Senior Fellow, 2026-27
With a diverse background spanning over 20 years of sustainability expertise across the technology, retail, media, and real estate industries, including roles at HP Inc., Amazon, REI, The Walt Disney Company and a research fellowship at Project Drawdown, Alex Michalko has dedicated her career to driving progress on sustainability from within large companies. Most recently she served as Director of Climate & Responsible Sourcing at HP Inc., where she a global team to reduce carbon emissions, advance sustainable forestry practices, ensure alignment with global climate goals and compliance standards, protect human rights, and drive supplier engagement initiatives. Prior to HP, Alex held a variety of roles at Amazon, including leading teams that delivered supply chain decarbonization initiatives, launched the company’s first sustainability report and carbon footprint, and developed tools for ~2 million selling partners to create more-sustainable products.
Alex is currently taking a career sabbatical focused on ocean conservation and is serving as an Ambassador for eXXpedition, a nonprofit focused on creating positive change through science, storytelling, and partnerships. She recently returned from sailing across the South Pacific with an all-women crew on the first global expedition to study and map ocean plastic pollution from source to sea.
Alex earned a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Stanford University and both an MBA and a master’s degree in environmental management from Duke University, with concentrations in strategy, environmental economics and policy, and social entrepreneurship.