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 and is on the board of the the Sustainable Development Capital Energy Efficiency Income Trust.
Prior to joining Climate Group, Helen worked at Forum for the Future, Médecins Sans Frontières, and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Deloitte.
Angela Barranco, Executive Director, North America
Angela currently serves as the Executive Director for North America at Climate Group. She brings over two decades of political and policy management experience, most recently as Undersecretary of the California Natural Resources Agency.
Luke Herbert, Executive Director of International Communications
Luke has built his senior strategic comms and public affairs experience from working across the climate, energy, technology and manufacturing sectors. He is passionate about improving global engagement with businesses and governments, developing the practice of climate comms in order to drive faster climate action. His career includes senior roles advising on global energy and industry, working to secure multi-$billion co-investment from the private and public sector.
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.
Ana Mates, Chief Operating Officer
Ana joined Climate Group in 2018 and is our COO. She is responsible for business development, HR, finance, governance, office and IT.
David Mole, Executive Director of Development
David is an experienced leader in strategic business development and fundraising, with nearly 20 years of expertise in forging high-value partnerships with international donors, corporates and governments. As Executive Director of Development at Climate Group, he oversees the organisation’s global fundraising strategy, supporting initiatives like RE100, EV100, and the Under2 Coalition. David's work is key to securing partnerships that drive demand for net zero solutions and influence market and policy shifts.
Alex Moore, Executive Director of Finance & IT
Alex joined the Climate Group in 2021 as our International Finance and IT Director.
Champa Patel, Executive Director for Governments and Policy
Champa Patel is the Executive Director for Governments and Policy, which includes leading on the strategy, development and growth of Climate Groups work with subnational and national governments, including the Under2 Coalition, and international institutions.
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.
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, Director of Commercial Strategy
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.
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 Innovation and Impact
Libby is Director of Innovation and Impact. She leads the development of Climate Group’s new programmatic work ensuring our programmes remain at the forefront of innovation and have most possible impact. Prior to this, Libby was Director of Policy and Knowledge and led Climate Group’s global government program, including the establishment of the Under2 Coalition.
Nicol Forster, Director of 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 is headed up by Jeroen Gerlag, who joined the organisation from METRO AG where he was Head of Corporate Responsibility.
More about Jeroen.
Andrew Forth, Head of Policy and Advocacy
Andrew is Head of the Policy and Advocacy at Climate Group where he works on planning and delivering our engagement with the public sector. Based in London, he has a background working in policy and public affairs across industry and has been part of the Climate Group team since April 2023.
Rik Goverde, Director of Programme and Corporate Communications
Rik is our Director of Programme and Corporate Communications. He has a background in media – first as a journalist in The Netherlands, and after that covering human rights issues and humanitarian crises in North and West Africa as a foreign correspondent for Dutch and English media.
Heather James, Director of Human Resources
Heather is Climate Group’s Director of Human Resources 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, Director of the Under2 and Subnational Governments
In her role as Director of the Under2 Coalition and Subnational Governments, Nehmat Kaur leads the strategy and effort with our network of subnational governments, from across 35 countries globally. This ranges from supporting subnational governments to set the highest possible climate ambition, take strong action via policy and projects, as well as subnational advocacy and accountability. She joined the Climate Group in April 2018 as Senior Manager, South Asia Government Relations.
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 Communications, North America
Adam is Head of Communications, North America at Climate Group. He is based in our New York office and leads on communications, media, and engagement across Climate Group’s work in North America and LATAM countries. This includes overseeing communications for our systems initiatives, (RE100, EV100), subnational engagement (Under2 Coalition) and core activations (US Climate Action Summit, Climate Week NYC).
Atul Mudaliar, Director of Systems Change, India
Atul leads India’s strategy on driving powerful networks of businesses towards ambitious commitments and climate action in our energy, transport, industry, food and built environment systems. He is responsible for the strategy and the growth of RE100, EP100, EV100, EV100+, SteelZero and ConcreteZero initiatives in India.
Sahra Magnin, Head of Legal
Sahra is Head of the Legal team which provides legal advice and support across the organisation. Sahra is responsible for designing frameworks and processes to ensure compliance with the law and to protect our business and assets from risk.
Toyin Omoniyi, Head of Group Reporting & Control
Toyin is the Head of Group Reporting and Control, having joined Climate Group in 2014. She manages the Financial Reporting team, ensures financial compliance and leads the external statutory audit process.
Dominic Phinn, Head of Transport
Dominic is Head of Transport overseeing Climate Group’s global transport activity including the ZEV Community, EV100 and EV100+. He has 20 years’ experience engaging business in the UK, China and Ecuador on sustainability and policy pathways to net zero.
Jebi Rahman, Head of Global Implementation
Jebi is currently the Head of Global Implementation at the Climate Group, where she is responsible for developing and overseeing the delivery of major projects and high impact initiatives within the Governments and Policy department. 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.
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 organisation.
Emma Wilson, Head of Marketing
Emma leads Climate Group’s Marketing, positioning the organisation as a prominent influencer in the climate space. Focusing on elevating impact in campaigning, stakeholder relations, brand management, and digital marketing.
Ollie Wilson, Head of RE100 and Energy Operations
Ollie Wilson is the Head of RE100 and Energy Operations, looking after the running of the RE100 campaign. His role is focused on setting and ensuring the delivery of RE100’s five year strategy through to 2026. Ollie has been with Climate Group for three and half years and is based in London.
