Jonathan Dean

Tell us a bit about yourself ?

I live in Dublin with my wife Paula and our three children. In my spare time I love to go on family walks, learn about sustainability challenges and the technologies to overcome them and teach the kids how to grow food and fix things around the house.

Where did you work prior to joining CoolPlanet?

Before joining CoolPlanet I worked across a range of roles including Solutions Engineer, Product Manager and Support Engineering leader for a range of companies in the software space, including most recently over 10 years at Meta (formally Facebook).

What does your job entail?

My job as a Product Owner entails identifying which features our customers need us to add to our product and then ensuring they get built. I do this through a lot of market research and brainstorming before working with the CoolPlanetOS software development team and user experience team to design and build the feature.

What do you enjoy most about working for CoolPlanet?

I love how everyone at CoolPlanet is here because they want to help tackle climate change through their day to day work. Whether they are a Software Developer, Industrial Engineer, Accountant or Sales person, they are all driven by the ideal of making an impact through their daily work. This common goal is very inspiring as we know we are all trying to do the same thing, even if we don’t always agree on how to do it!

When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be an inventor, as I loved taking things apart to see how they work, and then using the parts to try and do something else with them!

What do you like to do in your spare time?

In my spare time I like to grow fruit and vegetables in our garden as a way to be more connected to the food we eat while showing the kids where food comes from. I even have a tomato plant in the office which the whole team took care of! I also like to learn about and experiment with sustainable technologies, and have a lot of energy generation, storage and management gadgets at home I use to minimise our energy costs and carbon footprint.

What keeps you motivated ?

Climate change is the largest issue facing everyone on Earth, with the poor being particularly at risk. Working on solving this problem is hugely motivating for me as it is an opportunity to help billions of people avoid the impact of climate change in the future while also improving quality of life now through improved air quality and access to cheap, clean energy.

What are three interesting things about you?

1. I was the head of the Facebook Employee Sustainability committee which was a great opportunity to learn more about sustainability and how it impacts business.
2. I went back to university after 22 years of working in industry to earn a Masters in Sustainable Energy and Green Technologies so I could pivot my career to focus on climate change solutions.
3. I climbed Mount Fuji and Mount Kilimanjaro and got altitude sickness at 3,800m exactly in both cases!

What is your life mantra?

You can’t choose how you feel about things, but you can choose how you react to that feeling.