Mark DeMichele

Chairman/CEO, Urban Realty Partners

Mark DeMichele is currently the Chairman and CEO of Urban Realty Partners, a limited liability corporation that develops high quality office buildings in Arizona and California. He is also the retired President and Chief Executive Officer of Arizona Public Service Company, an electric utility serving all or part of 11 of Arizona's 15 counties, and he continues to serve the organization as a member of the company's Board of Directors. Under his leadership in 1993, the utility was awarded its industry's highest honor, The Edison Award. Mr. DeMichele joined APS in 1978 as Vice President of Corporate Relations, and was promoted to Executive Vice President in 1981 and President and Chief Operating Officer in 1982. He assumed the additional duties of Chief Executive Officer in 1988. Prior to moving to Arizona, he was Vice President of Niagara-Mohawk Power Corporation, headquartered in Syracuse, New York.

He is a former board member of Pinnacle West Capital Corporation and America West Airlines, and helped the latter successfully emerge from bankruptcy. He is active in a variety of environmental and electric industry issues and is the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation, Inc., as well as a member of the U.S. Secretary of Energy Advisory Board.

Mr. DeMichele supports several community organizations in Arizona and has held leadership roles in numerous philanthropic foundations that support education and the arts.  Mr. DeMichele received the prestigious Phoenix of the Year Award in 1992, the 1991 Torch of Liberty Award from the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, and the 1995 Humanitarian Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews.  In 1955, he graduated from Syracuse University and in 1997 he received an honorary Doctorate Degree in humane letters from Northern Arizona University.