Hosts and Conveners
Condoleezza Rice is currently the Denning Professor in Global Business and the Economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business; the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution; a professor of political science, and Director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. She is also a founding partner of RiceHadleyGates, LLC. From January 2005 to 2009, Rice served as the sixty-sixth secretary of state of the United States, the second woman and first African American woman to hold the post. Rice also served as President George W. Bush’s assistant to the president for national security affairs (national security adviser) from January 2001 to 2005, the first woman to hold the position. She served as Stanford University's Provost from 1993-1999.
Steven Chu is a professor of physics and the William R. Kenan, Jr. professor of Molecular & Cellular Physiology in the Medical School at Stanford University. He is the president-elect of the American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He shares a Nobel Prize in Physics for work on cooling and trapping atoms with laser light. He has published over 280 papers in atomic and polymer physics, biophysics, biology, batteries, and other energy technologies. He holds 14 patents, and an additional 6 patent applications have been filed in the last 2 years. Dr. Chu was the 12th U.S. Secretary of Energy from January 2009 until the end of April 2013. As the first scientist to hold a Cabinet position and the longest-serving Energy Secretary, he recruited outstanding scientists and engineers into the Department of Energy. He began several initiatives including ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy), the Energy Innovation Hubs, and was personally tasked by President Obama to assist BP in stopping the Deepwater Horizon oil leak.
William Perry is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Freeman Spogli Institute of International Studies. He is the Michael and Barbara Berberian Professor at Stanford University and serves as co-director of the Nuclear Risk Reduction initiative and the Preventive Defense Project. He is an expert in US foreign policy, national security, and arms control. He was the co-director of CISAC from 1988 to 1993, during which time he was also a half-time professor at Stanford. Perry was the nineteenth secretary of defense for the United States, serving from February 1994 to January 1997. He previously served as deputy secretary of defense (1993–94) and as undersecretary of defense for research and engineering (1977–81). Perry currently serves on the Defense Policy Board, the International Security Advisory Board, and the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board. He is on the board of directors of Covant, Fabrinet, LGS Bell Labs Innovations, and several emerging high-tech companies.
Arun Majumdar is Dean of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, as well as the Jay Precourt Provostial Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering, a Senior Fellow of the Precourt Institute for Energy, and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. Prior to joining Stanford, he was the Vice President for Energy at Google, where he created several energy technology initiatives and advised the company on its broader energy strategy. In October 2009, Majumdar was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate to become the Founding Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E), where he served till June 2012. Between March 2011 and June 2012, Majumdar also served as the Acting Under Secretary of Energy, and a Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Energy. Prior to joining the Department of Energy, Dr. Majumdar was the Almy and Agnes Maynard Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley and the Associate Laboratory Director for Energy and Environment at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Majumdar is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Yi Cui, is director of the Stanford Precourt Institute for Energy, Fortinet Founders Professor, professor of materials science and engineering at Stanford, and of photon science at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. His research focuses on nanomaterials for energy storage, solar cells, topological insulators, biology and the environment. He is the co-director of Stanford's StorageX Initiative, an associate editor of Nano Letters, co-director of the Department of Energy’s Bay Area Photovoltaics Consortium and Battery 500 consortium, and co-founder of Amprius Inc. and 4C Air Inc. He is a fellow of the Materials Research Society, the Electrochemical Society and the Royal Society of Chemistry. His selected awards include Blavatnik National Laureate (2017), MRS Kavli Distinguished Lectureship in Nanoscience (2015), the Sloan Research Fellowship (2010), KAUST Investigator Award (2008), Technology Review World Top Young Innovator Award (2004). He received a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Science and Technology of China, and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Harvard University. His GCEP efforts include “Toward High-Efficiency Thin Film Solar Cells Combining Multi-Junctions and Nano-Scale Light” and “Self-Healing Polymers for High-Energy-Density Lithium Ion Battery.”
In March of 2012, Jay Precourt co-founded the Vail Global Energy Forum in partnership with Stanford University, the Precourt Institute for Energy, and the Precourt Energy Efficiency Center. He now serves as an advisor to the Stanford Global Energy Forum. Recently, Mr. Precourt was the Chairman and CEO of Hermes Consolidated of Denver, Colorado, a private company active in crude oil refining, pipelining, and marketing of petroleum products. He has subsequently sold the company. Mr. Precourt has spent his career in the energy industry, earlier holding president and/or CEO positions at Hamilton Oil Company, Tejas Gas Corporation, ScissorTail Energy, and Hermes Consolidated, the last three of which became substantial companies under his leadership, having begun as fledging start-ups in the energy sector. Mr. Precourt received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in petroleum engineering from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Harvard University.
Cindy A. Williams is the Stanford Precourt Institute for Energy Assistant Director for External Engagement where she is responsible for a portfolio of global corporate engagement programs for Stanford Energy. Prior to joining the Precourt Institute for Energy she served 13 years at the Stanford University Office of Public Affairs where she led corporate outreach efforts as director of the Stanford Executive Briefings (2007-2016), programming for Stanford University’s 125th Anniversary (2015-2017), community outreach as co-producer of Community Day at Stanford (2004-2006), and production of select programs such as Academic Council, Asian Pacific Rim Universities, Ivy Plus, Page Society and Public Affairs Seminars. She is a member of the Public Affairs Council, serves on the board of Ishimwe Center, a Rwandan aid organization that serves orphaned children, and as producer of Silicon Valley Night to Shine, a prom-night experience for people with special needs.