The University of Colorado at Boulder's Energy Initiative, created in 2006 to help meet the world's sustainable and renewable energy needs, has announced a group of corporate leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, advisers, scientists, policymakers and academics as members of its newly formed EI Leadership Council.
The council currently is made up of 16 private sector seats and includes chief or senior executives of top global and United States energy companies as well as top executives in the fields of finance, investment, transportation, information technology, law and energy utilization, said EI Director Carl Koval, also a CU-Boulder chemistry and biochemistry professor. The council also includes 10 honorary seats held by prominent policymakers and academics, including former Colorado Gov. Dick Lamm and former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton.
Each private sector seat makes at least a $50,000 annual contribution to CU-Boulder's EI and a minimum two-year commitment to the council, Koval said. CU-Boulder plans to cap the EI private sector seats at 20, which will generate $1 million annually for novel energy research on campus by funding seed grants in partnership with national laboratories.
The funds also will be used for "proof-of-concept" grants that will accelerate the commercialization of energy technologies discovered at CU-Boulder and will actively engage the private sector, said Koval. The EI Leadership Council is co-chaired by CU-Boulder Chancellor G.P. "Bud" Peterson and Dick Kelly, CEO of Xcel Energy.
The EI also announced the first 12 "Energy Initiative Advocates" made up of high-profile individuals that are serving as ambassadors for the CU-Boulder initiative. The list includes Federico Pe帽a, former U.S. Secretary of Energy and former Denver mayor, Earl Wright, CEO of the Denver-based AMG National Trust Bank and Richard Truly, former director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., and former chief administrator at NASA.
"We are very grateful that individuals and corporations of the caliber represented on the EI Leadership Council, and as EI Advocates, have agreed to partner with CU-Boulder in this endeavor," said Koval. "With their support, we are confident the Energy Initiative will rapidly become a leading organization in renewable energy and energy sustainability and provide new research opportunities for faculty, new career opportunities for students and new opportunities for economic development in the state, nation and world."
The council will meet in Boulder three times each year to provide strategic insight aimed at transforming CU-Boulder's EI into an international powerhouse and stimulating economic development associated with clean energy in the region, Koval said.
CU-Boulder's EI is aimed at helping to solve global energy challenges through research, education and technology commercialization, said Koval. Faculty and students are working on issues like biofuels and biorefining, solar energy conversion and wind and geothermal energy. EI researchers also are working on energy storage and conversion, hydrogen production and use, energy-efficient buildings, "smart grid" concepts, carbon management -- including lower carbon applications of traditional energy sources -- as well as nanoscience materials and catalysis research.
CU-Boulder's EI also is heavily involved in energy and climate policy formulation, studies of societal and economic barriers to implementing renewable energy, and entrepreneurship efforts targeting local, state and national companies, Koval said.
"In the coming decades, the best public universities will be those agile enough to anticipate and embrace change on a dramatic scale," said Peterson, who noted that more than 180 CU-Boulder faculty and researchers are engaged in some type of energy research. "The Energy Initiative places CU-Boulder at the center of a global crossroads of discovery, one characterized by academic excellence, economic vitality and environmental awareness."
CU-Boulder Energy Initiative Leadership Council, Private Sector Seats:
Electricity/Natural Gas Utility Seat: Dick Kelly, chairman, president and CEO, Xcel Energy, a major U.S. electricity and natural gas company with operations in eight western and Midwestern states, Xcel Energy is the top provider of wind power in the nation and also involved in solar and biomass projects. Xcel Energy selected Boulder as its first "Smart Grid City."
Global Venture Capital Seat: Michael Ware, managing director, Good Energies Inc., a leading global investor in renewable energy and energy-efficiency industries with investments in solar, turbine-based renewable energy and green building technologies. Offices in London, New York, Toronto, Washington, D.C, and Zug, Switzerland.
International Energy Major Seat: Stephen Brand, senior vice president for technology, ConocoPhillips, third largest integrated energy company in the United States with 33,100 employees worldwide, operations in nearly 40 countries and a planned technology research facility and global learning center in Louisville, Colo.
Solar Energy Seat: Jigar Shah, founder, Chief Strategy Officer, SunEdison, a global company and the largest solar energy service provider in North America.
Investment Fund Seat: Rebecca Kauffman, president and chief operating officer, Southern Ute Alternative Energy LLC, an alternative energy investment company for the Southern Ute Tribe.
Automaker Seat: Bill Reinert, national manager of advanced technologies, Toyota, world's largest automaker and advanced vehicle technology developer.
Individual Energy Investor Seat: Bruce Oreck, founder, Zero Carbon Initiative, attorney and energy investor.
Scientific/Technical Seat: Ron Rudolph, vice president and director of strategic business development, SAIC Inc., a Fortune 500 scientific, engineering and technology applications company focusing on national security, energy and the environment, critical infrastructure and health. SAIC Inc. employs about 44,000 people worldwide.
Computer/Information Technology Seat: Kristin Russell, vice president for IT operations, Sun Microsystems Inc., a Fortune 500 company and top five company in IT industry, with a focus on energy use in electronics and systems.
Independent Power Producer Seat: Craig Mataczynski, president, RES Americas, the American subsidiary of Renewable Energy Systems Ltd., the United Kingdom's leading independent renewable energy developer focusing on wind, solar and biomass. RES Americas has its North American headquarters in Broomfield, Colo.
Wind Technology Seat: Christian Venderby, acting president, Vestas Americas, an American subsidiary of the Danish company Vestas, the world's leading supplier of wind power solutions with a manufacturing plant near Windsor, Colo.
Geothermal Seat: Lucien Y. Bronicki, chairman and CTO, Ormat Technologies, one of the world's leading geothermal power companies headquartered in Reno, Nev.
Law and Policy Seat: Steven Demby, co-chair of corporate and business department and member of the executive committee, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP, Denver. Practice areas include business and corporate relations, government relations and public policy, litigation, natural resources and real estate, with 250 attorneys and policy consultants in 12 offices in the western United States and in Washington, D.C.
Materials Seat: Doug Coors, executive vice president, CoorsTek, an international advanced technical ceramics company headquartered in Golden, Colo., and CEO, Ceramatec, a CoorsTek company headquartered in Salt Lake City.
Emerging Fuels Seat: Rick Wheeler, CFO, Clean Energy Fuels Corp., the leading provider of natural gas (compressed natural gas and liquid natural gas) for transportation in North America, fueling more than 14,000 vehicles daily at over 170 strategic locations across the United States and Canada, including many in Colorado.
Engineering, Construction and Management Services Seat, Alan J. Krause, president and chief operating officer, MWH Global Inc., a full-service, environmentally focused engineering, construction and management firm emphasizing water, environment, infrastructure and energy. Headquartered in Broomfield, Colo., MHW Global Inc., has about 6,000 employees worldwide.
CU-Boulder Energy Initiative Leadership Council, Honorary Seats:
Policy Seat: Dick Lamm, former three-term Colorado governor, University of Denver professor and co-director of the Institute for Public Policy Studies.
Policy Seat: Gale Norton, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior, former Colorado attorney general and current general counsel for the Unconventional Oil division of Shell Oil Co.
Discovery/Climate Seat: Konrad Steffen, director, CU-Boulder-based Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Greenland climate expert, shared in 2007 Nobel Peace Prize as co-author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report.
Discovery/Biofuels Seat: Alan Weimer, executive director, Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels, or C2B2, CU-Boulder professor of chemical and biological engineering.
Discovery/Wind or Solar Seat: Lucy Pao, CU-Boulder professor, electrical engineering, lead organizer for the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory's Center for Research and Education in Wind, or CREW.
Transformation/Law Seat: Mark Squillace, director, CU Natural Resources Law Center, CU law professor.
Transformation/Arts and Sciences Seat: Patricia Limerick, director of the Center of the American West, CU-Boulder history professor, MacArthur Fellow.
Energy Initiative Seat: Carl Koval, CU-Boulder Energy Initiative director, professor of chemistry and biochemistry.
Entrepreneurship Seat: Paul Jerde, executive director, CU-Boulder Center for Entrepreneurship, CU Leeds School of Business.
Chancellor Seat: G.P. "Bud" Peterson, University of Colorado at Boulder chancellor.