PROVIDENCE – Nellie M. Gorbea has found a new professional home, which will take her back to her native Puerto Rico.
Gorbea, who served two terms as the R.I. secretary of state and ran for governor in 2022, will become the first CEO and president of the Puerto Rico Green Energy Trust, the San Juan-based nonprofit announced Monday. The trust, it says, was enabled as part of the U.S. territory’s public policy act to foster and fund research, development and infrastructure projects that promote clean and renewable energy in Puerto Rico.
As a requirement for her new role, Gorbea must relocate to Puerto Rico within three months. The position, which was advertised on LinkedIn originally as “executive director” of the Puerto Rico Green Energy Trust, pays between $150,000 and $250,000.
Gorbea on Tuesday told Providence Business News she was attracted to the trust’s work in helping Puerto Rico meet its goal of making the country 100% renewable energy by 2050, and understanding that renewable energy is a global issue, and wanted to be part of it. She said she was “excited” to find an organization that was committed to supporting that transformation, along with the emphasis in having the opportunity to help her native country thrive.
“My family is in Puerto Rico. My 80-year-old parents and my siblings [are there],” Gorbea said. “It’s a good way to go back and be part of the family again.”
Gorbea admitted that there is some bittersweet emotions in having to leave Rhode Island after 32 years calling the state home where she had made impacts both at the nonprofit level and in elective office, plus her children were born and raised in the Ocean State as well.
Before having a career in public office, Gorbea was HousingWorks RI’s inaugural executive director for five years from 2008 through 2013. Her career in Rhode Island began in 1996 with the Rhode Island Foundation where she was a program officer for the prominent nonprofit funder, according to Gorbea’s LinkedIn profile.
In 2014, Gorbea, a Democrat, was first elected as the secretary of state and served two four-year terms after being re-elected in 2018. She ran an unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign in 2022, falling to eventual Gov. Daniel J. McKee in the primary that year. After elective office, Gorbea for a year was a visiting senior fellow on cybersecurity and democracy for Salve Regina University’s Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy in Newport.
“Rhode Island will always be a part of who I am,” Gorbea said, “and I look forward to coming back and visiting.”
Connecting with a large diverse group of people in the nation's smallest state to make substantive change, as well as growing Rhode Island’s Latino political community over the last three decades, is one of Gorbea’s most gratifying accomplishments she made here, she said. Gorbea said more people in the Latino community in the state have become “more welcomed and a part of the leadership structures” of the state.
Gorbea, per her LinkedIn profile, has had past experience working in Puerto Rico, first as an assistant to the president for the Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico in 1998 and then an economic advisor for Puerto Rico’s governor’s office a year later.
Francisco Berríos Portela, chairman of the trust’s board of trustees, said in a statement Gorbea’s experience in establishing and leading nonprofit’s that are focused on public policy will be “vital” for the trust to fulfill its mission of promoting renewable energy in Puerto Rico.
Gorbea said upon arriving in Puerto Rico, the trust – which she said is modeled after the Connecticut Green Bank - has grant funding that she looks forward to deploying to help start the country’s renewable energy push, as well as develop a strategic plan for Puerto Rico make that transition toward green energy. She also said the trust will establish microgrant programs to help small businesses within the country as well.
Another key advantage for Puerto Rico installing green energy that Gorbea noted is building microgrids can help make the territory more resilient and recover faster from severe hurricanes, avoiding similar devastation that Puerto Rico saw when Hurricane Maria hit the island in 2017. She said the Biden administration committed $1 billion in committed funding to Puerto Rico make this transition toward renewable energy there.
“There has been a lot of federal support to Puerto Rico really become a [global] leader to a green energy community,” Gorbea said.
(UPDATED throughout to include comment from Nellie M. Gorbea.)
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
Although I am happy for Nellie that she’s going home and will be with her elderly parents and other relatives, I am somewhat disappointed because she represented a fresh and honest approach to our state. Particularly, she handled her 8 years as our secretary of State with professionalism and sophistication. Our state is better off today because of her leadership.
Good luck, Nellie and enjoy your return to your roots!