Ever Forward LLC

A naval officer and power engineer turned entrepreneur Mike Saxton built multiple companies, recently exiting the latest upon sale and integration. He now advises private equity, startups, and decision making executives on strategic, industry, go-to-market, and organizational plans. As Managing Director he led SRECTrade’s Clean Transportation business, acquired by Xpansiv, helping fleet and facility owners understand, manage and monetize environmental commodities (aka carbon credits). Before this Mike was Chief Commercial Officer of Orange EV, the global leader in the manufacturer of heavy-duty electric vehicles. For both Mike designed, built and led strategic and commercial / market facing functions, from first touch through deployment and ongoing relationship management for complex, high-touch B2B solutions. Mike became known as an expert on fleet electrification, environmental commodities, and the use of renewable energy to reduce costs, decarbonize and meet ESG goals. Under his leadership Orange EV became the first manufacturer to commercially deploy all-electric Class-8 trucks including manufacture, sale, and service growing from pre-revenue / prototype to profitable deployments with customers in 2019 across 16+ U.S. states and three countries. SRECTrade became the largest 3rd party EV asset manager under North American Clean Fuel programs. Mike began his career as a surface warfare officer and nuclear power engineer in the U.S. Navy, transitioning to industry, launching B2B product and service solutions, developing organizations, and growing successful companies. Trained originally in Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Southern California (USC) and nuclear power via the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and U.S. Navy, Mike completed his formal education via a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Duke University.