Our Projects include community development with clean renewable energy, smart villages, Hydro-Agrivoltaics (HAV), counseling education & entrepreneurship programs (CEE), business development, and SMB Finance.
Learn more about our clean renewable energy initiatives with Hydro-Agrivolatics:
Meet our Hydro-AgriVoltaics (HAV) Team
Bob Morton, Chief Operating Officer, and HAV Project Manager
Bob Has extensive solar industry experience including photovoltaic (PV) electricity generation and passive solar techniques. He is also knowledgeable in software, data acquisition systems, environmental consulting and non-profit fundraising. He has led grass roots projects for youth sports organizations including instructional leagues and building fields and facilities through cooperative community action. He holds a BS in Biology from Yale University and an MBA from Northeastern University. He is responsible for overall project management for the HAV project with particular focus on PV, passive solar and building science climate control. He will also lead the fundraising efforts for this project.
Dave Dumaresq, Chief Agricultural Advisor to HAV.
Dave is the Founder and Chief Agricultural Officer – Farmer Dave’s, Dracut, MA. Farmer Dave’s began with 15 leased acres in Dracut in 1997 and has since expanded to 95 acres of farmland across Dracut, Tewksbury and Westford. The Dracut “home farm” is protected by an Agricultural Preservation Restriction (APR) while featuring a year-round farmstand, kitchen and bakery and pick-your-own (PYO) strawberries, blueberries, and apples. Farmer Dave’s operates farmstands in Tewksbury and Westford, and manages 10 farmers markets, a 1,000-family Cooperative Share Agricultural (CSA) program and wholesale accounts.
Farmer Dave’s employs approximately 100 team members in growing a diverse selection of vegetables including tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, carrots, beets, radishes, potatoes, onions, garlic, scallions, and leafy greens, as well as fruits like apples, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and melons.
Greenhouse operations have been a core pillar of year-round, sustainable farming expanding from 800 square feet in 1997 to over 2 acres of greenhouse space featuring advanced systems for climate and irrigation automation, root-zone heating, needle seeding, germination, graft healing chambers and indoor grow shipping containers. These investments allow the farm to extend the growing seasons, reduce disease and pest pressure, and support the local food system through all four seasons. Dave has implemented sustainable technologies: multiple solar arrays, geothermal heat pump systems, water reclamation cisterns, electric delivery vans, and EV charging stations powered by on-site solar.
Dave has volunteered in the Republic of Georgia and consulted with Deloitte’s Economic Prosperity Initiative to establish a winter greenhouse vegetable industry to reduce the country’s reliance on imports. Implementing geothermal heating via specially engineered systems using free-flowing hot water as a renewable heat source, enabled cost-effective greenhouse production suitable for organic growing. Many of Dave’s former interns and trainees operate the largest modern greenhouses in the Georgian Republic. That program’s success has led to producers exporting winter-grown vegetables to Russia.
In 2018, Dave co-founded the Partnership for Sustainable Agriculture (www.psagric.com), an agricultural development consulting firm. From 2021 to 2024, he worked on a USAID Feed the Future project in Tajikistan, making multiple trips and working remotely to design programs that supported greenhouse and field farmers in the Khatlon region.
Dave is an active member of several Massachusetts agricultural organizations and, in 2024, was appointed to the Massachusetts Food Policy Council where he collaborates with legislators, agency leaders and other appointees to advance a robust, sustainable food system for the state. Dave’s steadfast commitment to sustainability, greenhouse innovation, and food security provides leadership through adaptation, education, and advocacy to support New England’s farming future.
Douglas J. Leaffer, PhD, PE, HAV Senior Technical Advisor
Doug is MHRF’s Executive VP and Director of Engineering. Doug is a civil/environmental engineer with extensive project experience in water resources and environmental engineering. His career highlights in this field include design and development of large-capacity (3 MGD) municipal water wells, groundwater supply and contamination-treatment studies, inflow and infiltration (I/I) studies for wastewater treatment collection systems, and experience in storm-water flow monitoring and assessment.
He is licensed as a Professional Engineer (P.E., Civil) in Maine, in the discipline of environmental and water resources. Doug is additionally licensed as a Professional Geologist in several states and is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (F.ASCE). For the building and construction trades, Doug is a staff consultant for the Green Building Research Institute (GBRI) in NYC, training engineers and scientists on the WELL Building Standard and LEED Green Associate certification. He is also a WELL Faculty and Advisor to the International Well Building Institute (WBI) in NYC.
He currently teaches undergraduate engineering at Northern Essex Community College and as an adjunct instructor at Merrimack College. In these roles he empowers and mentors STEM students to become more proficient in engineering design and analysis and has often included alternative energy concepts in his curriculum. With more than 12 years of post-secondary teaching experience, Doug has supported educational pathways from high school and vocational technical school to college for highly motivated, technically inclined students. Doug earned two graduate degrees (MS and PhD) in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Tufts University, Medford, MA and an undergraduate degree in geological sciences from the Univ. of Miami.
George Sahady, HAV Lead Economist
George is MHRF’s Chief Economist and Director of Veterans Affairs. George is a seasoned business leader, economist and U.S. Army veteran with many years of experience in economic development, private enterprise, public policy, and strategic operations. He proudly served for seven years in the U.S. Army, specializing in military and transportation intelligence. During his service Mr. Sahady developed advanced skills in logistics, operations planning, and strategic assessment that forms the backbone of his civilian leadership career in such roles as:
- State Economist at the Massachusetts Department of Commerce and Development and Manager of state Regional Development Agencies.
- Senior leadership with the Federal Economic Development Administration and the New England Regional Commission during the Reagan Term
- Appointed Economic Development Director for the New England Governors’ Conference, where he coordinated multi-state initiatives and advised on regional policy
Mr. Sahady later transitioned back to the private sector in insurance and economic consulting. As President of Greater Boston Capital Partners LLC, he led solar energy development projects and as Director and Project Manager at ADCI Freight Forwarding Corporation he launched international operations and negotiated global trade ventures. In addition to his business and civic leadership, Mr. Sahady is passionate about education. He has served as an adjunct professor in the master’s program at Lesley College and taught economics at Massachusetts Bay Community College. George holds a B.A. in Economics & Statistics from Boston University and an M.A. in Economics from Northeastern University.