Michael Gorton, BS Engineering, MS Physics, Juris Doctorate.  CEO, Chairman, Principal Solar

Over the last twenty years, Mr. Gorton has founded and co-founded seven companies and become the quintessential entrepreneur, mentor and company builder.  He has had the unique opportunity to impact three industries: telecommunications, music and healthcare. Gorton has earned 3 college degrees while working full time.

In 2009, Gorton founded Principal Solar, a company dedicated to the task of driving grid parity for solar electric rates.  The Company has built a business model which has attracted some of the Country’s best known luminaries in electric utilities and finance.  Currently, the company is executing a national roll-up of solar assets. Principal Solar has also founded the Principal Solar Institute, an entity which has published a dozen white papers, written articles for industry publications and released the Industry’s first ratings and standards for solar modules and systems.

In 2002, Mr. Gorton was the founding CEO of TelaDoc, a company which solved the efficiency paradigm for a subsection of healthcare.  Under the TelaDoc model, members had access to telephonic physicians who could review medical records, treat and prescribe medication.  When Mr. Gorton founded the company, it was considered controversial, and when he left in 2009, it had over a million paying members nationwide, advocacy from the very top of healthcare, and studies/white papers from many of the think tanks.  In 2013, TelaDoc was names one of the Top Ten Most Innovative Companies in Healthcare

In 2000, as the tech bubble was popping, Mr. Gorton became a founding partner of the Texas Acceleration Group, an entity formed to assist startup companies.  Because of the imminent fall of the technology sector, Gorton and other TAG partners founded Palo Duro Records to promote unknown country artist: Shelley Laine.  During the next three years, Laine became the number one ranked Independent artist in Country Music, was nominated for best female artist in 2002, and put six songs on the charts.

In 1993, Mr. Gorton founded Internet Global, an entity designed to deliver Internet access.  At that time, almost no one knew what the Internet was or how it would impact the world. In the early days, Michael would travel and lecture on subjects as simple as: what is an email address?  Ultimately, iGlobal would deliver the world’s first DSL network and one of the nation’s first VOIP networks.  In the late 90s, the Dallas Business Journal ranked iGlobal as North Texas #1 provider. Mr. Gorton negotiated a $122 million buyout of iGlobal in 1Q 2000.

In 1981, Mr. Gorton joined Dallas Power and Light, which later merged into Texas Utilities.  During his term there, he worked as a project engineer dealing with power plants, distribution, transformer management, and integration of renewable energy into the grid.  Over the course of several projects, he moved from lead engineer to management. After completing law school at night, Michael began working on regulatory issues and other non-engineering management projects.  Mr. Gorton left TXU in 1992.

Mr. Gorton enjoys writing both fiction, and nonfiction.  He has published three novels and dozens of articles on topics ranging from physics to healthcare.  He has run 18 marathons, climbed mountains on several continents, ridden his bicycle on several long distance rides, one of which was just under 5,000 miles.  Michael and his family are working a goal of climbing the highest mountain in each of the 50 States.