Brian Farnen

General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer

As General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer for the Connecticut Green Bank, Brian directs all legal, legislative and regulatory affairs for the nation’s first green bank established in July 2011, a global leader in renewable and energy efficiency financing and winner of the prestigious Harvard Kennedy School of Government Ash Award for innovation in 2017. Brian’s counsel is helping the Green Bank realize its mission of leveraging public and private funds to scale-up renewable energy deployment and energy efficiency projects.

Directly prior to the Green Bank, Brian was a Senior Attorney with United Technologies’ Sikorsky Aircraft business unit, providing legal counsel for strategic international campaigns, as well as all of Sikorsky’s global environmental, energy, health and safety legal matters. Brian also has worked as an attorney for MassMutual Financial Group and Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge.

Brian was awarded by the Connecticut Law Tribune as the “Best In-House Counsel” of the Year in 2018 and previously named a “New Leader in the Law” in 2013. He is passionate about the renewable energy space, teaches business law as a professor at Fairfield University, is a board member of the Council of Development Finance Agencies and the Renewable Energy and Efficiency Business Association, and is a former member of the CT Judicial Review Counsel.

Brian obtained his Bachelor of Arts Degree, Masters of Business Administration (Finance) and Juris Doctorate from the University of Connecticut.