Rushad Nanavatty leads Rocky Mountain Institute’s urban transformation work, currently focused on helping U.S. cities achieve their climate, sustainability, and clean energy goals. Rushad established the City Renewables Accelerator, an initiative of the American Cities Climate Challenge providing over 100 U.S. cities with technical assistance related to decarbonizing their electricity systems. The work has helped deliver some of the largest ever municipal renewable energy transactions and most impactful utility and regulatory engagement by cities in the United States.
Rushad also helped establish and lead the Global Cooling Prize, a global innovation competition to develop a climate-friendly residential cooling solution that produces 80 percent lower emissions than today’s standard room air-conditioners. Previously, he worked with the Energy Web Foundation (EWF), a partnership between RMI and Grid Singularity to develop promising applications for blockchain technology in the energy sector
Prior to joining RMI, Rushad served as the founding COO of WeGen Energy, a start-up developing off-grid energy solutions and virtual power plants in the Philippines and Vietnam, utilizing a mix of distributed solar and battery energy storage.
Before WeGen, Rushad spent six years at McKinsey & Company as a member of the firm’s sustainability, infrastructure, and private equity practices. While at McKinsey he led projects for clients across Africa, Asia, and the Americas; including market entry, growth, turn-around and sustainability strategies, operations transformations, reorganizations, and commercial due diligences.
Rushad has a Master’s degree in International Relations and International Economics from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Philosophy from St. Stephens College at the University of Delhi.
Washington, DC
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Any serious energy transformation will need to harness America’s powerful and creative economic engine.
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