David Ellis

Photo of EFI Foundation's David Ellis.

David Ellis is Executive Vice President for Strategic Communications and Policy Outreach at the EFI Foundation (EFIF).


A strategic leader with more than two decades of experience at the intersection of global affairs, energy, and communications, Ellis serves as a senior adviser to EFIF Founder and CEO Ernest J. Moniz, the 13th U.S. Secretary of Energy.

EFIF is an energy innovation lab that drives conversations, tests groundbreaking ideas, and identifies actionable solutions to the world’s toughest energy challenges. Under Ellis’ direction, EFIF is the preeminent thought leader on the challenges and opportunities associated with the global energy transition.

As a founding member of the Energy Futures Initiative, Ellis developed the brand strategy for EFIF’s predecessor, which included the organization’s content design and logo. He guided the creation of an interactive website for the organization and established strong presences on X, Bluesky, Instagram, and TikTok to communicate its science-based analysis to the widest possible audience.

Ellis has a proven track record of leading organizations through transformation. Prior to being part of the core team establishing the Energy Futures Initiative, he was senior vice president and chief content officer for CQ Roll Call (CQRC) from 2014 to 2017. In that role, Ellis oversaw five departments with 170 full-time employees, including two newsrooms, the research and legal/regulatory desks, and the product development/user experience team. Reporting to the London-based board of the Economist Group, then CQRC’s corporate parent, he forged revenue-generating partnerships with Amazon, Procter & Gamble, and Google.

Previously, Ellis was an editor-at-large at Bloomberg News in London and Washington for more than a decade, covering business and politics in the United States and Europe. He was also in charge of feature stories from bureaus in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, and later managed a distributed team of reporters in Hong Kong, Paris, Singapore, and South Africa for Bloomberg Markets magazine. Ellis was editor-in-chief of Moneywise, an award-winning U.K. personal finance publication, from 2000 to 2003, and was a frequent commentator on business and personal finance issues on U.K. television and radio.

From 1997 to 2000, Ellis was special sections editor at The Wall Street Journal, producing 60 editorial supplements a year. Earlier in his career, he covered presidential campaigns as a reporter for Time and People magazines in New York and Washington. His first job in journalism was an internship at The Economist in London.

Ellis received a Bachelor of Science in journalism from Boston University and studied international relations at Trinity College Dublin. He is a member of the National Press Club, the Online News Association, and the American Association of Blacks in Energy. Ellis was a voting member of the British Society of Magazine Editors.

A keen traveler who has visited more than 60 countries, Ellis holds both U.S. and U.K. passports and currently lives in Washington, D.C.

Publications

Events

Thought Leadership

  • Energy Transitions

    Energy Transitions: The Framework for Good Jobs in a Low-Carbon Future (September 2020) is a plan for a U.S. energy jobs recovery, produced jointly by the Energy…

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    Energy Transitions
  • Five-Year Trends

    The 5-Year U.S. Energy & Employment Report (March 2020) was published by the Energy Futures Initiative (EFI) and the National Association of State Energy Officials…

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    Five-Year Trends
  • 2020 U.S. Energy and Employment Report

    The 2020 U.S. Energy & Employment Report (USEER) (March 2020) was the third installment of the survey as co-produced by the Energy Futures Initiative (EFI) and…

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    2020 U.S. Energy and Employment Report
  • Clearing the Air

    Clearing the Air: A Federal RD&D Initiative and Management Plan for Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologies (September 2019) outlines a 10-year, $10.7 billion research, development, and demonstration (RD&D)…

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    Clearing the Air
  • EFI Foundation at CERAWeek 2026

    The EFI Foundation (EFIF) had a large presence CERAWeek 2026, the world’s premier energy conference. Our team engaged with private sector changemakers, government officials, and…

    EFI Foundation at CERAWeek 2026

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