USA - AWEA’S President, Board of Directors ready to lead industry in time of challenge and opportunity

While 2008 was a record breaking year for wind energy, the new 2009-2010 American Wind Energy Association Board of Directors takes office at a time when economic challenges abound and new energy policies are needed to ensure the continued vitality of the industry.

“This is the year of opportunity. We need to jump on it with both feet and get the policies in place that can make this industry flourish for years to come,” said Donald Furman of Iberdrola Renewables, the new President of AWEA’s Board of Directors. “We need a national renewable electricity standard to signal a long-term national commitment to wind energy. We also need transmission reform to so that we can begin to build the new infrastructure that will carry the wind energy from where it is generated to where it is consumed. AWEA will work very hard in the next few months to secure these policies,” Furman said.

Furman was named President when the Board met earlier this month at WINDPOWER. He replaced James A. Walker of enXco. Vic Abate of GE Energy was named President-elect. Other new members of the board are: Thomas S. Carnahan, of Wind Capital Group, P. Barry Butler of the College of Engineering at the University of Iowa, Kim Harris of Puget Sound Energy, Monty G. Humble of Mesa Power LP, Roby Roberts of Vestas Americas, and Dick Williams of Shell Wind Energy.

The new board members join those who are continuing their board terms:
Gabriel Alonso of Horizon Wind Energy, David Blittersdorf of Earth Turbines, Karen Conover of DNV Global Energy Concepts, David Drescher of John Deere Renewables, LLC, John Eber of JPMorgan Capital Corp., Declan Flanagan of E.ON Climate and Renewables North America Inc., Bob Gates of Clipper Windpower, David Giordano of CP Energy Group, Jay Godfrey of American Electric Power, Dean Gosselin of Next Era Energy Resources, Ned Hall of AES Wind Generation, Ed Ing of Law Office of Edwin T.C. Ing, Randolph Mann of Edison Mission Energy, Craig Mataczynski of RES Americas, Lars Moller of Broadwind Energy Inc., Michael Polsky of Invenergy LLC, Hal Romanowitz of Oak Creek Energy Systems Inc., and Edward Zaelke of Chadbourne & Parke LLP.

“AWEA staff depends on its Board of Directors for insight on the wind business and how policy will impact it,” said Denise Bode, AWEA’s Chief Executive Officer. “We are fortunate enough to have a board composed of leaders from every segment of the industry—from manufacturing to project development—that can give us the benefit of their know-how as we grow our industry.”

For the full list of the members of the Board of Directors of the American Wind Energy Association, see [http://www.awea.org/about/board_of_directors.html]
http://www.awea.org/about/board_of_directors.html.