Recognizing this, President Obama recently appointed Quam executive director of the State Department's Global Health Initiative. This $63 billion project will help developing countries improve their health care systems, with a special emphasis on women, children, and newborns 12 In accepting this position, Quam decided to step down as CEO of the company she founded and hand leadership to Norwegian Terje Mikalsen, co-founder and former chairman of Norsk Data.
"Although we are sad to see Lois leave the firm, Tysvar will continue to follow through on her vision to help bring the new green economy to scale and make quality health care affordable and accessible to everyone," Mikalsen said on Tsvar's Web site. "We wish Lois all the best as she assumes her new position at the State Department. Her vision and leadership will help improve health care delivery and access for millions of people around the world."
On Earth Day Lois Quam gave a speech at the University of St. Thomas on the emerging opportunities in the NGE after which she said. "I enjoyed sharing how we can all use these key capabilities as a platform for doing something you love. Imagine: helping to build the NGE with a purposeful passion. It doesn't get much better than that!
In another speech she illustrated her philosophy:
The change required to combat climate change and conserve biodiversity will create a change in business and society similar to the Industrial Revolution, The new energy realities require nothing short of an energy revolution, a thorough retooling of our energy economy in ways that match up with the realities of the 21st century.
It will affect every aspect of daily life and business, creating an immense set of opportunities for investors, businesses and individuals.
For investors, there are highly diverse and immense opportunities to create and scale new sources of energy, adapt our current methods of production and improve daily life in ways that drive down global warming emissions.
lt will also create unprecedented depth and breadth of opportunities for businesses and investors. clean energy will always be in strong demand the world will always have massive energy needs, and they will always have to be balanced against the needs of the environment .... the clean energy industry is fueled by the laws of nature and there is no force as powerful or promising.
Think about what we can achieve working together at this conference and as a region ... and think about the time sometime in the future when our work is reaching critical mass, when our environment is safer and our energy is cleaner, when we too will have our eureka moments, our moments of life-changing and world-changing discovery.
As individuals, organizations, and countries answer the call for action, we look forward to achieving Lois Quam's vision of the future.