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Urbana, IL
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Grainger College of Engineering has honored Jigar H. Shah with the 2025 Alumni Award for Distinguished Service. This honor is bestowed upon exceptional alumni each year and awardees 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.
Former Director of the Loan Programs Office, U.S. Department of Energy Shah completed his BS, Mechanical Engineering, from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1996. He went on to study MBA, at University of Maryland, College Park in 2001.
Shah has been awarded for his tireless, career-long efforts to advance clean energy and his visionary leadership and innovation in the field of sustainable infrastructure.
Jigar H. Shah is a serial entrepreneur, investor and energy strategist. From March 2021 to January 2025, Shah served as director of the Loan Programs Office (LPO) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). 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.
