Leia Guccione
U.S. Program Managing Director
RMI
Moderator at:
- Fireside Chat: Hydrogen’s Regulatory Roadmap
09:15-
Leia Guccione is a Managing Director at RMI (founded as Rocky Mountain Institute) where she leads RMI’s research and collaboration efforts to create an ambitious, unified, inclusive, and durable US clean energy and climate movement. Her work, and that of the team she leads, combines direct engagement with energy leaders at the federal, regional, state, city, and sub-national levels with cutting edge research and analysis, project management, and leading communications and collaboration support.
Leia and her team have been supporting the ambitious implementation of the landmark legislation passed by Biden Administration through direct engagement in federal rulemaking processes, technical assistance to state, city, and community leaders, and supporting economic development organizations to develop clean growth and investment strategies. With her teams, she also helps to drive coordinated action and investment across industrial sub-sectors to support the transition of heavy industry to cleaner fuels like hydrogen and e-fuels. This has included work with the Department of Energy’s Hydrogen Hubs and their Hydrogen Demand-side support initiative (H2DI). She continues RMI’s long-history of helping clean energy markets to scale through specific work to stimulate demand for zero-emissions goods and services through buyer support platforms and innovative transaction support. She also supports the Department of Defense in their Strategic Climate Sustainability and Resilience Strategy.
Prior to her current role, Leia led RMI’s work to decarbonize global power systems for ten years. While at RMI, Leia has supported multiple engagements with utilities and corporate partners. Her work has focused on improving innovation programs and helping organizations to set and execute ambitious strategies for decarbonization and the energy transition. Leia led the growth of RMI’s Electricity Innovation Lab (e–Lab), a unique ongoing collaboration of leading electricity industry actors to develop, implement, and spread new solutions. She specifically led the design and development of e–Lab’s annual Accelerator and Summit programs. She is a globally recognized thought leader on the opportunity to reform and bring innovation to conventional policy and regulatory paradigms to support an equitable and inclusive energy transition.
Before joining RMI, Leia served in the US Navy as a nuclear-trained Surface Warfare Officer and continues to serve in the US Navy Reserves as a Civil Engineer Corps Officer. She graduated from Iowa State University with degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Political Science and has a Master of Science in Sustainable Development from the University of London. She is a Professional Engineer, licensed in the State of Colorado. She lives in Lafayette, Colorado with her husband, Tom, and their two boys—Owen (7) and Ian (2).