Jan E. Schori

Of Counsel

621 Capitol Mall
18th Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814

Areas of Law:

Energy, Climate Change & Sustainability

Admitted to Practice in:

California

Jan Schori became part of Downey Brand in 2008, bringing an impressive background in the energy industry, with an emphasis on energy and climate change. She is the former general manager and chief executive officer of SMUD, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District--the nation's sixth largest publicly owned electric utility. During her 14 year tenure as CEO, the utility earned a strong reputation for its renewable energy and energy efficiency programs as well as national number one ranking in commercial customer satisfaction by JD Power & Associates in both 2006-7 and 2007-8. Prior to serving as general manager and CEO, she spent 15 years on the legal staff at SMUD, including five as general counsel. Jan is past chair of the American Public Power Association, the Large Public Power Council, and the California Municipal Utilities Association. She is also past chair of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy and served on the Board of the Alliance to Save Energy.

She was recently elected to the North American Electric Reliability Council Board of Trustees (NERC) as an independent trustee. NERC is responsible for the reliability of the U.S. and Canadian bulk power grid. It promulgates and enforces grid operating standards, trains operators, and performs assessments as well as issuing long range forecasts and analysis of key issues.

Jan continues to serve on the California Climate Action Registry Board of Directors, (recently renamed the Climate Action Reserve), a voluntary registry for reporting, verification and monitoring greenhouse gas (GHG) emission protocols, as well as tracking and registering GHG offset/reduction projects. She also serves on the board of CalCEF Innovations, the policy arm of CalCEF, a nonprofit clean energy technologies investment fund. She is chair of the board of Valley Vision, a nonprofit organization that promotes collaborative planning and problem solving on regional and community issues in the Sacramento valley region and which manages the Green Capitol Alliance among other projects. She now chairs a steering committee for the Alliance to Save Energy's public power Clean and Efficient Energy Project (CEEP). She is also participating on a task force for the California Center for Science and Technology in a new study of California 's ability to achieve its greenhouse gas reduction goals by 2050.

Long active in the Sacramento community, she was recently recognized by the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce with its 2008 Businesswoman of the Year award.

Past Board Industry Affiliations

National

American Public Power Association, Board of Directors 1998–2006; Chair

2004–2005

Large Public Power Council, Steering Committee 1995–2008; Chair 2003 and 2004

Alliance to Save Energy, Board of Directors 2006–2008

Business Council for Sustainable Energy, Board of Directors 1995–2005

Regional

Western Energy Institute, Board of Directors mid 1990's through 2005; Executive Committee

State

California Municipal Utilities Association, Board of Directors 1994–2008; President 1997–1999

California Climate Action Registry, Board of Directors Member and Treasurer

2001–2007; Gubernatorial Appointee to the Board

Local

Greater Sacramento Urban League, Board of Directors 1994–1999

Other

Federal DOE/EPA Energy Efficiency Leadership, Task Force Member 2006–2008

APPA Climate Change, Task Force Member 2006–2008

Industry recognition

American Public Power Association's highest honor, the Alex Radin Award 2007

Northwest Public Power Association distinguished service award 2008

Sacramento chapter, American Society for Public Administration, Public Administrator of the Year 2007

Sacramento Business Journal “Women Who Mean Business” award 1996

EDUCATION

University of California, Davis School of Law (J.D., 1978)

University of California, Berkeley (B.A., With High Honors, 1975)

CHARITABLE

United Way Capitol Region, Former Board Member and Campaign Chair

Women in Philanthropy Foster Youth Initiative, Founding Member

CHARITABLE RECOGNITION

United Way, California Capitol Region

  Distinguished Community Service award 2001

  Alexis de Tocqueville Philanthropy award 2006

Greater Sacramento Urban League

  President's Award 2008

  Community Service 1994

Martin Luther King Celebration Committee “Innovation for Change” award 2007

Sacramento Tree Foundation award for community tree planting partnership 2008