Ellen Mecray

Ellen is the Founder and Principal at Aeolus Climate Strategies, LLC. Ellen is a proven leader who works to connect climate science and services with states, communities, and industry sectors, including her long-time work with the insurance and reinsurance sector. She responds to her clients’ needs to understand physical science information, connect with researchers and with industry, and co-develop tools for those making decisions about their risks in a changing climate.
Prior to starting her own company, Ellen was a federal leader for almost 29 years. She served as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Regional Climate Services Director for the Eastern Region (16 states). As a senior leader in NOAA, she focused on the delivery and interpretation of climate information using networks across several critical economic sectors including insurance, transportation, health, energy, and others. Ellen is a recognized climate expert and communicator, having served as the Coordinating Chapter Author for the Northeast regional chapter of the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s Fourth and Fifth National Climate Assessments, and a leader for several federal interagency partnerships. Ellen built a successful reputation for distilling, translating, and coordinating information, services and products for a diverse group of stakeholders across regional, state, and local geographies and specific sectors. She is a champion for climate services and led the team that developed the model for Service Delivery that drove a culture change across NOAA. This work formed the backbone for her leadership of the Industry Proving Ground that brought over $100M in new resources. Ellen is known for transparent communication and trust building with customers across multiple levels, and works to ensure they can find and use the nation’s authoritative climate information.