Company
Voltree.ai is the brand under which Voltree Power, Inc., a Massachusetts corporation, turns work that began in 2005 into a continuous plant-level data platform. One company, one asset base: the patents from that work were consolidated in Voltree Power, Inc. in 2015, and the field history and data sit alongside them.
Node installation under canopy, 2009
Origin
The work began with a question about whether a living tree could power the electronics used to observe it. Sponsored research at MIT documented a sustained potential between the xylem of an intact tree and its soil, and identified the mechanism behind it.
Two US patents followed, then hardware: energy-harvesting nodes and a wireless sensor network built to survive under a canopy without mains power or line of sight. Federal agencies deployed it.
VoltreeAI takes the same measurement and treats it as data rather than as a power source. The sensor is the instrument; the product is the continuous stream of software and data it feeds, with utility corridors as the proposed first market.
Leadership
Roles are listed as they currently stand. Changes are published once they take legal effect.
Chief Executive Officer
Certified public accountant and operating executive with three decades in manufacturing, government contracting and IoT hardware. Leads the company through the validation programme and its first commercial deployments.
Chief Technology Officer
Biologist and deep-tech agtech founder with 25 years in plant science, sensing and agricultural technology.
Algorithm development
Contributes to algorithm development at VoltreeAI, from signal processing to the analysis methods under evaluation.
Engineering
Contributes to engineering at VoltreeAI, from sensing hardware to the systems that carry field data to the platform.
Advisors
Advisor
George Jackson brings 33 years of wildland fire, aviation, and safety experience with the USDA Forest Service to Voltree. He began on the fire line, serving four seasons as a smokechaser and eighteen as a smoke jumper, before spending 24 years with the Forest Service's National Technology and Development Center in Missoula, Montana. There he worked as an equipment specialist and later as Project and Program Leader for the Fire and Aviation Program, developing and evaluating the equipment firefighters rely on. George chaired the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) committee on Wildland Firefighting Protective Clothing and Equipment and represented the United States on International Organization for Standardization (ISO) committees for protective clothing in agriculture and wildland firefighting. He has also reviewed funding proposals for the National Science Foundation. George attended the University of Montana and lives in Indio, California, with his wife, Patrice.
Advisor
Tory Henderson brings more than three decades of wildland fire leadership to Voltree. During a 34-year career with the US Forest Service, she rose from field forestry technician to national leadership roles shaping how the country fights wildfire. As Branch Chief for Equipment and Chemicals, Tory directed national policy for fire retardants, firefighting equipment, and the fire cache system. She chaired the Equipment Technology Committee, contributed to NFPA codes and standards, and led the Environmental Impact Statement for aerial application of fire retardant. Earlier, as Administrative Manager at the National Interagency Fire Center, she developed international agreements for sharing fire resources across borders. She also served as acting Assistant Director of Fire Operations, representing the Forest Service on the National Wildfire Coordinating Group and the National Multiagency Coordinating Group, and authored the agency's Fire and Aviation Workforce and Succession Plan. Since retiring in 2013, Tory has consulted for the Forest Service through Henderson Consulting and served on several advisory boards, including nonprofits.
Record
2005
Work on plant electrical signals begins in Canton, Massachusetts.
2005 · 2007
US patents filed; granted 2008 and 2010.
2008
Mechanism published in PLoS ONE; featured by MIT News.
2009
First under-canopy federal deployment with the USDA Forest Service and BLM, Boise.
2009
Popular Science “Best of What’s New”, Green Tech.
2010
Partnership feature with Vaisala.
2015
Both patents consolidated in Voltree Power, Inc.
2016-2017
Company-sponsored university research programme.
2019
Partnership with Perimeter Solutions.
2026
Voltree.ai brand launched; validation programme designed.
In numbers
2005
work began
2
granted US patents
2008
peer-reviewed mechanism
2009
first federal deployment
Field trial sites, research partners and investors all reach us the same way.
