Lorry Wagner is president of the Lake Erie Economic Development Corporation (LEEDCo) in Cleveland, Ohio. The non-profit, public-private partnership is developing the 19MW Icebreaker, the US’s first freshwater offshore wind farm. A professional engineer with multiple degrees from Purdue University, Indiana (majoring in heat-transfer technologies for fusion reactors), Wagner has worked for 30 years in the power-generation, automotive, aerospace, chemical and manufacturing industries.
What defining event from your early years has shaped your views? The space programme. It made us all dreamers, and even to this day, I believe we can make our dreams come true.
When did you develop a passion for clean-energy issues?
I guess you could say that when I was at Purdue, I went into nuclear fusion because of a passion for clean energy.
