Ralph Izzo brings years of corporate and public policy experience to his address to business school graduates.

President and chief operating officer of Public Service Electric & Gas Co. since 2003, he began his career as a research scientist at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, performing numerical simulations of fusion energy experiments.

He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering, as well as his Ph.D. in applied physics, from Columbia University, and he has presented or published more than 35 scientific papers. Izzo subsequently earned an MBA with a concentration in finance from Rutgers Business School.

His public policy experience includes service as an American Physical Society Congressional Fellow, in the office of former N.J. Sen. Bill Bradley. Izzo also was a senior policy advisor in the Office of former N.J. Gov. Thomas Kean, specializing in energy, science and technology.

In addition, he sits on numerous boards, including those of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, the American Gas Association, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and the New Jersey Utilities Association. Izzo also has been tapped to be the electric utility sector chairman of the Infrastructure Advisory Committee in the N.J. Attorney General’s Office of Counter-Terrorism.