Carol Browner

Carol Browner is a Senior Counselor at Albright Stonebridge Group, a global strategy firm, where she provides strategic counsel to clients in the areas of environmental protection, energy conservation, climate change, water security, and resource scarcity. She positions clients in many sectors to succeed in enhancing corporate responsibility, gaining market access, identifying political and regulatory risks, and developing strategic partnerships and business relationships. Browner also serves as a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and on the Board of the League of Conservation Voters.

Browner most recently served as Assistant to President Barack Obama and director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, where she oversaw the coordination of environmental, energy, climate, transport, and related policy across the federal government. During her tenure, the White House secured the largest investment ever in clean energy and established the national car policy that included new automobile fuel efficiency standards and the first-ever greenhouse gas reductions. Previously, Browner was a founding principal of The Albright Group LLC from 2001 to 2008.

From 1993 through 2001, Browner served as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. As administrator, she adopted the most stringent air pollution standards in U.S. history, set the first fine particle clean air standard, and spearheaded the reauthorization of the Safe Drinking Water Act as well as the Food Quality Protection Act. She worked with both environmentalists and industry to establish scientific-based public health protections while providing businesses important flexibilities in how to meet those standards. Browner also served as Secretary of Environmental Regulation in Florida from 1991 to 1993, where she launched the largest ecological restoration project ever attempted in the United States to restore the natural flow of water to the Everglades.

Browner serves on the Executive Committee of the Center for American Progress and was a founding board member of the organization from 2003-2008. She earned her B.A. and a law degree from the University of Florida in Gainesville. Browner has provided her expertise to organizations such as KPMG, Capgemini, and UCSC’s Panetta Institute for Public Policy, regularly counseling industry leaders in transportation, energy, and consumer product sectors on regulatory matters related to sustainability. She is recognized for her significant roles in environmental policy and is known as the "climate czar."