Eric Emerson Schmidt is an American businessman and former computer engineer who was the chief executive officer of Google from 2001 to 2011 and the company's executive chairman from 2011 to 2015. He also was the executive chairman of parent company Alphabet Inc. from 2015 to 2017, and technical advisor at Alphabet from 2017 to 2020. December 2024, he was 45th wealthiest according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index with an estimated net worth of US$37.8 billion.
John David Podesta Jr. is an American political consultant who has been serving as Senior Advisor to the President for International Climate Policy since 2024, having previously served as the Senior Advisor to the President for Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation from 2022 to 2024. Podesta previously served as White House chief of staff to President Bill Clinton from 1998 to 2001 and counselor to President Barack Obama from 2014 to 2015. Before that, he served in the Clinton administration as White House staff secretary from 1993 to 1995 and White House deputy chief of staff for operations from 1997 to 1998.
The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) is a division of the Executive Office of the President that coordinates federal environmental efforts in the United States and works closely with agencies and other White House offices on the development of environmental and energy policies and initiatives.
Valerie June Jarrett is an American businesswoman and former government official, who has been the chief executive officer of the Obama Foundation since 2021. She was the longest-serving senior advisor to U.S. President Barack Obama. She was assistant to the president for public engagement and intergovernmental affairs, overseeing the office of the same name, and chaired the White House Council on Women and Girls. Before that, she was the chief executive officer of The Habitat Company and a co-chair of the Obama–Biden Transition Project.
Nancy Helen Sutley led the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) for five years during the administration of Barack Obama. She was unanimously confirmed for that post by the United States Senate on January 22, 2009. The CEQ coordinates federal environmental efforts and works with agencies other than White House offices in the development of environmental policies and initiatives; the chair serves as the principal environmental policy advisor to the president.
Brian Christopher Deese is an American economic and political advisor who was the 13th director of the National Economic Council, serving under President Joe Biden.
Beth Simone Noveck is a professor at Northeastern University and the 1st Chief AI Strategist for the State of New Jersey. She previously served as founding Chief Innovation Officer of New Jersey. At Northeastern, she directs the Burnes Center for Social Change and its partner project, The Governance Lab. She is also affiliated faculty with the Institute for Experiential AI. She is the author of Solving Public Problems: How to Fix our Government and Change Our World, Smart Citizens, Smarter State: The Technologies of Expertise and the Future of Government, Wiki Government: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger, and Citizens More Powerful, and co-editor of the State of Play: Law and Virtual Worlds.
Heather Renée Zichal(last name pronounced with long 'i') is an American executive, consultant, and political advisor who specializes in climate change and environmental policy.
Megan J. Smith is an American engineer and technologist. She was the third Chief Technology Officer of the United States and Assistant to the President, serving under President Barack Obama. She was previously a vice president at Google, leading new business development and early-stage partnerships across Google's global engineering and product teams at Google for nine years, was general manager of Google.org, a vice president briefly at Google[x] where she co-created WomenTechmakers, is the former CEO of Planet Out and worked as an engineer on early smartphones at General Magic. She serves on the boards of MIT and Vital Voices, was a member of the USAID Advisory Committee on Voluntary Aid and co-founded the Malala Fund. Today Smith is the CEO and Founder of shift7. On September 4, 2014, she was named as the third U.S. CTO, succeeding Todd Park, and serving until January, 2017.
Clara Chung-wai Shih is an American businesswoman. She is the chairperson and former CEO of Hearsay Social, the digital software company she co-founded in 2009. Since November 2024, Shih leads the Business AI group at Meta Platforms.
Fei-Fei Li is a Chinese-American computer scientist known for establishing ImageNet, the dataset that enabled rapid advances in computer vision in the 2010s. She is the Sequoia Capital professor of computer science at Stanford University and former board director at Twitter. Li is a co-director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence and a co-director of the Stanford Vision and Learning Lab. She served as the director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory from 2013 to 2018.
The contributions of women in climate change have received increasing attention in the early 21st century. Feedback from women and the issues faced by women have been described as "imperative" by the United Nations and "critical" by the Population Reference Bureau. A report by the World Health Organization concluded that incorporating gender-based analysis would "provide more effective climate change mitigation and adaptation."
Kiara Nirghin is a South African technologist,author, and sustainability advocate. She gained recognition at a young age when she won the Grand Prize at the Google Science Fair with her patented technological innovation against climate change. Nirghin has been featured by TIME Magazine and The Guardian on their Most Influential lists and named one of Glamour Magazine’s Women of the Year. She is recognized as a United Nations' Young Champions of the Earth and is a Global Ambassador for Room To Read.
Verity Harding is an expert in AI and technology policy, named Time100's most influential people in AI 2023. She is a published author of AI Needs You, Princeton University Press and Director of the AI and Geopolitics Project (AIxGEO) at the Bennett Institute of Public Policy, University of Cambridge. Harding is also Founder of Formation Advisory Ltd, a bespoke AI consultancy.
Maria da Graça Martins da Silva Carvalho is a Portuguese professor, engineer, and politician of the Social Democratic Party who has been serving as Minister of Environment and Energy in the government of Prime Minister Luís Montenegro since 2024.
Julie Terese Sweet is an American business executive and attorney. She is chair and chief executive officer (CEO) of Accenture, a multinational professional services company.
Julia Nesheiwat is an American academic and former government official who served as the 10th homeland security advisor in the Trump administration from 2020 to 2021. She also served in the Bush and Obama administrations.
Shoshana M. Lew is a career government administrator currently serving as the executive director of the Colorado Department of Transportation. She is the daughter of United States Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew.
Devaki Raj, who grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts, is chief digital and AI officer in the strategy office at Saab, Inc. and CEO and co-founder of CrowdAI.
Melanie Nakagawa is an American attorney, former government official, and the current Chief Sustainability Officer for Microsoft Corp. Her career began in Washington, D.C. as a part of various energy projects from the U.S. Department of State to the National Security Council. In 2023, Nakagawa was identified as a leader in the climate crisis.
