Alexander A. Karsner

Alexander “Andy” Karsner has recently completed a remarkable tenure as America’s ninth assistant secretary of energy for efficiency and renewable energy and has resumed his career as an energy infrastructure developer and financier. He has been named to the board of directors of Applied Materials (the world’s leading nanomanufacturer and supplier to the global solar industry), to the University of Chicago Board of Trustees overseeing Argonne National Laboratory, as a distinguished fellow of the Council on Competitiveness, and to the advisory boards to the Automotive X Prize and Freedom Prize.

In the recently released best seller Hot, Flat, and Crowded, Tom Friedman’ cites that Karsner’s “breadth and knowledge of energy financing is unrivalled.” His counsel and voice continue to be actively sought by business, academic, industry, diplomatic and political leaders worldwide.

While serving as U.S. assistant secretary of energy, Karsner managed the approximately $2 billion annual federal applied science, research, development and deployment portfolio, promoting marketplace integration of renewable and environmentally sound energy technologies for transportation, generation and efficiency.

Karsner served as the Department of Energy’s lead official and a principal U.S. representative to the international climate change negotiations for the “Bali Roadmap” toward crafting a post-2012 global framework to succeed the Kyoto Protocol. He led the administration’s efforts to develop and implement key presidential energy initiatives, launched prominently in three consecutive State of the Union Addresses. These include the:

Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 to enhance security and reduce America’s dependency on and use of gasoline by 20 percent with an unprecedented size, scope, and timetable for alternative fuels mandates, 40 percent elevation of vehicle efficiency (CAFE) standards, and record increases in building and appliance standards, including a phase-out of incandescent lighting.

Advanced Energy Initiative (AEI) to increase funding, rebalance R&D priorities, and accelerate commercialization of technological breakthroughs, fundamentally enlarging our national vision, and plans, and implement metrics for scaling generation, transportation and efficiency technologies at unprecedented rates.

Major Economies Process to deepen and accelerate multilateral engagement amongst the heads of state of the world’s 17 largest economies responsible for 80 percent of global industrial output and emission, and build consensus on specific principles of energy and environment to enable a new global framework.

In addition to advancing renewable and efficient technology, Karsner bore primary responsibility for regulation, education, conservation and efficient use of our nation’s energy resources, including federal energy management and procurement, national building codes, appliance standards, and the ENERGY STAR® program, among others. The U.S. Green Building Council, the U.S. Energy Association Efficiency Forum and the Alliance to Save Energy have honored Karsner for his extraordinary record of public leadership on efficiency.

Previously, Karsner served as an international energy developer and entrepreneur in the private sector on a wide range of technologies, including heavy fuel oil, distillates, natural gas, coal, wood waste/biomass, wind energy, solar power and distributed generation based upon renewable technologies. He has been responsible for equity investing, asset development, operations and commodities management, managing and financing large-scale power projects in North America, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, including first-of-a-kind private infrastructure financings in the Philippines and Pakistan. He has personally led and participated in financial closings in excess of a half-billion dollars and has contributed to significant technology diffusion, job creation and new company startups in both the developed and developing worlds.

Karsner was a Rotary International Fellow and received an Master of Arts from Hong Kong University. He graduated with honors from Rice University and subsequently received prestigious recognition as an Outstanding Alumnus. Karsner and his wife were based in London and Hong Kong for 12 years. They are multilingual, have visited every continent and more than a hundred nations for work and pleasure, and reside with their growing family in Alexandria, Va.