Karin Burns

Karin L. Burns is a CEO, investor, and enterprise builder whose career sits where capital, strategy, technology, and execution meet. Over two decades she has founded, grown, and reshaped organizations across energy and climate markets, pairing operating leadership with a deep background in investment and corporate finance.

Leading a clean-energy enterprise at scale. Karin currently leads one of California's largest community choice clean-energy providers, serving nearly 1 million customer accounts throughout the San Diego region. During her tenure, annual revenue rose from below $350 million to more than $1 billion, and reserves grew from under $20 million to over $500 million. She expanded the team from 18 to nearly 100 people while keeping turnover remarkably low. Looking ahead, she has championed a plan to reach 100% clean and renewable power by 2035 and guided a portfolio backed by more than 1 GW of renewable power purchase agreements and 1.5 GW of battery storage agreements. Her work also reaches into residential battery incentives, flexible load management, demand response, distributed energy resources, and virtual power plants.

A record of turnarounds and growth. Before this role, Karin was CEO of Build It Green, where she led a turnaround that delivered four consecutive profitable years, doubled revenue, halved turnover, and trimmed operating costs by roughly 20%. She negotiated the sale of most of the organization's assets to Franklin Energy, then joined the company herself, broadening her operating role across six states with a regional budget above $30 million, a staff of more than 60, and over 20 programs and contracts. She was later tapped to lead national corporate development and M&A.

Climate finance and carbon markets. As Executive Director and Board Member of Code REDD, Karin led strategy, operations, fundraising, and partnerships tied to forest protection. She launched Stand for Trees, an online platform that brought voluntary REDD+ credits to the broader public, widening her view of natural climate solutions and environmental finance.

Roots in global finance. Karin's path began at JPMorgan Chase, GE Equity, i2i Capital, Gulf Capital, and Ambata Capital Partners, where she led investments and transactions across mature industries and early-stage climate technologies. Her deal record includes a $1.1 billion cross-border sell-side transaction, the sale of an electric vehicle company to a Fortune 500 buyer, and Asian investments returning 3.5x and 2.5x cash-on-cash.

Education and background. Karin earned a Master in Public Administration in International Development from Harvard's Kennedy School and an MBA in International Finance from Edinburgh Business School, with further coursework at Stanford, UC Berkeley's Haas School, and the University of Washington's Foster School. She holds a BA in International Affairs and History from Duke University and was a Fulbright Fellow in India. Fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, she has lived and worked across five continents. Karin lives in California with her husband and two sons.

Website 1: https://karinlburns.com/

Website 2: https://karin-burns.com/