Meet the Team
Amy Harder is executive editor of Cipher by Breakthrough Energy. Amy is one of the top national energy and climate change reporters in the country, having built up a reputation of being a uniquely balanced and influential journalist with respect across the spectrum. She joined Breakthrough Energy in early 2021 to help launch Cipher, a publication covering the opportunities and challenges of the energy transition.
Before joining Breakthrough, Amy was with Axios full time since shortly after it launched in 2017, based in Washington DC. In that role, Amy reported on trends and exclusive scoops, while also distilling into understandable formats complex energy and climate issues. Harder has interviewed some of the most well-known leaders in this space, and at the same time bridges the gap between what leaders say and what everyday people care about.
She was the inaugural journalism fellow for the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute for the 2018-2019 school year, where she moderated events and took part in other university initiatives. Previously, she covered similar issues for The Wall Street Journal, based out of its Washington, DC, bureau. Earlier in her career, she wrote for National Journal, also in Washington DC.
She has appeared on PBS' NewsHour, CSPAN, MSNBC, CBS, and NPR, among many other media outlets. She is regularly sought out to speak and participate in events, including moderating and participating in panel discussions, and giving speeches around the country and world.
Amy is originally from Washington State and moved back in 2020, after a dozen years in the other Washington. She received a BA in journalism with honors from Western Washington University. She loves running and cross-country skiing the Pacific Northwest’s best trails.
Jillian Mock is an associate editor for Cipher. She is an experienced editor, reporter and fact checker whose work focuses on climate change, energy, wildlife, medicine and mental health.
Jillian has written and edited for a wide range of publications, including American Scientist, Popular Science, Scientific American, Audubon, The New York Times, Medscape Medical News and more. In 2021 and 2022, her work for Medscape earned Azbee awards from the American Society of Business Publication Editors for business to business journalism in the Northeast region, and in 2019 she completed a competitive editorial fellowship at Audubon magazine.
She is also a co-founder of OpenMind Magazine, a small nonprofit publication focused on distortions, deceptions and controversies in science.
Jillian holds an MA in science journalism from New York University and a BA in environmental history from Middlebury College. She is based in New York City.
Anca Gurzu
Anca Gurzu is a Brussels-based correspondent for Cipher. She is a climate and energy journalist with more than a decade of reporting experience spanning two continents.
Anca has been covering the ins and outs of Europe’s energy transition from the European Union capital for about eight years, five of which with POLITICO Europe. She built a reputation of delivering scoops on the EU’s challenges to green its economy and adapt to climate change, while also tying policy with on-the-ground realities through analysis and feature stories. Her reporting trips range from the Eastern European countryside to the Finnish Arctic Circle.
Prior to joining Cipher, Anca completed a fellowship in business journalism at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business together with a few other journalists from around the world. In 2019, she was one of the several energy journalists selected to participate in the Energy Journalism Initiative at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy in New York City. She also wrote about the intersection of climate and finance as a freelancer for the development publication Devex.
Anca has moderated numerous live conferences and interviewed leaders and CEOs across Europe. Before relocating to Europe, she worked as a foreign policy reporter in Ottawa, Canada, for Embassy News (now merged with the Hill Times), where she covered Canada’s immigration, trade and aid policies.
Anca holds a Master’s degree in European, Russian and Eurasian studies from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and a Bachelor’s degree in journalism from the same university.
Amena H. Saiyid
Amena Saiyid is a Washington D.C.-based correspondent for Cipher. She is a climate and energy journalist with expertise analyzing the regulatory, legal and legislative impacts on the U.S. energy, chemicals and manufacturing sectors.
Amena has covered the intersection of U.S. policy and the environment for over 20 years, most recently as a Senior Climate and Energy Analyst and Journalist for S&P Global. As a founding member of the team, she reported, edited and analyzed the impacts of global climate policy developments on the financing and installation of clean energy technologies.
Prior to S&P Global, Amena spent 13 years as a reporter for Bloomberg Environment (now energy and environment news with Bloomberg Industry Group), covering EPA appropriations, pipeline safety and hazmat transport, air pollution and more. In between stints with Bloomberg Industry Group, she was an associate editor with S&P Platts (now S&P Global Commodity Insights), analyzing coal, uranium and emissions markets. She also served as a Congressional Fellow at the American Political Science Association and was an editor with Argus Media, covering climate change, air quality and emissions markets.
Amena holds an MA in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a BS in chemistry from the College of William & Mary.
Bill Spindle is a senior global correspondent for Cipher with a focus on Asia, the Middle East and Africa. He leads Cipher’s coverage in the run up and through the highly anticipated United Nations climate conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in late 2023.
Bill has reported on energy and geopolitics for decades from more than three dozen countries. He worked as reporter and bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal for 20 years, based in Tokyo, New York, Rome, Abu Dhabi and Delhi. His stories about the global energy transition have also appeared in The Atlantic, Fortune, the New York Review of Books and Columbia Journalism Review.
Before joining Cipher, Bill was a 2022 International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He used the fellowship to travel more than 5,000 miles around India by rail reporting on climate change in the world’s most populous country and India’s tumultuous energy transition.
Bill holds Masters’ degrees in journalism and international affairs from Columbia University and a Bachelors’ degree in English literature from the University of Michigan.