Andy Karsner

Andy Karsner is Executive Chairman of Manifest Energy, a clean energy infrastructure development and finance company that he founded in October 2008. From 2005 to 2008, Andy served as America's ninth Assistant Secretary of Energy for Efficiency and Renewable Energy, during a period of unprecedented growth in energy innovation and technologies, private sector investments and bipartisan public policy. Prior to public service, Andy was Founder and CEO of Enercorp, a development company for utility-grade renewable energy projects in emerging markets; and an exclusive agent of Vestas, the world's largest wind energy company. He was Director and Senior Development Manager for Wartsila Power Development, managing large oil and gas fired projects at a time that the company invested more dollars and financially closed more installed power than any of its competitors worldwide. Andy currently sits on several prominent boards including: Applied Materials, Codexis, Conservation International, The Gas Technology Institute, University of Chicago's Argonne National Laboratory, and the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. He is an advisor to the Hudson Clean Energy Fund, Duke Energy, Constellation Energy, C3, and the Automotive X Prize Foundation. He is a visiting Hoover Fellow, Distinguished Fellow at the Council on Competitiveness, Co-Chair of the Aspen Clean Energy Roundtable, a member of UN Foundation's Energy Future Coalition, the National Petroleum Council and the Council on Foreign Relations. Andy received a B.A. with Honors from Rice University, subsequently recognized as a distinguished alumnus; and an M.A. from Hong Kong University, where he was a Rotary Fellow. He is a member of the 2012 Class of Henry Crown Fellows at the Aspen Institute.