Leadership

Lori Collins is the founder of Collins Climate Consulting, a strategic advisory to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy. Building on her executive experience in financial services, energy and technology, Collins works with investors, governments and energy companies to foster innovative climate solutions. 

Financial Services

Finance has been a consistent thread in Collins's career, spanning a range of experiences. Most notably, Collins was on the original executive team at LendingTree 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 was also head of marketing for Bank of America's mutual fund business; VP at Fidelity Investments; director of marketing at American Express, and began her career in corporate lending at Bank of America. 

In the past several years, Collins has parlayed this experience into climate finance to bring more meaning and impact to her work. She has mobilized private sector engagement in climate resilience through her work with the Global Adaptation and Resilience Investment (GARI) group and co-authored several investor guides and reports. 

Energy Sector 

Collins brought her financial background to the energy sector over 15 years ago. She was president of Abundant Power Solutions, an energy financing venture. She then worked with Duke Energy to launch the Joules Accelerator for clean energy startups, and later to help develop Duke’s first Climate Resilience Plan. She consulted with the North Carolina State Energy Office on stakeholder engagement, authored the Jobs and Economic Outlook document for North Carolina’s first Clean Energy Plan; and served on the steering committee for North Carolina’s Climate Risk Assessment and Resilience Plan. She served on the board of E4 Carolinas, the regional energy trade association, and briefly acted as its Interim Executive Director. 

Collins currently consults in the clean energy venture capital space on ESG and serves on the board of the Southeastern Wind Coalition. As a member of the EPA Environmental Financial Advisory Board (EFAB), she is leading a workgroup on mobilizing private capital for the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, and previously led the workgroup charged to provide options to the EPA Administrator for the structure of the fund. 

Technology

As an operator, mentor and investor, Collins has championed emerging technologies and entrepreneurship in the financial and energy sectors. She was founding executive director of Joules Accelerator, spearheaded product management and lender technology at LendingTree, led product development for Fidelity correspondent brokerage and launched the Fidelity FundsNetwork program. 

Education

Collins 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 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 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.