MENLO PARK, Calif. — Marilyn Waite has joined the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation as program officer for climate finance in the Environment Program. Jonathan Pershing, director of the Hewlett Foundation’s Environment Program, said the following about the appointment in an email to grantees and staff:
“I am delighted to announce that Marilyn Waite has joined us as a program officer in the Environment Program. Marilyn will manage Hewlett’s grantmaking for us on climate and clean energy finance, with the ambitious goal of addressing climate change by accelerating the transition to a climate friendly economy. Her grantmaking will mobilize private capital investments in low-carbon and climate-friendly energy infrastructure and systems, seeking to redirect finance from high- to low-carbon activities and encourage wiser energy investments. A key component to this work will include assessing climate finance flows, identifying ways to lower the cost and risk of investment, and supporting innovations in capital markets to address investor requirements for clean energy and climate aligned projects.
Marilyn has a critical understanding of both the financial and energy sectors. She has worked across four continents in venture investment, startups, and low-carbon energy. Marilyn previously led the clean energy practice at Village Capital, where she sourced and performed due diligence for early-stage startups solving energy challenges and built a network of 1,000+ cleantech entrepreneurs, investors, corporations, and government stakeholders. As a senior research fellow at Project Drawdown, she modeled and forecasted energy solutions to climate change. Marilyn led several operational and research and development projects at AREVA in France, including performing technical and economic studies in the energy-water nexus and the nuclear energy cycle.
Author of Sustainability at Work, Marilyn serves on the Board of Directors for The Biomimicry Institute and lectures on sustainable business at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. She holds a Master’s Degree with distinction in Engineering for Sustainable Development from the University of Cambridge and a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering, magna cum laude, from Princeton University.
I am excited for Marilyn to bring her knowledge, experience, and commitment to our efforts to solve climate change, protect human populations, and transition economies to clean, safe energy systems.”