Tom Carnahan

Generators at King City, Missouri

Tom Carnahan (born 1969) is the Chairman of the American Wind Energy Association.

Raised in Rolla, Missouri, he is the son of Mel Carnahan, the former Governor of Missouri, (1993-2000), and posthumous U.S. Senator-elect (2000), and Jean Anne Carpenter Carnahan, who was appointed to the U.S. Senate to fill the seat to which her husband was posthumously elected.

Since May 2012 Carnahan has served as the Chairman of the American Wind Energy Association, a national trade association of domestic and international wind energy interests that promotes wind energy.

In 2005, drawing inspiration from his rural Missouri upbringing, Mr. Carnahan founded Wind Capital Group, Wind Capital Group, a privately owned builder and developer of wind farms in the Midwest and in 2008 produced the power for the first 100 percent wind-powered city,^[1] in the United States.

Partnering with Missouri farmers and developing strong community relations with rural co-ops and developers such as John Deere, Wind Capital became a leading developer, owner and operator of utility-scale wind farms in rural America. The Wind Capital Group has built five wind farms in the northwest part of Missouri, which power more than 100,000 homes. One of the company’s wind projects in northwest Missouri, just south of King City, qualified for a $107 million federal tax credit from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The company’s wind farms have had a nearly $600 million impact on the Missouri economy.^[2] Carhanan stepped down from Wind Capital in January 2012.^[3]

In 2012, Carnahan founded Wind Rose Energy Partners,^[4] an international clean energy investment partnership. Carnahan currently serves in an advisory capacity to the firm.

Early life

Tom Carnahan is the son of Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan and U.S. Senator Jean Carnahan and a member of the prominent Missouri Carnahan Family. Carnahan's grandfather, A. S. J. Carnahan, served in Congress for seven terms, and was appointed by President John F. Kennedy as U.S. Ambassador to Sierra Leone.

Carnahan received a Bachelor of Arts degree from William Jewell College in 1991, during which time he spent one year at Homerton College, Cambridge University, England. Carnahan received his juris doctor from the University of Missouri in 1995 ^[5] and was a staff attorney for the St. Louis, Missouri City Counselor's office from 1995 to 1997 and a name partner for the St. Louis firm of Carnahan & Garvin from 1997 to 2005.

Personal life

Tom Carnahan is a recipient of the Boy Scouts of America's Eagle Scout Award. He resides in St. Louis with his wife and four daughters.

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