Monica Araya

Mónica Araya is the Executive Director of ECF’s international portfolio and a member of the Executive Management Team. She oversees the work and grant-making on trade, diplomacy, decarbonization plans, and global climate politics.

For over 20 years, Araya has worked with government, business, philanthropy and advocacy leaders on accelerating climate action.

She has worked as a strategist for several initiatives, boards and campaigns. She helped develop Costa Rica’s national decarbonization plan, was a Special Adviser to the High-Level Champion for Climate Action at COP26 in Glasgow and was a Distinguished Fellow at ClimateWorks Foundation. She helped incubate the Drive Electric Campaign. For her work on electrification, she was included in the list of “BBC 100 Women.”

Previously, Araya worked at the Ministry of Foreign Trade in Costa Rica, Climate Change Capital, the UN negotiations and E3G. Her collaboration with the ECF spans a decade. She obtained a Master’s in Economic Policy at the University of Costa Rica and a Master and PhD from Yale University.

Born in Costa Rica, she has lived in nine countries and was the first Latin American to join the all-female international expedition to Antarctica. She lives with her husband in Oslo where she finds joy in museums, books, and nature.