David Ellis is Senior Vice President of Policy Strategy & Outreach for the Energy Futures Initiative (EFI), the Washington DC-based nonprofit founded by former U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest J. Moniz to accelerate the transition to an equitable, low-carbon energy economy.
As a founding member of the EFI team, Ellis developed the brand strategy for EFI, which included the organization’s content design and logo, and guided the creation of interactive websites and social media platforms for former Secretary Moniz (@Ernestmoniz), EFI (@EFIForTheFuture), and the private consulting firm, EJM Associates.
In his tenure at EFI, Ellis has focused on ways to clearly communicate the challenges of climate change. He advises Moniz and EFI senior leadership on partnerships, media opportunities, and business strategy. He also leads the program to brief state and federal policymakers on the leading technological pathways to a low-carbon future. Since EFI’s inception, more than 30 U.S. Senators and 50 members of the U.S. House of Representatives have received private briefings, and the organization’s leadership has testified before a dozen committees, including multiple appearances before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources panel.
As a result of Ellis’s strategic communications expertise, EFI is now seen as the preeminent thought leadership organization on the challenges and opportunities associated with the energy transition. EFI has published more than 20 major reports and launched the Labor Energy Partnership, a joint venture on energy jobs with the AFL-CIO. Moniz and EFI principals have published multiple opinion pieces in The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, Politico, and The Hill, and have appeared as expert voices in major media outlets including CNN, CNBC, NPR, Bloomberg, CBS News, and the BBC.
Successful EFI events include Accelerating the Energy Transition: Infrastructure, Jobs & Equity, an Earth Week 2021 event attended by U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Senators Cory Booker and Joe Manchin, and Representative Kathy Castor, chair of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. From 2018 to 2021, EFI produced the annual U.S. Energy & Employment Report (USEER) on a dedicated website: USEnergyJobs.org; a study of Pathways for Deep Decarbonization in California; Advancing the Landscape of Clean Energy Innovation, funded by Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy; and Clearing the Air, an influential policy paper on carbon dioxide removal technologies presented at Climate Week NYC.
Prior to establishing EFI, Ellis was senior vice president and chief content officer for CQ Roll Call from 2014 to 2017. He oversaw five departments with 170 full-time employees, including two newsrooms, the research and legal news units, and the product development/user experience team. He reported to the London-based Board of the Economist Group, then CQ Roll Call’s corporate parent, and forged revenue-generating partnerships with Lyons Press, Procter & Gamble, and Google.
Previously, Ellis was an editor-at-large at Bloomberg News in London and Washington for more than a decade, covering business and politics in the U.S. and Europe. He was also in charge of feature stories from bureaus in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, and later managed a distributed team of reporters in Hong Kong, Paris, Singapore, and South Africa for Bloomberg Markets magazine. Ellis was editor of Moneywise, an award-winning UK personal finance publication, from 2000 to 2003, and was a frequent commentator on business and personal finance issues on UK television and radio, including BBC News 24, Sky News, and ITV.
From 1997 to 2000, Ellis was special sections editor at The Wall Street Journal, producing up to 60 editorial supplements a year. Earlier in his career, he covered presidential campaigns as a reporter at Time and People magazines in New York and Washington. His first news job was an internship at The Economist in London, following his graduation from Boston University with a degree in journalism and a year-long study of international law at Trinity College, Dublin.
Ellis is a speaker and moderator at corporate events and has served as an expert voice in multiple documentaries on politics and energy. He is a member of the National Press Club, Shoreditch House London, the National Association of Black Journalists, the Online News Association, and was a leader at the British Society of Magazine Editors. He is an avid traveler who holds U.S. and UK passports and has visited nearly 60 countries.
