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- Michael T. Eckhart
- Managing Director, Citi Corporate and Investment Banking
Michael Eckhart is a Managing Director and Global Head of Environmental Finance at Citigroup in New York City. In this role he supports Citi’s goal to be the leading financial services firm in renewable energy, energy efficiency, clean water and related areas, serving clients with corporate banking, investment banking, equity and debt capital market originations and trading, and corporate transaction services.
Mr. Eckhart is actively involved in industry leadership roles. He serves on the steering committee of the REN 21 global policy network, on the Renewable Industry Advisory Board of the International Energy Agency (IEA), and as an Observer to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). He has broad relationships with renewable energy industry, finance and policy leaders around the world, especially in the U.S., Europe, China, India, Australia, and South Africa, and is a globally-recognized industry leader and speaker.
From 2001 to 2011, Mr. Eckhart was the founding President of the American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE), a Washington DC-based nonprofit organization with over 600 organizational members in wind, solar, hydro, ocean, geothermal, biomass, biofuels and waste sources of electricity, thermal energy, hydrogen and fuels. ACORE is well recognized for its transformative leadership under the banner of being “for renewable energy and against nothing” and for bringing the investment and financial industry into the renewable energy field.
Previously, he developed financing for solar energy under the SolarBank Initiative in Europe, South Africa and India. For training 1,000 bankers in India about solar energy financing, he was named Renewable Energy Man of the Year of India in 1998. In South Africa, he founded the Shell-Eskom Rural Solar Electrification joint venture, which installed solar home systems on over 10,000 rural homes.
Earlier, Mr. Eckhart was Chairman & CEO of the power generation development firm United Power Systems, Inc.; Vice President of the venture capital firm Aretê Ventures, Inc. which was backed by eight electric utility companies; a strategic planner of General Electric Company’s power systems sector; and a Principal in the energy practice of Booz, Allen & Hamilton where he conducted many of the original national studies on new energy technologies in the 1970s including renewable energy, advanced coal combustion, advanced nuclear, synfuels, and others.
Mr. Eckhart has received numerous awards including the Good Deal for All Award in 2006, the prestigious Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2008, and the Corporate Responsibility Award in 2009.
Mr. Eckhart served in the US Navy Submarine Service. He received a degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
