3 September 2015: Rachel Kyte has been named the new Chief Executive Officer of the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) initiative and the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative to SE4All. Kyte’s appointment will begin on 1 January 2016. Kandeh Yumkella, who has served as SE4All CEO and Special Representative since the launch of the initiative in 2011, announced his resignation in March 2015 to return home to Sierra Leone.

Currently, Kyte is the World Bank Group’s Vice President and Special Envoy for Climate Change, where she has been responsible for aligning the Bank’s energy strategy with the SE4All’s three objectives for 2030: ensuring universal access to modern energy services; doubling the global rate of improvements in energy efficiency; and doubling the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix. In her new leadership role, Kyte will oversee the institutional restructuring of the SE4All initiative into the Sustainable Energy for All Partnership. The transition, which is to be spearheaded by an international non-profit organization based in Vienna, Austria, aims to foster direction-setting by business and civil society in close partnership with developed and developing country governments.

World Bank President Jim Young Kim said he was “delighted that Rachel Kyte, one of the world’s leading advocates in the battle for action to combat climate change, has been appointed as head of the Sustainable Energy for All initiative that I co-chair.” Kim called Kyte a “passionate and inspirational leader who understands the links between poverty and climate change that are vital to achieving our shared mission.”

Kyte has previously served as World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development, International Finance Corporation Vice President for Business Advisory Services, and senior policy advisor to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) [SE4All Press Release] [World Bank Press Release] [UN Foundation Blog] [IISD RS Story on Yumkella’s Departure]