Simon Rich serves by appointment of the Governor on the North Carolina Economic Development Board and chairs the Innovation and Technology committee. He also serves on the Governor’s Energy Policy Council.
Formerly he was Chairman and CEO of Louis Dreyfus Natural Gas and President of Louis Dreyfus Holding Corp; the Louis Dreyfus Group holds a global position in all areas of energy and agriculture including production, processing and merchandising.
Rich is former chairman and emeritus member of the board of visitors of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University, and teaches courses in Energy and Environment within the school.
He is chairman of Environmental Defense Fund in North Carolina, and the former chairman and current member of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems, the largest sustainable agriculture program in the U.S., a partnership of the NC Department of Agriculture, NC A&T University, and NC State University. Rich is on the board of Triangle Capital Corporation, a business development company operating throughout the southeast; and Verenium, a cellulosic ethanol developer and enzyme production company.
Rich is a 1967 graduate of Duke University.