Bob Abboud

Bob Abboud (Robert G. Abboud) is a nuclear engineer turned energy-storage executive who runs Beacon Power, the company that keeps spinning carbon-fiber flywheels to steady the U.S. power grid. Trained at Purdue and Northwestern, he cut his teeth researching at Argonne National Laboratory and engineering reactors at ComEd before founding RGA Labs, an Illinois engineering firm, and picking up patents in magnetics and superconducting technology. He also spent nearly a decade in local politics as village president of Barrington Hills and ran for U.S. Congress in Illinois's 16th district in 2008.