Melissa Stark

Melissa Stark is an adjunct professor at Rice Business, teaching electricity and energy transition topics. 

Stark has spent more than 30 years working in the utilities and energy industry, spending the majority of her career with Accenture. Serving as the global lead for Renewables and Energy Transition Services, she led teams to deliver more than 200 renewable and energy transition projects across Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East. 

From September 2023 through November 2024, she served as a senior advisor in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM), where she received a Certificate of Appreciation in recognition for her outstanding contribution in developing the FECM Regional Reports and advancing AI initiatives. 

Stark has authored more than 50 papers and articles on clean energy and energy transition. She was a fellow of the World Economic Forum from 2020–2023 working on System Value, Industrial Clusters, Clean Electrification, Cities, Hydrogen, and Emerging Economies. She also served as a member of the U.S. National Petroleum Council from 2022–2023 and is a fellow of the U.K. Energy Institute and a member of the U.K. ESO’s Technology Advisory Council. Stark received a B.S. from the University of California Berkeley and an MBA from Northwestern University.