Kristine Pearson

Founding CEO of Lifeline Energy

Kristine is the founding CEO of the award-winning Lifeline Energy, a position she has held since 1999. An international social enterprise based in London and Cape Town, Lifeline Energy provides technology solutions for off-grid learning. Pearson gives voice to women and girls by speaking about and advocating for pressing energy poverty and education issues at UN, World Economic Forum and other global conferences. Previously, Pearson held an executive with a South African banking group and was a consultant specializing in the development of women in business.

Pearson is a Schwab Fellow of the World Economic Forum and served on the Forum‟s Council for Disaster Mitigation and New Energy Architecture. Pearson was named by TIME magazine in 2007 as a Hero of the Environment. She serves on the Women’s Leadership Board of Harvard‟s Kennedy School of Government, is a lifetime fellow of the World Technology Network and received the 2005 James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award affiliated with the Tech Museum of Innovation in California. A graduate of the University of California, Pearson has attended Executive Education at Harvard University and the Global Social Benefit Incubator at Santa Clara University. She has travelled to more than 90 countries, 25 in Africa.

by Kristine Pearson

Lifeline Energy is a non-profit social enterprise that provides on-demand access to education and information to vulnerable populations. Lifeline Energy designs, manufactures and distributes solar and wind-up media players and radios for classroom and group listening. It also provides clean energy LED lights to support night-time learning and women‟s empowerment.

Lack of access to radio and reliance on poor quality batteries are other forms of energy poverty. Dependency on disposable batteries along with firewood, kerosene, charcoal and candles – energy sources of the poorest – all contribute to environmental degradation and poverty. Since 1999, 500,000 of our radios and media players have provided learning access to an estimated 20 million listeners, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Kerosene use by the poor remains a perilous issue across the developing world. Renewable energy products and services are making in-roads, however, kerosene is still the primary light and cooking source for much of Africa, where Lifeline Energy mainly works.