Climate Symposium 2025

Climate at the Crossroads

Tickets

Saturday, October 18 @ 6-8pm

âš² Pillar VC

9th Floor, 500 Boylston St

Sunday, October 19 @ 8am-5:30pm

âš² Harvard Business School

Klarman Hall, 117 Western Ave 

at the crossroads

at the crossroads

At the Crossroads

Risk, Resilience and the Unknown

At the Crossroads captures a pivotal moment—where climate science, geopolitical tension, innovation, and economic power converge. The 2025 Climate Symposium brings together global thinkers, leaders, and activists to chart a path toward a climate-stable, equitable future.

With growing focus on resiliency, capital flows, and the ethical and financial implications of AI, panels will span clean energy, climate finance, corporate sustainability, biodiversity, and community justice—offering fresh frameworks and real-world insights.

Beyond panels, the Pitch Competition will spotlight bold ventures at the intersection of climate and equity, while keynotes and curated networking will inspire action and spark lasting collaboration. This is your community. Welcome to the crossroads.

Startup Pitch Competition

Startups will pitch their businesses in this Shark Tank style competition to win a cash prize. Judges include:

  • Noah Sumait | Energy Impact Partners

  • Wynston Reed | Clean Energy Partners

Schedule

Saturday, October 18

Location: Pillar VC, 9th Floor, 500 Boylston St, Boston

  • Cities as Catalysts for Climate Action

    Julia Thayne, Founder, Two & Rising, Harvard Graduate School of Design

Sunday, October 19

Location: Harvard Business School

  • Klarman Hall

  • Klarman Hall

  • Klarman Hall

    Leading at Scale: Climate, AI, and Building the Net Zero Economy

    Chris Roe, Director of Worldwide Carbon, Amazon

    Suraj Srinivasan, Professor, HBS

    Staying the Course: Private Sector Leadership in the Age of Climate Headwinds

    Mindy Lubber, President, Ceres

    Jim Matheson, Senior Lecturer, HBS

  • Financing, Optimizing, and Forecasting the Future of Clean Energy: Aldrich Hall Room 111

    Moderated by: Jesse Lazarus, Senior Advisor, Green Tech Alliance

    Nick Devonshire, Co-Head Investments, CleanCapital

    Pablo Ruiz, CEO and CTO, NewGrid

    McKenzie Fowler, Director, PowerIntel

    Unlocking Capital: Funding What the Climate Needs Next:Aldrich Hall Room 112

    Moderated by: Ely Sandler, Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School

    Nick O'Donohoe, Former CEO, British International Investment

    Jonah Wagner, President, Constructive

    Joe Blair, General Partner, Bay Bridge Ventures

    Nuclear Energy – From Atoms to Bytes: Aldrich Hall Room 110

    Moderated by: Sully Crevecoeur, Nuclear Market Manager NA,
    Technetics Group

    Alison Poortman, VP Advanced Fuels Commercial NA, Urenco Global

    Paolo Venneri, Principal Nuclear Engineer, Amazon

  • Business of Climate Adaptation: Aldrich Hall Room 112

    Moderated by: Christian Kaps, Asst. Professor, HBS

    Kathleen Ores Walsh, Chief Underwriting Officer, USAA

    JT White, Co-Founder & CEO, Forerunner

    Joel Wish, Founder & CEO, Bright Habor

    Feeding the Future: Technology, Resilience, and Climate Outcomes: Aldrich Hall Room 111

    Moderated by: Brian Trelstad, Senior Lecturer, HBS

    Anthony Howcroft, Founder & Exec Chairman, SWARM

    Adaeze Okoli, Chief of Staff, ReThink Food

    Charlie Andersen, Founder & CEO, Burro

    What Worked? Case Studies of Climate Finance in the Global South: Aldrich Hall Room 110

    Moderated by: Wasim Tahir, Research Fellow, Harvard Center for International Development

    Morgan Defoort, Managing Principal, Factor[e] Ventures

    Katya Gratcheva, Advisor, Monetary and Capital Markets, IMF

  • Lunch available in Spangler Hall, Williams Room

    Sponsor networking in Klarman Hall

  • Scaling Climate Action: Lessons from the Massachusetts Front Lines: Aldrich Hall Room 110

    Jonathan Schrag, Deputy Chief of Climate & Director of Investment for Decarb. & Resilience, Office of the Governor, MA

    Mike Toffel, Professor,
    Harvard Business School

  • Can We Build Fast Enough? Rewiring Infrastructure for a Decarbonized Energy Transition: Aldrich Hall Room 111

    Moderated by: John Macomber, Senior Lecturer, Harvard Business School

    Digaunto Chatterjee, SVP Engineering, Eversource Energy

    Pablo Taccioli, Sr. Director, Strategic Growth, Fluence

    Michael Pasternak, Sr. Software Engineer, LineVision

    The AI Power Dilemma: How the Data Center Boom Is Reshaping the Energy Transition: Aldrich Hall Room 112

    Moderated by: James Koehler, Professor of Practice, Harvard University

    Dipul Patel, CTO, Soluna Computing

    Michael Onolememen, Sr. Project Manager, Data Center Power Infrastructure, NextEra

    Taylor Lalemand, Senior Manager, Markets, Treaty Oak Clean Energy

  • Klarman Hall

  • Klarman Hall

    Catalyzing Climate Tech: Turning Breakthroughs into Bankable Solutions

    Daniel Goldman, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Clean Energy Ventures  

    Max H. Bazerman, Professor, Harvard Business School

  • Klarman Hall

  • Klarman Hall

Our sponsors

  • Chevron

    PLATINUM SPONSOR

  • DLA Piper

    GOLD SPONSOR

  • Octopus Energy

    BRONZE SPONSOR

  • Iberdola

    BRONZE SPONSOR

  • HBS Business & Environment Initiative

    Ally

  • Salata Institute

    Ally

  • EDF Power Solutions

    Ally

  • Little Sesame

    Networking event sponsor

  • Patagonia Provisions

    Networking event sponsor