Michel Gelobter is one of the country’s leading climate strategists, having worked for more than 25 years as a regulator, policy-maker, researcher, and thought leader on environmental and social policy. Michel co-founded BuildingEnergy.com, designing the world’s largest platform for building energy data and applications . Prior, Michel was Chief Green Officer of Hara Software, a Kleiner-Perkins portfolio company and the leading enterprise energy and environmental management startup.

Until founding Cooler in early 2007, Michel was President/CEO of Redefining Progress, the U.S.’s leading domestic sustainability policy institute. During Michel’s tenure, Redefining Progress helped design the world’s most aggressive climate legislation which was signed into California law in August of 2006, formed the Climate Justice Corps to train thousands of U.S. youth in climate activism, became the worldwide home of the Ecological Footprint (the world’s best known measure of sustainability), and created MyFootprint.org, a website serving over 2 million unique visitors a month.

Michel also founded and directed the Environmental Policy Program at Columbia University and the Environment and Energy Track at Singularity University. He worked as a Congressional Black Caucus Fellow and for the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, was Director of Environmental Quality for the City of New York, and served as an Assistant Commissioner for its Department of Environmental Protection (with over 6,000 employees and a combined budget of over $2 billion/year).

Michel earned his B.S., M.S. and a Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley in Energy and Resources. He has served as a member of the Clinton Global Initiative, the Advisory Board of Vice-President Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection, and is presently on the Boards of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Center for Race, Poverty, and the Environment, and CERES, among others.