Jigar Shah to Lead Loan Programs Office, Karen Skelton to Serve as Senior Advisor to the Secretary

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced new senior leadership appointees, who will help the agency deliver on the Biden Administration’s bold climate agenda to create an equitable clean energy future for the American people. Jigar Shah will serve as Director of the Loan Programs Office, which oversees DOE’s more than $40 billion in loan authority across manufacturing, innovative finance, and tribal energy projects. Karen Skelton will serve as a Senior Advisor to Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm.

“DOE is thrilled to bring on these dynamic leaders, who understand the urgency of the climate crisis and will help us seize opportunities to deploy the clean energy technologies of the future,” said DOE Chief of Staff Tarak Shah. “Jigar and Karen both know how to implement the kind of transformative policies we need to build our energy economy back better, while creating millions of good-paying union jobs and delivering benefits to the hardest-hit communities.”

New appointees and their roles are listed below: 

Jigar Shah, Director, Loan Programs Office 

Jigar Shah was most recently co-founder and President at Generate Capital, where he focused on helping entrepreneurs accelerate decarbonization solutions through the use of low-cost infrastructure-as-a service financing. Prior to Generate Capital, Shah founded SunEdison, a company that pioneered “pay as you save” solar financing. After SunEdison, Shah served as the founding CEO of the Carbon War Room, a global non-profit founded by Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Unite to help entrepreneurs address climate change. Originally from Illinois, Shah holds a B.S. from the University of Illinois-UC and an M.B.A. from the University of Maryland College Park.

Karen Skelton, Senior Advisor, Office of the Secretary

Karen Skelton joins the Biden-Harris Administration from California, where she spent the last decade as the CEO and Founder of Skelton Strategies, a policy and political consulting firm working on energy, climate, technology, economic justice, and women’s health. Skelton served as Governor Jerry Brown's Director of Strategic Partnerships at the Global Climate Action Summit, where she drove high-level corporate commitments designed to combat climate change. With Maria Shriver, Skelton founded and managed a series of groundbreaking reports on the transformational role of women in American life, including an Emmy-nominated documentary. Previously, Skelton served in the Clinton-Gore Administration as Vice President Al Gore’s first Political Director and Deputy Political Director to the President, and in the U.S. Departments of Justice and Transportation. Skelton earned her B.A. with Honors from UCLA, a master’s degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and a J.D. from the UC Berkeley Law School.

For a full list of Biden-Harris Administration appointees who have joined the Department, click HERE.  

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