Alex Perera is the Acting Director of WRI’s Global Energy Program. Joining WRI in 2007, Alex has over ten years of experience in energy policy, finance, and corporate energy strategy. Prior to joining WRI, he helped found a company called Bigbelly Solar, a renewable energy company with a mission of developing innovative new solar energy products that are helping reduce transportation related emissions. Alex has worked at the Natural Resources Defense Council, where he participated on New York Governor Pataki's Greenhouse Gas Task Force. He also served on two advisory committees that invested in over $7 million in renewable energy R&D projects in New York. Alex was a Financial Analyst at the investment bank Bear, Stearns and Co. Inc. where he helped to structure over $1 billion in municipal financing in the utility sector. He has served as the Program Director for the New York Energy Efficiency Council, an organization that represented Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) in New York State electric deregulation proceedings. Alex has an MBA from F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College, and a BA from Boston University in Environmental Science, Economics, and French. He has written and co-authored numerous publications on corporate strategy and renewable energy. He is a watercolor painter and lives in Bethesda, MD with his wife and two children.