Santiago, Chile – Today, the Global Methane Hub – a global alliance of more than 20 leading philanthropies and organizations committed to reducing global methane emissions by more than 30% by the year 2030 – announced the appointments of Patty Rhee as Chief Partnerships Officer and Alfonso Galarce as Chief Administrative and Financial Officer. They join CEO Marcelo Mena on the Hub’s executive leadership team, while Alexander Ege, Carolina Urmenta, and Hayden Montgomery come onboard as Program Officers as the global organization builds scale and charts forward on its mission to reduce methane emission worldwide.
“I’m incredibly excited to welcome Patty, Alfonso, Alexander, Carolina, and Hayden as inaugural members of the Global Methane Hub team,” said Marcelo Mena, CEO of the Global Methane Hub. “Patty and Alfonso bring decades of unparalleled experience and their deep wealth of knowledge will help guide the Hub’s path forward. I’m also immensely grateful to have Alexander, Carolina, and Hayden come onboard – their experience, passion, and commitment to enacting tangible action will greatly aid us in meeting our goals. There is a lot of work to be done before 2030, but with this team – in collaboration with our philanthropic partners – I’m confident we’ll rise to the occasion.”
Patty Rhee comes to the Global Methane Hub with more than 30 years of experience at the intersection of science and policy. Prior to joining the Hub, Rhee led NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s (JPL) Office of Government and Legislative Affairs for 20 years – securing buy-in from local, state, and federal government for JPL’s initiatives and connecting climate scientists, industry stakeholders, and policymakers to create tangible climate change solutions.
Alfonso Galarce brings more than two decades of experience working in government, international organizations, and public sector institutions. He previously served as the Climate Finance Officer for the Chilean Ministry of the Environment. There, he spearheaded the sustainability report of the COVID-19 Public Infrastructure Recovery Plan, the first issuance of Sovereign Green Bond’s, and the Sustainability Linked Bonds framework, in addition to leading climate financing and budgeting efforts.
Alexander Ege joins the Hub as the Energy Program Director with over a decade of experience working in the nonprofit and public sectors as a policy advisor in Brussels, Copenhagen, Istanbul, and New York. Most recently, he served as Director of strategic consulting firm BIRK Consulting, where he advised global climate philanthropies. In addition to his time at BIRK, Ege was the international program director at KR Foundation, and oversaw the foundation’s grant-making work while remaining deeply engaged in several initiatives dedicated to accelerating the transition away from coal, oil and gas.
Carolina Urmeneta will be the Circular Economy Program Director, having most recently served as Head of the Climate Change Division of the Ministry of the Environment of Chile. In the Climate Change Division, Urmeneta pioneered participatory and science-based design of transversal and transformative policies and instruments such as the Climate Change Framework Law. This law was approved unanimously by Congress and made Chile the first Latin American country to codify the goal of carbon neutrality and climate resilience.
Hayden Montgomery joins the Global Methane Hub as the Agriculture Program Director. Previously, he was the Special Representative of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases, representing the 65 member countries in all international fora and coordinating research between countries and partner organizations. Prior to that, he served as New Zealand’s Ambassador to Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay from 2013 to 2016.
Funding from The Global Methane Hub supports and sustains action from civil society, government, and private industry, including in the more than 100 countries that have signed on to the Pledge by meaningfully investing in methane reduction solutions. Last month, the Global Methane Hub donated $10 million to the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), which will assist 30 countries with developing plans to reduce their methane emissions, including technical support to estimate emissions, identify mitigation options, and design policies to meet those goals. Other initiatives are already underway, with the development of sector-based strategies for waste, agriculture, and fossil fuels. Moreover, the Global Methane Hub is currently forming a comprehensive Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) framework for strategy and grantmaking applications. This approach will focus on monitoring performance, evaluating activities, and supporting continuous learning.
To learn more, please visit The Global Methane Hub.