Phil Angelides has earned national acclaim as an effective public and private sector leader who has been at the forefront of building the new green economy and advancing corporate environmental responsibility. He has won widespread praise for his groundbreaking work in sustainable development. Over the past two decades, he has been a trailblazer in proving that environmental responsibility and economic success go hand in hand.
Mr. Angelides is currently President of Riverview Capital Investments which focuses on renewable energy projects and sustainable urban development.
Mr. Angelides recently served as Chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, a ten member bipartisan panel created by federal law and charged with conducting the nation’s official inquiry into the causes of the financial and economic crisis. The Commission’s report, presented to the President and Congress in January 2011, made the New York Times and Washington Post best sellers lists and The New York Review of Books hailed it as “the definitive history of this period.” From 1999 to 2007, he served as California’s State Treasurer and was recognized, as The Sacramento Bee put it, as “the most effective and dynamic state treasurer in a generation.”
Mr. Angelides’ varied background has given him a rare insight into the challenges and opportunities faced by businesses, public officials, and communities as they look to a green future.
As a businessman, he set the standard for “green” and “sustainability” before those terms were in common usage. In the late 1980’s, he pioneered the building of smart growth, energy efficient communities and helped spark a national dialogue around creating more livable, environmentally responsible cities. Among his projects was the new town of Laguna West, which was featured in Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report and ABC-TV’s Good Morning America.
As California’s Treasurer, Mr. Angelides put the weight of the state’s pension funds behind clean energy and the fight against global warming – seeding the “green tech” investment revolution. His Green Wave initiative, launched in 2004, committed those funds to invest $1.5 billion in renewable energy, cutting-edge environmental technologies, and environmentally responsible companies; to push corporations to address the financial risks posed by global warming; and to reduce energy consumption in their massive real estate holdings. He redirected $20 billion in state funds through innovative initiatives to curb sprawl, promote smart growth, and spur urban revitalization.
In addition, Mr. Angelides sponsored successful landmark legislation in many arenas – such as greening the state’s fleet of 70,000 vehicles to be the most fuel efficient in the world; opening carpool lanes to hybrid and other fuel efficient technology automobiles; and giving the go ahead to a high speed rail system to connect California’s cities in the 21st century. The Associated Press noted that, in doing all of this, he made “the sleepy treasurer’s office a policy powerhouse.”
From 2007 to 2011, Mr. Angelides served as Chairman of the Apollo Alliance, a national coalition of business, labor, environmental, and community leaders committed to building a clean energy, good jobs economy. He has been at the center of the debate on climate change and green jobs, making the case for an ambitious investment agenda to transition to a sustainable economic future. He currently is a board member of the BlueGreen Alliance, with which the Apollo Alliance merged in 2011. He also serves on the Advisory Board of The Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA Law School.
Mr. Angelides has received numerous awards for his work, including the Local Environmental Leadership Award from Global Green, presented by Mikhail Gorbachev; the Congress for the New Urbanism’s Lifetime Achievement Award; Urban Ecology’s 25th Anniversary Tribute; the California League of Conservation Voters’ Environmental Leadership Award; Ceres’ Joan Bavaria Award for Building Sustainability into the Capital Markets; and the National Inner City Leadership Award from the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City. In 2010, he was named by Worth magazine as 7th among the 100 most powerful people in global finance.
Mr. Angelides, 59, is a graduate of Harvard University and a Coro Foundation Fellow. He was the Democratic nominee for Governor of California in 2006, earning the endorsement of the Sierra Club and many other environmental organizations and leaders. He was Chairman of the California Democratic Party from 1991 to 1993, leading a remarkable campaign that turned California from red to blue – electing two women senators for the first time in any state’s history and carrying the state for a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time in 28 years. Mr.
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Phil Angelides 