Jigar Shah gets alumni award from Illinois University engineering college

Indian American energy strategist honored for his tireless efforts to advance clean energy, visionary leadership and innovation in sustainable infrastructure

By Arun Kumar

Jigar H. Shah, an Indian American serial entrepreneur, investor and energy strategist, has received the Alumni Award for Distinguished Service from the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).

Recipients are recognized for professional distinction through outstanding leadership, contributions to the field of engineering, creativity, and entrepreneurship; as well as service to society, the professional community, and to the department, college, or university.

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Shah has been conferred the exceptional alumni award “for his tireless, career-long efforts to advance clean energy and his visionary leadership and innovation in the field of sustainable infrastructure,” according to a college press release.

Shah served as director of the Loan Programs Office (LPO) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) from March 2021 to January 2025 during the Biden administration. He led and directed LPO’s loan authority to support deployment of innovative clean energy, advanced transportation and Tribal energy projects in the United States.

Prior to his work at the DOE, Shah was co-founder and president at Generate Capital, where he focused on helping entrepreneurs accelerate decarbonization solutions using low-cost infrastructure-as-a-service financing.

Shah served as the founding CEO of the Carbon War Room, a global non-profit founded by Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Unite to help entrepreneurs address climate change. He also founded SunEdison, a company that pioneered “pay as you save” solar financing.

In 2024, TIME named Shah to its 100 Most Influential People list.

Born in India, Shah moved to the United States with his family when he was one-year-old and grew up in Sterling, Illinois. He completed his bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1996 and later earned an MBA from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2001.