Transition Energy

William Chandler is president of Transition Energy and research director for the Energy Transition Research Institute (Entri). He is a board member of the Environmental Law Institute and a member of the Committee on the Human Dimensions of Climate Change of the National Academy of Sciences. He is a founder of and advisor to Dalian East Energy Development Co., which finances and builds heat recovery power plants in China.

From 1988 to 2005, Chandler served as Senior Staff Scientist and Laboratory Fellow for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) of the Battelle Memorial Institute. At PNNL, he led the creation of national energy efficiency centers in Bulgaria, China, the Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine. He taught energy policy for 15 years at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Study, and for a decade served as a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Bill was an external senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment from 2007 through 2010, and earlier worked at Oak Ridge Associated Universities and the Worldwatch Institute.

Chandler has authored or co-authored several books, including: Energy: The Conservation Revolution (New York: Plenum, 1981); The Myth of TVA: Conservation and Development in the Tennessee Valley, 1933-1983 (Cambridge, MA: Ballinger, 1983); State of the World (Vols. 1984-1988) (New York: W.W. Norton); Energy Efficiency: A New Agenda (Washington: ACEEE, 1988); Carbon Emissions Control Strategies (Washington: Conservation Foundation, 1990); and Energy and Environment in the Transition Economies (Boulder: Westview Press, 2000). He has published frequently in scientific and popular journals, including Climatic Change, Energy Policy, and Scientific American. Chandler has testified on energy and environmental issues many times in the U.S. Congress, most recently on Chinese climate policy before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Chandler received the 1992 Champion of Energy-Efficiency Award from the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy for his work in Eastern Europe. In 1999, he received the first Global Climate Leadership Award from the International Energy Agency for his work in China and Russia.

He holds a B.S. from the University of Tennessee, and an M.P.A. from Harvard University.

Co-founder Holly Gwin serves as general counsel and chief operating officer. Gwin served for six years as General Counsel of the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment and six years as both General Counsel and Staff Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where she reported directly to the President’s Science Advisor. She also served as staff director of the President’s Commission on Gulf War Veteran’s Illnesses. Gwin holds a law degree from the University of Tennessee and is a member of the District of Columbia Bar.

John H. Gibbons serves as co-founder and board member. Gibbons has been Science Advisor to the President (two terms), director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Director of the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment, Director of the University of Tennessee Environment Center, and was the first director of the Federal Office of Energy Conservation. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, and is President of Resource Strategies. Gibbons serves on the board of directors of two Chinese technology companies, and advises various corporations and groups on science and technology and intellectual property. Gibbons was a founding board member of Ortec, a successful developer and manufacturer of scientific and energy instrumentation.