Ellen Swicord is a Senior Associate in The Asia Group’s Energy & Sustainability practice. She advises clients on economic, political, and regulatory developments across the Indo-Pacific, with an emphasis on the new, renewable, and traditional energy sectors, critical minerals and batteries, and corporate decarbonization.
Prior to joining The Asia Group, Ellen was a Foreign Affairs Officer in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Energy Resources, where she spearheaded U.S. energy diplomacy with China, Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Mongolia, and Taiwan. In this role, she analyzed market and policy developments in the energy sector with a focus on oil, gas, wind, geothermal, and solar energy resources, electricity grid resilience, and critical mineral supply chains. She frequently advised senior U.S. and foreign government officials and energy companies on geopolitical and economic risks in the Indo-Pacific. Ellen has extensive experience working on policy issues in Asia, including as a Graduate Fellow in Defense Programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration, a Research Associate for Korea Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, a Harold W. Rosenthal Fellow at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a Young Fellow with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and an intern for the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Korean Affairs.
Ellen holds a Master in Public Affairs from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and East Asian Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago. She is proficient in Korean and previously lived in South Korea for two years as a recipient of the Boren Scholarship and participant in the National Security Language Initiative for Youth program.