Team
Tod Hynes
Tod Hynes is a Senior Lecturer at MIT where he teaches a graduate course called Climate & Energy Ventures and co-founded and advises the MIT Climate & Energy Prize. He is also a Senior Advisor for Climate & Energy at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and is the Vice Chair of the Board of the Woodwell Climate Research Center, a world-leading provider of independent climate science.
Tod founded Clymate Studios to help others help the climate. He has started and invested in 20+ companies in the climate and energy space since 2002. He stared a wind development company before tax equity investors entered the U.S. market, and he started XL Fleet, one of the first fleet vehicle electrification companies, which scaled across the U.S. and Canada and went public in 2020. From 2004-2008 he was the Dir. of Alternative Energy at Citizens Energy where he launched the company’s wind development business and assessed various clean energy and carbon offset development opportunities.
He co-chaired the Energy Committee of the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Conventions (CERC), the organization that greened the 2004 U.S. presidential Democratic and Republican National Conventions. He was treasurer and steering committee member of the Boston Climate Action Network from 2003-2008. In 2001, Tod started one of the first social networking companies, but he decided to focus on climate.
Tod holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Science from MIT.
Libby Wayman
Libby is a business and technology leader with experience research, product development, entrepreneurship, corporate strategy, and venture capital. Libby served as the Global Director of Innovation for GE’s Ecomagination strategy, in which GE invested over $20B in clean innovation and generated over $300B in revenue. In this role, Libby led the development of physical and digital products, new business models, and global partnerships to address challenges in water, energy, and transportation. Libby also led strategy development for GE in the energy sector, and commercial development for the GE Ventures energy portfolio. Prior to GE, Libby served as the Director for the U.S. Department of Energy, Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative, where she worked with the White House and across the Department to establish a portfolio of new advanced manufacturing research and Manufacturing Innovation Institutes. Earlier in her career, Libby developed solar energy technologies at SunPower and Alion Energy, and co-founded a company focused on energy and cold-chain infrastructure in Africa and India. Libby has served as an ex-officio member of the Secretary of Commerce Manufacturing Council, co-founded the MIT Energy Club, and serves on the founding board of the Boston Chapter of the Women’s Energy Network. Libby holds a BS & MS from MIT.
Francis O'Sullivan
Francis O’Sullivan is a Managing Director at S2G Ventures where he oversees the firm’s energy investing activities. Frank is also an adjunct faculty member at the MIT Sloan School and has previously served as the Director of Research for MIT’s Energy Initiative and as Co-Director of the MIT Electric Power System Center. Earlier in his career Frank was a senior consultant at McKinsey & Company.
Dr. O’Sullivan is a Senior Associate with the Energy and National Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC, a Distinguished Associate at the Energy Futures Initiative and has previously served as a board member of the American Council on Renewable Energy. Frank is a member of the Governing Authority of University College Cork.
He received his Ph.D., E.E., and S.M. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his B.E. from the University College Cork, all in electrical engineering.
Jacquelyn Pless
Jacquelyn Pless is the Fred Kayne (1960) Career Development Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and an Assistant Professor in the Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Her research falls at the intersection of innovation economics, energy and environmental economics, and strategy, exploring how firms and policymakers can foster innovation for social progress — innovation that protects people and the planet — with a particular focus on energy and environmental innovation.
Jacquelyn teaches courses on innovation strategy and entrepreneurship at MIT and was recently named a “Best 40-Under-40 Business School Professor” by Poets & Quants. In 2022, she was selected to be a Distinguished Fellow on Stakeholder Capitalism and ESG Investing by the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise.
Before joining MIT, she held various positions in the private and public sectors working on energy policy issues as well as helping high-growth technology companies design and manage their reorganizations. She holds MS and PhD degrees in Mineral and Energy Economics from the Colorado School of Mines and a BA in Economics and Political Science from the University of Vermont, Honors College
Jennifer Turliuk
Jennifer is an MIT Sloan Fellow and Practice Leader - Climate and Energy AI at Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. She is an entrepreneur, angel investor, technologist, author, keynote speaker, and consultant. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Huffington Post, Fast Company, Wired, etc. Jennifer is a strategic leader and technologist, with experience in strategy, marketing, innovation, product management, software engineering, and prompt engineering. Jennifer led and co-instructed Climate Angels, an educational program on climate tech angel investing, with speakers from Lowercarbon Capital, MCJ Collective, Climate Capital, Planeteer Capital, Earthshot, 500 Startups, Plug and Play, Elemental Excelerator, and more. Jennifer was a Partner with Climate Capital Syndicate, one of the most active climate tech funders in the world, with 350+ investments. She sourced, performed due diligence on, and led investments into climate tech companies. Jennifer is a mentor to entrepreneurs via Founder Institute and MIT's Climate & Energy Prize. She has developed AI tools for climate entrepreneurs for an MIT professor, for usage at MIT and beyond. She was a Managing Director of ClimaTech's Great Global Innovation Challenge. Jennifer has delivered keynote speeches across stages including MakerCon Europe, Humber Convocation, the Globe & Mail Generative AI event, etc; addressed audiences of TEDx, Climate Change AI, Terra.do, Climate Career Week, Climate Capital, Maker Faire Bay Area, SXSW, etc; and is represented by National Speakers Bureau. She is a published book author whose writing can be found in Forbes, Business Insider, Strategy, and newspapers. Previously, as co-founder and CEO of MakerKids, she pioneered the first makerspace for kids in the world, grew the startup into an edtech company offering virtual classes, earned recognition from major media, secured clients such as Twitter and Microsoft, bootstrapped to revenue self-sufficiency, raised venture capital and exited through acquisition. Jennifer started her career in marketing at Procter & Gamble. She is on the Professional Advisory Committee for the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. Jennifer graduated with honors from Queen's University and Singularity University's Global Solutions Program (at NASA Ames). She has been honored with awards including the IEEE Outreach Award, HSC Alumni Hall of Excellence award, and an Honorary Degree from Humber College for her contributions to society. Jennifer loves musicals, dancing, and wind sports.
