News

Drive Oregon names Jeff Allen as Executive Director, establishes offices in Portland

November 29th, 2011

Drive Oregon, the state’s electric vehicle (EV) industry association, has named Jeff Allen as its new Executive Director.  Drive Oregon was recently awarded $1.2 million in funding to energize the state’s emerging EV industry and take advantage of the federal government’s goal to have one million plug-in vehicles on the road in the next four years.

The Board of Directors selected Jeff Allen, who will begin work on December 1, after conducting a national search.   Tim Miller, Board President of Drive Oregon and CEO of Green Lite Motors stated: “Jeff’s extensive experience with non-profits and business development will help catalyze growth of our member companies and hit on our key performance metrics established in partnership with the Oregon Innovation Council.”

Mr. Allen spent ten years as Executive Director at the Oregon Environmental Council (OEC), one of Oregon’s oldest and largest non-profit conservation organizations, where he helped shepherd landmark environmental legislation at the state level.  He also helped grow OEC by over 300%, and the organization was recognized by Oregon Business magazine as one of the top ten non-profits to work for in the state.

More recently, Mr. Allen helped create the Medford-based Sustainable Valley Technology Group (SVTG) Mr. Allen raised over $500,000 to launch southern Oregon’s first business incubator, The Sustainable Valley Business Accelerator, where he helped coach several clean technology companies. In addition to his impressive work experience, Mr. Allen serves on the board of directors for Sustainable Northwest.

Jeff Allen said “I’m excited to be joining the Drive Oregon team. With strong leadership from the Board and investment by the Oregon Innovation Council, we will help Oregon’s electric vehicle industry thrive and grow.”

Mr. Miller added, “We appreciate the continued hard work and dedication of our Board of Directors and our interim leadership team, Barry Woods, Interim Executive Director and James Mast, Interim Operations Director that have helped bring us to this point.  Jeff will now lead our efforts to bring the organization to the next level.”  Mr. Woods and Mr. Mast will continue to serve on the Board of Directors.

In addition to securing its new Executive Director, Drive Oregon signed a lease with Portland State University (PSU) to establish its main offices at PSU’s Institute for Sustainable Solutions.  Drive Oregon joins other initiatives such as Oregon BEST and Portland Sustainability Institute in the Market Center Building in downtown Portland.  The agreement marks a key partnership with Portland State University and the first of many future university, non-profit  and industry partnerships that Drive Oregon will forge as it moves ahead.