Executive Director, Risky Business Project

Vice President and Director, Energy & Climate Program at Next Generation

Kate Gordon leads the Energy & Climate team at Next Generation, developing policies and communications strategies to combat climate change and move the U.S. to a clean energy economy. She also serves as the Executive Director of Risky Business, a joint initiative of Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Office of Hank Paulson, and Next Generation to quantify and publicize the economic risks of climate change.

Kate is a nationally recognized expert on the intersection of clean energy and economic development. Prior to joining Next Generation, she was Vice President for Energy and Environment at the Center for American Progress (CAP) in Washington D.C., where she still serves as a senior fellow.

Kate has worked on a variety of economic development and social justice issues for more than 15 years, and is regarded as a leader in the national “green jobs” movement. She has focused on issues related to clean energy manufacturing, regional economic development in clean energy sectors, and American competitiveness. She contributes regularly to the Wall Street Journal as one of the paper's "Energy Experts," blogs for the Huffington Post, and writes a weekly update on California energy and climate news for Next Generation.

Prior to joining CAP, Kate was the co-director of the national Apollo Alliance (now part of the Blue Green Alliance), where she still serves on the Board of Directors.  Earlier in her career, she was a senior associate at the Center on Wisconsin Strategy and an employment and consumer rights litigator at Trial Lawyers for Public Justice in Oakland. She earned a J.D. and master's degree in city planning from the University of California-Berkeley and an undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University.