Lilyanne McClean

Lilyanne McClean has recently been named the new Senior Vice President of Global Public Policy and Government Affairs at Fuel Cell Energy. She has over 30 years of business, policy and communications experience and an established reputation as a “game changer,” capable of implementing complex strategies and driving stakeholder support. Prior to joining Fuel Cell Energy, she served as the new President of Texans for Lawsuit Reform, a $25 million business organization in Texas, created to ensure a fair and efficient civil justice system. In this role, she also worked closely with influencers in Louisiana, Florida, and other states with high levels of frivolous litigation and/or organized efforts to target the business community. 

Immediately before this role, Lilyanne was the Executive Vice President for Public Policy and Communications at the Greater Houston Partnership (GHP), a $12 million business organization that has led the state in economic development, public policy implementation and advocacy. As the only EVP, Lilyanne was responsible for driving success in two major departments, supporting the CEO, guiding the senior leadership team as the “shadow COO,” and supporting the organization’s Executive Committee, Steering Committees and the Board of Directors. She directly partnered with Houston area CEOs and managed key business issues, including tax policy, corporate governance and ESG.

Lilyanne was recruited to the GHP from a global public relations firm in Washington, D.C. that specialized in supporting highly regulated industries with public affairs, public relations, and strategic communications services. Notably, she also spent 12 years at American Express Company in several senior positions, in New York and Washington, D.C. This includes serving as the Vice President for global government affairs, directing teams in Europe, Asia, North America, South America, Australia, and the Caribbean. She has worked with or met every U.S. President since George H. W. Bush.

Lilyanne holds a J.D. from George Washington University Law School, a master’s degree in communications from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Montclair State University, a liberal arts college in New Jersey that has received national awards for producing the best teachers in the country.

Throughout her career, Lilyanne has been an active leader in many organizations, including the Urban Bankers Association, Suited for Change, the Business Council for International Understanding, the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Financial Services Association, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Lilyanne is currently a member of the United Way of Greater Houston’s Board of Directors, an Advisory Board Member of Amegy Bank, a division of Zion’s Bancorp, and a Trustee at George Washington University’s Law School. An enthusiastic mentor focused on developing talent, she has memorialized some of her career advice in a column entitled, “Race to the Top,” which ran for over two years in the Houston Forward Times, one of the oldest Black-owned newspapers in the country.