Michelle Kreger

Potential Energy

Executive Director

Michelle serves as Potential Energy’s Executive Director, where she leads the organization in its mission to build, support and scale clean cooking businesses in Sub Saharan Africa.  Prior to joining Potential Energy in early 2014,  Michelle spent seven years at Kiva, a nonprofit organization that connects people through lending to alleviate poverty. At Kiva, she was responsible for building the organization’s network of microfinance partners across Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. In her final two years, she served as Senior Director of Kiva’s Strategic Initiatives group, where she was responsible for overseeing their expansion into new impact areas including clean energy, water and sanitation, innovative agriculture and higher education. In 2012, Michelle was awarded a Rainer Arnhold Fellow, a prestigious program for social entrepreneurs with particularly promising solutions to the big problems in health, poverty, and conservation in developing countries. Michelle also founded a nonprofit organization in Costa Rica, NatureKids, which focuses on English literacy and environmental sustainability in burgeoning tourist hubs. She has worked at various organizations dedicated to financial inclusion, including ACCION International. Michelle graduated magna cum laude from Boston University with a degree in International Relations and a minor in Economics.