Rachel Kyte 

As climate change has exploded as an issue on the international scene, Rachel Kyte has become a go-to expert for heads of state and multinational CEOs trying to figure out how to transition away from fossil fuels. In the lead-up to the September 2019 U.N. Climate Change Summit, she has played an influential role leading the U.N. Secretary General’s push for countries and companies to make new commitments to expedite the energy transition. As the leader of the World Bank’s climate program ahead of negotiations that yielded the Paris Agreement, Kyte developed strategies to make hundreds of billions of dollars available to developing countries eager to address climate change but lacking the resources. Kyte, just named dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts University, currently leads a nonprofit, Sustainable Energy for All, that seeks to bring energy to under-developed places while also helping them move away from fossil fuels. “We have to make sure we take care of everybody,” she says. —Justin Worland