Mike Boots, Executive Vice President – Breakthrough Energy

Mike joined Gates Ventures, Bill Gates’s private office, in 2016, where he
leads its Washington, DC office. In 2020, Mike helped establish Breakthrough Energy (BE) – a network of entities and initiatives, including investment funds, nonprofit and philanthropic programs, and policy efforts linked by a common commitment to scale the technologies we need to achieve a path to net zero emissions by 2050. As Executive Vice President, Mike oversees the implementation of key BE programmatic initiatives and strategies in the US and Europe.

Prior to joining Gates Ventures and Breakthrough Energy, Mike was a Senior Fellow at the Aspen Institute, where he advised the institute and philanthropic foundations on issues at the intersection of business, civil society and the environment. Before that, he led the White House Council on Environmental Quality, where he served as the environmental advisor to President Obama in 2014 and 2015. In that role, he was responsible for aligning White House leaders and members of the Cabinet to execute the Administration’s environmental, climate, clean energy and conservation priorities. During his six years at the White House, he spearheaded a series of initiatives related to climate change, conservation, federal supply chain sustainability and resilient infrastructure.

Mike has held a variety of positions related to energy and the environment – at a public affairs firm, for the Governor of California, in the non-profit sector and in the Clinton Administration. He has a B.A. in communications from UCLA and a M.P.A. from the Maxwell School of Public Affairs at Syracuse University.