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September 12, 2024

ClimateHaven names Yale alum its new CEO

Contributed Justine Lee
By David Krechevsky

ClimateHaven Inc., the New Haven-based climate technology incubator, said Thursday it has appointed its new top executive.

Justine Lee, a Yale University graduate with more than 15 years of experience in investing in and operating  early-stage companies, has been named the organization’s new president and chief executive officer.

She succeeds Ryan Dings, who launched and had led the organization from its start April 2022 through July of this year. Dings left to become the U.S. CEO of EIT InnoEnergy, a global energy venture capital firm co-funded by the European Union.

ClimateHaven accelerated more than 25 startups during its first year. 

According to her LinkedIn bio, Lee most recently served as a board member of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, and as an advisor for Hines Global Ventures, which makes venture investments and strategic partnerships, where she was a global real estate investment manager with $93.2 billion of assets under management.

Before that, she spent three years as a managing partner, investment committee member and chief operating officer for 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.

Lee is a graduate of Yale University and earned her law degree at Columbia Law School. She began her career as a mergers and acquisitions lawyer with the New York law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP.

“Since its launch last year, ClimateHaven has developed an impressive ecosystem of innovative companies doing pioneering work from carbon sequestration to industrial waste treatment,” Lee said. “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.”

As CEO, the organization said, 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. 

Josh Geballe, chair of the ClimateHaven board and managing director of Yale Ventures, praised the choice of Lee to lead ClimateHaven.

“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,” he said.

During the search for a new CEO, the organization was temporarily led by Managing Director Casey Pickett and Director of Community and Marketing Haley Lieberman, who remain with the organization.

ClimateHaven, based at 770 Chapel St. in New Haven, is backed by the state of Connecticut, Yale University, Connecticut Innovations, and foundations, corporate partners, and donors.
 

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