Quality Management Expert Honored by Energy Leaders
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 26, 2007
Contact:
Crystal Borde
(202) 331-4323
cborde@vancomm.com
Quality Management Expert Honored by Energy Leaders
WASHINGTON, D.C. – To commemorate his achievements through the Galvin Electricity Initiative in fostering collaboration and innovation to modernize the archaic U.S. electricity system, former Motorola executive Robert W. Galvin received the Visionary Leadership Award from energy industry leaders on Wednesday.
Presented at the GridWeek 2007 Recognition for Outstanding Leadership in the Advancement of a Smart Grid dinner and reception at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C., Galvin, former chairman of Motorolaand founder of the Galvin Electricity Initiative, was recognized for his continued leadership and commitment to upgrade the outdated 20th century electricity system to meet the reliability, efficiency and environmentally conscious needs of 21st century consumers.
“I am honored to receive this special award from industry leaders who share the Initiative’s commitment to providing quality electricity service to consumers,” said Galvin. “The Initiative was founded on two principles – that we must never be stagnant in developing new ideas and that cultivating a healthy spirit of discontent can lead to challenging inadequacies and improving the status quo. To transform the power system, energy leaders must be innovators who are focused on quality and consumers must demand change.”
Frustrated with the status of the unreliable, inefficient and insecure U.S. electric power system, Galvin founded and personally financed the non-profit, public interest Galvin Electricity Initiative to catalyze positive change in the industry toward a system that addresses our growing demand for electricity, as well as the issue of climate change.
Galvin believes that power failures and interruptions are unacceptable. Applying the quality management and renewal principles that he pioneered and successfully implemented at Motorola, Galvin supports collaboration and innovation among energy industry leaders, utilities, regulatory bodies and the technology sector to design and create a Perfect Power System that will not fail the consumer. This system calls for modernizing the existing grid with available "smart" technologies that will bring it into the digital age, allowing it to anticipate and correct disruptions before they happen. It incorporates smart meters and appliances that offer consumers control over their energy consumption and save them money. It features distributed generation and microgrids, combined heat and power; and renewable energy sources that will improve energy efficiency and reduce global warming. The electricity sector is responsible for nearly 40 percent of CO2 emissions.
This award also recognized Galvin’s efforts to increase public awareness about the value of smart grid innovations and system renewal as a whole. Through research projects and prototype implementation, plus opportunities for public comment and public information campaigns, the Initiative aims to demonstrate the value of transformation to the public, creating sustained market pull and benefiting the energy industry and consumers in the process.
Galvin is also the recipient of other public service achievements, such as the Founder’s Medal and the Golden Omega from the Institute of Electricaland Electronics Engineers, the Best CEO Award from the Semiconductor Industry Association, the Martin Luther King Corporate Leadership Award, the Medal of Achievement from the American Electronics Association and the World Trade Award. He also served as chairman of the Task Force on Alternative Futures for the DOE National Laboratories, SEMATECH and the Commission of the Future for the National Science Foundation; as a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors; and as vice chairman of the Universities Research Association. He attended Notre Dame and the University of Chicagoand has received honorary degrees from a number of universities worldwide.
The Galvin Electricity Initiative is leading a campaign to transform the nation’s increasingly inefficient, unreliable and insecure electric power system into one that can truly meet consumers’ needs in this new century. Galvin’s vision for this transformation includes a major technical renewal of existing systems that allows for consumer control of energy use as well as the interconnection of smart microgrids and clean distributed generation systems around the country.
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