Leslie Biddle | Deputy Under Secretary for Commercialization and Finance, U.S. Department of Energy

Leslie Biddle

Deputy Under Secretary for Commercialization and Finance,
Office of Infrastructure, U.S. Department of Energy

Leslie D. Biddle serves as the Deputy Under Secretary for Commercialization and Finance at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Infrastructure where she focuses on commercialization, market adoption, and catalyzing private sector financing of the clean energy transition. She started at the DOE in January 2023 as a senior advisor to the Under Secretary for Infrastructure.

Prior to joining DOE, Biddle 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.

Before government service, Biddle was also a member of 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 women in energy.

Previously, 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 her work at Goldman Sachs,  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 also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and lives in New York, New York, with her husband, George, and their three children.

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