A history of leadership

Ten years after completing his term on the SAE Board of Directors, Argonne National Laboratory's Don Hillebrand takes on another role-SAE President.

IN 2003, WHILE WORKING AS MANAGER OF RESEARCH Policy at DaimlerChrysler, Don Hillebrand, PhD, completed a three-year term on the SAE International Board of Directors. Now, 10 years later, as Director of Argonne National Laboratory's Energy Systems Division, Hillebrand has the unique opportunity to assume another leadership post with SAE, this time as its President.

“Being on the Board at a young age, it gave me the chance to see how SAE functions and has given me several years to reflect on what I want to accomplish as the President of SAE,” Hillebrand said in an interview at SAE World Headquarters prior to the start of his term. “In many cases when you're on the Board, you don't then have 10 or 15 years to reflect on the experience and come back, recalibrate, and learn from your accumulated successes and failures. I still think of myself as mid-career, and I suppose it's true that you only fail if you fail to learn.”