as of april 2007, frank m. stewart serves as the president and chief operating officer (coo) of the american association of blacks in energy (aabe). aabe’s overall mission involves providing its members (energy professionals, executives, entrepreneurs, and students) a pathway to learn more about the energy industry through various means such as education, mentoring, community service and business networking.
up to july 2004, frank stewart was the executive director of the strategic environmental project pipeline, (stepp), foundation, based in denver, colorado. the stepp foundation is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization established in 2001 to identify viable clean energy, energy efficiency, or pollution prevention projects that are appropriate to address specific criteria required by various funding sources. for the two years prior to accepting the role of executive director, mr. stewart served as the chairman of the board of the foundation and was instrumental in guiding its creation and development.
the areas of energy efficiency and renewable energy have been mr. stewart’s professional focuses for nearly thirty years. from 1994 until his retirement from federal service in 2002, mr. stewart was the senior executive in charge of the u.s. department of energy’s (doe) bolden, colorado office. in this role, he oversaw the drafting, review, and ratification of the contracts that governed most of the department’s research, development and deployment in energy efficiency and renewable energy, including the technology development work at the national renewable energy laboratory.
from 1990 to 1994, he served as a deputy assistant secretary at the u.s. department of energy, with responsibility for several grant programs, and was the principle federal executive responsible for the energy extensions service and the local governments programs. in addition, mr. stewart managed the development and operation of the petroleum violations escrow fund, a four billion dollar fund established by the federal courts to support energy efficiency efforts through state and local government. he was also responsible for the department’s international initiative to market energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies.
over the course of his doe career, mr. stewart led several department delegations abroad, including the 1988 conference in rome. he led the effort to train the staff of the african development bank in renewable energy technology; and he was a member of a national science foundation advisory team sent to assist the romanian government. he has represented the united states government in uganda, botswana, south africa, nigeria, ghana, senegal, and mozambique and made presentations at several us/african ministerial conference.
mr. stewart is the recipient of some of the us doe’s highest awards including the pride award, the meritorious service award, the distinguished career service award, and the secretary of energy’s gold medal. he was honored by the association of energy engineers as its energy executive of the year; the national association of state energy officials named him their energy advocate of the year; and he has received similar honors from fort valley state university, texas southern university, and north carolina a&t university. currently he is a member of the board of advisors of the international center for appropriate and sustainable technologies and a member of the environmental protection agency’s national advisory council for environmental policies and technologies (nacept).
mr. stewart and his wife of forty-one years, regina diane, have two adult daughters.
at the usea’s “state of the energy industry” forum, frank stewart, president and coo of the american association of blacks in energy, told planet forward that he thinks performance contracting is underutilized and could be a money-making, energy saving innovation. keep reading
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