Franz Hochstrasser

Franz Hochstrasser has worked at the nexus of climate, clean energy, community and capital for nearly twenty years. He is currently consulting, supporting governments, financial institutions, nonprofits and private companies to design and deploy capital solutions that scale clean energy and resilience. Franz has raised hundreds of millions of dollars from investors and philanthropy, and administered multi-billion dollar government budgets, for clean energy and climate solutions.

Franz most recently served as Managing Director of Finance at S2 Strategies where he built and led the Green Inclusive Finance Team which provides consulting services to State governments, nonprofits and private companies on clean energy development and deployment, inclusive climate finance, and policy. Through this work, S2 Strategies has been the founding secretariat to the U.S. Green Bank 50 (GB 50) helping to establish and staff the member-driven, member-led network of green banks across the United States. Franz now also serves as Managing Director of Finance for GB 50, where he continues to lead the capitalization strategy, raising capital and designing financial products that drive standardization, reduce risk and expand the benefits of the clean energy transition to all communities across the country.

He brings deep expertise across capital markets, regulatory compliance, project finance, startups and small businesses, and climate, energy and tax policy. Franz previously founded and led Raise Green, an industry-leading FINRA- and SEC-registered climate investment platform. There he structured securities offerings for clean energy projects and climate companies nationwide, built a community of more than 23,000 members, screened 600+ deals, and facilitated thousands of investments across a $250 million project pipeline. He has also founded and led a community-scale solar development company, serves on the boards of the Climate Access Fund and Municipal Solar Partners, and is an active investor and lecturer.

Earlier in his career, Franz advanced climate and clean energy priorities for President Barack Obama on two successful Presidential campaigns, and then served as a political appointee at the White House, U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of State, where he played a key role in helping to negotiate the Paris Agreement. He is a Truman National Security Fellow, and holds a Master’s of Environmental Management from the Yale School of the Environment, and a BA in Politics and Linguistics from UC Santa Cruz.