Joel V. Staff is a private investor and serves as Chairman of the Board Directors of Reliant Energy and chairman of the Finance and Risk Oversight Committee.  He previously served as Chairman and CEO of Reliant Energy, Inc. (2003 – 2007).  Reliant Energy is a provider of electricity and energy-related products and services to more than 1.9 million retail and wholesale customers, with approximately 16,000 megawatts of power generation capacity across the U.S. 

He served as National-Oilwell, Inc’s executive chairman (2001-2002), and Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer (1993-2001).  Prior to that, he was employed at Baker Hughes, Inc. for 17 years, holding various financial and general management positions including senior vice president and president of the drilling and production groups. 

He is a trustee of Texas Children’s Hospital, a member of the University Of Texas McCombs School Of Business Advisory Council and an advisory director of the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Houston. He earned a B.B.A. in 1967 from The University of Texas at Austin and an M.B.A. from Texas A&M University-Kingsville.