Kristen King
MSES Career Coach; Director of Sustainability, James Hardie
Kristen King is a career coach for Northwestern's Master of Science in Energy and Sustainability (MSES) Program.
With nearly a decade of experience in corporate sustainability, Kristen has been responsible for defining and executing strategic and sustainable business operations across global manufacturing and retail organizations. Kristen began her career at Siemens AG with a passion for the clean energy sector. As a Field Service Engineer, she was the lead technical expert on-site during inspection and maintenance outages of Siemens gas turbines and generators.
Kristen has since held various sustainability roles of increasing responsibility. During her time at Ardagh Metal Packaging, leading global supplier of metal beverage cans, the company launched its first sustainability and green bond impact reports, achieved approval from the Science-Based Targets Initiative for its ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, received LEED Gold certification for its office space in its aluminum beverage can and end manufacturing facility in Huron, Ohio, U.S. and co-sponsored the inaugural Global Aluminium Can Sustainability Summit in Rome, Italy. This past December, Kristen had the opportunity to present and engage global leaders on circularity at COP28 in Dubai, UAE.
Currently, Kristen leads the North America ESG strategy for James Hardie Building Products, the world’s #1 producer and marketer of high-performance fiber cement and fiber gypsum building solutions.
Kristen holds an MES from University of Pennsylvania, an MEng in Environmental Engineering from Tsinghua University, an MS in International Environmental Policy and Management from École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris (MINES Paris Tech) and a BS in Civil Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). She holds an Engineer-In-Training (EIT) license and is a LEED Green Associate.
Kristen previously held advisory roles and served as a committee member for the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB).