Clay Nesler is a Senior Advisor for Buildings and Energy at WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities. In this role, he provides technology and policy leadership to the Buildings and Energy programs. In 2014, Clay helped establish WRI’s Buildings Initiative and served as the industry co-convener of the Sustainable Energy for All Building Efficiency Accelerator through 2021.

Clay previously worked for almost four decades at Johnson Controls where he held a variety of global leadership positions in research, product development, innovation, marketing, strategy, manufacturing, sustainability and regulatory affairs in both the United States and Europe. He also served as Interim President of the Alliance to Save Energy in 2019.

Clay is currently the Founder and CEO of The Nesler Group, LLC and serves on the GSA Green Building Advisory Committee where he co-chairs the Federal Building Decarbonization task group. He also serves on ASHRAE’s Task Force for Building Decarbonization and the World Economic Forum’s Global Futures Council on Clean Electrification.

Clay received BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a winner of the 2005 Corenet Global Innovator’s Award, the 2012 VERGE 25 award, a 2015 Distinguished Alumnus Award, a 2017 leadership award from the U.S. Green Building Council, the 2019 Wisconsin Sustainable Business Council Leadership Forward Award and a 2020 R&D100 award.