Overcoming Today’s Friction to Unlock Tomorrow’s Opportunities

Kerry C. Duggan is a nationally recognized policy leader, strategist, corporate board director, and founder with more than two decades of experience working at the intersection of energy, environment, infrastructure, national security, and place-based economic development. 

In 2017, she founded ESP (Energy Security Partners, and formerly  SustainabiliD), a global strategic advisory firm that helps clients and coalitions navigate complex challenges through pragmatic, place-based solutions that reduce risk and enhance resilience.

Duggan served at the highest levels of the U.S. government, including as an energy and environmental advisor to then-Vice President Joe Biden at the White House and as Deputy Director of President Obama’s Detroit Task Force. Her senior leadership roles at the U.S. Department of Energy included Liaison to the City of Detroit under Secretary Ernest Moniz, Director of Legislative, Regulatory, and Urban Affairs, and Stakeholder Engagement Director for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. She later served on the Biden-Harris Transition Team and was appointed to the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB) under Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

Beyond government, Duggan was a Partner at the firm of Hon. Tom Ridge. She currently serves on the corporate boards of Perma-Fix (NASDAQ: PESI) and BlueGreen Water Technologies, and sits on the advisory boards of Arctaris Impact Investors, Commonweal Ventures, and several tech companies. At the University of Michigan, Duggan founded both the SEAS Sustainability Clinic in Detroit and the Michigan Business Sustainability Roundtable. She played a pivotal role in landing the first-in-the-nation Apple Developer Academy in Detroit.

She is a three-time appointee of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to the Michigan Council on Climate Solutions and the Growing Michigan Together Council. She was recently appointed to the inaugural Detroit Women’s Commission by City of Detroit former Mayor Michael E. Duggan (no relation).

Duggan is also a highly sought-after dynamic global speaker, moderator and facilitator, known for translating complexity into clarity and moving rooms from conversation to action. She's spoken at The World Economic Forum, The Milken Institute, Aspen Ideas, and is on the U.S. State Department’s Global Speakers Bureau. Visit KerryCDuggan.com.

Duggan grew up in Michigan, played competitive basketball at Detroit Country Day School, earned Division I basketball scholarships at St. John’s University and then the University of Vermont, where she earned her B.S. She earned her M.S. from the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability, where she now serves on faculty.

She was the one the coaches wanted on the court when the team was down, with seconds on the clock. 

Not a lot has changed in that regard.

Complex System Strategy:

• Strategic Alignment & Executive Advisory: We accelerate infrastructure deployment by aligning decision-makers across public, private, and institutional sectors. By connecting clients with an unmatchable global network, we ensure that leaders operating on different incentives and timelines can translate strategy into coordinated action.
• Real-Time Problem Solving: We provide trusted counsel during moments of friction or inflection when timelines are compressed or conditions change. This includes our 30/90 Day Strategic Sprints—a rapid-response model helping boards and C-Suites resolve complex issues quickly without losing trust or control.
• Intelligence & Policy Translation: We provide "Reading the Tea Leaves" analysis: translating complex policy signals into actionable business intelligence. We ensure your initiatives are grounded in sound strategy and the "internal radar" of your leadership is tuned to shifting global and national dynamics.

Place-Based Implementation:

• Deployment & Site Selection Strategy: We navigate the regulatory, political, and physical dynamics of project build-outs. From site selection and permitting to regional industrial scale-up, we ensure projects are structured to move through approval and implementation with maximum efficiency.
• Stakeholder Mapping & Risk Mitigation: We identify the stakeholders who matter, assess sources of friction or opposition, and design engagement strategies that protect credibility and momentum. We solve the "Missing Link" by clearing the institutional bottlenecks that technology and capital alone cannot solve.
• The "Red Carpet" Regional Tour: A signature service for global firms and capital providers seeking deep-dive immersion into critical industrial power centers. We facilitate the high-level introductions and site-specific intelligence required for real-world deployment at speed and scale.

High-Impact Convenings:

• Private and Public Convenings: We design and lead mission-critical engagements, including our signature Game Changer Luncheons, where cross-sector intelligence is traded and high-stakes deployment decisions are de-risked among global capital drivers and public sector leaders.
• Third-Party Validation & Trust Equity: We leverage the firm’s established "Trust Equity" to uplift client profiles through strategic positioning and narrative alignment, helping to build the social license and movement-building stories required for long-term project success.
• Movement-Building & Strategic Advisory: We draft and execute the narratives and sign-on coalitions that align institutional and community interests, ensuring that a project’s strategic narrative matches the physical reality of its impact.

Resilience Engineering:

• Capital Strategy & Alignment: We help position projects for investment and reduce perceived risk so that financing can move in parallel with development. We position clients to capture the "Resilience Dividend" through better-engineered industrial and economic outcomes.
• External Brain (Advisory Board) Management: We stand up and manage bespoke Advisory Boards—expertly balancing demographics and subject matter expertise—to ensure leadership teams maintain an elite global perspective on emerging physical, security, and environmental risks.
• Security & Industrial Integration: We align energy security solutions with global stability prerequisites. Our framework ensures that new technologies are engineered to endure within an "environment-as-infrastructure" context, supporting long-term industrial scaling and regional retention.