The Atlantic Council today named one of the country’s leading policy experts on energy and climate change, Heather Zichal, as a senior fellow in its new Global Energy Center.

“Heather has built a successful career around bridging gaps in the energy-policy sectors on those trends that are changing the way the world generates, transmits and consumes energy,” said Atlantic Council President and CEO Frederick Kempe. “She is a leading thinker on evolving energy trends and on how business and government can work together on creative responses to the great energy-related challenges we are facing today and are likely to face in the future.”

From 2009 to 2013, Zichal served as the deputy assistant to the president for energy and climate change. In this role, she helped to shape and execute many of the president’s top energy and climate priorities, including establishing historic new fuel economy standards, reducing mercury pollution, and supporting clean energy deployment in the United States. Prior to joining the administration, Zichal served as a policy director to the Obama Campaign, where she helped craft the 2008 energy platform.

At the Atlantic Council, Zichal will focus on tomorrow’s energy challenges through global energy security, the responsible development of energy resources, and strategic foresight.

Zichal is the newest addition to the Council’s world-class team of energy experts, led by former two-time Ambassador Richard Morningstar.  The Global Energy Center, the Atlantic Council’s newest program, also includes former Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs David Goldwyn who serves as the chair of its advisory board, and Cynthia Quartermann, who joins the Council as a distinguished senior fellow following her tenure as the administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

Please email press@AtlanticCouncil.org for more information on the Global Energy Center or to arrange an interview with Heather Zichal.  

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