Michael Catanzaro
Mike Catanzaro has more than two decades of experience working in senior positions in energy and environmental policy. He is a strategic advisor to Fortune 500 companies, trade associations and private equity firms, and in the federal government, including for the speaker of the house, the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, the Environmental Protection Agency, the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and the White House National Economic Council.
Catanzaro got his start in environmental policy in 2003 when he was named communications director for the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW). Catanzaro took a leave of absence from the committee in 2004, when he joined the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign as deputy policy director.
After the 2004 election, Catanzaro served in the George W. Bush Administration as the associate director for policy at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, focusing on climate, air, and water policies and special projects. Catanzaro was later tapped to serve as the associate deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, putting him in a leadership position responsible for overseeing the agency’s day-to-day regulatory process.
In 2009, Catanzaro was asked by then-Ranking Member James Inhofe (R-OK) to return to the Senate EPW Committee, this time as deputy staff director. After Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives in 2011, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) named Catanzaro as senior policy advisor.
While serving in this role, Catanzaro was hired by the Romney for President Transition Team in 2012 as the lead staffer for EPA. In 2013, Catanzaro left government service and joined FTI Consulting as managing director of the firm’s strategic communications division.
Catanzaro returned to government in 2016, first handling energy and environmental policy for the Trump Transition Team. Then, after the election, President Trump appointed Catanzaro as special assistant to the president for Domestic Energy and Environmental Policy at the White House National Economic Council.
In June 2018, Catanzaro returned to the private sector, becoming the president and CPO of the CGCN Group, one of D.C.’s top integrated strategic communications, policy consulting, and advocacy firms. In this role, Catanzaro advises senior executives at Fortune 500 companies, leading trade associations, and private equity firms on legislation, regulation, and the courts. Catanzaro is also a non-resident senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, chairman of the Policy and Digital Advisory Board of the Energy Consumer Market Alignment Project, and a former visiting policy fellow at the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute.
In 2022, Catanzaro was named by Washingtonian Magazine as one of “Washington DC’s 500 Most Influential People.” He received his BA from Fordham University in political science and philosophy and an MA in government from Johns Hopkins University.