Richard L. Gordon Distinguished Achievement Award in Mineral Economics and Energy Business and Finance
Trevor F. Lauer spent his youth dreaming about attending Penn State. His dream came true, and he graduated from the University in 1987 with his B.S. degree in mineral economics, proudly becoming the first college graduate in his family.
Lauer started his career at Honeywell as an engineer. His work there helped support a strong American energy industry that ensures Americans access to safe, reliable, and affordable energy.
After graduating from the University of Maryland with his M.B.A. in 1993, Lauer and his partners founded multiple energy-related businesses, including Electric Lighting Concepts, Custom Energy, and Pittsburgh-based Strategic Energy.
These experiences led Lauer to join DTE Energy in Detroit, Michigan, in 2005. Over the past 20 years, he has held leadership positions across the company, including vice president of Distribution Operations, president and chief operating officer of DTE Electric, and most recently DTE’s vice chairman and group president. Under his leadership, DTE has become Michigan’s leading producer of and investor in renewable energy.
Lauer recently established DTE’s Energy Storage business unit and spearheaded the company’s first major foray into battery storage with the Trenton Channel Energy Center. When construction is completed, the center will be the largest standalone battery energy storage project in the Great Lakes region. Lauer has completed the Nuclear Reactor Technology program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and he now leads the Corporate Oversight team for the DTE Fermi II nuclear power plant.
Lauer and his wife, Kelly, live in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where they proudly raised two Nittany Lions. Their son, Nick, graduated in 2024, and their son,
Drew, will graduate in 2025.