Dr. William Acker is a well-known and highly-regarded scientist, business leader and entrepreneur in the field of energy. He currently serves as the first Executive Director of NY-BEST, the New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium. Under his leadership, NY-BEST has grown its membership to more than 180 companies, created the BEST Test and Commercialization Center and new battery prototyping capabilities, and has performed pioneering work in advancing markets, policy, technology and product development. Dr. Acker is an active and influential voice for energy storage industry in New York State’s groundbreaking Reforming the Energy Vision initiative and he is leading the industry’s participation in the State’s Energy Storage Roadmap initiative.
Dr. Acker’s more than 25-year career in energy includes management and leadership roles with Optiwind, MTI and MTI MicroFuel Cells, Plug Power and Texaco. He serves on the Advisory Board of the Center for Future Energy Systems at RPI, the RIT Battery Prototyping Center, and the Southern Tier Clean Energy Incubator. He received a Ph.D, in Applied Physics and Engineering from Yale University and a B.S. in Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic University.