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May­or Adams & Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Appoint Two New Board Members

May 25, 2023 2:17 pm

L to R: Dr. Chris­t­ian V. Bra­ne­on and Tim Cawley

May­or Eric Adams and The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island announced today the appoint­ments of Dr. Chris­t­ian V. Bra­ne­on and Tim Caw­ley to their Board of Direc­tors. With lead­er­ship in cli­mate change research and the ener­gy sec­tor Dr. Bra­ne­on and Mr. Caw­ley each bring decades of expe­ri­ence and exper­tise to the Board of Direc­tors and will help over­see the Trust’s activ­i­ties in the plan­ning, oper­a­tions and devel­op­ment of Gov­er­nors Island’s forth­com­ing Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solutions. 

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island is gov­erned by a 17-mem­ber Board of Direc­tors appoint­ed by the May­or of New York City, with rep­re­sen­ta­tives nom­i­nat­ed by the May­or, the Gov­er­nor of New York, state and city elect­ed offi­cials, and Man­hat­tan Com­mu­ni­ty Board 1. The pri­ma­ry respon­si­bil­i­ty of the Trust’s board is strate­gic over­sight, review­ing and approv­ing its oper­at­ing and cap­i­tal bud­gets, and autho­riz­ing sig­nif­i­cant contracts. 

“Gov­er­nors Island is set to play a mas­sive role in our city’s plan­ning for a future in the face of cli­mate change, and the suc­cess of that mis­sion requires strong lead­er­ship,” said May­or Eric Adams. ​“Chris­t­ian Bra­ne­on and Tim Caw­ley bring unique expe­ri­ence and per­spec­tives to the board of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. I am excit­ed to work with them and the entire board to strength­en the Trust as both a wel­com­ing des­ti­na­tion for vis­i­tors and the pre­mière cli­mate change research cen­ter the world has to offer.” 

“We are pleased to wel­come Chris­t­ian Bra­ne­on and Tim Caw­ley to our esteemed Board of Direc­tors,” said Clare New­man, CEO and Pres­i­dent of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“I have the utmost con­fi­dence that they will pro­vide valu­able insight and offer a breadth of knowl­edge to help fur­ther guide and inform the Trust’s civic and envi­ron­men­tal stew­ard­ship of the Island. We look for­ward to work­ing with May­or Adams and our two newest board mem­bers to con­tin­ue to offer New York­ers a place of soli­tude and respite that is Gov­er­nors Island.” 

About Today’s Appointments:

Chris­t­ian V. Bra­ne­on, PhD

Dr. Chris­t­ian V. Bra­ne­on is Head of Cli­mate Jus­tice at Car­bon Direct. He leads the inte­gra­tion of envi­ron­men­tal and cli­mate jus­tice into Car­bon Direct’s cul­ture, oper­a­tions, and ser­vices across the car­bon man­age­ment indus­try. With Car­bon Direct, clients can set and equi­tably deliv­er on their cli­mate com­mit­ments, stream­line com­pli­ance, and man­age risk through trans­paren­cy and sci­en­tif­ic credibility.

Dr. Bra­ne­on also co-leads the Envi­ron­men­tal Jus­tice and Cli­mate Just Cities Net­work at Colum­bia University’s Earth Insti­tute and serves as Co-Chair of the New York City Pan­el on Cli­mate Change. He received an AXA Award for Cli­mate Sci­ence in 2021 for his con­tri­bu­tions to the under­stand­ing of cli­mate change and relat­ed adap­ta­tion strategies. 

Dr. Bra­ne­on pre­vi­ous­ly served as Co-Direc­tor of the Unit­ed States Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency’s inau­gur­al Envi­ron­men­tal Jus­tice Acad­e­my for com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers. With NASA, as part of its part­ner­ship with Microsoft, he devel­oped nov­el appli­ca­tions of satel­lite data that aim to enhance resilience to urban heat stress. Dr. Bra­ne­on earned a B.S. in applied physics from More­house Col­lege as well as B.S., M.S., and PhD degrees in civ­il engi­neer­ing from Geor­gia Tech.

Tim Caw­ley

Tim Caw­ley over­sees the activ­i­ties of Con Edi­son, Inc, one of the largest U.S. ener­gy com­pa­nies, sup­ply­ing ener­gy to 10 mil­lion peo­ple in the New York City region and serv­ing as an anchor for the local econ­o­my. Con Edison’s resilient and flex­i­ble grid allows the com­pa­ny to deliv­er world-class reli­a­bil­i­ty. The com­pa­ny is mak­ing his­toric invest­ments in clean ener­gy tech­nolo­gies that will help New York meet our cli­mate goals and deliv­er 100 per­cent clean ener­gy by 2040.

Mr. Caw­ley serves as a direc­tor of the Edi­son Elec­tric Insti­tute and the Amer­i­can Gas Asso­ci­a­tion boards. He is a mem­ber of the exec­u­tive com­mit­tee for the Part­ner­ship for New York City.

Before becom­ing pres­i­dent of Con Edi­son, Mr. Caw­ley served as pres­i­dent and CEO of O&R. Ear­li­er, he held a series of increas­ing­ly impor­tant senior roles. He orig­i­nal­ly joined Con Edi­son in 1987. Mr. Caw­ley earned an M.B.A. from New York Uni­ver­si­ty and a bachelor’s degree in elec­tri­cal engi­neer­ing from Union College.