May 2017

Former US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz Joins Board of Directors for Fusion Energy Leader TAE Technologies

Moniz to bring decades of experience in energy technology and policy to strengthen company’s unique approach to clean fusion energy.

TAE Technologies, the world’s largest and most advanced fusion company pioneering an innovative approach to clean fusion energy, is pleased to announce Dr. Ernest Moniz, distinguished physicist and the 13th United States Secretary of Energy, as the newest member of its Board of Directors.

“We are honored to have Ernest Moniz join our Board of Directors,” said Steve Specker, CEO of TAE Technologies. “Ernie’s wide breadth of experience in innovative energy technologies and policies will help further our company’s pursuit of safe, clean, sustainable, and commercially competitive fusion based electricity generation.”

Upon joining the board, Dr. Moniz added that, “as someone dedicated to innovation breakthroughs for a low-carbon energy future, I am pleased to join outstanding colleagues at TAE Technologies who see the company’s technology offering the real possibility of just such a game-changer.”

Moniz served as the Secretary of Energy from May 2013 to January 2017. As Secretary, he advanced energy technology innovation, cutting-edge capabilities for the American scientific research community, and environmental stewardship. He strengthened the Department of Energy’s (DOE) strategic partnerships with its seventeen national laboratories and with the Department of Defense and the broader national security establishment. Moniz’s involvement in national energy policy began in 1995, when he served as Associate Director for Science in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President. He later oversaw the Department of Energy’s science, energy and security programs as Under Secretary from 1997 to 2001. He was also a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology from 2009 to 2013 and received the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Award in 2016.

Before his appointment as Secretary in 2013, Moniz had a noteworthy career spanning four decades at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dr. Moniz was Head of the MIT Department of Physics during 1991-1995 and 1997, and was the Founding Director of the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) and Director of the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment. He was a leader of various multidisciplinary technology and policy studies on the future of energy in a low-carbon world. Currently, he is the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems emeritus, Special Advisor to the MIT President and has been announced as co-chairman and CEO of the Nuclear Threat Initiative. Dr. Moniz is also a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Harvard Belfer Center and the inaugural Distinguished Fellow of the Emerson Collective.

Moniz has served on numerous public and private boards, including the Department of Defense Threat Reduction Advisory Committee and the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Humboldt Foundation, and the American Physical Society.

About TAE Technologies
TAE Technologies (pronounced T-A-E) was founded in 1998 to develop commercial fusion power with the cleanest environmental profile, and represents the fastest, most practical, and economically competitive solution to bring abundant energy to the grid. With over 900 issued patents, more than $880 million in private capital, six generations of National Laboratory-scale devices, and an experienced team of over 250 employees, TAE is now on the cusp of delivering this transformational energy source capable of sustaining the planet for centuries. The company’s revolutionary technologies have produced a robust portfolio of commercial innovations in other large adjacent markets such as power management, energy storage, transmission, electric mobility, life sciences, and more. TAE is based in California, and maintains international offices in the UK and Switzerland. Multidisciplinary and mission-driven by nature, TAE is leveraging proprietary science and engineering to create a bright future for us.