on a project that could have taken us over half a year and, testament to the quality of the work of the entire team, from early origination to the closing team, we managed to get it done in 2 months. Easy is not easy to achieve, it takes high quality work every step of the way from every team member. Laura Klein led the team with her unrivaled commercial savviness in a way that I have not seen in commercial teams before.
What do you envision the future of renewable energy looking like, and what role do you think SolaREIT will play in that future?
The future is looking younger! At every industry event we attend, we see more younger and more diverse people. SolaREIT’s hiring and training practices to retain young and diverse talent have showed great outcomes so far. We are committed to being inclusive, encouraging and kind, inside our organization and with the people we interact with.
What is something that has surprised you about working at SolaREIT?
The commitment to simplicity and service quality. Reducing complexity and focusing on what matters requires an incredible amount of experience and brain power – our leadership has it, and we can turn that into fast and easy solutions for our clients. That approach is a business and culture decision that I had not seen implemented so effectively before.
What are your hobbies outside of the office?
Outside of the office I’m usually seeing live music, talking about music, listening to music… you get the idea. Staying active is very important to me and each week includes basketball, tennis, swimming and/or golf. If I could have it my way, every weekend I would be under sail on the eastern shore.