Kathy Hannun
Co-Founder & President
Dandelion Geothermal
Mount Kisco, NY USA
“Maybe you’ll feel like you have no idea how to do that or what to do, but that’s kind of normal. If you can just hold your breath and take the leap, you’ll figure it out.”
Videos
By Roadtrip NationKathy Hannun
Milestones
My road in life has been direct.
When I was in college, I knew that I ultimately wanted to work in either energy or water.
I earned my bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a master’s degree in computer science, but I wasn’t really sure how to translate those interests into a clear career path.
I ended up joining Google in a customer support role—Google seemed like a good company to gain work experience and learn from smart people.
I spent seven years working at Google and was able to work my way up to a product manager position, through which I finally got to work on energy.
After gaining experience, I decided that I wanted to start my own company—I conceptualized Dandelion while working at Google.
The northeast of the country stood out as the place where we could have the most impact, so we moved to New York and started Dandelion Geothermal.
Keep following my journey
Education
Career
Co-Founder & President
I run engineering, product, and research and development for a home geothermal company.
Career Roadmap
My work combines:
My work combines:
Engineering
Entrepreneurship
Working with Others
Day to Day
You can find me interviewing candidates for roles we'd like to hire for, meeting with engineers and product managers to understand the status of projects or weigh in on decisions, meeting with the management team to address the top issues of the day, and meeting with external experts, industry stakeholders, manufacturers, or suppliers. I also do a fair amount of advocacy and public engagement about geothermal and heat pumps more broadly by speaking to reporters or appearing on podcasts.
Advice for Getting Started
Here's the first step for college students
Engineering is helpful for those interested in product development because it's the art of applied problem solving for built systems. My computer science degree gave me practice in tackling difficult problems I didn't know how to solve. Through that experience I built confidence in my ability to figure things out. More important than the course of study is finding opportunities that allow you to surround yourself with engaged, ambitious people who challenge you to go after meaningful goals.
Interviewed By
Empowered State
The state of New York leads a clean energy revolution
