Carlos St James

Carlos St. James (born Chicago, Illinois, US on June 21, 1961) is considered one of the founders of the Latin American renewable energy industry. He founded Argentina's renewable energy industry association; founded another organization that creates a bridge for investment capital and technology transfer from the Gulf region into Latin America's energy sector; and was the first President of the Latin American & Caribbean Council on Renewable Energy ("LAC-CORE") of Washington, DC, USA. He is active in the private sector as developer and investor, and as founder and publisher of a Spanish language magazine that communicates and educates the benefits of clean energy use across the continent. He has spoken at energy conferences in over three dozen countries across five continents to promote investment and visibility to the region, while working with governments to improve energy policies.

His high school years took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina (1972–1980). He returned to the United States to study international economics at DePaul University, graduating with the class of 1985, then working in international energy finance in the United States, Australia and Mexico, participating in the last nuclear energy construction boom of the U.S. in the 1980s. In 2004 he received a master's degree in international relations from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and was elected class president.

In 2006 he returned to Argentina, where he began his work developing the industry. He co-founded and became the first president of the Argentine Renewable Energies Chamber (known by its Spanish initials as CADER), a non-profit industry trade association. With CADER's support, Argentina began increasing in world biodiesel production rankings, peaking as second largest producer in 2011; the organization also worked alongside the federal government in structuring the only renewable energy tenders for electricity—known as GENREN—in 2009. In 2011 he stepped down as president of CADER to become the first president of LAC-CORE where he was already a board member, ending his term in 2014 while remaining on the board. During this period investment in renewable energy across Latin America and the Caribbean has increased from $5 billion to almost $15 billion.

His institutional roles—all ad honorem—also include a position as founding chairman of the Middle East-Americas Energy Council, a non-profit investment development organisation that helps attract investment and technology transfer in the energy sector between these regions; board member the Global Renewable Fuels Alliance, a Toronto, Ontario, Canada-based non-profit organization that seeks to promote the development of biofuels internationally; and member of the Latin American Advisory Group of the Fletcher School, which promotes the expansion of the graduate school's reach in the region. He also founded and was the first president of the Fletcher Club of Buenos Aires, an alumni association.

In the private sector he has developed, built and profitably sold off numerous solar, wind and even biofuels installations across the region. He co-founded and was publisher of Clean Energy magazine, a Spanish language publication that is distributed across the region which was successfully sold in 2011; founder of Santiago & Sinclair, LLC, an energy consultancy focused on emerging markets; co-founder and board member of VOLA Investments Ltd., a private investment firm based in London, UK, and founder and publisher of the Latin American Energy Review, an English language online periodical written by industry leaders for the marketplace.

He is the author of more than two dozen published studies on the state of the renewable energy industry in Latin America, and his first Spanish language book, The State of Argentina's Renewable Energy Industry, has been translated into English and German. He has been interviewed on television to discuss renewable energy topics in Latin America such as CNN, is a regular speaker at industry events, and is oft-quoted by the media, including a program on energy for the History Channel and the Wall Street Journal. In May 2009 he was the subject of a profile on Recharge News, a European industry publication., as well as in Clean Energy magazine in 2011.

In 1989 he married Marian Lopez of Santa Barbara, California, with whom he has two sons.