Isabel Duchesne is a former UK Civil Servant who spent six years as a climate and renewable energy policymaker. She most recently served as Head of Commercial Negotiations for Large-Scale Renewable Energy at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. In that role, she led commercial policy for a multi-billion-pound contract for difference with the UK’s largest renewable energy generator, and the negotiation cut the cost of that subsidy in half. She also negotiated a tax exemption for new renewable energy projects, which industry widely praised for bolstering investor confidence. Earlier in her Civil Service career, she led investor policy for the UK renewables sector and helped develop the country’s post-Brexit green trade policy.

Before joining the Civil Service, Isabel worked in international development. She focused on reproductive health supply chains and women’s rights across Africa and Europe.

Isabel is now completing a mid-career Full-Time MBA at the Rotman School of Management on a Dean’s Scholarship. At Rotman, she is President of Net Impact, a Student Fellow with the Institute for Gender and the Economy, and a Creative Destruction Lab Advanced student. In her first year, she served as an RBC x Rotman Sustainable Finance Fellow. She spent the past summer with an energy-sector consultancy, where she focused on data centres and regulatory strategy. She holds an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge and a BA from the University of Toronto. She also holds the Certified Expert in Climate and Renewable Energy Finance designation from the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management.

Isabel is passionate about cleantech and blended finance solutions.