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Strategic Advisor·Clean Energy·Grid Infrastructure

Ernest (Ernie) Moniz

President & CEO (Energy Futures Initiative); Co-Chair of the Board (NTI); Board Advisor (Angeleno Group) at Energy Futures Initiative

Washington, D.C.

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Why they matter

Most credible cross-domain advisor in US energy: ex-Cabinet secretary, working academic, active board member, and policy architect. A call with Moniz contextualizes any clean-energy or grid thesis.

Background

13th United States Secretary of Energy under President Obama (2013–2017) and Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems Emeritus at MIT. Co-founded the Energy Futures Initiative (EFI) in 2017 and serves as its President & CEO. Co-Chair of the Board of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (former CEO, 2017–2025). Long-time advisor to the Angeleno Group, a clean-energy private equity firm. One of the most consequential energy-policy voices of the past two decades.

Notable deals

  • 2017
    Co-founded the Energy Futures Initiative, a nonprofit research and policy organization driving clean-energy technology and decarbonization pathways.
  • 2015
    As US Energy Secretary, led the Iran nuclear deal negotiations and the Mission Innovation framework launched at COP21.
  • 2024
    Continues to publish landmark reports through EFI on US transmission, hydrogen, CCS, and grid resilience.

Call-prep brief

Background

Moniz is an MIT physicist who became Secretary of Energy under Obama, then built EFI into one of the most-cited energy-policy shops in Washington. His view connects technology (he reads the papers), policy (he wrote the rules), and capital (he's on PE/VC boards).

What he cares about

  • The transmission build-out as the single biggest blocker to the energy transition.
  • Long-duration storage, hydrogen, CCS as complements to renewables.
  • Nuclear (small modular and conventional) as a strategic baseload.
  • Workforce and supply chains for the build-out.

Recent moves

  • Stepped back from NTI CEO role in 2025 to focus on EFI and board work.
  • Regular CERAWeek and CGEP keynote speaker.

Sensitivities

  • Has had to navigate criticism that EFI receives funding from natural-gas interests. Don't poke at that. Engage with substance.
  • Time-constrained at the highest level: come with a narrow ask.

Questions to ask

  1. Where does he see the bottleneck moving from interconnection to transmission to grid hardware over the next 18 months?
  2. Which technology bets (LDES, advanced nuclear, green hydrogen) does he most trust to be commercial by 2030?
  3. What's the right private-capital structure for big interregional transmission?

Outreach draft

Subject
Transmission policy and the energy build-out
Dr. Moniz, I lead clean-energy and grid investing at [Firm]. We're orienting our next vintage around the transmission and long-duration adjacencies you've been writing on through EFI, and your perspective from the Cabinet, MIT, and board seats is the highest-signal source we know of. Would you have 30 minutes in the next two months for a structured conversation? Happy to defer to your schedule and prepare specific questions in advance. With respect, [Name]

Linked companies

Sources

Strongest evidencePage title3 public sourcesVerified2026-05-27How the grades work