George Polk

Change agent, Connector, Entrepreneur, Explorer, Global soul, Investor, Parent, Philanthropist, World traveler

George Polk decided in 2007 to devote the next stage of his life to fighting climate change. His original goal was to bring the discipline of his business building background to the challenges facing the globe from global warming. Since he started working on climate, George has invested in businesses that are leading the transition to a low carbon economy, secured philanthropic commitments of over $100m to set up some of the most significant and effective institutions and initiatives to fight climate change, and played a major but informal role in shaping global policy and regulations on climate, low carbon growth and energy. Starting with A Date with the Planet in early 2007, George mobilized fellow philanthropists and entrepreneurs to focus their resources on having a measurable impact on reversing global warming. During 2007, George brought together four other founders to create the Europe Climate Foundation, now the largest European funder of work on climate. In 2008, George worked with Richard Branson and Virgin Unite to create the Carbon War Room, which is helping build practical partnerships that will build a low carbon economy, and with the Climateworks Foundation and McKinsey to create Project Catalyst, the most significant private participant in the Copenhagen round of climate negotiations. In 2009, George worked with George Soros to create the Soros Climate Initiative, a $1 billion investment effort focused on accelerating the development and diffusion of climate change technologies and business models. During this time, George was Chairman of the European Climate Foundation, Senior Advisor on Climate Change to McKinsey, and Senior Advisor to the Climateworks Foundation, and a Director of the Carbon War Room. George was also a Director of Powerspan Corporation, a leader in Carbon Capture technology for the utility industry. Prior to working on climate change, George had a successful career as a technology entrepreneur, most recently founder and CEO of The Cloud, the leading broadband wireless network operator in Europe (sold to BSkyB), MD of Geotek International Networks, a digital radio network operator (sold to Global Telesystems), EP Systems, a pioneer in the electronic monitoring of criminals placed under house arrest (sold to Detection Systems), and co-founder of Wave Systems, a digital encryption company. George was recognized as Global Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum, a Pioneer of the City of London, and has been ranked several times in the top 25 global technology agenda setters by Silicon.com. He is a graduate of Harvard University and is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and of the Royal Institute of International Affairs.

Changing the world. Not in a soft touchy feely sort of way (although i envy that approach) but in a realistic, focused, dedicated and effective way.

Our best work is called Roadmap 2050 (roadmap2050.eu), which is a hard nosed analysis of how Europe can build a fully decarbonized power sector by 2050. Managed by McKinsey and Company, the project included input from most major European utilities, grid operators, and technology suppliers. The report shows that a 0 carbon European power system is totally achievable, and even better, the end GDP in Europe is higher in a decarbonized world than a carbonized world. of course it is -- heavy investment in new infrastructure, which then operates far more efficiency than fossil systems, leaves you with a vibrant economy with low variable energy costs. And that's not even counting the savings in public health, including decreased depression. The roadmap has changed the dialog around low carbon prosperity in Europe.

Climate Change, energy efficiency, Entrepreneur, International negotiations, Investor, Mobile Telecommunications, Philanthropy, Wireless Broadband