Angela Wilkinson is Secretary General and CEO of the World Energy Council, a role she has held since 2019. Her work connects strategic foresight, energy systems and leadership through change. She brings experience across the private sector, international institutions and academia to questions that span technology, economics, policy and public participation.
Wilkinson joined the World Energy Council in 2017 to develop its strategic insights work and a practical toolkit for energy-transition leaders. Before that, she led work to strengthen strategic foresight at the OECD. Her earlier corporate experience includes Shell and British Gas, and her academic career includes directing futures programmes at Oxford. She holds a PhD in physics.
Her work with scenarios explores how people can learn about uncertain contexts and reconsider strategic choices. With Rafael Ramírez, she co-authored Strategic Reframing: The Oxford Scenario Planning Approach. The book examines scenario planning as a way to develop understanding and identify options in turbulent environments. She has also written on the history and practice of scenarios, including learning from Shell's experience.
At the World Energy Council, Wilkinson's Humanising Energy agenda places people and communities within the transition conversation. It connects the development of energy systems with questions of participation, access and the different conditions countries face. The Council's energy-trilemma work considers security, equity and environmental sustainability together, making the tensions between these priorities visible as circumstances change.
For leadership audiences, Wilkinson offers a systems perspective grounded in the difficulty of making decisions across competing interests and uncertain futures. Her work is relevant to energy businesses, policymakers and organisations whose strategies depend on energy and infrastructure. It helps a group consider how technology choices interact with institutions, markets and people's needs. The distinctive contribution is to bring the strategic and human dimensions of transition into the same discussion, with attention to the context in which decisions must be carried out.
