Walter R. Arnheim (born October 10, 1944,

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

) is an American oil company executive and former director of the

Washington National Opera The Washington National Opera (WNO) is an American opera company in Washington, D.C. Formerly the Opera Society of Washington and the Washington Opera, the company received Congressional designation as the National Opera Company in 2000. Performa ...

. He is currently a

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

specialist,

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a ty ...

manager, and an adviser to companies and non-profit organizations.

Life and career

Education

Arnheim earned his BS in chemical engineering degree from the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...

in 1966 and an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

in operations research and finance from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1968.

Oil executive

For more than three decades, he was employed by

Mobil Oil Mobil is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil. The brand was formerly owned and operated by an oil and gas corporation of the same name, which itself merged with Exxon to form ExxonMobil in 1999. ...

joining the company in 1968 in operations research. He retired as

treasurer A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance. Government The treasury o ...

of the company following the merger with

ExxonMobil ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 30, ...

in 1999. Over the course of his 31 years with the company, he served in multiple positions and locations, including assistant treasurer for Europe and Africa, based in London, and vice president for economics and planning, based in Mobil's US headquarters.

The Washington Opera

After leaving Mobil, Arnheim joined the Washington Opera as executive director in January 2000, which he led for two and a half years, working closely with artistic director

Plácido Domingo José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French, ...

and overseeing a period of rapid growth and expansion for the company. A long-time opera afficiando, he previously served as Mobil's representative on the board of the Washington Opera from 1996-1999. The move to opera management was an opportunity to bring his business acumen to support the nonprofit world. While serving as Executive Director, Arnheim lead a $2 million renovation and relocation of the Washington Opera's costume and rehearsal studio to

Takoma Park Takoma Park is a city in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a suburb of Washington, and part of the Washington metropolitan area. Founded in 1883 and incorporated in 1890, Takoma Park, informally called " Azalea City", is a Tree ...

Other positions

Over the course of his career he has served on the board of multiple companies, including

Compaq Compaq Computer Corporation (sometimes abbreviated to CQ prior to a 2007 rebranding) was an American information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced ...

and Spinnaker Oil Company, until it was acquired by

Norsk Hydro Norsk Hydro ASA (often referred to as just ''Hydro'') is a Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company, headquartered in Oslo. It is one of the largest aluminium companies worldwide. It has operations in some 50 countries around the world an ...

. He taught as an associate professor at Hofstra University Business School and has been recognized as a distinguished alumni by the University of Pittsburgh.

Recent activities

He is currently President of Mozaik Investments, a private equity firm. He also serves on the board of Magellan Midstream Partners, a publicly listed petroleum logistics company with the longest system of refined petroleum product pipelines in the US, and Opera Lafayette, a DC-based opera company. As a recognized expert in

, he has advised the government of

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

on how to develop the

biomass Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms bi ...

market as part of a program funded by

USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 bi ...

. He believes that there is significant potential in the sector, especially the conversion from woodwaste to pellets. He has a doppelganger in the form of a picture of a tailor sitting at a sewing machine, a commonly used decal among dry cleaners in the US. Arnheim did not serve as its model.

Personal interests

In addition to Arnheim's passion for opera, which is focused on German operas, including those by

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

and

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...

, he has an interest in

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

and played amateur hockey for a period. A member of Beth El Synagogue, he served as president of the congregation from 2005 to 2007. Chevy Chase residents volunteer across states, seas
Retrieved September 25, 2010

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arnheim, Walter Businesspeople from Pittsburgh 1944 births Living people ExxonMobil people Private equity and venture capital investors Swanson School of Engineering alumni Columbia Business School alumni People from Potomac, Maryland