Varun Sivaram

Varun Sivaram is a physicist, bestselling author, and clean energy technology expert with experience spanning the corporate, public, and academic sectors. He currently serves as the Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer for Ørsted, a leading renewable energy company with the world’s largest offshore wind energy portfolio. At Ørsted, he leads corporate strategy, technology & digital innovation and R&D, and portfolio management and capital allocation. He previously served in the U.S. Biden administration as the managing director for clean energy for Sec. John Kerry, the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, where he created the First Movers Coalition, President Biden's flagship public-private partnership on climate. Before joining government, he was Chief Technology Officer of ReNew Power (NASDAQ: RNW), India's largest renewable energy company. A widely published scientist and innovation scholar, Sivaram has served on the faculty of Georgetown University and Columbia University. He has also shaped government policies supportive of innovation as the director of the energy and climate program at the Council on Foreign Relations and as senior energy advisor to the Los Angeles mayor and New York governor's office. He serves on the boards of the Atlantic Council, the Breakthrough Institute, and Aventurine Partners. TIME Magazine named him one of its "100 Next most influential people in the world," MIT Technology Review named him one of the top 35 innovators under 35, and the World Economic Forum named him a Young Global Leader. His books include "Taming the Sun: Innovations to Harness Solar Energy and Power the Planet"—which The Economist called "prescient"—and Digital Decarbonization: Promoting Digital Innovations to Advance Clean Energy Systems. His latest book, "Energizing America: A Roadmap to Launch a National Energy Innovation Mission," was endorsed by Sec. John Kerry as "a plan to make the United States the world leader in clean energy innovation." Bill Gates praised his essay in Foreign Affairs as "one of the best arguments I've read for why the US should invest in a clean energy revolution." A Rhodes and Truman Scholar, Sivaram holds a PhD in condensed matter physics from Oxford University and undergraduate degrees from Stanford University.

Clean energy, Clean energy technology, Cleantech, Climate change, Climate policy, Energy, Energy innovation, Energy policy, Innovation