Leadership

Lori Collins is the founder of Collins Climate Consulting, a strategic advisory that helps businesses and communities accelerate their transitions to a low-carbon economy. Building on her executive experience in energy, financial services and technology, Collins consults with organizations to drive their economic gains strategically connected to managing climate change. 

Collins consulted with the state of North Carolina on energy policy and climate resilience for a number of years, working on federally-funded climate resilience initiatives, serving on the steering committee for North Carolina’s Climate Risk Assessment and Resilience Plan, developing business coalition roundtables, and assisting in the stakeholder engagement process and drafting of North Carolina’s first Clean Energy Plan.

Prior to forming her consultancy, Collins served as executive director of Joules Accelerator, a clean energy startup incubator funded by Duke Energy; president of Abundant Power, an energy financing venture; head of the core business at LendingTree; head of marketing for Bank of America's mutual fund business; VP at Fidelity Investments; and director of marketing at American Express. At LendingTree, she was on the original executive team that grew the company from $7M to $476M in revenue and saw the company through a successful acquisition by internet and media leader IAC.

She holds a Master of Science in Carbon Management from the University of Edinburgh; an MBA from Kellogg at Northwestern University; a BS in Business Administration from UNC-Chapel Hill; and is LEED AP. Learn more on LinkedIn.

Collins received the Energy Leadership Award and Women in Business Achievement Award from the Charlotte Business Journal.

Collins participated in a panel on August 23, 2023 at the Global Environmental Fund (GEF) Seventh General Assembly in Vancouver, Canada. She highlighted the role of private sector investors in accelerating innovation in climate resilience and adaptation technologies.

Collins spoke at the International Women's Forum global conference in Helsinki, Finland on June 14, 2023. IWF member experts from around the world discussed what ESG means for leadership and corporate governance. 

Collins led a workshop on "Scenario Analysis Upacked: Vision for Risk-Managed Investments" on April 4, 2023 at the GFMI conference on Climate Risk for Financial Institutions industry meeting in New York City. 

Collins hosted this panel discussion on March 28, 2023 in her role as Strategic Advisor for GARI. Panelists explored how new climate data sources and tools are helping to facilitate investments in resilience. 

Collins hosted this panel discussion on November 10, 2022 in her role as Strategic Advisor for GARI. Panelists explored new accounting methods for valuing resilience to help catalyze investments.

Collins hosted this panel discussion on October 20, 2022 in her role as Strategic Advisor for GARI. Finance and real estate experts discussed potential financial and societal benefits of waterfront resilience design standards. 

On June 3, 2022 Collins joined a follow up discussion with the corporate roundtable on Stakeholder Capitalism and ESG Investing facilitated by the Kenan-Flagler Business School faculty and hosted by the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at UNC Chapel Hill. The session focused on "trade-offs.' Are there trade-offs or only upsides for risk management, profitability and stakeholder satisfaction?

Collins hosted this global discussion on May 12, 2022 in her role as Strategic Advisor for GARI. Panelists included Aon, United Nations Capital Development Fund and the United Nations Insurance and Risk Finance Facility, moderator by Tata Consultancy Services. View recording here.

Collins spoke at the North Carolina State Energy Conference on April 26, 2022 on clean energy financing tools.

Collins joined fellow members of Women+ in Climate Tech on April 19, 2022 to preview a new report sponsored by Aon that looks at the intersection of climate risk and gender equity. View the report here. Watch the presentation here.

 Collins moderated a panel of green hydrogen experts on March 30, 2022 at the UNC Clean Tech Summit.

On March 1, 2022 Collins participated in the corporate roundtable on Stakeholder Capitalism and ESG Investing facilitated by the Kenan-Flagler Business School faculty and hosted by the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at UNC Chapel Hill. 

James M. Blake has worked for over a decade at the intersection of resilience, operational risk management and security risk management issues with some of the world’s largest multinational companies. His new book includes quotes from his interviews with Lori Collins.

"Just as the pandemic defied our imagination, the impacts of climate change have been hard to fathom – until now. James Blake draws on his keen understanding of risk management to offer a compelling call to action to manage the operational risks of climate change, engage the community in solutions and steer business strategies to embrace the unimaginable. Blake shines a light on the possibilities for a more resilient world.” - Lori Collins