Michael Kleeman


Michael Kleeman is a senior fellow at the University of California San Diego, focusing on critical infrastructure resilience, and senior advisor for the Boston Consulting Group. He has been active in corporate sustainability for more than 20 years, working with Fortune 50 firms, nonprofits, and entrepreneurial startups on strategy, positioning, and maximizing competitive advantage through sustainability.

He works in close collaboration and as a executive advisor with several firms in the sustainability and supporting engineering fields, such as Natural Logic, as well as the clean technology investor community. He is also a Natural Step instructor and is on the advisory board for the American Geophysical Union Thriving Earth Exchange (TEX), which brings earth scientists together with communities to address issues around climate change. He has led efforts that have resulted in significant improvements in greenhouse gas emissions, waste, and water usage, and has worked with numerous firms on projects related to natural capital and markets.

Previously, Kleeman was a global services partner with The Boston Consulting Group, serving retail, financial services, media, and technology sectors worldwide. He was also one of the initial partner groups providing sustainability consulting services. Kleeman was a senior fellow at USC Annenberg Center and the IMD business school in Switzerland, and before that, his work focused on the communications industry, helping to start several telecommunications firms in the United States and overseas. He is still active as the Board Chair for SEACOM in Africa.  

Kleeman has served as an advisor to Kent Ridge Digital Labs in Singapore and the California Policy Research Center, and was a founding board member of Science Foundation Ireland. He currently serves on the boards of the Marine Mammal Center and the Institute for the Future and Equal Access in California, is affiliated with the American Red Cross as national chair for the president, and is a member of the Bay Area Board of Directors. He is also a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), IEEE and AGU.

Kleeman holds a B.S. from Syracuse University and an M.A. from Claremont Graduate School, where he is currently affiliated with the Drucker School of Management.