Olga Khakova
Deputy Director for European Energy Security, Atlantic Council
Olga Khakova is Deputy Director for European Energy Security at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center, where she leads work on aligning climate and energy security through transatlantic cooperation. She develops policy analysis and organizes high-level meetings, including the Central and Eastern European Energy Security Conference in Washington, DC. She also conceptualized and launched the Global Energy Center’s Innovation Stream and the Model COP26 competition.
Before joining the Atlantic Council, Khakova served as Senior Program Coordinator at the United States Energy Association, where she helped launch the Western Balkans Electricity Market Initiative. She later worked as Program Director at The Climate + Energy Project, a Midwest-based clean energy nonprofit, where she co-led the development of the Clean Energy Business Council and facilitated stakeholder engagement on energy policy.
Khakova previously worked at Bombardier Aerospace, organizing international aviation safety programming. She is a frequent media commentator and has published in major outlets including The Economist, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. She holds a Professional Science Master’s degree from the University of Kansas and serves on the Board of Directors of the Women’s Council on Energy and the Environment.