Executive Director

Idealist

Executive Director to lead our next chapter for Clean & Prosperous.

Washington's Climate Commitment Act is one of the most ambitious carbon markets in the world, and one of the most closely watched. We helped build it, helped defend it at the ballot box, and have spent the years since working to make sure it delivers — for emissions, for communities, and for the businesses whose participation the model depends on.

That work has made us something unusual. We are not a typical environmental advocacy organization and we are not a business association. We are a nonpartisan, data-driven organization that businesses, agencies, legislators, Tribal leaders, and environmental groups all trust enough to sit down with. That position took a decade to earn, and it is the foundation of everything we do.

Our next Executive Director will join a skilled team, a diversified revenue base, and a set of ambitions that will require the organization to grow. We are looking for a leader with a track record of building revenue, relationships, and high-performing teams; the entrepreneurial instinct to turn opportunity into results; and the confidence to take on ambitious goals.

Who We Are

Clean & Prosperous is a nonpartisan nonprofit advancing clean energy solutions that grow Washington's economy, improve public health, and reduce carbon emissions. We began in 2013 as an alliance of business leaders who believed that climate policy and economic prosperity are not a trade-off — and that the fastest path to decarbonization runs through practical, evidence-based policy that businesses can support.

We were founded by the late David Giuliani, an entrepreneur best known for co-inventing the Sonicare toothbrush, who spent the final decade of his life bringing together leaders from across sectors and ideologies to pursue pragmatic climate solutions. That entrepreneurial approach still shapes how we work.

We Convene. Study Missions, the Future of Carbon Policy Forum, and cross-sector working groups that bring business, government, Tribal, labor, and environmental leaders together on hard questions.

We Educate. Original research and analysis that translates complex policy into plain language — the Climate Commitment Map, CCA budget and economic analysis, and tools that policymakers, reporters, and businesses use.

We Advocate. Common-sense climate policy in Olympia, grounded in evidence, that holds the state accountable to the commitments made in the CCA.

We Electrify. Direct program delivery accelerating clean transportation — EV charging infrastructure, zero-emission trucks, and fleet electrification across Washington.

What We've Built

We do policy work and we deliver programs. That combination means we are not analyzing the clean energy transition from the outside — we are in it, and what we learn delivering the work shapes what we advocate for. Some of what that has produced:

• We helped write and pass the Climate Commitment Act, then helped defend it against repeal, and we remain an independent voice on how well it is working.
• Washington's carbon auctions have raised $4.72 billion, with 50% directed to overburdened communities and 10% to Tribal Nation–led projects. We map and track more than 3,800 funded projects across the state so that the public can see what the policy is buying.
• Through Charging Forward Together, we are supporting the deployment of more than 5,000 new public EV charging ports in communities across Washington — work that also generates significant earned revenue for the organization.
• We helped secure $126 million for the Washington Zero-Emission Incentive Program (WAZIP) and are a founding member of the Breaking Barriers Collaborative, which helps school districts and fleet operators electrify.
• We launched Build SHIIT — Sustainable High-Impact Infrastructure Together — an initiative focused on the bottleneck that increasingly defines climate progress: Washington's inability to permit, site, interconnect, and actually build energy and industrial infrastructure.
• Our Study Missions have brought Washington policymakers, business leaders, and Tribal leaders to Europe, Canada, California, Texas and Eastern Washington to study energy policies and activities as well as carbon markets firsthand, and our annual Future of Carbon Policy Forum convenes the people shaping this work regionally and nationally.

Why This Moment

Our Washington work matters more than ever. Washington's climate policy is a live experiment that other states, and other countries, are watching. Whether cap-and-invest is judged a success depends on implementation: whether emissions actually fall, whether the revenue is invested well, and whether businesses and communities see the benefit. We are positioned to track that honestly and to convene the people who can fix what isn't working. The political and funding environment is uncertain, which makes independent, credible analysis more valuable, not less.

Our programs are genuinely innovative. Build SHIIT takes on permitting and interconnection — unglamorous work that determines whether any of the state's clean energy goals are achievable. Charging Forward Together puts us in the position of delivering infrastructure, not just recommending it. Our mapping and budget analysis have made the CCA legible to the public. Each of these started as someone's idea about a gap no one else was filling, and each has become both a program and a source of revenue.

The work is beginning to extend beyond Washington. Other states are looking at what happened here, and some of them want help. Policy export — to Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere — is a real strategic priority. How far and how fast we go is one of the significant questions our next Executive Director will help answer.

We are at a growth inflection point. Our current annual budget is approximately $1.6 million, and our strategic plan targets meaningful growth over the next three years. Getting there will require the systems, structure, and board development that come with the next stage of an organization's life. For the right leader, that is one of the more interesting parts of the job.

The Team and the Transition

We are twelve people, remote across Washington, with roughly six direct reports to the Executive Director — including our government relations, finance, communications, and research directors, plus two roles to be defined as we redevelop the organization chart. We are governed by a seven-member Board of Directors drawn from business, finance, government affairs, and policy.

Our team describes itself as nimble, ambitious, and low-ego. People here are trusted as experts in their areas and are used to making decisions quickly. We are not looking for a figurehead, and we are not looking for a micromanager. When we asked our staff and board what they most want in the next leader, the same words came back repeatedly: credible, collaborative, decisive, and generous with credit.

Michael Mann has led Clean & Prosperous for five years. He came to us as a contractor, stepped into an interim role, and stayed. He is stepping down at the end of 2026 to focus on his own firm, Cyan Strategies, and other commitments, and he intends to remain a supportive partner to the organization through his firm on specific programs. Our Board is committed to defining that continuing relationship clearly, so that the incoming Executive Director has both full authority and a genuine resource.

What the Executive Director Does

The Executive Director reports to the Board of Directors and holds strategic, financial, external, and organizational leadership of Clean & Prosperous.

Revenue and financial sustainability. Own the funding model. We are working toward a mix of roughly 60% work-product and contract income, 20% event and forum income, and 20% philanthropy — a model built so that the work we do generates the revenue that sustains it. The Executive Director will evaluate that model, sustain and grow contract and funded work, build corporate membership and sponsorship, deepen philanthropic relationships, and manage the organization’s finances with discipline.

External credibility and relationships. In partnership with our communications director and lobbyist, serve as the organization's primary external voice with legislators, agencies, corporate leaders, funders, Tribal partners, labor, environmental organizations, and media. Build and hold the trust that allows us to convene people who do not agree with each other.

Strategic direction and growth. Set priorities with the Board on the questions that matter most: where do we focus, if and when do we pivot on priorities, where do new earned-revenue opportunities exist, how quickly to scale, if and how to pursue policy export beyond Washington, and what we should stop doing.

Policy leadership. Ensure our advocacy is rigorous and effective, working alongside an experienced government relations team, and define th