Michael Shellenberger, President
Ted Nordhaus, Chairman
Email: michael(at)thebreakthrough(dot)org; ted(at)thebreakthrough(dot)org
   Nordhaus and Shellenberger are leading global thinkers on energy, climate, security, human development, and politics. Their 2007 book Break Through was called "prescient" by Time and "the most important thing to happen to environmentalism since Silent Spring" by Wired. (An excerpt in the The New Republic can be read here.) Their 2004 essay, "The Death of Environmentalism," was featured on the front page of the Sunday New York Times, sparked a national debate, and inspired a generation of young environmentalists.
   Over the years, the two have been profiled in the New York Times, Wired, the National Review, The New Republic, and on NPR. In 2007, they received the Green Book Award and Time magazine's 2008 "Heroes of the Environment" award.
   In 2011, Nordhaus and Shellenberger started the Breakthrough Journal, which The New Republic called "among the most complete answers" to the question of how to modernize liberal thought, and the National Review called "The most promising effort at self-criticism by our liberal cousins in a long time."
   Shellenberger and Nordhaus are leaders of a paradigm shift in climate and energy policy. They proposed "making clean energy cheap" in The Harvard Law and Policy Review, explained why the Kyoto climate treaty failed in Democracy Journal, and predicted the bursting of the green bubble in The New Republic and Los Angeles Times. The two predicted the failure of cap and trade in the American Prospect, criticized "green jobs" in The New Republic, and pointed a way forward for climate policy in the Wall Street Journal.
   The two have written on intellectual property for Slate, counter-terrorism for Roll Call, the end of the war on terror for The Atlantic, and modernization as a new ecological theology for Orion. The full list of their published articles can be accessed here.
   Ted Nordhaus is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and Michael Shellenberger is a graduate of Earlham College and holds a masters degree in cultural anthropology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. The two live in the Bay Area and travel widely.

Ruchira Shah - Director of Operations; Managing Editor, Breakthrough Journal
Email: ruchi(at)thebreakthrough(dot)org
Ruchira Shah is the Director of Operations at the Breakthrough Institute and Managing Editor of the Breakthrough Journal, a regular publication dedicated to modernizing liberalism. An editor, writer, and blogger, Ruchira has written extensively on environmental matters. In 2009, she was an editor and blogger for JustMeans.com on the subject of ethical consumption. Subsequently, she worked at the United Nations in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs where she helped develop content for several of their web pages. She received her MSc in Social Policy from the London School of Economics where she focused on environmental policy and international development and wrote a Master's thesis on the role of NGOs at international climate change negotiations. In a previous life, Ruchira worked at CBS Television Studios in Comedy Development. She has a BA from Northwestern University.

Jesse Jenkins - Director of Energy and Climate Policy
Email: jesse(at)thebreakthrough(dot)org
Jesse Jenkins is Director of Energy and Climate Policy at the Breakthrough Institute, where he manages the research, analysis, policy development, and communciations efforts of the Institute's Energy and Climate Program. He is the lead author or co-author of numerous reports and analysis including "Bridging the Clean Energy Valleys of Death," "Climate Pragmatism," "Energy Emergence: Rebound and Backfire as Emergent Phenomena," "Where Good Technologies Come From," "Post-Partisan Power," "Strengthening Clean Energy Competitiveness," and widely cited analysis of Congressional climate change legislation. Jesse's work and analysis has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Time Magazine, Newsweek, and other major media outlets. He has appeared on National Public Radio, MSNBC, and in the pages of Forbes, Atlantic Monthly, San Francisco Chronicle, Yale Environment 360 and other publications. Jesse has also served for four years as Associate Director of Breakthrough Generation, the Institute's annual young leaders fellowship program. Prior to joining Breakthrough in June 2008, Jesse worked at the Renewable Northwest Project to advance the development of the Pacific Northwest's abundant renewable energy potential. Jesse is a graduate of the Robert D. Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon (magna cum laude), where he completed an interdisciplinary course of study in computer science, philosophy, political science, and energy studies. Follow Jesse on Twitter: @JesseJenkins.

Devon Swezey - Project Director, Program on Innovation and the Economy
Email: devon(at)thebreakthrough(dot)org
Devon Swezey is Project Director with the Breakthrough Institute's ">Program on Innovation and the Economy, where he works as an economic policy analyst specializing in manufacturing, competitiveness and clean economy policy. Devon is the lead author or co-author of numerous reports, including "Manufacturing Growth: Advanced Manufacturing and the Future of the American Economy," "Taking on the Three Deficits: An Investment Guide to American Renewal," Where Good Technologies Come From, and "Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant," a major report on international clean energy competitiveness in the U.S. and Asia. Devon has provided expert testimony before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission on clean energy competitiveness policy, and was a keynote speaker at Time Magazine's World Energy Technology Summit, Energy Innovation 2010, and Energy Innovation 2011. Devon wrote one of the first journal articles on the call for a new Apollo project on energy in 2005 for the inaugural issue of the Roosevelt Review, and his writing has appeared in Businessweek, Forbes.com, and the Huffington Post, among other outlets. In 2008, Devon worked as a field organizer for the Obama for America campaign, and he was a Breakthrough Generation Fellow in 2009. He received his bachelor's degree in international relations with a concentration in international political economy from Stanford University. He can be followed on twitter: @DevonSwezey.

Alex Trembath - Policy Associate, Energy and Climate Program
Email: alex(at)thebreakthrough(dot)org
Alex Trembath is a graduate of University of California at Berkeley where he received his Bachelor's in Environmental Economics and Policy. While at Cal, Alex was active in the Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative and California Lightweight Crew. In 2009, he worked at San Francisco City Hall on local cleantech and community development in the Mayor's Office of Climate Protection Initiatives. During his time at City Hall, Alex was instrumental in the creation of a comprehensive database on cleantech companies in San Francisco. He has worked on several political campaigns, including Gavin Newsom's gubernatorial run in 2009 and Organizing for America. Alex recently completed a policy fellowship with Americans for Energy Leadership, where he wrote on U.S. energy policy and politics. Alex was a 2011 Breakthrough Generation Fellow, contributing research to a report on the collapse of federal funding for clean energy technology. His research has been published by the Breakthrough Institute, Americans for Energy Leadership, and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Forbes, and the Huffington Post. Alex has his own blog, Energetics, where he writes about climate and energy issues. He also writes regularly for The Energy Collective and WattHead - Energy News and Commentary. He has lived in San Francisco for the last ten years, and is a proud son of South Bend, Indiana. He enjoys rowing and exploring the Bay Area. Follow Alex on Twitter @atrembath.

Linus Blomqvist - Policy Associate, Conservation Program
Email: linus(at)thebreakthrough(dot)org
Linus Blomqvist is a graduate of University of Cambridge, UK, with a degree in geography and management, focusing in particular on climate change, ecology and natural resource management. He is currently working with the newly established Conservation Program at Breakthrough Institute, and was previously a 2011 Breakthrough Generation Fellow. After finishing gymnasium (high school) in 2004, Linus went into self-imposed exile from his native Sweden with the aim of learning three new languages and gaining experience from development and conservation projects around the world. He now speaks four and a half languages (Swedish, English, Spanish, French and some Russian) and has done fieldwork in Ecuador, Slovenia, Malta, and Kenya. Working with BirdLife Europe in Brussels in 2009, he authored a policy report on ecosystems and adaptation to climate change, subsequently following this issue at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations in Bonn, Germany, and Copenhagen, Denmark. Linus also reviewed the science and policy concerning bio-energy from forestry for the UK-based Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) in 2010. When not studying or working, Linus hits the road with his backpack, and has so far visited nearly 40 countries in the Americas, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

Helen Feng - Special Assistant to the President & Chairman
Email: helen(at)thebreakthrough(dot)org
Helen Feng received her bachelor’s degree in Economics and International Relations from Brown University. As the Special Assistant to the President and Chairman at The Breakthrough Institute, she is building the groundwork for a new nuclear energy advocacy organization and helping to coordinate Breakthrough Generation. Helen is primarily interested in non-profit management and she has worked at numerous organizations in the past. From 2010-2011, she served as the Regional Campaign Manager for Teach for China, where she managed teams across the Northeast on a high-publicity recruitment campaign. She has also performed research on environmental non-profit organizations with the NGO Research Center, in Tsinghua University (Beijing, China). Helen speaks two other languages, Mandarin Chinese and Spanish, and is currently learning French. In her spare time, she enjoys rock climbing, running and volunteering with SFWAR (San Francisco Women Against Rape).

Audrey Torres - Event Coordinator/Executive Assistant
Email: audrey(at)thebreakthrough(dot)org
Audrey is the Event Coordinator and Executive Assistant at the Breakthrough Institute, responsible for managing the smooth flow of office processes as well as all Breakthrough events. Audrey's main focus is planning the annual Breakthrough Dialogue, a three-day forum designed to gather Breakthrough's community of Senior Fellows, Breakthrough Generation fellows, scholars, and allies from all over the world to ask difficult questions about how to modernize liberalism for the 21st century. In 2011, Audrey interned with Back to Earth Catering, working under the guidance of their lead Event Producer to plan and produce weddings and galas. In the spring of 2009 she spent a semester abroad in Florence, Italy where she indulged in large quantities of pasta and gelato. She received her bachelor's degree in English from UC Berkeley.