Route to the Top with Jessica Bailey

Jessica Bailey is President and CEO of Nuveen Green Capital, a leading provider of sustainable commercial real estate finance.

Jessica co-founded Greenworks Lending, the largest provider of commercial property assessed clean energy (C-PACE) financing in the country.

As CEO of Greenworks Lending, Jessica grew the company into a national lending platform operating in over 30 states, raised and deployed over a billion dollars in debt and equity, and built a team of nearly 100 professionals. Through its nationwide distribution and originations platform, it has experienced double-digit annual growth since founding.

In 2021, she led Greenworks to a successful acquisition by Nuveen; the platform has since been rebranded to Nuveen Green Capital. From 2012 to 2014, Jessica was with the Connecticut Green Bank, where she designed and led the award-winning C-PACE program for the state. From 2004 to 2012, Jessica worked at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a foundation based in New York.

Jessica was named a GlobeSt. Woman of Influence in 2023, and she and Nuveen Green Capital co-founder Ali Cooley were jointly recognized for “CRE’s Best Bosses” by GlobeSt. in 2023, as well as “50 Most Important Figures of Commercial Real Estate Finance” by Commercial Observer in 2022. Jessica was named an Ernst and Young Entrepreneurial Winning Woman in 2019, a prestigious award affiliated with EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Connecticut Magazine named her “40 under 40” in 2019. She was named a “Champion of Change” by the White House for solar deployment in 2014.