Elizabeth Yee is the Executive Vice President of Programs. She oversees The Foundation’s portfolio of global programs, regional offices and learning and impact team, and leads the advancement of the Foundation’s strategic priorities. She is the former Chief of Staff and joined The Foundation in 2019 as the Managing Director of Climate and Resilience.
From 2015-2019, Liz held various executive leadership roles at 100 Resilient Cities, a sponsored project of The Foundation, where she led the development of strategic partnerships and collaborated with member cities and investors to develop and mobilize financial solutions.
Before joining 100 Resilient Cities, Liz co-led the Public Power and Utilities practice at Barclays Capital. During her seventeen years in financial services at Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers and Barclays Capital, Liz originated, developed, structured and executed over $30 billion of infrastructure, energy, commodities and derivative transactions. She and her team were two time “Bond Buyer Deal of the Year” recipients for their innovative approaches to renewable energy finance.
She is a visiting fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House, serves on Co-Impact’s Foundational Fund and Gender Advisory Boards, and co-chairs the Climate Coalition for Lower Manhattan. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
Authored Content
Mar 31 2022 Blog Post We Need Gender Parity Urgently Every day, I wear a few hats. I’m a mom to two tweens, a special-needs son and an incredibly precocious daughter. I’m also The Rockefeller Foundation’s Executive Vice President for Program Strategy and its Chief of Staff. I joined the Foundation after a career that began in the male-dominated investment banking industry, rising through the […]
Jun 08 2020 Blog Post Should We Use Covid-19 to Respond to the Climate Emergency? There are two sharply divergent views about the implications of the Covid-19 pandemic for global efforts to tackle climate change. Some policy experts and activists believe we must deprioritize climate action, while others take the view that this moment presents a unique – and perhaps final – window of opportunity to set the world on […]
Feb 24 2020 Blog Post If We Fail on Inequality We Will Also Fail on Climate At the end of January in the mountain resort of Davos, political, corporate, and philanthropic leaders gathered to discuss how they could build a cohesive and sustainable world. The star attraction was a teenager in a hoodie, without title, position or wealth – the young climate activist, Greta Thunberg. She delivered a stark reminder that “our […]
Sep 20 2019 Blog Post Urban Resilience Infrastructure: an Imperative in a Climate Uncertain World Regardless of climate, infrastructure is a basic need for human survival. By definition, infrastructure is the “basic physical and organizational structure needed for the operation of a society or enterprise.” Infrastructure is intended to provide communities with shelter, and serve as an engine to support continued economic growth. But the world’s infrastructure is broken. Despite […]