Heather
McGeory

Heather McGeory, member of APCO’s International Advisory Council, has more than 20 years of experience working on climate change issues with business, governments, foundations, non-profits and multilateral institutions through the enablers of communications, campaigns, finance, policy and philanthropy. She has worked to create successful projects and partnerships in and across the public and private sectors in climate change, social innovation and social justice. She is currently the head of climate and ESG partnerships at Fifth Wall, a venture capital firm focused on decarbonizing the built environment.

During her time as APCO’s global lead of climate and sustainability, Ms. McGeory specialized in working with clients to develop and execute climate and sustainability strategies. She worked with clients on their strategic plans through investor and stakeholder dialogue, ESG assessments and actions, policy and stakeholder analyses, building partnerships and developing thought leadership and external engagement.

Ms. McGeory served as the chief operating officer of the We Mean Business coalition and was instrumental in building the organization from 2015-2021. We Mean Business is a global nonprofit driving the world’s most influential companies to Net Zero by 2040. Through this role, she was an early supporter of the Science Based Targets Initiative and the Race to Zero.

Prior to that, Ms. McGeory co-founded the Purpose Climate Lab, created to mobilize public voices on climate change. At Purpose, a social impact agency, she worked closely with clients on campaign and marketing strategy, organizational development, digital engagement and incubating new organizations.

Ms. McGeory spent four years working in environmental finance at Natsource Asset Management, leading on structured finance global carbon emissions reduction projects, working with the World Bank, the United Nations, sovereign governments, and the banking sector. She also was a Faculty Research Fellow at NASA, studying climate impacts and developing adaptation and mitigation strategies and an Aspen Institute Fellow at the Albright Stonebridge Group, working under former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

Ms. McGeory has a Bachelor of Arts in Religion from Barnard College and an MIA in Energy and Environmental Economics from the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University. She serves on the Advisory Committee for the UNFCCC Momentum for Change; is an advisor to Emergent, an NGO dedicated to tropical forest protection; and Methane Action, an NGO dedicated to methane reduction research.