Karen A. Harbert, who has led the US Chamber of Commerce’s energy program for the past decade, will become the American Gas Association’s next president on Apr. 1. She will succeed David K. McCurdy, who plans to retire on Feb. 28. Harbert will be the first woman to lead AGA’s staff.
While at the US Chamber, Harbert was president and chief executive of what initially was the Institute for 21st Century Energy before it became the Global Energy Institute (GEI). She led the program’s development of a comprehensive Energy Works for US platform, which provides policy recommendations to secure the country’s energy future and create millions of jobs, billions of dollars in revenue, and trillions of dollars of private investment, GEI said.
Before joining the US Chamber’s staff, Harbert was assistant secretary for policy and international affairs at the US Department of Energy, where she was the primary policy advisor to the energy secretary and the department on energy issues. Concurrently, she was vice-chairman at the Paris-based International Energy Agency.
Prior to her tenure at DOE, Harbert was deputy assistant administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean at the US Agency for International Development where she oversaw programs in 11 countries, totaling more than $800 million and 1,000 employees.
In the private sector, Harbert worked for a developer of international infrastructure and power projects valued at more than $9 billion in countries in the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America.
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