Highlights from 2024

John Podesta is the Senior Advisor to President Biden for International Climate Policy at the White House. He initially joined the White House in September 2022 as the Senior Advisor to President Biden for Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation (OCEII) to lead the rollout of clean energy provisions under the Inflation Reduction Act. John manages both an international and domestic portfolio through his new role from the White House. He works in coordination with the strong team in the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate office at State Department and the National Security Council to represent the U.S. as a fierce champion of bold climate action, as well as continuing to oversee the team implementing the Inflation Reduction Act. In this role, John engages with international, domestic, and private sector partners to harness the clean energy transition to create more prosperous, equitable, and resilient communities across the world.

Podesta served as counselor to President Barack Obama, where he was responsible for coordinating the administration’s climate policy and initiatives. In 2008, he served as co-chair of President Obama’s transition team. He was a member of the U.N. Secretary General’s High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

Podesta notably served as White House chief of staff to President William J. Clinton during the second administration. He chaired Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president in 2016.
Outside of his roles in several White House administrations, he is the Founder and former Chair for the Washington, D.C- based think tank Center for American Progress and a Founder and former Chair of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.

A Chicago native, Podesta is a graduate of Knox College and the Georgetown University Law Center, where he is currently a visiting professor of law.

Nigar Arpadarai is the UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP29 Azerbaijan. Ms. Arpadarai is a member of Azerbaijan’s National Assembly where she serves on the Committee on International and Interparliamentary Relations and Committee on Family, Women and Children. She has represented Azerbaijan in different international organizations. Ms. Arpadarai studied international law and holds both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from Baku State University.

In her role as UN Climate Change High-Level Champion, Ms. Arpadarai will contribute to stronger and more ambitious climate action by strengthening the engagement of non-State actors in supporting the parties to deliver on climate goals. She will also work with the private sector to ensure that they have the awareness, capacity and tools to make sustainability central to their operations and activities.

Vanessa Z Chan was appointed by President Biden to serve as the Chief Commercialization Officer and Director of the Office of Technology Transitions at the U.S. Department of Energy. She reports directly to the Secretary of Energy and her department’s mission is to drive private sector uptake of clean energy technologies. She currently is on a Leave of Absence from PENN where she was transforming engineering education as the Jonathan and Linda Brassington Professor of Practice and Undergraduate Chair of the Materials Science & Engineering department.

Director Chan is an innovator with over two decades of experience driving commercialization for organizations with significant R&D investments through strategy, performance management and culture change at all levels. As a former McKinsey & Company partner with an MIT Ph.D., she has helped her clients across a diverse set of industries grow at the interface of technology and business. She is an experienced Venture Board Director for Vanguard and United Technology Corporation and a board member at multiple start-ups.

Director Chan has broken many ceilings during her career. She was the first woman and the first East Asian elected partner in McKinsey’s North American Chemicals practice. The first Professor of Practice to be endowed a scholarly chair in the history of Penn Engineering and the first Asian and first Professor of Practice to be appointed Undergraduate Chair for a department.

Director Chan is also dynamic speaker who gave PENN’s SEAS Commencement Address in 2018 and again in 2021. She inspires people & organizations to innovate, to reframe failure and is a well regarded keynote speaker.

Damilola Ogunbiyi is the CEO and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All, and Co-Chair of UN-Energy. With Mrs. Ogunbiyi at the helm, Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) has entered into working relationships with over 200 partners, supported over 90 countries globally, and secured commitments of more than $1.3 trillion in energy finance. She has practical on the ground experience, she initiated the Nigerian Electrification Project, a USD 550 million facility which is a joint World Bank and African Development Bank programme that to date has provided energy access to over 5 million people across Nigeria and implemented over 100 megawatts of decentralized energy projects supplying electricity to hospitals, schools, and government facilities. Mrs. Ogunbiyi is a member of the World Bank’s Private Sector Investment Lab, a member of the Global Leadership Council of the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), an Advisory Board member of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, and a member of the Development Advisory Council of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). She was part of the COP28 Advisory Committee, and was Co-Chair of the COP26 Energy Transition Council (ETC). She is a global leader and advocate for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and is passionate about achieving SDG7, which calls for access to reliable, affordable, sustainable, and modern energy for all by 2030. Mrs. Ogunbiyi is the recipient of the Energy Institute President’s Award for 2023 and has been recognized as a trailblazer in her field.