Emily Kirsch

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Powerhouse; Founder and Managing Partner, Powerhouse Ventures

2017 Entrepreneurship Award Winner

Emily Kirsch is the Founder and CEO of Powerhouse, an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate. Kirsch is also the Founder and Managing Partner of Powerhouse Ventures, which backs entrepreneurs building digital infrastructure for rapid decarbonization. 

Prior to launching Powerhouse, Kirsch worked with Van Jones, a former advisor to President Obama, to launch the Green Jobs Corps, Oakland’s first ‘green jobs’ training program. She is the founding convener of the Oakland Climate Action Coalition, which drafted and secured passage of what was at the time the most ambitious climate action plan of any U.S. city.  

Kirsch is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader Fellow, served on the Executive Committee for Clean Energy for Biden, and appeared on the San Francisco Business Times’ 2020 list of the “Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business.” She is the Host of the podcast Watt It Takes, which has over 1 million downloads and has featured founders of some of the energy and automotive industries most iconic companies like Nest, Sunrun, and Tesla. Her work has been cited in Bloomberg, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, and The New York Times.