The growing climate platform taps two finance and tech industry leaders to become Chief People Officer and Vice President of Science and Technology

Galvanize Climate Solutions (“Galvanize”), a mission-driven investment platform, today announced the appointment of Sachi Blue-Smith as Chief People Officer and Kacy Gerst as Vice President of Science and Technology. Earlier this year, Galvanize announced the appointment of Nicole Systrom as Chief Impact Officer.

Sachi Blue-Smith comes to Galvanize from GI Partners, a multi-strategy investment firm that has raised over $25B in institutional capital, where she served as the Chief Human Resources Officer. Prior to GI Partners, Blue-Smith was the Director of Portfolio Services at Index Ventures, where she helped build Index’s capabilities to accelerate the growth of their portfolio companies in both the US and Europe, in terms of headcount and revenue.

At Galvanize, Blue-Smith will be responsible for helping Galvanize build and maintain a strong people-oriented organization and culture. She will lead platform wide recruitment and employee engagement efforts, and will oversee talent support as part of Galvanize’s suite of portfolio services, advising CEO's and other executives on hiring and retention challenges common to high growth companies. Blue-Smith holds an MBA degree from Harvard Business School and an AB degree from Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges.

“We wanted to bring in a strategic thought partner who can solve complex business issues, while the organization is growing at an exciting pace,” said Katie Hall, Co-Executive Chair of Galvanize. “Sachi’s wealth of experience spanning venture capital and private equity to executive recruiting made her the perfect fit to develop the people-oriented culture we hope to establish as we build Galvanize.”

Before joining Galvanize, Kacy Gerst served as the Chief of Commercial Strategy at Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) where she built DARPA’s Embedded Entrepreneurship Initiative and provided seed funding to over 50 hard technology startups in biotechnology, microelectronics, cyber, AI/ML, quantum, and advanced materials.

Prior to DARPA, Gerst spent time at Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy, Fraunhofer labs, and Sikorsky Aircraft. Gerst holds a BS in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and an MS in Engineering and Management from MIT Sloan and MIT Systems Engineering.

“Kacy brings a strong climate impact orientation to her leadership of the Galvanize science and technology team,” said Nicole Systrom, Chief Impact Officer of Galvanize. “At Galvanize, Kacy will provide deep technical support for the firm's climate strategy and investment activities.”

“With our latest hires, it’s evident that we are building an exceptional senior leadership team,” said Tom Steyer, Co-Executive Chair of Galvanize. “Their talents and expertise will allow us to offer best-in-class portfolio services and design investment vehicles that are not limited to legacy models of traditional ‘stage’ or asset class finance.”

ABOUT GALVANIZE CLIMATE SOLUTIONS

Galvanize Climate Solutions, launched in September 2021 by Tom Steyer and Katie Hall, is a mission-driven investment platform that will provide capital, expertise and partnerships necessary to produce and scale urgent climate solutions.

Galvanize aims to combine investment, technical, policy and communications expertise under one roof. Despite the progress that has already been made surrounding the climate crisis, there is still a significant gap between where we are headed and what the natural world needs to secure a livable future. Galvanize will help to close that gap by driving innovation, leadership and significant private sector investment to climate-focused companies and innovations.

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