Lucy Shaw

Lucy Shaw works on how to make energy cheaper and cleaner around the world.  She leads Gordon Management, an investment firm focused on energy transition in the UK and Africa. She advises institutional investors, energy companies, and governments on energy deals and strategies. 

She writes a column, Slow Burn, on energy policy and finance. She co-hosts a news podcast, Power Plays, on the tech, finance, and politics powering the energy transition. Her writing has been featured in the Financial Times, the Economist, Infrastructure Investor, and the Fabian Review. 

She is researching a book, Slow Burn: Why We Can’t Quit Coal. In it, she covers the political economy of why coal remains such a large source of energy in a global context of low cost renewables. She researches the benefits that coal offers across energy security, jobs, culture, and the macroeconomy, against its higher costs for the energy system and to health and the climate. She is developing a roadmap for how climate advocates and investors can think more holistically about overcoming the barriers to making energy cheaper, cleaner and healthier. 

Background

Before founding Gordon Management, Lucy spent her career at Blackstone, the IFC (World Bank Group), BCG, CrossBoundary, and the United Nations. She has lived and worked in the US, Australia, the UK and several countries in Africa and Asia. She brings a global perspective to her work, bridging business and policy.

Lucy studied at Harvard Business School on a Fulbright Scholarship, where she graduated as a Baker Scholar in the top 5% of her class. She also studied a Masters in Public Administration majoring in International Development at Harvard Kennedy School. She holds a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Melbourne, where she was awarded a scholarship for the top 0.1% of Australian school graduates.

Research interests

• How politics drives coal consumption as its economics deteriorate    
• A Just Transition for fossil fuel phase-out
• Energy security and resource nationalism
• How electrification and flexible technologies can bring down costs
• How market and incentive design can unlock more energy investment