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Co-Founder, CEO
A passionate believer in finding ways to mitigate the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss using renewable and reliable water power, Gia Schneider co-founded Natel Energy in 2009 with her brother, Abe Schneider. Now serving as Natel’s CEO, Schneider was inspired at a young age by her father, an inventor of novel renewable energies, and has spent more than 20 years working in the energy industry.
Today, as CEO, Schneider leads and operates Natel’s growing portfolio of hardware and software hydro solutions, including the design and build of fish-safe turbines and oversight of hydropower project developments and river restorations in locations worldwide.
Under Schneider’s leadership, Natel also acquired Upstream Tech in 2017, providing enhanced water intelligence through machine learning, satellite imagery and data to further support hydropower operations and improve remote watershed monitoring.
Before co-founding Natel, Schneider served as a partner at EKO Asset Management Partners, where she concentrated on developing markets in ecosystem services; before that Schneider helped establish the energy trading desk at Credit Suisse. She also started the carbon emissions desk, growing it to a profitable business in its first year. Other past roles include commodity-focused work at both Constellation Energy and Accenture.
Schneider was recently selected as a 2022 Grist “Fixer,” an honor given to the top 50 emerging leaders in climate and sustainability and is an Unreasonable Fellowship recipient, an invite-only organization of growth-stage entrepreneurs.
Schneider received her Chemical Engineering and Economics degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is a graduate of the Texas Academy of Math and Sciences (TAMS) and currently serves as a board member of the Freshwater Trust and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) National Council.
In her spare time, Schneider enjoys surfing, kiting, and cooking with family and friends. Schneider, her husband, and her daughter live in California.
With this conversation, we’ll be working to understand hydropower: its potential, its historic challenges and limitations, and a path forward for wielding this resource efficiently and restoratively.