Kimberly A. Johnston - President NextGen Energy Partners
Kimberly A. Johnston is the President of NextGen Energy Partners focused on catalyzing public and private sector collaborations to mobilize capital towards consumer-centric clean and resilient energy projects. She serves as industry expert advisor working alongside governments, research institutions, innovators, and utilities to help customers access more abundant, resilient, carbon-free electricity. Her firm led certain U.S. Priority Climate Action Plans and first-of-a-kind electrification projects.
She has 30 years of strategy, finance, policy, and regulatory experience in the energy sector serving in executive roles with Fortune 500 energy companies and global consulting firms. Kimberly previously served as EY’s Americas Power & Utilities Partner and Global Energy Transition Leader, CenterPoint Energy’s Corporate Finance Officer and Vice President of Tax, and began her career with the U.S. Treasury. In 2017, Kimberly was recognized as Houston’s Most Influential Women. In 2024, NextGen
Energy Partners was awarded the International Impact Company of the Year Award.
Kimberly has a proven track record in unlocking emerging energy markets with smart policy measures, forward-thinking regulations, and novel financing structures. She has testified on behalf of clients on complex energy structures and innovative ratemaking designs before FERC, Public Utility Commission of Texas, and other regulatory agencies to remove market barriers and create a level playing field. She has played an instrumental role in comprehensive energy growth strategies for investor-owned utilities, natural gas pipeline companies, and competitive market participants resulting in billions of economic value for energy consumers, investors, and societies.
Kimberly is a frequent speaker at National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) and numerous global energy conferences, served on policy committees for Edison Electric Institute (EEI), Houston Greater Partnership (GHP), and American Gas Association (AGA), led CEO-CFO DC-Fly-Ins on policy priorities for the power and utilities industry, and served as Finance Chair for the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association (TTARA) and Co-Founder of the Houston Tax Executive Institute
(TEI). She has hosted climate and energy sessions convening the public and private sector at the United Nations COP26, COP27, and COP28 in collaboration with the Coalition of Rainforest Nations.
She is a CPA and holds a B.S. in Accounting from University of Utah and certifications from Harvard, Northwestern University, Southern Methodist University, and Idaho University. Kimberly serves on the Industry Leadership Team of the National Consortium of Long-Duration Energy Storage (LDES) Technologies in collaboration with U.S. Department of Energy and servers as an advisory board member of the University of Utah Eccles School of Business.
