Erik is a strategic organizational leader with over twelve years of experience in climate change research, policy development and advocacy, and technology innovation. His expertise includes emerging technology market development, market transformation, and design and implementation of research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) initiatives. Erik has worked in government, served in research roles at multiple universities, and acted as a leader and subject matter expert for a prominent U.S. energy and climate policy think tank.
From 2013 to 2018, Erik was an executive researcher and strategic advisor specializing in climate technology market research. His responsibilities included business model innovation for community-based renewable energy, developing market and policy strategies to reduce non-hardware “soft” costs, and exploring policy engagement opportunities in early-stage private finance for climate-mitigating technologies. During this period, he also focused on strategic measurement, evaluation, and learning (MEL), conducting retrospective assessments of program and policy performance and optimizing program and policy development in real-time. Erik’s MEL work supported evidence-based decision-making for initiatives such as the California Solar Initiative RD&D program, Energy I-Corp, and various innovation and technology transfer programs.
In 2019, Erik shifted his focus to organizational capacity building and strategic program development. He began consulting for NYSERDA, where he contributed to a portfolio-wide strategic assessment in preparation for revising its legislative funding request for the five-year Clean Energy Fund. Subsequently, Erik joined NYSERDA to support this effort directly. He then took on the role of Director of Research Coordination and Partnerships at the University of Texas at Austin Energy Institute, where he managed a large-scale RD&D initiative called Fueling a Sustainable Energy Transition (FSET). This initiative involved a multi-million dollar annual RD&D program designed to align with federal policy trajectories, such as hydrogen, carbon capture, and mineral recovery.
In 2022, Erik became the inaugural Managing Director of the Carbontech Development Initiative (CDI) at Columbia University's Center for Global Energy Policy (CGEP). At CDI, he led strategic planning for fundraising, technology programs, and policy development. Under his leadership, CDI launched four technology research programs with over $16 million in funding and initiated a federal policy research effort.
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