MICHAEL LIEBREICH

Michael Liebreich is a proven entrepreneur and leading global expert on clean energy and transportation, smart infrastructure, technology, climate finance and sustainable development. Since March 2021, Michael has been a Co-Founding and Managing Partner of EcoPragma Capital LLP, a Growth Equity investor focused on companies on the cusp of strong commercial growth and contributing to the net-zero transition.

​

Michael continues to provide personal advisory services through Liebreich Associates and is a frequent speaker on clean energy and transportation, smart infrastructure, technology, climate finance and sustainable development. Over the years he has testified to numerous US Senate, UK and EU Parliamentary groups and committees. He has addressed the UN General Assembly, the Clean Energy Ministerial and a variety of other governmental and multilateral bodies.

​

Michael is Founder and Senior Contributor to BloombergNEF and Advisor to the UK’s Board of Trade. He is a member of the International Advisory Group of Equinor (Norway’s national energy company) and Senior Advisor to Sustainable Development Capital LLP (SDCL). He chairs the Advisory Board for Eavor Technologies (the world’s leading advanced geothermal provider) and serves on a number of other advisory boards, including GreenMap Association, 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, the UK’s Clean Growth Fund and Ignite Power (a fast-growing provider of distributed solar power in Africa). Michael is a member of the Strategic Committee for the World Alliance for Efficient Solutions (part of the Solar Impulse Foundation), and in April 2021 he became a member of WBCSD’s Climate & Energy Advisory Council.

Michael is Visiting Professor at Imperial College’s Energy Futures Lab, founding Chairman of the Liebreich Foundation and Founder and Chair of the Advisory Board of Moving Mountains (a Swiss charity focusing on the sustainability of mountain regions).

​

He founded New Energy Finance in 2004 and was Chairman and CEO until its sale to Bloomberg LP in 2009. He remained CEO of BloombergNEF until 2014 and then served as Chairman of the Advisory Board until 2017. 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. In 2019 Michael was a member of the IEA’s Global Commission for Urgent Action on Energy Efficiency. Between 2008 and 2017 Michael served on the high-level advisory group for the UN Secretary General’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative.

​

Until 2020, Michael was a member of the selection committee for the Bloomberg New Energy Pioneers, a programme he created in 2008 and chaired until 2014. He was the founding chairman of Finance for Resilience (an accelerator of climate finance solutions). He has served on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Councils on Sustainable Energy and the New Energy Architecture and been a member of the selection panel for the WEF Technology Pioneers and the advisory board of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week. He has also served on the advisory boards of the Clinton Global Initiative’s Energy and Climate Change Working Group, Business for Britain and Shell New Energies, as well as on the Accenture Energy Board.

​

Prior to founding New Energy Finance Michael helped build over 25 companies as a venture capitalist, entrepreneur and executive. From 1995 to 1998 he was Deputy Managing Director of Associated Press Television and Founding Director of Sports News Television. He acted as Non-Executive Director of Interactive Investor and was UK Managing Director of a division of Groupe Arnault which managed a $700m VC portfolio. Between 1990 and 1995 Michael was an associate and manager in the London office of McKinsey & Co. From 2002 to 2017, Michael was a trustee of St Mark’s Hospital Foundation (a bowel medicine charity), chairing and restructuring it between 2010 and 2017.

​

Michael earned his MA in Engineering with First Class Honours from the University of Cambridge, winning the Wyatt Prize for Engineering and the Ricardo Prize for Thermodynamics. He 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 is a two-time Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist. He is the co-author of three peer-reviewed papers and of the Complete Skier (BBC Books, 1993).

​

Michael was a member of the British Ski Team from 1986 to 1993, British Moguls Champion in 1991, and competed in Europa Cup, World Cup and in the 1992 Albertville Olympics. He lives in London with his wife and three children. Michael speaks fluent French and German.