Yiwei Zhi

I grew up in Zhuzhou, one of the most polluted cities in China back in the early 2000s. My entire family worked in and lived around its biggest chemical complex and I remember always running up the mountain behind our house but barely seeing anything beyond the skyline, which was always gray with streams of industrial smokes arising from countless factories. Ever since then, enabling energy transition has been a driving force in my personal and professional journey: I studied chemical engineering and emission controls in college and later worked at ExxonMobil and Shell to expand the clean energy footprints across China and other developing markets in Asia, partnering other energy giants in delivering 10% of Chinese LNG demand and the world’s first long-term Carbon Neutral LNG contract. I aspire to continue this journey at HBS and beyond. 

My vision for a sustainable future: I envision a future where for the next 10 years, developing markets utilize transition energy like LNG/synthetic LNG to transition out of coals/oils as an interim step, while we continue to empower sustainable energy solutions and carbon removal/storage technologies to come to commercial scale. Net zero should be a target we move towards with strides while ensuring energy affordability and security are not compromised. 

Favorite Green Tip: There are always two sides for every piece of paper – Recycle misprinted documents or old print outs and utilize the empty page at the back as draft papers instead of using new scratch pads.