Ann Mettler brings over 25 years of experience in public policy, specializing at the nexus of technology, innovation, investment, and industrial policy. She has served as senior adviser to global leaders, including Bill Gates and Jean-Claude Juncker, former President of the European Commission (2014–2019).
Currently, Ann is spearheading the creation of a new organization dedicated to advancing energy resilience and innovation. This initiative builds on the Energy Resilience Leadership Group, which she launched in response to the war in Ukraine and co-chairs with Dr. Christian Bruch, CEO of Siemens Energy.
From 2020 to 2025, Ann was Vice President for Europe at Breakthrough Energy, an organization founded by Bill Gates to accelerate the clean energy transition. Prior to that, from 2014-2019, she served as Director-General and Head of the European Political Strategy Centre (EPSC), the European Commission’s in-house think tank. Under her leadership, the EPSC was named “Best New Think Tank” by the Global Go-To Think Tank Index in 2016, and ranked among the world’s top 10 government-affiliated think tanks in 2017–2019.
While at the Commission, Ann also chaired the European Strategy and Policy Analyses System (ESPAS), the EU’s inter-institutional process dedicated to strategic foresight and global trends. She is widely credited with elevating the role of foresight, anticipation and preparedness in EU policymaking.
In recognition of her contributions, Ann was named one of Europe’s Top 100 Women in Startups and Venture Capital in 2025. Earlier, in 2019, Politico listed her among the top five women shaping Brussels.
Earlier in her career, Ann co-founded The Lisbon Council, a Brussels-based think tank focused on the knowledge economy, which she led as Executive Director for over a decade. Between 2000 and 2003, she worked at the World Economic Forum, most recently as Director for Europe, following earlier roles with the Governmental Affairs Committee of the U.S. Senate, a strategic advisory firm in Washington, D.C., and the European Commission’s foreign policy division in Brussels.
Ann is a frequent speaker at high-level international forums and has been widely published and quoted in leading media outlets such as the Financial Times, Politico, The Economist, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times. She has also provided expert commentary on CNBC, Bloomberg TV, and the BBC.
A dual citizen of Germany and Sweden, Ann has lived and worked in Greece, the United States, Switzerland, and Belgium. She holds Master’s degrees in Political Science and European Law & Economics, graduating with distinction from the University of New Mexico (USA) and Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University in Bonn (Germany). In 2016, she completed the executive education program Innovative Technology Leader at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
