Ali Zaidi

Ali A. Zaidi (born 1987/1988) is a Pakistani-American lawyer who served as the second White House national climate advisor from 2022 to 2025. He was the New York deputy secretary for energy and environment. Zaidi held climate policy positions in the Obama administration including United States Domestic Policy Council deputy director for energy policy and associate director for natural resources, energy, and science at the Office of Management and Budget. Zaidi was a policy aide to U.S. energy secretary Steven Chu. He served as the first White House deputy national climate advisor from 2021 to 2022.

Early life and education Zaidi was born in Pakistan and moved to Edinboro, Pennsylvania, with his family in 1993. He graduated from General McLane High School in 2004. Zaidi completed a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College and a Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center. He was an editor of The Georgetown Law Journal.

Career

Obama administration Beginning in February 2009, Zaidi served for eight years in a number of roles within the Obama administration, including the White House Domestic Policy Council’s (DPC) deputy director for energy policy and policy aide to U.S. energy secretary Steven Chu and as special projects coordinator at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Zaidi was associate director for natural resources, energy, and science at the Office of Management and Budget. Zaidi supported development and execution of the President's economic and environmental policy, and led a team of experts overseeing a wide array of policy, budget, and management issues – including issues related to energy, agriculture, infrastructure, conservation, and technology – across a nearly $100 billion portfolio. In this role, Zaidi also served as OMB's chief policy official for implementation of the President's Climate Action Plan, which he helped design and draft.

Private sector In February 2017, Zaidi joined the law firm Morrison & Foerster as a senior advisor in their Washington, D.C., office. He was a Precourt Scholar and adjunct professor at Stanford University before joining the Biden administration. Zaidi was the New York deputy secretary for energy and environment, where he worked with the governor of New York on climate policy and finance.

In December 2020, The Economic Times noted that Zaidi is the highest-ranking Pakistani-American in the Biden administration.

In 2021, he was an honoree of the Carnegie Corporation of New York's Great Immigrant Award.