Propane Personality: Gordon Feller

Gordon Feller

Founder, Meeting of the Minds

Education

Columbia University
Bachelor’s in World Order Studies
Master’s in International Business/International Affairs
Class of 1981

Notable Work Experience

2014-Present
The Smithsonian Institution – Wilson Center
Global Fellow

2000-Present
Meeting of the Minds
Founder

2012-16
Member of U.S. federal commission advising U.S. secretary of energy

2010-17
Cisco Systems – Headquarters
Director of Urban Innovation

2000-05
World Bank – Headquarters
Adviser
Adviser/Consultant: Chevron, Bechtel, Thomson Reuters, S&P 500, IHS Markit and others
Member: Multiple boards for nonprofit and for-profit organizations

Interest in energy

Feller’s introduction to the field came in the late 1970s while studying international affairs at Columbia University in New York. He recalls how his undergraduate and graduate work in energy futures took him to United Nations headquarters.

“It was something that I was focused on because so much of the international economy was dependent on a limited range of energy options for a fast-exploding human population,” he says. “As economies were growing and as populations were growing, the range of options for human beings to energize their economy were not growing.”

Feller heads a global group focused on sustainability and innovation. (Photo courtesy of Gordon Feller)

‘40-year saga’

Feller relocated to Silicon Valley in 1983 and sought to work with innovators in the private sector. Many didn’t necessarily focus on energy, but they were large energy consumers interested in their own future. “I was really pushing hard to get them to look at not just their current energy requirements … but how could they look to the energy future as part of their strategic priority.” Feller says he tries to serve as that link for progress among the research community in the nonprofit and academic world, leaders in government, and the private sector.

Feller’s 3 priorities

1. “To recognize in places where it’s not fully recognized that propane’s low-carbon, high-Btu characteristics in a wide variety of applications make it the best energy choice in a lot of places.”
2. “To make the case in articles and consulting projects and other ways that in this energy transition that we’re in, carbon intensity is really the only number that matters. And that if we have innovation with carbon-neutral renewable propane, and if we have innovation with renewable blends, that really makes propane especially relevant today – but also tomorrow.”
3. “To look at some of the growth opportunities like microgrids and power generation where we can pair propane with other renewables.”

Studying energy futures in school brought Feller to the United Nations headquarters. (Photo: mizoula/iStock / Getty Images Plus/Getty Images)

Meeting of the Minds

Is a global leadership network and knowledge-sharing platform focused on urban sustainability, connected technology and innovation. As an example, it explores how energy and environmental policy intersects with the need to increase affordable housing.

Feller says, “The goal is to connect those dots by getting the key players from the academic world, grant-making foundations, getting the nonprofits and the major government agencies together with the private companies that control most of the capital in the world, and to figure out what can we do to get them to collaborate with each other, not just on embracing policy innovation but actually deploying real solutions in the real, practical world.”

Hobbies

Feller says his biggest hobby is staying grounded as a grandfather but also as a “world citizen.” He loves to travel to new locations, having visited about 75 countries, and meet people in those locales, where he says the energy future is being formed. “When I’m learning about a place, whether it’s in Africa or Asia or Latin America or Europe or wherever, to not depend entirely on books, or Zoom, but to go see it for myself,” he says.