Clarkson University alumnus James F. Wood ’64 of Morgantown, W.V., has been re-elected to Clarkson’s Board of Trustees to serve a new five-year term.
A past president of the Alumni Association, Wood also served on the Board of Trustees from 1995-2005 and 2006-2016. He will be a member of the Academic Mission committee.
Wood is director of the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center, Advanced Coal Technology Consortium at West Virginia University (WVU) as well as interim director of the WVU Energy Institute. Formed in 2009 between the U.S. and China, the Clean Energy Research Center focuses on technologies for improving the energy efficiency of buildings, advanced coal and clean vehicles. Wood manages a $25 million research budget for the Department of Energy.
A power industry veteran for more than 40 years, Wood most recently served as the chairman, president and CEO of ThermoEnergy Corporation, a diversified technologies company engaged in the worldwide development, sales and commercialization of patented and/or proprietary industrial wastewater treatment and power generation technologies.
Wood also served as deputy assistant secretary for clean coal in the U.S. Department of Energy, where he was responsible for the management and direction of clean coal research and development programs. Chief among these were the Carbon Sequestration program, the Clean Coal Power Initiative, and Fossil Energy’s $3.4 billion portfolio of Recovery Act projects.
Prior to government service, Wood was president and CEO of Babcock Power Inc. (BPI), a company he and his partners formed by acquiring parts of Babcock Borisg from the bankruptcy court in Oberhausen Germany in 2001. BPI became one of the major U.S.-based designer/manufacturers of environmental, pressure part, heat exchanger, combustion equipment and after-market services for the power generation industry.
From 1996 to 2001, Wood was president of Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) and executive vice president of McDermott International Inc., the former parent of B&W. Prior to that Wood was president of WTI International and managing director of Wheelabrator Environmental Systems, both subsidiaries of Wheelabrator Technologies.
Wood has significant international experience, including periods of residency in Italy, India, Belgium, Colombia, and Ecuador and was responsible for B&W’s foreign subsidiaries and ventures in China, Turkey, Egypt and Indonesia. He was appointed to the Department of Energy’s National Coal Council by three presidential administrations and was a member of the U.S.-Egypt Business Council — both federal advisory committees.
In January, West Virginia Governor Jim Justice appointed Wood to the Downstream Jobs Task Force, which is working to bring downstream manufacturing opportunities to the state. Wood is also a director of Normandeau Associates, an environmental consulting company in Bedford, N.H.
Wood is a former member of the Board of Management of Detroit Renewable Energy LLC, a former trustee and vice chair of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Foundation, a former senior associate with Cambridge Energy Research Associates (now IHS), and a former Contributing Editor to Power, a Platts/McGraw-Hill publication.
He received his bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering from Clarkson in 1964 and his MBA with a concentration in international finance from Kent State University. He is an ASME Fellow.
Wood has three children and six grandchildren.
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