Dan Arvizu, Ph.D., Director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), has been elected to the Board of Directors of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co.
Dr. Arvizu headed NREL, the Energy Department’s primary laboratory for energy efficiency and renewable energy research and development located in Golden, Co, for four years. He is president of the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, which operates NREL for the Department of Energy and is the Executive Vice President of the Midwest Research Institute.
Prior to joining NREL, he was the chief technology officer with CH2M HILL Companies, and before that, an executive with Sandia National Laboratories. He started his career at the AT&T Bell Telephone Laboratories.
“HACR commends State Farm Insurance Companies for their continued commitment to Hispanic inclusion at the highest levels,” stated Carlos F. Orta, president & CEO, HACR. “Dr. Arvizu’s appointment is a clear indication that State Farm understands the importance of the Hispanic Consumer Market and the Hispanic community to its continued success and profitability.”
Arvizu serves on a number of boards, panels and advisory committees, including: the American Council on Renewable Energy Advisory Board, the Harvard Kennedy School’s Energy Research, Development and Deployment Policy Project Advisory Committee, the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Alternative Energies, the Singapore Clean Energy International Advisory Panel, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group III, the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Award Corp., and the Colorado Renewable Energy Authority Board of Directors.
His education includes a Bachelor of Science degree from New Mexico State University, a Master of Science and a Ph.D. from Stanford University — all in mechanical engineering. Dr. Arvizu succeeds Jerry Porras, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. Porras is retiring from the board, which he joined in 1998.
