Neal Rauhauser is the founder of the Stranded Wind Initiative. He is involved in the day to day outreach, often writing on DailyKos as well as making regular contributions to the Sci-Tech section on The Cutting Edge News and occasional contributing to The Oil Drum.

He attended Iowa State University majoring in computer science. He holds the Cisco Certified Network and Design Professional ratings, the Cisco wireless products specialization, and his amateur radio callsign is K0BSD. These were acquired in the context of a telecommunications equipment sales startup, an international voice carrier, two wireless ISPs that he founded, and a telecommunications consulting venture.

Some of the ideas of the Stranded Wind Initiative demanded a commercial operation to bring them to fruition. Applying his startup experience
management he organized Third Mode Energy along with Stranded Wind Initiative contributors Larry Bruce, Dave Bradley, and Matt Zipchen.