For Kevin Hamilton, conserving energy is paramount — except on the polo field.
Hamilton heads White Plains-based energy-management and consulting firm NuEnergen, which provides organizations with strategic energy solutions, focusing on how they procure their energy, including all commodities: electricity, natural gas, and oil, and how to conserve or consume less of it, while optimizing their costs.
The firm is the sole provider of demand-response services for Westchester County government’s entire energy portfolio (including the jail, prison, courthouses, and wastewater-treatment facilities), ensuring the county isn’t at risk of grid failure, which would result in a blackout or brownout. NuEnergen’s roster of clients also include the United States Federal Government, the United States Navy, the State of New York, and the City of New York, including all of its city-owned hospitals.
Many NuEnergen clients were impacted significantly, both operationally and financially, by COVID-19, Hamilton says. “My challenge over these last few months has been to make sure NuEnergen continues to provide our key deliverables to our clients…. Our clients have been leaning on us to look for areas to optimize their energy costs and save on their energy expenses more than ever,” he explains.
An energy conservationist for more than a decade, the 54-year-old expends a tremendous amount of energy as a competitive polo player in his downtime. Polo came to him later than most: Eight years ago, he won lessons as part of a silent auction at a fundraiser, hopping back in the saddle after many years. “As a kid, I used to ride horses. When I graduated from college, I couldn’t afford to do it and dropped it,” he explains. After his first polo lesson, he gushed to his wife that he was hooked.
“The values that make you successful when you play a polo match are completely analogous to work — there is the element of teamwork; there is the element of team strategy; and then just downright effort.”
—Kevin Hamilton
He competes from May to September, playing primarily in Southampton. To date, his team, La California, has won more than a dozen tournaments. “Winston Churchill famously once said, ‘A polo handicap is a passport to the world,’ and in my case, it’s proven to be true,” Hamilton says. “As you might expect, not a lot of people around the world play polo, so it’s a highly networked sport. I’ve met really interesting people who come from Europe, Asia, South America, who love the sport and who just want to go out and have a competitive good time.”
Polo has become a family affair for the Hamiltons, with his four children also saddling up. “My family and I are blessed: We have a string of 10 polo ponies, and each one of them is like a cherished pet to us.” He adds that the sport has even influenced his professional work: “The values that make you successful when you play a polo match are completely analogous to work — there is the element of teamwork; there is the element of team strategy; and then just downright effort, because you really have to push yourself. It’s very physically challenging. It’s just terrific.”
Photos courtesy of Kevin Hamilton