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 was appointed to SEforALL’s Board, which aims to accelerate and deliver the solutions needed to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 7 – access to affordable and clean energy by 2030, serves on the Investment Committee for the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet as well as the Advisory Boards for Co-Impact’s Foundational Fund and Gender Advisory Boards. She co-chairs the Climate Coalition for Lower Manhattan and is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Liz is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
Authored Content
Jul 26 2023 Perspective Building Stronger Bridges: Our Commitment To Be a More Effective Partner to Our Grantees At The Rockefeller Foundation, we believe that our ability to help our grantees make the change they seek relies on our effectiveness as a partner and funder. As we continue to take into account climate change’s effects on our mission and those we serve, we are committed to a culture of learning and growth that […]
Mar 30 2023 Perspective 5 Things We Can All Do Better to Advance Gender Equity Every day, women are helping women advance human rights, tackle climate change, drive economic growth, secure nourishing and sustainable food, and prioritize health, all around the world. As this Women’s History Month comes to a close, we carry the inspiration of their accomplishments forward throughout the year. While we applaud women supporting women, advancing gender […]
Mar 31 2022 Perspective 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 Perspective 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 Perspective 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 […]