Richenda Van Leeuwen

Richenda Van Leeuwen is executive director of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs at the Aspen Institute. Previously, she was managing director for empowering clean economies at the Rocky Mountain Institute, led work on clean cooking energy solutions in developing economies at the Global LPG Partnership, and provided input on emerging markets on the World Bank Energy Program’s technical advisory group. Van Leeuwen’s experience also includes executive director of energy access at the United Nations Foundation and CEO of Trickle Up, a microenterprise development organization. Earlier in her career, she worked on post-conflict reconstruction in the Balkans and with refugees and asylum seekers in Asia. An advisor to clean energy nonprofits and trustee of Energy 4 Impact, she is an emeritus founding ambassador of the US Energy Department’s Clean Energy, Education and Empowerment initiative.​