PIEDMONT, CA, July 25, 2017 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Mason Willrich is an independent consultant, advising clients on energy matters. He served as chair, California Independent System Operator Governing Board, appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, 2005 through February 2011. Currently, Willrich is: director, California Clean Energy Fund; senior advisor, Renew Energy Partners, LLC; trustee and past chair, World Affairs Council of Northern California; and member, administrative board, The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Yale University. Willrich is also: member, advisory council, University of California, Berkeley, Law School, Center for Law, Energy and Environment; and member, Midland School, Environmental Advisory Board.
Previously, Willrich was partner of Nth Power, a clean tech venture capital firm, 1996-2002, and director of Evergreen Solar, Inc., a solar photovoltaic manufacturer, 1998-2003. Willrich was founder and chairman of EnergyWorks LLC, a joint venture of PacificCorp and Bechtel Group which provided combined heat and power to industrial firms in less developed countries, 1995-1998, when the company was sold. From 1989 until 1994, Willrich was chief executive officer of PG&E Enterprises, the subsidiary of Pacific Gas and Electric Company for unregulated business, which he started up and grew to profitable operations with assets of $3 billion. From 1979 until 1989 he was executive vice president of Pacific and Electric Company responsible for strategic planning, corporate budget, controller and information systems, and in various other executive positions.
Previously, nonprofit, Willrich served as: senior advisor, MIT Energy Innovation Project, 2009-2012; trustee, Winrock International, 1997-2007; member, advisory councils of national Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1995-2005; and Electric Power Research Institute, 1994-2002; director, Resources for the Future, 1990-99; and trustee, past president and chair, Midland School, 1986-2002.
Prior to joining PG&E, Willrich was in academia. He was John Stennis professor of law, 1975-79, and professor of law, 1965-76, University of Virginia, and founder and director of the University's Center for Science, Technology and Public Policy, 1968-73. He was also director, international relations, The Rockefeller Foundation, 1977-79. Willrich is author or co-author of nine books and numerous articles on energy policy and international security issues. His books include: Modernizing America's Electricity Infrastructure, 2017; Adventures Between History's Pages, 2007; Radioactive Waste: Management and Regulation (with R.K. Lester), 1977; Administration of Energy Shortages, 1976; Energy and World Politics, 1975; Nuclear Theft: Risks and Safeguards (with T.B. Taylor), 1974; SALT: The Moscow Agreements and Beyond (with J.B. Rhinelander), 1974; International Safeguards and Nuclear Industry, 1972; Global Politics of Nuclear Energy, 1971; and Non-Proliferation Treaty: Framework for Nuclear Arms Control, 1969.
Willrich served in the Kennedy and Johnson administration as assistant general counsel, U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, 1962-65, while also serving on U.S. delegations to United Nations nuclear arms control negotiations in Geneva and to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. After law school, he was law associate, Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro, San Francisco, 1960-62.
Willrich graduated from Yale University in 1954, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, where he was also captain of the varsity soccer team. Following college he served in the U.S. Air Force, 1955-57, including as a pilot in Strategic Air Command. He received a J.D. from UC Berkeley Law School, law review, Order of the Coif, 1960. He was awarded a Guggenheim Memorial fellowship in 1973 and the Dreyfuss Distinguished Alumnus/a Award by Midland School in 2008. Willrich is married, has four adult children, and eight grandchildren.
# # #