Leslie Rich

Leslie Rich is the founder of Azure Sky Consulting, LLC a clean energy consulting firm based in New York. With a background in energy, utilities, and power markets, Ms. Rich brings 30 years of experience in strategy and analysis to help firms navigate the dynamic intersection of rising electricity demand, power generation solutions and grid decarbonization. 

In her most recent position, Leslie Rich was a Senior Consultant to the U.S. Department of Energy Loan Programs Office from 2022 - 2025. In this capacity, she supported the design and implementation of the $250 billion Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment program. Ms. Rich led outreach and business development to the utility sector including strategies for financing and deployment of renewable generation, electric transmission, gas pipeline infrastructure, battery storage, virtual power plants, and nuclear generation. 

Before founding Azure Sky Consulting, LLC in 2022, Ms. Rich held roles at major financial institutions including JP Morgan Asset Management and Columbia Threadneedle as the lead equity research analyst covering the power and utilities sectors supporting $200+ billion in assets under management at each firm. While at JP Morgan Asset Management, Ms. Rich served as the leader of the global utility sector from 2016 – 2022 and was a member of the U.S. Proxy Committee voting on corporate actions and shareholder resolutions for companies across sectors.

Additionally, Ms. Rich is a lecturer and career mentor at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies teaching Financing the Clean Energy Economy as part of the graduate program in Sustainability Management. 

Ms. Rich served on the Advisory Council of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) from 2018 – 2023 and the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) Wall Street Advisory Group from 2017 – 2022. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Boston College in addition to the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.