Kristin Brief
Business Fellow
Kristin Brief joins Breakthrough Energy’s Business Fellows program from Boston, Massachusetts. A business generalist by training, Kristin is passionate about building and developing high-performing teams. As a Business Fellow, Kristin is excited to use her experience and business skills to help Innovator Fellows commercialize solutions that mitigate emissions and climate change.
Kristin has spent her 19-year career in entrepreneurial roles at early-stage energy and technology companies, working both in-house and as a consultant. She has extensive experience in the clean energy sector and helped raise more than $50 million in series B and C funding for a single long-duration energy storage company. She has expertise in raising capital, project finance, developing market-entry strategies, conducting customer and market research, and forming partnerships to accelerate clean tech startups to market. Most recently, Kristin co-founded a medical diagnostics biotechnology company that raised more than one million dollars in grant and seed capital and was acquired by a publicly traded pharmaceutical company within 16 months of company formation.
In her free time, Kristin enjoys hanging out with her family, getting outside (running, hiking, skiing!), and traveling to new places. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Dartmouth College.
Q&A
What did you want to be when you grew up?
I had so many ideas of what I wanted to be when I was a kid. For a long time -an architect! I have an appreciation for good design, especially as it relates to incorporating green building technologies.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
Remember the golden rule–treat others as you would like to be treated.
What’s a fun fact about you?
I have two daughters, ages 9 and 11, who already seem to have caught the bug about climate change. My oldest recently completed a project for school on the degradation of the Great Barrier Reef; my youngest spent last spring researching various tree species and planting an enormous number of seeds. We are crossing fingers that at least some of them grow!