Gaelan is a 4th generation Vermonter from the Northeast Kingdom with roots in Vermont’s agricultural community. He has lived in eastern Europe and the Caribbean, as well as in the southern and western United States for several years, but is more than happy to be permanently settled with his family in the beautiful Mad River Valley. He has a background in newspaper reporting, internet business development/consulting, and various entrepreneurial sales and marketing roles, and has always been an avid student/promoter of clean energy and alternatives to our current energy infrastructure.

Currently he is VP of Marketing for VT-based groSolar, a national leader in solar power installation and distribution. Prior to joining groSolar he was a Senior Manager responsible for developing new direct-marketing and retail distribution channels for Green Mountain Coffee which grew from $0 to over $200 million in annual sales during his tenure.

In the late 1990s, as co-founder and VP of Sales & Marketing for Infopia.com, Gaelan spearheaded an industry-leading multi-channel web-marketing platform in partnership with eBay, Amazon, Ubid, Overstock and others.

Bonnaroo Carbon Shredders - Promotional Video (2009) from Corey Drayton on Vimeo.

In 2007 he co-founded the Carbon Shredders along with a handful of other "energy activists" in the Mad River Valley. This educational non-profit aims to guide home-owners through an online “Low Carbon Diet Program” helping people measure and reduce their C02 reductions resulting from basic residential efficiency-measures. With the help of the Carbon Shredders he also built a prototype biomass-heating system at his house, which generates hot water from a specially designed mound of composting wood-chips, without burning anything.

He writes a regular column and blog for VT Commons, as “An Energy Optimist,” focused on Vermont’s energy issues and also serves on the VT Commons Editorial Board as Business Manager. He has served the VT State Legislature before, as he was selected as a Legislative Page in 1988. Gaelan graduated with honors with a BA in Mass Communication and Economics from Washington and Lee University, where he was a member and then assistant coach of the NCAA men’s basketball team as well as Editor of the student newspaper.