Wayne Lei, Ph.D. (Chairman)

Director of Research and Development, Portland General Electric

Wayne Lei is the Director of Research and Development at Portland General Electric – a function he has lead for over 10 years. In this role, he has issued Technical Basis Documents and other white papers on environmental, social and technical issues affecting the Company. In addition, he manages the Corporate R&D funds and project selection process. He is actively engaged with a number of universities and colleges in a liaison role for PGE.

Prior to this, Wayne was Director of Environmental Policy at PGE and before that; he served in the nuclear industry for ten years. He was a supervisor for the Radiation Protection Department at Trojan Nuclear Plant; Health Physicist in the Nuclear Safety and Regulation Department; at the Carolina Power and Light Company he was senior specialist in the Environmental and Radiation Control Unit at Harris Nuclear Power Plant; and a senior specialist in radiological and chemical support at the corporate level. Wayne organized and coordinated a multi-institution, Brazil-USA, research program to determine the mobilization thorium and rare-earth elements from an enriched ore body in Brazil over a three-year period as part of his graduate studies. As a USDOE Fellow, he performed research in whole-body counting for quantitation of Actinide elements in the skeleton.

Wayne has been a Board member of the John Inskeep Environmental Learning Center (Clackamas Community College), Portland’s Urban Forestry Commission, Sustainable Portland Commission, City Club of Portland, SOLV, Audubon Society of Portland and Friends of Trees. He is currently a Board member for the American Lung Association of Oregon, the Resource Innovation Group (University of Oregon), the Oregon Hanford Cleanup Board and he chairs the International Sustainable Development Foundation. Wayne also serves on the Reactor Safety Committee for Reed College. Recently, he joined and chairs the Advisory Committee for ABET accreditation to the Renewable Energy Systems degree program at the Oregon Institute of Technology.

Wayne holds a doctorate in Environmental Health Sciences specializing in Radiation Hygiene from New York University; a Masters in Biological Science from Oregon State University; and a BA in biology from Oberlin College. Since 1986, he has been certified in the comprehensive practice of Health Physics by the American Board of Health Physics.

Wayne is a requested speaker at conferences on environmental issues and has published extensively.