Board of Directors

AMSC's Board of Directors is comprised of six outside directors and one internal member. Greg Yurek serves as the Board chairman and John Vander Sande serves as lead director.

• Audit Committee
  John Wood, Chairman
  David Oliver
  John Vander Sande

• Compensation Committee
  Peter Crisp, Chairman
  Richard Drouin
  John Vander Sande
  Vikram Budhraja

• Nominating & Corporate Governance Committee
  Richard Drouin, Chairman
  Peter Crisp
  John Wood

 Gregory J. Yurek

Gregory J. Yurek, age 63, co-founded American Superconductor in 1987 and has been chief executive officer since December 1989 and chairman of the Board since October 1991. Dr. Yurek also served as president from March 1989 to February 2004 and June 2005 until December 2009. Prior to joining American Superconductor, Dr. Yurek was a professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT for 12 years. He is a director of Nanosys, Inc. We believe Dr. Yurek’s qualifications to sit on our Board include his extensive experience in the power technologies industry, including over 21 years as our chief executive officer, as well as the Professional Director Certification that he holds from the Corporate Directors Group, a national public company director education organization. Dr. Yurek has been a director of American Superconductor since 1987.

 Vikram S. Budhraja

Vikram S. Budhraja, age 62, has been president of Electric Power Group, LLC, a Pasadena, California based consulting firm, that provides management and strategic consulting services, synchrophasor technology applications, and power grid reliability monitoring solutions to the electric power industry, since January 2000.  From 1977 to January 2000, Mr. Budhraja served in several key senior management positions at Edison International, the parent company of Southern California Edison, including: president of Edison Technology Solutions; senior vice president and head of the Power Grid Business Unit of Southern California Edison; and vice president of System Planning, Fuels and Operations of Southern California Edison. He is a founding member of the Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions (CERTS) and worked with the U.S.-Canadian Power Systems Outage Task Force that was formed to investigate the root causes of the August 14, 2003 power blackout in the Northeast. Mr. Budhraja has previously served as a director of several organizations, including the California Independent System Operator Corporation and SoftSwitching Technologies.  We believe Mr. Budhraja’s qualifications to sit on our Board include his extensive operational knowledge of, and executive level management experience in, the electric power industry. Mr. Budhraja has been a director of American Superconductor since 2004.

 Peter O. Crisp

Peter O. Crisp, age 77, served as vice chairman of Rockefeller Financial Services, Inc., a financial services firm, from December 1997 until September 2004. From 1969 to 1997, he was a general partner of Venrock Associates, a venture capital firm based in New York. Mr. Crisp served as a director of United States Trust Corporation until August 2004. He is currently a director of several private companies. We believe Mr. Crisp’s qualifications to sit on our Board include his valuable corporate governance experience gained while serving as a director for 21 public and private companies, as well as his strategic planning expertise gained while counseling numerous Fortune 500 companies. Mr. Crisp has been a director of American Superconductor since 1987.

 Richard Drouin

Richard Drouin, age 78, is counsel at McCarthy Tétrault LLP, a Canadian law firm. Mr. Drouin was the chairman and chief executive officer of Hydro-Quebec, a public electric utility based in Canada, from April 1988 to September 1995. He is chairman of the board of Stonebridge Financial. He is a director of the British Airport Authority in London, Gesca Limitée in Montreal, and President’s Choice Bank in Toronto. He is also chairman of the board of the World Energy Congress to be held in Montreal in September 2010. He is Honorary Consul for Great Britain in Quebec. We believe Mr. Drouin’s qualifications to sit on our Board include his experience serving as a director for other public and private companies and his extensive legal skill and expertise developed as counsel to public and private companies over the past 35 years. Mr. Drouin has been a director of American Superconductor since 1996.

 David R. Oliver, Jr.

David R. Oliver, Jr., age 68, has been executive vice president and chief operating officer, European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company North America (EADS NA), a large European aerospace corporation, since January 2008. Mr. Oliver served as chief executive officer of the defense division of EADS NA for most of the four years preceding January 2008 except when he was running the EADS portion of the capture effort for the Air Force Tanker program (one of the largest Defense programs ever competed). Before joining EADS NA, Mr. Oliver was stationed in Baghdad as Director of Management and Budget for the Coalition Forces.  Prior to that, he served as the United States’ Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology. Mr. Oliver also previously held management positions at both Westinghouse Electric and Northrop Grumman. In the Navy, he commanded both diesel and nuclear submarines as well as two submarine groups in the Cold War. His last Navy appointment was as Principal Deputy to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition. Rear Admiral (retired) Oliver’s military decorations include the Defense and Navy Distinguished Service Medals as well as six awards of the Legion of Merit. Mr. Oliver is a director of EADS NA, which is a publicly traded entity, and Pittsburgh Electric Engineering Company, which is a privately held entity. We believe Mr. Oliver’s qualifications to sit on our Board include his extensive leadership, management and budgeting experience gained while serving as a senior officer in the United States Navy. Mr. Oliver has been a director of American Superconductor since September 2006.

 John B. Vander Sande

John B. Vander Sande, age 66, co-founded American Superconductor, but has never had day-to-day operational responsibilities at our company. He is presently acting Provost at Reykjavik University, Iceland.  Dr. Vander Sande is the Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, emeritus, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), specializing in the microstructure of materials. He was Associate Dean and Acting Dean of Engineering at MIT from 1992 to 1999 and was founding Executive Director of the Cambridge (England)-MIT Institute from 1999 to January 2003. We believe Dr. Vander Sande’s qualifications to sit on our Board include his extensive knowledge of materials, the power technologies industry and his long-time tenure as a professor and administrator at a leading research university. Dr. Vander Sande has been a director of American Superconductor since 1990.

 John W. Wood, Jr.

John W. Wood, Jr., age 66, is currently a consultant. He served as chief executive officer of Analogic Corporation, a leading designer and manufacturer of medical imaging and security systems, from 2003 through 2006. Prior to joining Analogic, he held senior executive positions over a 22-year career at Thermo Electron Corporation. Most recently, Mr. Wood served as president of Peek Ltd., a division of Thermo Electron Corporation, and as a senior vice president of the parent company. He previously served as president and chief executive officer of Thermedics, a subsidiary of Thermo Electron. Mr. Wood is a director of FLIR Systems, Inc., which is a publicly traded entity, and ESCO Corporation, which is a privately held entity. We believe Mr. Wood’s qualifications to sit on our Board include his extensive executive level management experience and significant financial experience that qualifies him as an “audit committee financial expert.” Mr. Wood has been a director of American Superconductor since December 2006.

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