Audrey Robertson was confirmed as the Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy on October 23, 2025. In this capacity, she oversees one of the nation’s largest energy R&D portfolios.
Prior to her appointment as Assistant Secretary, Ms. Robertson devoted her career to investment, development, and innovation in the energy sector. Through her experiences in finance, corporate governance, and entrepreneurship, she developed a unique understanding of energy systems, infrastructure, and the complex interaction of companies, markets, banks, and governments in the production and distribution of energy.
Ms. Robertson began her career as an investment banker and worked in private equity for more than a decade, ultimately launching her own energy-focused private equity firm. In 2018, she co-founded Franklin Mountain Energy, which would become one of the largest private oil and gas companies in the U.S. before its sale in 2025. In addition to co-founding the company, Ms. Robertson was the Chief Financial Officer and spearheaded the company’s growth and development of supporting infrastructure, such as roads, pipelines, and a rural microgrid.
She has served on the boards of multiple public and private energy companies and championed innovation in a range of energy technologies, including advanced sodium-ion batteries, refining, small modular nuclear, and next-generation geothermal. In 2021, she transformed an agricultural property outside Fort Collins, CO, into a 250-megawatt, utility-scale solar facility - the largest development of its kind in the state of Colorado.
Ms. Robertson graduated from Cornell University, Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science degree and a Master’s Degree in Accounting from the University of Southern California. She is a former collegiate athlete, a certified public accountant (inactive), and a proud mother of two boys.