As the White House’s first-ever Senior Director of Power — a role described by Bloomberg as the nation’s “power czar” — Chairman Lake helped lead the federal response to one of the most significant infrastructure challenges of the AI era: rapidly expanding America’s electricity system while protecting reliability, affordability, and consumers. Politico called him a “key architect” of the administration’s power and AI agenda, where he drove reforms to modernize the grid, accelerate data-center interconnections, and ensure that the costs of unprecedented demand growth were not shifted onto ordinary ratepayers.

Lake arrived at the White House after leading one of the most consequential power-sector turnarounds in recent American history. Following Winter Storm Uri — and the catastrophic power grid collapse that left millions without electricity and brought the Texas system within minutes of total failure — Governor Greg Abbott appointed Lake to lead the Public Utility Commission of Texas. He inherited an institution facing intense public anger, diminished confidence, and relentless scrutiny, and he moved quickly to stabilize the system and rebuild it for the future. Through his rapid implementation of extensive operational, market, and regulatory reforms, the Texas grid suffered zero system failures during his tenure — even while setting dozens of all-time records for power demand. Working closely with Governor Abbott and the Texas Legislature, he led the effort to seat a completely new governing board at ERCOT within months and shielded Texas homes and businesses from storm-induced costs by structuring a complex $2.1 billion disaster securitization financing (AAA rated). He also successfully navigated almost $10 billion of storm-related litigation. Under his leadership, the Texas grid moved from the brink of systemic failure to repeatedly meeting all-time demand records without another systemwide outage.

That assignment was part of a broader career spent taking responsibility when essential institutions face their hardest tests. Before leading the Texas grid, Lake oversaw the Texas Water Development Board, the world’s largest water infrastructure planning and financing institution. There he financed billions of dollars of water infrastructure projects and directed development of the state’s first comprehensive flood-mitigation and statewide planning framework following Hurricane Harvey. While overseeing the multi-billion-dollar State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (SWIFT) program, he implemented significant financial reforms and steered the institution through the market disruptions caused by COVID-19.

Across the White House, Texas’s power and water systems, and the private sector, Lake has repeatedly been called upon when the stakes were highest, the scrutiny most intense, and conventional approaches had failed. His ability to make consequential decisions under pressure, align competing interests, and turn public policy into executable solutions has delivered systemic change once widely regarded as impossible.

Before entering public service, Lake held senior operating roles in upstream oil and gas, healthcare, and financial companies. He was previously an interest rate derivatives trader on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, and he holds a BA from the University of Chicago and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Today, Lake leads Cardinal Rose, a strategic advisory and project development firm focused on building the power, water, and digital infrastructure needed for the future. Drawing on his experience at the White House and leading major Texas power and water institutions, Cardinal Rose advises companies and investors navigating the operational, technical, market, regulatory, policy, and public relations elements of developing that infrastructure.