Dragonfly Energy, led by former executive MBA students Denis Phares, Sean Nichols, and Justin Ferranto recently won the Western regionals of the Cleantech Open. The Cleantech Open is a national sustainable business competition that gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to gain investors and continued business mentoring for their business. Dragonfly Energy is a lithium-ion battery business that plans on assembling their product in a Nevada manufacturing facility. Formed in the University's executive MBA program, the company has received recognition and won awards in Sontag, The Nevada Governor's cup and the Tri-State business plan competition.

Denis Phares, founder and chief executive officer, Sean Nichols, founder and chief operating officer, and Justin Ferranto, founder and vice president of Engineering will compete in the national Cleantech competition in San Francisco Nov. 12 - 13 in San Francisco, Calif.

"The exposure that comes with winning the Cleantech Open increases the chances for investment and further solidifies us as experts in the field. Ultimately, we want people to know that we know what we are doing, and that we are on the verge of something huge," Dennis Phares said, "Clean technologies and sustainability are going to drive the economy over the next century. And energy storage, in particular, is the bottleneck to making renewable energy sources a very large part of our electric grid."

Learn more about Dragonfly Energy.