BIOGRAPHY
Michael is a leading expert and keynote speaker on clean energy and transportation, smart infrastructure, technology, climate finance and sustainable development.
The Chairman of Liebreich Associates, he is also the Founder and Senior Contributor to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. He is a member of the UK Department for International Trade’s Capital Investment Advisory Board and a Visiting Professor at Imperial College’s Energy Futures Lab and recently joined Sustainable Development Capital LLP (SDCL) as a Senior Adviser. In June 2019 Michael was honoured to accept an invitation to join the IEA’s Global Commission for Urgent Action on Energy Efficiency, a newly formed independent panel focusing on key policy actions which can be undertaken by countries around the globe.
Michael Liebreich serves on a number of advisory boards, including WWF Switzerland, The Hawthorn Club, an international network for professional women in the energy industry, Women in Sustainability, Environment and Renewable Energy (WiSER), the OECD Centre on Green Finance, Imperial College’s Masters programme in Climate Finance and Management, Carbon Limiting Technologies Sustainable Technologies Fund, Ignite Power, a fast-growing provider of distributed solar power in Africa and most recently, Equinor’s International Advisory Board. In April 2019 he resigned from the Advisory Board of Shell New Energies. Michael is a member of the Strategic Committee for the World Alliance for Efficient Solutions (Solar Impulse Foundation), a member of the selection committee for the Bloomberg New Energy Pioneers, a programme he created in 2008 and chaired until 2014 and has recently become a member of the High-Level Observer Group for the Hydrogen Council.
Michael Liebreich is Founding Chairman of the Liebreich Foundation (Philanthropic) and Association EcoVillages, a Swiss charity focusing on sustainability of mountain regions. He has recently completed a charitable project building a solar power system to support a Neo-natal unit in Sierra Leone.
Between 2012 and 2018 Michael was a Board Member of Transport for London, where he sat on the Finance Committee and chaired the Safety, Sustainability and HR Panel. He is a former member of the high-level advisory group for the UN Secretary General’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative, has served on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Councils on Sustainable Energy and the New Energy Architecture, and the advisory board of the Clinton Global Initiative Energy and Climate Change Working Group. Prior to founding New Energy Finance, Michael helped build over 25 companies as a venture capitalist, entrepreneur and executive, and before that he worked for McKinsey and Company.
Michael has an MA in Engineering from the University of Cambridge, where he won the Wyatt Prize for Engineering and the Ricardo Prize for Thermodynamics. Michael has an MBA from Harvard, where he was a Harkness Fellow and Baker Scholar. Michael has won lifetime achievement awards from BusinessGreen and the UK Renewable Energy Association and has been a two-time finalist in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. Michael skied for Great Britain at the 1992 Albertville Olympics.
For more information on Michael Liebreich’s speaking fees and topics, contact Leo von Bülow-Quirk at leo@vbqspeakers.com.
MICHAEL LIEBREICH: KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Michael has built a reputation as one of the world’s foremost thinkers on clean energy and sustainability.
He is a prolific speaker, adept at delivering keynotes, briefings and workshop training sessions, as well as moderating panels and hosting awards ceremonies.