Management team
Helen Clarkson, CEO
Helen joined the Climate Group in 2017 as Chief Executive Officer. In addition to leading our growing Climate Group team, she sits on the board of the We Mean Business Coalition , chairs the Finance & Audit Committee for the Sustainable Development Capital Energy Efficiency Income Trust, and is on the Mission Council for Pukka Herbs.
Tim Ash Vie, Executive Director of Under2 and Solutions
Tim Ash Vie joined us in September 2017 as Director of the Under2 Coalition Secretariat. The Under2 Coalition is a leading, international network of subnational governments that have committed to ambitious climate action, for which we act as Secretariat.
Luke Herbert, Executive Director of International Communications
Luke's previous role was at Madano, the integrated communications consultancy, where he was Director, working with multinational energy businesses and industry. Prior to that, he spent seven years as Head of Government Affairs at Jaguar Land Rover, focusing on UK and international stakeholder issues.
Ana Mates, Chief Operating Officer
Ana Mates is our Chief Operating Officer, overseeing operations across the organisation as a whole.
David Mole, Executive Director of Development
David Mole is our Executive Director of Development, where he leads fundraising strategy and income generation.
Alex Moore, Executive Director of Finance & IT
Alex joined the Climate Group in 2021 as our International Finance and IT Director.
Mike Peirce, Executive Director of Systems Change
Mike leads our portfolio of global campaigns that are designed to secure climate commitment and action from the world’s most influential companies: from growing demand for renewable energy (RE100), electric vehicles (EV100) and low carbon steel (SteelZero), to investing in smart energy systems (EP100) including cooling technologies and LED lighting.
Divya Sharma, Executive Director, India
Divya is an international climate and urban development expert, specialising in climate resilience and urban development planning with almost 20 years’ experience operating throughout India and internationally.
Angela Barranco, Executive Director, North America
Angela brings over two decades of experience, including several years of campaign management across the US and leadership in problem-solving, solutions-focused work on clean energy, clean cars and protecting national monuments, most recently as Undersecretary of the California Natural Resources Agency. Prior to that, Angela served as Chief Executive for River LA, Deputy Chief of Staff at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Associate Director for Public Engagement on the White House Council of Environmental Quality (CEQ).
Yuming Hui, Chief Representative and Executive Director, China
Yuming is an expert in China's sustainability and environment policy, with over two decades of experience. He manages our operations in China and leads the overall strategic development in the region.
Department leads
Danielle Bidos, Head of Sponsorship
Danielle leads Climate Group’s international sponsorship strategy and income generation. She specialises in designing, and implementing world leading partnerships and opportunities to showcase organisations as leaders in climate action.
Christopher Brown, Commercial Strategy Lead
Chris has over 25 years’ experience working in international development and commercial business, previously serving as a Senior Business Development Manager for UNICEF UK, Head of Client Relations for Education Africa, running his own volunteering organisation placing teachers in Madagascar and a fair stint in the world of commercial business publishing.
Jen Carson, Head of Industry
Jen Carson is Head of Industry at Climate Group leading the programme strategy and growth of our SteelZero and ConcreteZero initiatives. Jen brings her decade long experience of working in the sustainability sector to accelerating the decarbonisation of heavy industries.
She joined the Climate Group in 2021 as Senior Manager for Industry, following her role as Associate at Delta-EE where she was based in Australia and led research on the country’s energy market. Prior to this, Jen held a variety of roles at Delta-EE, where she created the organisation’s first cross-technology research service and provided in depth market analysis on a range of areas.
Jen started her career in a variety of consultancy and analysis roles at The Carbon Trust, Dunelm Energy and Kier Group. She holds a Masters in Carbon Management and a BSc in Geography from The University of Edinburgh, and is a Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv) and Member of the Energy Institute (MEI).
Leah Carter, Head of Events (Interim)
Leah is a multi-award winning, senior events professional with over 15 years’ project management experience. Leah’s knowledge stems from having worked for a number of high profile organisations across various sectors. She also has ample experience in planning international events, having delivered events in six of the world’s continents, in over 35 countries.
Ruby Chorbajian, Head of Development, UK & Europe
Ruby leads our UK and Europe development team. The team is responsible for generating philanthropic funding from governments, foundations and individuals to fund climate action around the world.
Libby Ferguson, Director of Policy and Knowledge
Libby is Director of Policy and Knowledge at the Climate Group and leads its work supporting governments and businesses to take decisive action on climate, share best practices and influence global policy. Prior to this, Libby led the Climate Group’s global work with state and regional governments, including the establishment of the Under2 Coalition.
Nicol Forster, Head of Global Governance
Nicol oversees our global governance and is responsible for the efficient administration of the organisation and its compliance with all statutory and regulatory requirements. She's been with the Climate Group since its inception and has assisted with its growth operationally and administratively over the years.
Jeroen Gerlag, Head of Climate Group Europe
Our European office will be headed up by Jeroen Gerlag, who joins the organisation from METRO AG where he was Head of Corporate Responsibility.
More about Jeroen.
Heather James, Head of Global HR
Heather is Climate Group’s Head of Global HR and is responsible for shaping and delivering the people strategy internationally. Heather works with the leadership team to deliver priority areas including EDI strategy, talent acquisition and development programmes and international build-out.
Nehmat Kaur, Head of Global Government Engagement
Nehmat is a climate and energy policy expert based in London. She joined the Climate Group from the Natural Resources Defense Council where she was India Representative for five years, leading the work on renewable energy and finance.
Kemal Kelly, Head of Technology
Kemal is responsible for providing strategy, oversight, and support for all the Climate Group's IT resources and technology implementations, as well as the administration of the back-end infrastructure across our global offices.
Sam Kimmins, Director of Energy
Sam is our Director of Energy. He has 20 years’ experience leading sustainability projects in the shipping, aviation, food, construction and NGO sectors.
Adam Lake, Head of Climate Week NYC
Adam is Head of Climate Week. Climate Week NYC is the biggest Climate Week on earth, and brings together international leaders from the worlds of business, government and the sector to accelerate climate action, taking place annually to coincide with the United Nations General Assembly.
Atul Mudaliar, Head of Business Initiatives, India
Atul is the Head of Business Initiatives at the Climate Group in India. He leads India’s strategy to drive powerful networks of corporations to take ambitious climate commitments and action on renewables, energy efficiency and electric mobility.
Nazneen Nawaz, Director of Programme and Corporate Communications
Nazneen has over 14 years of experience working in communications, both in-house and in consultancy, across a range of high profile commercial and not-for-profit organisations including the likes of Oxfam, Natural History Museum, The Shard and Chelsea Flower Show to name a few. Most recently, she was Head of Media for Arts Council England.
Sahra Magnin, Head of Legal
Sahra is our Head of legal and joined us in 2019.
Louisa Plotnick, Head of Programs, North America
Louisa Plotnick is the Head of Programs for North America at the Climate Group.Louisa joined the Climate Group in August 2019. She currently works to deliver global impact across the Climate Group’s business action campaigns, RE100, EP100, EV100 and the Under2 Coalition to shift to a net zero economy.
Jebi Rahman, Head of Transparency & Pathways
Jebi is currently the Head of Transparency & Pathways at the Climate Group, steering the Under2 Coalition Secretariat’s accountability and long-term decarbonisation workstreams. She joined the organisation in September 2018 as Team Lead for the Climate Footprint Project, leading a consortium of partners to support governments in developing and emerging economies.
Sandra Roling, Director of Transport
Sandra is our Director of Transport. Previously, Sandra spent eight years in Brussels, where she led the public affairs team of a German political communications agency and set up its EU office.
Mandy Simmons, Head of Events
Mandy has 14 years event management experience delivering multifaceted, international events for multiple sectors including healthcare, finance and pharmaceutical. In her most previous role she designed and implemented a new events strategy that enabled significant growth and cemented partnerships for the organization.
Tarun Tandon, Head of Operations and Finance, India
Tarun heads the operations and finance team in India. She has got an illustrious career in the non-profit sector spanning over two decades. She has handled and led functions like finance, operations, HR and even partnerships management across organizations such as The Aga Khan Foundation, PATH, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and India HIV/AIDS Alliance.