Mason Willrich

Mason is a consultant advising clients on energy matters. He is a director of the California Clean Energy Fund, and served as chair of the Board of Governors of the California Independent System Operator from 2005 through 2010.

Previously, Mason was a partner of Nth Power, a venture capital firm focused on clean energy technology and founder and chairman of EnergyWorks LLC, a joint venture of PacifiCorp and Bechtel Group which provided combined heat and power to industrial firms in less developed countries, which was sold in 1998. From 1979 through 1994, Mason was CEO of PG&E Enterprises and other executive positions at PG&E, including executive vice president.

Prior to joining PG&E, he was in academia as Professor of Law at the University of Virginia, and as Director, International Relations, at The Rockefeller Foundation. He is author or co-author of ten books and numerous articles on international security issues and energy policy. During the Kennedy/Johnson administrations he was assistant general counsel of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, serving on U.S. delegations for nuclear arms control negotiations in Geneva and Vienna.

Mason has served as Senior Advisor, MIT Energy Innovation Project; Trustee, Winrock International; a member of the Advisory Councils of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Electric Power Research Institute; and a Director at Resources for the Future.

After college, Willrich served in the U.S. Air Force, including as a pilot in Strategic Air Command. Receiving a B.A., Phi Beta Kappa, from Yale University and a J.D., Law Review, from University of California, Berkeley, he was a Guggenheim Memorial Fellow in 1973.