Katherine Hamilton is Chair of 38 North and has for the third time been named one of the 500 most influential people in Washington, DC, by Washingtonian magazine. As an international policy expert, Hamilton was an original and longtime host of The Energy Gang podcast, was a regular contributor to The Carbon Copy podcast, and has now joined the original Gang to launch Open Circuit. 

Hamilton has led several councils of the World Economic Forum as a global policy and technology thought leader and is currently a Senior Executive in Clean Power and Electrification. She served as Vice Chair of the board of Greentown Labs, with start-up hubs in Somerville, MA and Houston, TX and currently serves as a Non-Executive Director at Smarter Grid Solutions, as an Independent Director at Peak Power, and as an Advisor to MKB, a growth equity fund. 

Hamilton served as President of the GridWise Alliance, advocating for smart grid funding in the Obama Administration’s Recovery Act. Prior to that role, Katherine was a policy advisor for Good Energies, Inc., a private investment company with a portfolio in clean energy technologies of nearly $6 billion. She co-directed the American Bioenergy Association, working with the states of Maryland and New Jersey to develop renewable portfolio standards. At the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Katherine led buildings research and then managed government relations in Washington, DC. 

Hamilton spent a decade at Virginia Power, designing grids and managing commercial customer projects. Hamilton studied electrical engineering at Northern Virginia Community College and holds degrees from Cornell University and the Sorbonne. Hamilton was previously profiled and listed on the #Solar100 board by kWh Analytics and received a Cleanie Award as Entrepreneur of the Year.