• CERAWEEK 2025 | March 10-14, 2025
  • CERAWEEK
  • March 10 - 14, 2025

Leslie Biddle

United States Department of Energy

Senior Advisor to the Undersecretary for Infrastructure

Leslie D. Biddle a senior advisor to the Under Secretary for Infrastructure at the Department of Energy, focusing on commercialization, market adoption and catalyzing the private sector to finance the energy transition. Prior to joining the Department, she was a partner at Serengeti Asset Management, a specialty investment firm focused on private and public credit opportunities and the development of financing platforms. She is an accomplished investor in the public and private markets, investing in companies across the energy value-chain in renewables and conventional energy including solar, carbon capture, nuclear generation, the development of carbon offsets, and late-stage tech companies, among others. She served as the chief strategy officer of Climate Real Impact Solutions, investing private capital to accelerate the transition to clean energy and net carbon goals. Prior to joining the Department of Energy, Ms. Biddle was a member the board of directors of CenterPoint Energy, an electric and gas utility primarily in Texas and Minnesota; Nextracker, the leading provider of smart solar tacking systems; Cypress Creek Renewables, a leading U.S. solar and storage company; Empire State Realty Trust, the industry leader in carbon neutral commercial real estate; the chair of the Advisory Board of NatureVest, the impact investing arm of The Nature Conservancy; and a member of the Global Advisory Board of The Hawthorn Club for executive woman in energy. Previously, Ms. Biddle was a partner at Goldman Sachs and member of the senior commodities management team contributing to the growth of the business to more than $3 billion. She was a member of Goldman’s firmwide Finance Committee, Business Practices Committee, New Activity Committee, Structured Investment Products Committee and European Audit and Compliance Committee. She was named managing director in 2004 and partner in 2006. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Ms. Biddle was a Vice President at the AES Corporation focusing on power plant development and acquisitions. She also served as a vice president at the Overseas Investment Corporation (now Development Finance Corporation), providing political risk insurance and financing to U.S. companies expanding overseas. She holds an A.B. from Colby College where she served as vice chair of the Board of Trustees. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and lives in New York, New York with her husband, George, and their three children.

Sessions With Leslie Biddle

Tuesday, 19 March

  • 12:30pm - 01:15pm (CST) / 19/mar/2024 05:30 pm - 19/mar/2024 06:15 pm

    Achieving Liftoff: Investing with DOE to Commercialize Clean Energy Technologies

    The U.S. Department of Energy is funding billion-dollar commercialization projects across a range of sectors – from hydrogen to CCUS, clean energy manufacturing to industrial decarbonization – with its new emphasis on infrastructure, enabled by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Join senior DOE leaders in a discussion on how DOE works alongside private investors to deploy large-scale projects, from demonstrations to full-scale production.

  • 05:00pm - 05:30pm (CST) / 19/mar/2024 10:00 pm - 19/mar/2024 10:30 pm

    Creating Demand Market Mechanisms: Make or break for the hydrogen industry
    Hydrogen

    The past years have been pivotal for clean hydrogen development. Targets have been set, supply incentives have been announced and regions across the globe are stating their ambitions. Yet, doubts over market readiness for the development of clean hydrogen are ramping up. Are off-takers willing to commit? Are these deals financeable? Various demand mechanism programs are being developed to tackle these questions. In this panel, we will discuss the auctions implemented by Europe and the projects recently announced by the U.S. DOE to design and implement demand-side support mechanisms.