Clay Nesler is the Global Lead, Buildings and Energy, for WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities. In this role, he provides leadership to the Buildings Initiative and Urban Energy Practice. In 2014, Clay helped establish WRI’s Building Efficiency Initiative and served as the industry co-convener of the Sustainable Energy for All Building Efficiency Accelerator. He also served as a Senior Advisor to the WRI Buildings Initiative from 2017 to 2018.

Since joining Johnson Controls in 1983, Clay has held a variety of leadership positions in research, product development, marketing, strategy, manufacturing, corporate sustainability and regulatory affairs in both the United States and Europe including most recently as Vice President, Global Energy and Sustainability. He also served the past year as Interim President of the Alliance to Save Energy.

Clay serves on the board of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, the executive group of the U.S. DOE/EPA SEE Action network, the GSA Green Building Advisory Committee and numerous technical advisory boards. He chairs the Industrial Advisory Board of the U.S.-China Building Energy Efficiency Consortium, is a member of the International Energy Agency Energy Efficiency Industry Advisory Board and co-chairs the Alliance to Save Energy’s Active Efficiency Collaborative.

Nesler 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.