Robert Harris, a former solar energy company executive, Sierra Club director and corporate lawyer, has been selected executive director and general counsel of the Hawaii State Ethics Commission, the organization announced Monday.

“Mr. Harris has the right mix of public policy, litigation, and managerial experience to excel in this role,” Melinda Wood, chair of the Ethics Commission, said in a statement. “He additionally demonstrates the needed interpersonal skills, temperament, and perspective for this position, along with a willingness to consider competing points of view on complicated ethics matters.”

A graduate of Kalaheo High School, Harris earned bachelor and law degrees from the University of Hawaii at Manoa before joining the law firm Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert, where he assisted in cases involving environmental, insurance, and complex commercial litigation. He later served as director of the Sierra Club of Hawaii.

For the past eight years, Harris has been the director of public policy at Sunrun, a solar energy company.