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Avra van der Zee
Climate Investor; COO of Elemental; Strategic Advisor & Board Member
Avra van der Zee is an accomplished professional with a diverse background in law, strategy, and business development.
She pursued a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree at Georgetown University Law Center and a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in History and Literature at Harvard College, showcasing her strong educational foundation.
With an impressive track record, Avra has held key roles in various early-stage companies, where she excelled as a Strategic Advisor and Board Director.
Her prior positions include serving as the Chief Operating Officer at Elemental Excelerator, VP of Strategy and Policy at Superpedestrian, Director of Global Market Entry at Uber, and General Counsel and Chief Strategy Officer at JUMP Bikes.
Additionally, Avra van der Zee has contributed her expertise as the General Counsel at Trespa North America and started her career as a Litigation Associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, highlighting her extensive experience in legal affairs.
Her versatile background encompasses legal counsel, strategic planning, market entry initiatives, and operational leadership, making her a well-rounded professional in the business landscape.
Highlights
Ready, set, go! In the last 2 years since the Inflation Reduction Act was passed: ✨ Our Elemental team grew to more than 60 employees and 25 fellows and coaches – across 12 states and 4 main offices. 🌟 We expanded our extensive services team, bolstering our already deep portfolio bench, with 11 policy fellows and 14 domain experts, providing tailored coaching to companies deploying critical climate solutions nationwide. 🚀 In the same timeframe, the clean energy sector has seen 646 new projects, 334,565 new jobs (including 28,934 in my home state of NY 🗽) and $372 billion in new investments across the U.S. and Puerto Rico (according to @ClimatePower’s latest report). Are you ready to join the momentum? We have 518 open positions across Elemental and our portfolio companies alone. Apply today or reach out if interested. https://lnkd.in/gAzSVnJz Amir Chireh Mehr Mark Chambers Dawn Lippert Melissa Uhl Aparna Reddy Mike Curtis Maya Hurley-Wales Kimberly Aguilera
Sharing two pieces of related news here, both about 10 months (!!!) in the making.
This morning, ImpactAlpha featured our initiative at Elemental to bridge the financing gap with the Development-SAFE, a new funding mechanism we developed with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati's Robert O'Connor ( an iteration of Y Combinator's well-known SAFE). Check out the ImpactAlpha story on why we created the Development-SAFE and how it supports entrepreneurs in deploying critical climate projects: https://lnkd.in/ewKyi8Dv
The effort on the D-SAFE is one example of our work quantifying gaps and piloting solutions. To get a market-wide view, we also worked with BCG to identify the $150B Scale Gap for climate financing, described in our new white paper - also out today.
Grateful to the 100s of investors, climate solutionists, and CEOs we have the privilege of working with, and for ALL your feedback along the way. Jason Salfi Tim Latimer Matt LeDucq Ben Riddle-Turner Dawn Lippert Melissa Uhl Danya Hakeem Saritha Peruri Parham Peiroo Naveen Sikka Cheryl Martin Lauren Tonokawa Camille Bangug Melissa Rouse
