Johanna Koolemans-Beynen is Senior Program Coordinator under the USAID-funded Energy Utility Partnership Program which strengthens the capacity of utility executives and employees in USAID-assisted countries to effectively manage and operate power systems, run financially viable businesses, develop energy resources, design off-grid power sources, and integrate different types of energy resources into their power grids. She coordinates EUPP activities in Colombia, India, and Honduras, focusing on the regulatory and legal framework necessary to successfully integrate renewable energies onto the electricity grid. She is also working with USAID to set up a worldwide Business Innovation Partnership, which aims to help utilities incorporate business change management and business process innovation principles into their grid modernization and energy management projects.

Prior to joining the USEA she lived for a number of years in Mexico, where she worked for various universities in Mexico, including at the Tecnologico de Monterrey, the largest private university in Mexico, where she coordinated on-line training at the Institute for Global Sustainability (IGS), and coordinated climate change projects at the Center for Dialogue and Analysis on North America.  She also taught International Economics at the Center for Investigation and Teaching in Economics (CIDE), and edits the English-language articles of Estudios Economicos, a publication of the Colegio de Mexico. Before that she worked in Paris, France and Washington DC on energy and telecommunications issues.

She obtained a Master’s degree from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins University (Washington D.C.), and completed the coursework for a Master’s degree in Economics from the Colegio de Mexico.  She holds a bachelor’s degree from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.