Dan Reicher

Dan Reicher is Executive Director of the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford University, a joint center of the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Stanford Law School, where he also holds faculty positions. Reicher came to Stanford in 2011 from Google, where he served since 2007 as Director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives. Dan W. Reicher has over 25 years of experience in energy and environmental technology, policy, finance and law, including serving as Assistant Secretary of Energy for Energy for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy in the Clinton Administration. He recently was an advisor to the Obama campaign on energy and climate issues and a member of the Presidential Transition Team where he focused on the energy portions of the stimulus package. Mr. Reicher joined Google in 2007 where he serves as Director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives for the company's venture called Google.org which was capitalized with more than $1 billion of Google stock to make investments, advance policy and develop products in the areas of climate change and energy, health, and global development. Mr. Reicher is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences Board on Energy and Environmental Systems, a member of General Electric's Ecomagination Advisory Board, co-chairman of the board of the American Council on Renewable Energy, and a member of the board of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. Prior to his position at Google, Mr. Reicher served as President and Co-Founder of New Energy Capital Corp., a private equity firm funded by the California State Teachers Retirement System and Vantage Point Venture Partners to invest in clean energy projects. He also served as Executive Vice President of Northern Power Systems, one of the nation’s oldest renewable energy companies. Mr. Reicher was also an adjunct professor at the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and Vermont Law School. From 1997-2001, Mr. Reicher was Assistant Secretary of Energy for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). As Assistant Secretary, he directed annually more than $1 billion in investments in energy research, development and deployment related to renewable energy, distributed generation and energy efficiency. Prior to his position as DOE Assistant Secretary, Mr. Reicher was the Department’s Chief of Staff (1996-97), Assistant Secretary of Energy for Policy (Acting) (1995-1996), and Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor to the Secretary (1993-1995). He was also a member of the U.S. Delegation to the Climate Change Negotiations, Co-Chair of the U.S. Biomass Research and Development Board, and a member of the board of the government-industry Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles. After leaving the Clinton Administration in 2001 he was a consultant to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and a Visiting Fellow at the World Resources Institute. Prior to his roles at the Department of Energy and in the business community, Mr. Reicher was a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council where he focused on the federal government's energy and nuclear programs as well as environmental law and policy issues in the former Soviet Union. He was also previously Assistant Attorney General for Environmental Protection in Massachusetts, a law clerk to a federal district court judge in Boston, a legal assistant in the Hazardous Waste Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, and a staff member of President Carter's Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island. Mr. Reicher holds a B.A. in Biology from Dartmouth College and a J.D. from Stanford Law School. He also studied at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and MIT. Mr. Reicher was a member of the first group on record to kayak the Yangtze River in China and a National Geographic sponsored expedition that was the first to navigate the entire 1888 mile Rio Grande. Mr. Reicher is married to Carole Parker, who headed the Office of Pollution Prevention at the U.S. Department of Defense from 1994 to 1999. Carole and Dan have three children and live in Piedmont, California.