Energy Recovery Inc, the California-based desalination energy-recovery technology company, announced on 25 February 2009 the appointment of two new directors: Stanford University professor Dr M Elisabeth Pate-Cornell and Jackalyne Pfannenstiel, former chair of the California Energy Commission (CEC).
Pate-Cornell is currently a professor and chair of Stanford University’s Department of Management Science & Engineering. She is considered a world leader in engineering risk-analysis and management, with specific applications relating to the NASA shuttle tiles, offshore oil platforms, and US foreign intelligence.
She holds a PhD in Engineering-Economic Systems and an MSc in Operations Research from Stanford. Pate-Cornell also received an MS in Applied Mathematics & Computer Science from the Institut Polytechnique de Grenoble in France. Prior to Stanford, she was an assistant professor of civil engineering at MIT.
As chair of the CEC, Pfannenstiel focused on climate change, energy efficiency, demand response, renewable energy and land use. She was also the presiding commissioner for the 2007 Integrated Energy Policy Report, which documented recommendations on executive and legislative actions governing how the energy sector will meet California’s carbon reduction goals.
Previously, she was vice-president of strategic initiatives for Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and PG&E Corporation in San Francisco. She held various responsibilities at the utility over a 20-year career. Pfannenstiel received her BA in economics from Clark University, her MA in economics from the University of Hartford, and an executive MBA from Stanford University.