Short Course: Refugees in Complex Emergencies

Explore the art and science of saving lives in complex emergencies — providing water, nutrition, security, and health care — in a short course taught by Neil Otto ’72, director of The Otto Family Foundation.

The course will also consider real world examples of operational challenges in emergency relief situations to examine what constitutes leadership where cultural dissonance, resource limitations, and moral ambiguities complicate every decision.

The short course meets Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2–3:50 p.m.

About Neil Otto ’72

Otto is an investor and, together with his wife Margaret, a founder and managing director of The Otto Family Foundation.

As vice president of Ballard Power Systems, he was the marketing executive responsible for the Fuel Cell Alliance between Daimler AG, Ford Motor Company, and Ballard. The alliance focused $750 million dollars and ultimately over 1,000 scientists, engineers, and supporting personnel on developing zero emission fuel cell engines for automobiles.

He later established and became president of Ballard Automotive, a joint venture, technology marketing company owned by Ford, Daimler, and Ballard. The company was dedicated to advancing zero emission automotive technology worldwide. Through this joint venture, nearly every major automotive and energy company around the world contractually participated with the alliance or joined one of nearly a dozen public/private partnerships established in multiple countries on four continents.

As vice president at Science Applications International Corporation, Otto managed the Alternative Energy Division. The division housed more than 75 consulting engineers and staff that worked in solar, wind, electrochemical, and other advanced energy, power, and propulsion technologies. He hired and led the team that designed and built the world’s first PEM fuel cell vehicle, as well as the world’s first commercial fuel cell vehicle.

After the Challenger tragedy, NASA selected Otto to lead a multi-million dollar sub-project of the massive Solid Propulsion Improvement Program, a national effort to improve the safety and reliability of the Space Shuttle's solid rocket motors.

He has served as a technical area expert in cutting edge electrochemical power systems, consulting with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, NASA, the Air Force Wright Laboratories, the Strategic Defense Initiative, the U.S. Department of Energy, and other government and commercial groups.

Otto has three issued U.S. patents, one approved patent under secrecy order, and several scientific publications. He currently serves on the board and executive council of Project Concern International and has been a board member of four companies, president of the World Fuel Cell Council, and was a member of advisory boards for the Institute of Transportation, University of California at Davis, and the Technology Advancement Office of the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

Otto's visit is sponsored by the Wilson Program in Enterprise and Leadership.