Ms. Aimée CHRISTENSEN (GB member 2010-2012)
Christensen Global Strategies, Founder and CEO
Aimée Christensen has worked at the intersection of environment, development, and human rights for nearly two decades. Aimée guides individuals and institutions seeking to address the global challenges of climate change, ecosystem degradation, and resource scarcity, including the Clinton Global Initiative, Carbon War Room, Duke Energy, Ogilvy, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Swiss Re, the United Nations Development Program, the U.S. Department of Energy, Virgin Unite, and Wolfensohn + Co. At the UN “COP16″ climate talks in Cancun in December 2010, Aimee orchestrated “Business for Climate Action 2010”, showcasing business leadership on climate change with the CEOs of Duke, Dow, Coca-Cola, and FEMSA, with UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres and President Calderon of Mexico. She is the Program Chair of the World Climate Summit, bringing together business leaders to collaborate on building the global clean economy. She was a National Co-Chair of Cleantech & Green Business for Obama, and in early 2009 she co-founded the Clean Economy Network, whose collaboration with other business groups through the We Can Lead campaign brought over 250 business leaders to Capitol Hill in October 2009, to advocate for passage of comprehensive climate change and energy legislation. As the first climate hire at Google.org, she developed and incubated the “RechargeIT” plug-in hybrid vehicle-to-grid project, and she advised Google’s Greenteam in developing its corporate climate strategy including a commitment to carbon neutrality and adoption of a “shadow price” for carbon. She practiced law with the global law firm of Baker & McKenzie and the World Bank, and while at the U.S. Department of Energy in the 1990s, she developed and negotiated the Summit of the Americas energy accords and the first bilateral and regional agreements on climate change, and served as energy advisor for Presidential engagement with Latin America. She is a founder of and pro bono adviser to the Newark (NJ) Green Future Network and Summit.
Aimée serves on several boards and advisory boards including the Homeland Security Advisory Council’s Task Force on Sustainability and Efficiency advising Secretary Janet Napolitano; the Board of Directors of the American Council on Renewable Energy, of the Clean Economy Development Center, and the Clean Economy Network; and the Advisory Board of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy. She is a Contributor on energyNOW! on ABC and Bloomberg, she addressed energy issues at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, and as a member of “U.S. Youth at Rio,” introduced Al Gore at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The Hillary Institute named her the 2011 Hillary International Leadership Laureate in Climate Change Solutions, the first American to win the honor. In 2010 the Aspen Institute awarded Aimee a Catto Fellowship for her environmental leadership and in 2008, she was named an “Emerging Leader” by the New Leaders Council. She received her B.A. from Smith College and her J.D. from Stanford Law School, where she wrote and led efforts to obtain the adoption by Stanford’s Board of Trustees of the “Climate Change and Investment Responsibility Policy” that governs Stanford’s investments to this day.