Olivia Albrecht is CEO and founder of Artemeter, an innovative carbon advisory and investment firm. Prior to Artemeter, Ms Albrecht was CEO at Aspiration, a climate finance company and Oaktree portfolio company, offering climate solutions for consumers, businesses, and investors. Previously, Ms. Albrecht spent 10 years at PIMCO where she was most recently Head of ESG Business Strategy leading a diverse team of over 50 investment professionals across departments and functions. She also helped lead PIMCO’s Global Fixed Income product strategy team with clients spanning Asia Pacific, EMEA and the Americas split across institutional and retail investors. Ms. Albrecht serves as a Sustainability Advisory Board member at Persefoni, a leading carbon accounting software platform, and works with several geospatial data companies focused on the role of satellite imagery in tracking, monitoring, and analyzing sustainability risks. She also currently serves on the Leadership Council of New America, a policy think tank in Washington, DC, as well as Milken Institute’s Public Advisory Council. Ms. Albrecht earned a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Princeton University, an MBA from Columbia University’s Business School, and a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
Roundtable Room 3, Sands Expo & Convention Centre, Level 4
Invite-Only
The Point Zero Forum’s roundtable on “Ideas to action to progress: the innovation journey from academia to industry” established that robust institutional support, innovative funding models, public-private partnerships, supportive regulatory frameworks, interdisciplinary collaboration, and adapted investment strategies were needed to scale the science and technologies being developed today at the speeds necessary to reap their promise.
Funding remained a significant barrier, particularly for early-stage ventures in clean tech and hard tech sectors, and traditional venture capital models, with their short-term horizons, often fail to support the long-term, high-risk nature of sustainable technologies. The discussion highlighted the need for new financial intermediation models that provide patient capital, with institutional investors like university endowments and pension funds identified as potential sources. Additionally, public-private partnerships were recognised as crucial for driving sustainable innovation by providing the necessary resources, expertise, and regulatory support to scale sustainable technologies.
2024 also reflected a new challenge: emerging businesses struggle to balance commercial demands with safe, conscious development, as seen in the Pause AI and Right to Warn movements. Startups also struggle to identify and retain talent as they scale, creating challenges of culture and consistency.
What do experts and experienced practitioners do in the light of these challenges? This roundtable furthers the conversation to consider both the funding and business models that have proven effective in facilitating conscious scaling, and the steps being taken to ensure culture and talent serve to address global challenges such as climate change and driving progress towards a more sustainable future.
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