OTHER TOP POSITIONS: Deputy Mayor for Energy and Environment in Los Angeles; sat on California State Water Resources Control Board (2003-05); energy adviser to Governor Gray Davis; under Clinton, a Senior Policy Advisor to the Regional Administrator for EPA, and a Special Assistant to the Administrator at the Federal EPA (who, at the time, was Carol Browner).
KNOWN FOR: Helping Los Angeles down the path of "going green"; Working on water distribution and quality, green construction projects, and other environmental policies pertaining, in many cases, to urban infrastructure.
QUOTE: "Pumping money into research is great. ... But until you give people a reason and a need to jump from research to commercialization, they can spend years and years massaging the technology, trying to make it perfect." (on making renewable technologies competitive, to the LA Times in 2006)
TRIVIA: First prominent member of the gay and lesbian community to secure a spot in the Obama administration; member of Hillary Clinton's California Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender steering committee during the primaries.
--Seyward Darby