VIRTUAL EVENT
The Roller Coaster of Climate Tech Investing
January 22, 2026
12:00-1:00pm ET
Investment in companies offering technologies and services that enable decarbonization recently faced increased headwinds. Despite the urgent need for innovation in this area, it remains unclear whether we are seeing the development of economically viable new ventures or a repeat of the boom and bust associated with “cleantech” in the late 2000s and early 2010s. This session will explore these critically important issues.
This event is part of the Private Capital and Discovery: Strategic Investing in Scientific Innovation series. Additional session information may be found by visiting nyas.org.
Meet the Panelists
Join us for a dynamic conversation with a panel of expert speakers at the intersection of private equity and scientific research.
These leaders bring deep insight from both the financial and research sectors, offering a rare look into how capital investment is shaping the future of science and innovation and how cutting-edge research can guide capital investment.
EMILY A. CARTER, Princeton University
Emily A. Carter is the Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor in Energy and the Environment at Princeton University and a senior executive at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, where she has expanded its research portfolio beyond fusion into electromanufacturing, solar radiation management, microelectronics, and quantum information science.
A former founding director of Princeton’s Andlinger Center and Dean of Engineering, and later UCLA’s Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, she has led major initiatives in research, education, diversity, and institutional transformation.
A renowned expert in quantum mechanical simulations for sustainable energy and carbon management, she has published nearly 500 research articles and patents, delivered 600+ invited talks, and is elected to numerous national and international academies. She holds degrees from UC Berkeley and Caltech.
PATRICK LYNCH, Featherlight Capital
Patrick Lynch is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Featherlight Capital, an investment firm dedicated to accelerating the growth of private asset managers addressing climate change. He brings over 25 years of global private markets experience across private equity, private credit, and real assets.
Throughout his career, Patrick has led more than 60 investments totaling $6.7 billion and served on investment committees overseeing over $40 billion in private market commitments. At Featherlight, he works closely with his co-founders to ensure disciplined execution of the firm’s investment strategy and partners with managers on tailored value-creation initiatives.
Prior to Featherlight, Patrick was a Founder, Partner, and Head of Private Equity at Fiera Comox, where he led the global private equity strategy. Before that, he served as Head of Private Equity Funds and Partnerships at La Caisse, where he also led the firm-wide private equity initiative on impact investing. Earlier in his career, Patrick was a founding member of Mubadala Capital and a board member of Masdar Capital, Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy investment platform. He has also served on the boards of several global alternative investment firms. Patrick holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University.
RON GONEN, MBA, Closed Loop Partners
Ron is the Founder and CEO of Closed Loop Partners, an operating company at the forefront of building the circular economy. Closed Loop Partners is comprised of an asset management business, innovation center and operating group that builds and operates circular economy infrastructure, including the largest privately held recycling company in the U.S. Prior to founding the Closed Loop Partners.
Ron served as the Deputy Commissioner for Sanitation, Recycling and Sustainability in New York City during the Bloomberg Administration. During his tenure in the Bloomberg Administration, he was recognized by NRDC/Earth Day NY as the Public Official of the Year in 2013.
Ron founded his first recycling company in 2002.
He earned an MBA from Columbia Business and later served as an Adjunct Professor. He is the author of the Waste Free World.
REUBEN MUNGER, Vision Ridge
Reuben Munger founded Vision Ridge in 2008 in order to bring decades of value investing experience to bear on what he saw as the financial opportunities presented by sustainable solutions. A former Partner at the investment firm, The Baupost Group, LLC, Reuben has also been a consultant to Texas Pacific Group and an Investment Banker with James D. Wolfensohn, Inc. His passion and expertise in electrified mobility, renewable electricity generation, the built environment, and other assets make him a leader in sustainable investing.
Reuben is a board member of Western Resource Advocates, Chairman of the WRA Action Fund, a Commissioner at the Coalition for Reimagined Mobility, a board member of the League of Conservation Voters, and an investment committee member for RMI. Additionally, Reuben serves on the boards of numerous other private companies. He graduated magna cum laude from Washington and Lee University with a B.A. in Politics and Economics and a B.S. in Business Administration.
SERIES MODERATOR
JOSH LERNER, The Jacob H. Schiff Professor, Harvard Business School; Director, Private Capital Research Institute
Much of Josh Lerner's research focuses on the structure and role of venture capital and private equity organizations. (This research is collected in three books, The Venture Capital Cycle, The Money of Invention, and Boulevard of Broken Dreams.) He also examines policies towards innovation, and how they impact firm strategies. (The research is discussed in the books Innovation and Its Discontents, The Comingled Code, and the forthcoming Architecture of Innovation.) He co-directs the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Productivity, Research, and Innovation Program and serves as co-editor of their publication, Innovation Policy and the Economy.
He founded and runs the Private Capital Research Institute, a non-profit devoted to encouraging data access to and research about venture capital and private equity. In the 1993-94 academic year, he introduced an elective course for second-year MBAs on private equity finance. In recent years, “Venture Capital and Private Equity” has consistently been one of the largest elective courses at Harvard Business School. (The course materials are collected in Venture Capital and Private Equity: A Casebook, now in its fifth edition, and the textbook Private Equity, Venture Capital, and the Financing of Entrepreneurship.)
He also teaches a doctoral course on entrepreneurship and in the Owners-Presidents-Managers Program, and organizes executive courses on private equity in Boston and Beijing. He is the winner of the Swedish government’s 2010 Global Entrepreneurship Research Award and has recently been named one of the 100 most influential people in private equity over the past decade by Private Equity International magazine.
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About the Presenters
The New York Academy of Sciences is a non-profit organization that drives innovative solutions to society’s challenges by advancing scientific research, education, and policy.
Since its inception in 1817, the Academy has played a critical role in shaping public discourse around science by providing an inclusive forum for the exchange of ideas, where those from multiple disciplines and perspectives all have a seat at the table.
The Private Capital Research Institute (PCRI) is a non-profit organization that seeks to further the understanding of private capital and its impact through independent academic studies.
PCRI’s primary goal is to produce and disseminate high quality academic research, based in large part on the comprehensive academic databases of private capital activity that the PCRI is building.
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