LEADERSHIP
Thomas C. Heller, Executive Director
Keven Brough, Chief Operating Officer
David Nelson, Senior Program Director
Kath Rowley, Director, CPI San Francisco
Karsten Neuhoff, Director, CPI Berlin
Barbara Buchner, Director, CPI Venice
Qi Ye, Director, CPI Beijing
Thomas C. Heller, Executive Director
An expert in law, economic development and the performance of legal institutions, Thomas C. Heller has focused his research on the rule of law, international climate control, global energy use, and the interaction of government and nongovernmental organizations in establishing legal structures in the developing world. Since 1979, Heller has been a professor at Stanford University, where he has served as the Shelton Professor of International Legal Studies, Senior Fellow at the Stanford Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Senior Fellow (by courtesy) at the Woods Institute for the Environment. Since 1991, Heller has been increasingly engaged in research and applied policy studies in energy and climate, with a principal concern with developments in China, India, Mexico, Brazil and other leading emerging markets. He has been a contributing lead author for the IPCC on the Third and Fourth Assessment Reports, as well as a contributor to the Special Reports on Technology Transfer and Emissions Scenarios.
Beginning in 2008, Heller has been a core team member directing Project Catalyst—an analysis based project in support of the Copenhagen Climate process. In September 2009, he became the Executive Director of Climate Policy Initiative (CPI), based in San Francisco with offices in Europe, Asia and Latin America. CPI will assess, evaluate and advise governments and private firms on the implementation of national low carbon growth plans and measures, with particular attention to the fit between regulatory and public expenditure policies, infrastructure financing, and industrial organization in the key sectors relevant to energy and climate change.
Keven Brough, Chief Operating Officer
Keven serves as the Chief Operating Officer for CPI. Prior to joining CPI, Keven was a Program Officer for the power sector at the ClimateWorks Foundation. He was an early member of the design team for the ClimateWorks Network and a member of the startup team for the European Climate Foundation, where he initiated ECF's successful carbon capture and storage program. Before joining ECF, Keven was a consultant with McKinsey & Company, where he focused on strategy projects involving public policy. Earlier in his career he worked for a Washington, D.C.-based law firm and served as a legislative assistant for a senior member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Keven has a BA from Haverford College and a JD from Harvard Law School.
David Nelson, Senior Program Director
For the last 20 years, David has led teams in over 40 countries, working with senior government officials, regulators and the executive management of the largest energy and utility companies in the world; first, in the design of competitive energy markets; then, in the development of corporate strategy to operate in these markets; and, finally, as one of the largest institutional investors in these companies. In each case, David worked for companies noted for their thought leadership and intellectual rigor. Carbon markets have been a key element of much of this work, and David had the added benefit of having lived in Europe for most of the past 20 years, and thus has witnessed the development of European Emissions Trading first hand.
Kath Rowley, Director, CPI San Francisco
Kath Rowley leads CPI’s North America research program. Kath joined CPI after 20 years in the Australian government, working in policy and regulatory agencies at the state and federal level including EPA Victoria, Australian Treasury, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. She joined the Australian Greenhouse Office (later the Department of Climate Change) in 2004 to work on industry partnership programs to improve energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Later, she led research and analytic teams advising the government on international climate negotiations, Australia’s planned emissions trading scheme, and low emission technology programs. She was a major contributor to influential public policy reports on Australia’s emission reduction targets and the economic impacts of climate policy, and on the potential role of nuclear energy in Australia. Kath holds a cross-disciplinary Master of Environment, and Bachelor degrees in Law and Science, from the University of Melbourne.
Karsten Neuhoff, Director, CPI Berlin
Karsten Neuhoff is Director of the Berlin office of CPI and Research Director for Climate Policy Impact and Industry Response at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin). Prior to moving to Berlin in October 2009, he was a senior research associate at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Cambridge, leading projects on the future of UK power system, renewable integration and technology policy. With the research network Climate Strategies he coordinated European and international projects on the implementation of the European Emissions Trading Scheme and North-South Climate Cooperation. He received a MSc in Physics (Diplom) from the University of Heidelberg, an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics, and a PhD from the University of Cambridge.
Barbara Buchner, Director, CPI Venice
Barbara Buchner is the head of the CPI Venice office. Previously, Barbara served as a Senior Energy and Environment Analyst at the International Energy Agency (IEA). She joined the IEA in January 2007 to work on climate and energy policy issues in the Energy Efficiency and Environment Division. She works on the qualitative and quantitative analysis of market-based mechanisms and of other policy approaches to GHG mitigation; one of her main areas of work concerns the EU ETS. An additional research topic is the integration of climate change and energy efficiency policy issues. Before, she was working as a Senior Researcher at the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM), where she was involved in a number of activities related to FEEM's Climate Change Policy and Modelling Unit in the field of environmental economics. She also was a Visiting Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) within its Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change & Centre for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR). Barbara holds a PhD in Economics, University of Graz, and a Masters Degree in Economics within the Economics/Environmental Sciences Joint Program, University of Graz and University of Technology of Graz.
Qi Ye, Director, CPI Beijing
Dr. Ye Qi is Professor of Environmental Policy and Management, and Director of the Public Policy Institute at Tsinghua University, and Cheungkong Professor of Environmental Science at Beijing Normal University. His current research includes environmental governance, climate change policy and natural resource management. He teaches environmental policy, public policy analysis and strategic thinking and decision-making at Tsinghua. Before he returned to China in 2003, Dr. Qi taught ecosystem modeling and management in Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Qi received his PhD in Environmental Science in 1994 from State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry and from Syracuse University. Recipient of NOAA Postdoctoral Fellowship Award (1994, Climate and Global Change) and NSF Fellowship (1995, Computer and Information Science), Dr. Qi worked with Dr. Charles D. Keeling on Climate Change at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego and University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, before he joined the faculty at the Theory Center of Cornell University. Qi studied agriculture, ecology and economics from Hebei Agricultural University (BS), the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (MS) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (PhD).