Cassady Walters is Managing Director for Strategy and Results on the Power & Climate team at The Rockefeller Foundation. In this role, she is charged with leading the strategic direction of the Foundation’s energy portfolio. She also manages the Foundation’s grant to the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), the biggest bet in the Foundation’s history to promote the well-being of humanity.
Cassady has over a decade of experience working at the intersection of global development, business, and government. Previously, Cassady served as Senior Vice President at Albright Stonebridge Group, where she worked with major multinationals and leading foundations to develop targeted strategies to achieve philanthropic outcomes, set and meet sustainability targets, establish business partnerships, and navigate complex global markets, with a focus on the energy sector. In her role as Africa Practice Manager, Cassady advised clients across the African continent on their investment strategy.
Cassady previously served as Chief of Staff Northwestern Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, where she drove Northwestern Buffett’s growth as a hub for Northwestern University’s globalization efforts through the implementation of its strategic plan and management of major initiatives and business operations.
Prior, Cassady worked at the intersection of governments, markets and civil society as an Analyst with the Institute for State Effectiveness. In this capacity, she provided analysis on the private sector’s role in Africa’s development and designed policy strategies to create inclusive and accountable institutions. Previously, Cassady worked in small-enterprise development as the Youth Development Officer on a USAID-funded $50 million entrepreneurship program in Mali. She also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali, where she worked to improve public health offerings by identifying synergies between local government, civil society and local entrepreneurs. Cassady was also part of USAID’s Office of Transitions Initiatives (OTI), where she helped manage OTI programming in Kenya, Cote d’Ivoire and Mali. Early in her career, Cassady reported on human rights and culture for the Jordanian English-language magazine Jo Magazine and was a production assistant at the leading political and media strategy consulting firm Shorr Johnson Magnus.
Cassady earned a M.A. in International Economics and International Affairs from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Study at Johns Hopkins University. She graduated cum laude from Whitman College. Cassady is fluent in French and Bambara.
She is based in New York.