If there’s one word that defines Baltimore native Jason Schwartzberg’s work, it would be “energy” — both in the literal and spiritual sense. He helps local businesses and the real estate community save energy as the president and co-founder of MD Energy Advisors, while also energizing the local Jewish community as part of The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore.
“I always wanted to be an entrepreneur,” said Schwartzberg, a resident of Hunt Valley. “I come from a family of entrepreneurs: my grandfather was an entrepreneur, my father was an entrepreneur. But you can’t just hand down that title through your family, you have to work for it.”
A business owner and community leader, Schwartzberg, 41, initially worked in real estate. But he noticed that others in his field struggled to make the most of their energy usage on their properties, often using more than they needed.
This led him to work together with his then-coworkers at Baltimore Development Corporation, Paul Clary and Phil Croskey, to found MD Energy Advisors, which aims to reduce people’s energy expenses by providing them with more efficient equipment.
The three of them also founded PointClickSwitch, a website that lets consumers compare and contrast different energy options near them. Schwartzberg calls it “the Expedia of energy,” in reference to the travel website. Though they no longer serve the residential community, PointClickSwitch also helps finance commercial real estate projects
But before he was a businessman, Schwartzberg was a member of Baltimore’s Jewish community and continues to be involved with it. While currently unaffiliated with any synagogue, he attended Baltimore Hebrew Congregation and fondly remembers partaking in synagogue events and services with his family.
Schwartzberg attended McDonogh School, a private college preparatory school in Owings Mills, and recently finished his two-year tenure as president of its alumni association. He attended McDonogh from 7th grade until graduation, and the school is very important to him for the education he received there, the people he met and the opportunities it gave him as a foothold into community leadership.
“I graduated from McDonogh, my wife graduated from McDonogh and both our children go there now, so it’s near and dear to my heart. It was very instrumental in shaping who I am today,” he recalled. “I received so many positive experiences and learned so much from the school that I wanted to give back.”
It was this position at the school’s alumni association that led him to his current involvement in the Jewish Federation of Baltimore. He joined The Associated’s young leadership program at around the same time because he wanted to get more involved in community leadership, and was given an opportunity to observe one of the organization’s boards.
Because of his prior experience in real estate, he picked their real estate board and proposed a new recommendation while observing.
“There’s a lot of really sharp people on that committee,” said Schwartzberg, “but I ultimately gave them a recommendation of how to expand the JCC that was quicker and more economical than their proposed solution. The biggest issue was that they were trying to build on top of the existing preschool, and I made a recommendation to use some prefabricated steel options, which ultimately saved them a bunch of money and time.”
He was asked to join the committee afterwards, and he has sat on it ever since, helping make recommendations for expanding the The Associated’s real estate and helping them to be sustainable.
Schwartzberg feels that his Jewish identity influences not only his work as part of The Associated, but his work in the fields of real estate and energy as well.
“The values you learn from your parents, from your grandparents, from Hebrew school … they influence everything,” he said. “At work, we subscribe to five core values: accountability, ambition, integrity, competence and empathy. So it’s a similar philosophy.”
Currently, Schwartzberg has been working with The Associated’s real estate board on potential projects that would incorporate renewable energy sources. He’s also looking to expand the staff of MD Energy Advisors and PointClickSwitch. When Schwartzberg isn’t working, he enjoys hiking and other outdoor activities as well as spending time with his wife, their two children and their dog.
