Clooney to help manage energy company

[Agent Smith]

Clooney to help manage energy company

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071021/ap_en_mo/people_clooney_3

Sun Oct 21, 6:27 AM ET

BERN, Switzerland - George Clooney will become an executive board member
of a new Swiss energy company that will develop environmentally friendly
techniques for car motors and other devices, the billionaire who is
setting up the firm said Saturday.

The new company will have different branches doing research and
development in the clean production of hydrogen, solar energy and fuel
cells, said Nicolas Hayek, chairman of the Swatch Group.

"First I hesitated between Al Gore and Clooney," Hayek said in an
interview with daily Berner Zeitung.

But he didn't ask the former vice president because it was still unclear
whether Gore would run for president and therefore might have accepted
the post as a mere public relations exercise, Hayek said.

Clooney will sit on the board alongside Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier
and others, Hayek said.

Clooney's spokesman, Stan Rosenfield, confirmed the report in an e-mail
to The Associated Press.

Hayek, who chairs the executive board of Swatch Group AG, the world's
largest watchmaker, said he will also preside over the board of the new
company, which will be based in the western Swiss city of Biel.

He did not say when the new company, which has yet to be named, will be
launched.