As the Executive Director of the Climate Policy Initiative, Thomas Heller aims to help nations grow while addressing increasingly scarce resources and climate risk. Prior to his current position, Heller was a professor at Stanford University for 30 years doing research on the rule of law, international climate control, global energy use, and the interaction of government and non-governmental organizations in establishing legal structures in the developing world. During that time he was a contributing lead author for the IPCC on the Third and Fourth Assessment Reports.

Heller has a B.A. from Princeton University and an L.L.B. from Yale Law School.