Meet the Joint Venture Team
Barry Vesser
Executive Director, Climate-Safe California
Barry Vesser is executive director of Climate-Safe California, an arm of The Climate Center and an initiative of Joint Venture. Vesser joined The Climate Center in 2005 and has held positions as Deputy Director and Financial Officer. He currently leads The Climate Center’s program and policy development and the implementation teams.
In 2018 Vesser began working with a group of energy experts and advocates envisioning a more decentralized energy system that was clean, affordable, resilient, and equitable. He then championed the development of the Center’s Community Energy Resilience project. He continues to serve on the Community Energy Resilience Core Team developing policy and working to get it passed at the state legislature.
Vesser helped lead the team to expand The Center’s work on Community Choice Energy to a statewide phenomenon supporting innovative programs to reduce greenhouse gases and provide new services to customers. This included successfully organizing and advocating for Community Choice Energy in San Jose, the biggest city in California at the time to create a local clean energy agency.
Vesser was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines. He has an M.A. in International Public Administration from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. He enjoys backpacking, tennis, Tai Chi, poetry, and has an unhealthy preoccupation with Monty Python. Read Vesser’s blog posts.
