Mike Colby

Mike has been active in global asset management since 1990. From 1994 to 2015 he was key to helping grow and sustain Bridgewater Associates’ investment business with clients. He served some of the world’s largest and most sophisticated institutional investors around the world; complex organizations responsible for very large, multi-faceted investment portfolios. Mike helped advise and establish best practices in senior governance, strategic asset allocation, currency, interest rate and financial liability risk management, individual investment portfolio structuring and more.

In the course of his work, Mike increasingly came into contact with influential investors who shared a common cause: to create a virtuous cycle by investing in technologies and innovations that are both profitable and contribute to a more sustainable, prosperous world. An outdoors enthusiast his entire life, Mike was further inspired by the institutional movement toward ESG investing, but came to appreciate the complexities and often poor decision-making involved in that effort. Mike and his wife’s increasingly mission-driven investing, and a chance meeting with the founding principles of ReFED, propelled Mike’s interest in organic waste and the renewable energy market in particular.

In 2016, Mike scaled back his work at Bridgewater to focus more time on family and outside investments with particular emphasis on governance and sustainability. One area that offered increasing promise was a nascent, leading edge anaerobic digestion technology he and his wife had financed for many years. By 2017, the VBC™ technology showed enough promise to form a separate commercial entity. VIRESCO was born and Joe Burke agreed to join Mike as CEO of the new entity. Together Mike and Joe have partnered closely to build VIRESCO into what it is today, and what’s still to come.

Active in philanthropy, Mike has also served on numerous advisory panels over the years; more recently for the World Economic Forum’s Retirement Investment Systems Reform project, USDA Secretary Vilsack’s Biogas Opportunities Roadmap Initiative, and on the advisory board for his alma mater, the Collins College of Business at the University of Tulsa.