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Originally posted to prweb.com.
Experienced venture investor and executive of early-stage companies joins climate technology incubator to drive growth and mobilize key resources for companies tackling the most critical climate challenges.
NEW HAVEN, Conn., Sept. 12, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ --ClimateHaven, an incubator for climate technology innovation and entrepreneurship, today announced the appointment of Justine Lee as President and Chief Executive Officer. Lee brings extensive experience as a senior executive and investor in early-stage growth companies to the New Haven-based incubator.
As CEO, Lee will focus on expanding ClimateHaven's portfolio of entrepreneurs and early-stage companies, accelerating growth through new funding and investment vehicles, and building strategic partnerships across the industry. Lee will continue the work started by founding CEO and ClimateHaven board member, Ryan Dings, who built the foundational structure, strategy, and programming for the innovation hub, which accelerated more than 25 startups during its first year. Dings recruited ClimateHaven's founding management team, Casey Pickett and Haley Lieberman, who have led the organization as interim Co-CEOs since Dings' departure in May.
"Since its launch last year, ClimateHaven has developed an impressive ecosystem of innovative companies doing pioneering work from carbon sequestration to industrial waste treatment," said Lee, "I am excited to lead the organization through its next stage of growth and further establish New Haven as a leading hub for climate tech innovation. By providing founders with access to prototyping and testing facilities, capital, mentoring, partnerships, and the resources needed to develop and scale commercial solutions, we can best position them to bring breakthrough technology to market."
Lee brings a depth of experience investing in, operating, and advising early-stage companies. As a member of the founding team at Motivate, she helped grow the company into the largest bike share operator in North America, with over 40,000 bikes across 7 cities, including the flagship Citibike system in New York. In 2018, she led the sale of the company to Lyft and then helped Lyft launch its broader micromobility division.
Most recently, Lee was a Partner, Investment Committee Member, and Chief Operating Officer at 25madison, a New York-based venture platform, where she led incubations and investments in early-stage technology companies and oversaw fundraising, operations, and strategic initiatives across the venture platform. During Lee's tenure at 25madison, she oversaw the launch of 25m Health, a health-tech venture studio, 25m Ventures, a seed stage venture capital fund, and 25madison's strategic partnership with private equity firm Apollo.
A graduate of Yale University and Columbia Law School, Lee began her career as an M&A lawyer at Davis Polk & Wardwell.
"As a successful venture investor and proven startup operator, Justine has experience scaling startups, and knows what it takes to fund and support that growth," said Josh Geballe, Chair of the Board of Directors of ClimateHaven and Managing Director of Yale Ventures. "She has committed her career to mentoring, advising, and supporting entrepreneurs developing transformative technologies to address the climate challenge. As we aim to establish ClimateHaven as the premiere destination for innovative climate technology, Justine's demonstrated success in scaling companies, driving operational excellence, and accelerating growth makes her the ideal fit for taking ClimateHaven to the next stage."
ClimateHaven is backed by the State of Connecticut, Yale University, Connecticut Innovations, and foundations, corporate partners, and donors.
About ClimateHaven:
ClimateHaven is a climate tech incubator for world-class innovators and entrepreneurs. The ClimateHaven hub offers workspace and prototyping support, targeted programming, and best-in-class professional guidance to dedicated entrepreneurs tackling climate challenges through commercial ventures. Located in Connecticut's downtown New Haven, ClimateHaven startups benefit from partnerships with some of the brightest minds from the Northeast and greater New Haven academic ecosystem, and from proximity to our deep network of investors and strategic partners in New York City and Boston.
