NYSERDA announces new board members

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) has announced the appointment of six new members to its board and the reappointment of two current members. New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo nominated the board members and the New York State Senate approved them.

The new members include Sherburne Abbott, a Syracuse University sustainability professor and a former senior science adviser to President Obama; Kenneth Daly, president of National Grid’s New York operations; and John McAvoy, chairman, president, and CEO of Con Edison, Inc.

Also new to the NYSERDA board are Jigar Shah, author of “Creating Climate Wealth” and founder of SunEdison; Charles Bell, programs director for the Consumers Union, who works on consumer policy issues, including energy and the environment; and Jay Koh a managing director and partner at Siguler Guff, who previously led the federal U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corp.’s (OPIC) $2.6 billion active emerging-markets, private equity program.

The reappointed members are Elizabeth Thorndike, an environmental-policy expert, and Mark Willis, a community-development banking expert who is currently a resident research fellow at New York University.

“As part of the state’s energy policy, Gov. Cuomo has called for improving energy affordability, giving customers more control over their energy use and leveraging greater private-sector energy financing. I look forward to working with these members as the expertise they bring in the energy, environment, and financial sectors will lend a very valuable voice to the Authority as we aggressively accelerate the scale-up of clean energy markets,” Richard Kauffman, chairman of energy and finance for New York and chairman of the NYSERDA board of directors, said in a news release.