William K. Reilly

Former U.S. EPA Administrator

William K. Reilly has enjoyed careers in public service, non-governmental organizations, and private sector finance. He has served four U.S. Presidents: Presidents Nixon, George H.W. Bush, Clinton and Obama. For more than 20 years he was a senior advisor to TPG Capital, an international investment partnership. Before joining TPG, Reilly was the first Payne Visiting Professor at Stanford University. 

Reilly was administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 1989 to 1993, during which he led efforts to pass a new Clean Air Act and headed the U.S. delegation to the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio in 1992.  He served as president of World Wildlife Fund and later chairman of the board; president of The Conservation Foundation; and director of the Rockefeller Task Force on Land Use and Urban Growth. He has also served on several corporate boards, including DuPont, ConocoPhillips, and Royal Caribbean. 

In addition to his service as EPA administrator under President George H. W. Bush, from 1970-1972 he was a senior staff member at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, under President Nixon. President Clinton appointed Mr. Reilly as a founding trustee of the Presidio Trust of San Francisco.  President Obama appointed him co-chair of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and the Future of Offshore Drilling, and in late 2012 to the President’s Global Development Council for which he headed the working group on climate smart food security.  He served in the U.S. Army to the rank of Captain, 1966-1968. He and his wife Elizabeth reside in San Francisco.

Reilly holds a B.A. from Yale, J.D. from Harvard and M.S. in Urban Planning from Columbia University.

Recordings

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Podcast

Cigarettes and Tailpipes

February 19, 2016
Cigarette makers downplayed the dangers of smoking for decades with distracting science. How close is the link between tobacco denial and climate...
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Podcast

Cheap Gasoline

February 27, 2015
Gas prices are plunging, and Americans can get back on the road again. What are the economic, geopolitical and environmental consequences of cheap...
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Podcast

Energy and the Election

October 9, 2012
High gasoline prices, hydraulic fracturing and the Keystone XL Pipeline have kept energy in the headlines. How will that play this election cycle?...