Salo L. Zelermyer is currently the Vice President for Federal Affairs and Counsel for Valero Energy Corporation. Prior to joining Valero in March 2017, Salo was a Senior Principal with the Policy Resolution Group (PRG) at Bracewell LLP specializing in formulating and implementing federal policy initiatives. Salo provided federal legislative and regulatory advice to industry and non-profit clients on a broad range of policy matters in the energy, technology, and healthcare sectors.
Prior to joining the PRG team at Bracewell in 2009, Salo was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as Senior Counsel in the Office of the General Counsel at the United States Department of Energy (DOE). In this role, Salo served as a senior advisor to the General Counsel and DOE leadership on a wide variety of energy and environmental issues including regulatory and statutory responses to climate change, the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), energy efficiency standards, and DOE’s financial incentive programs such as the Loan Guarantee Program. In 2015, Salo was recognized by the publication Greenwire as one of its “People to Watch” in energy and environmental policy.
Salo began his career in Boston, Massachusetts as a litigator for a national law firm representing clients in a wide variety of commercial matters. During this period, Salo also represented victims of childhood sexual abuse against the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.
In both his personal and professional life, Salo dedicates significant time to providing federal policy counseling in the areas of cancer research and women’s rights. Since 2017, Salo has served on the Board of Directors of the National Brain Tumor Society. In 2016, Salo received the Hero Award from Unlikely Heroes—a leading non-profit organization dedicated to combating human trafficking and slavery—for his work helping young women who had been abducted by terrorists abroad and escaped from their captors make it to the United States safely and legally.
Salo grew up in West Hartford, Connecticut and received his undergraduate degree from The George Washington University in 2001 and his law degree from Boston College Law School in 2004. Salo currently residents in Kensington, Maryland with his wife and four children.