Obama Appoints Hawaiian Electric Boss to National Infrastructure Council

Constance H. Lau, President & Chief Executive Officer, Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (Courtesy of Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc., Lewis Harrington)

By Sonia Isotov

Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. announced yesterday that President Barack Obama recently appointed Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (HEI) President and Chief Executive Officer Constance Lau to serve as a member of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC).

Lau will be serving alongside at least 30 other members, all of whom have been selected from the private sector, academia, and along with state and local government. The NIAC advises the President, through the Department of Homeland Security, on matters regarding the security of critical physical infrastructure and information systems.

It also has the authority to provide advice directly to the heads of other agencies that have shared responsibility for protection of critical infrastructure, including Health and Human Services, Transportation and Energy.

Lau also serves as Chairman of the Board of HEI’s two principal subsidiaries, Hawaiian Electric Company and American Savings Bank, Hawaii’s third largest bank.

In addition, Lau serves as a board member of Alexander & Baldwin, Inc., the Associated Electrical & Gas Insurance Services, Ltd., the Electric Power Research Institute, and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s newly-formed Twelfth District Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council.

Lau is also a board member of Punahou School, the Hawaii Business Roundtable and the Consuelo Zobel Alger Foundation.  She holds a B.S. from Yale University, a J.D. from the University of California’s Hastings College of Law and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.