A team that combines exceptional expertise with a drive to succeed
We are global experts in scaling technologies from development to widespread adoption, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, sensor development, climate, weather and hydro science, data science, and risk planning and management. Scientists and leaders from the U.S. government and the world’s most influential investment banks and insurance firms serve as influential advisors. Our investors include global leaders across the financial services, insurance, energy and power, manufacturing, and consulting industries, as well as leading venture capital and private equity firms.
- Google’s head of Satellite data systems and operations
- Co-developer of Princeton Ocean Model
- NSF head of atmospheric science and world expert on hurricanes and cyclones
- Developer of the short-term flood prediction system for the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey
- CEO of Zip2, Internet GIS pioneer
- SAP’s VP IOT and Cloud marketing
- Hydroscientist who completed NOAA‑led post‑Harvey Houston flooding assessment
- Nobel Prize winning expert in climate predictions (IPCC)
- PI of NSF project to containerize weather prediction
Leaders from U.S. agencies, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA, the CIA, the Department of the Treasury and the Department of State
Renowned advisors, including the Chief Climate Envoy of the United States, Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, Chief Data Officer of Goldman Sachs, President of The Hartford’s property and casualty companies, Head of Analytics for Google Search, developer of the Palantir data pipeline, and senior executives and domain experts at Bridgewater and Verisk Insurance Solutions
Leadership
Jupiter’s team of global business and technology leaders have world-renowned scientific backgrounds and extensive experience successfully commercializing new technologies.
Rich SorkinCEO
Co-founder
- 20 years commercializing new technologies
- Extensive experience with weather models, machine learning, sensor data and risk
- CEO, Zip2: Pioneering Internet GIS company, acquired by HP
- President, Kaggle: Pioneering machine learning company, acquired by Google
Eric WunCOO
Co-founder
- Senior operations executive with companies at the foundation of finance, Internet and machine learning
- Google, VISA International, Cybersource, Zip2, Corio, Vertical Response, Wells Fargo Bank
- Google’s Skybox (Terra Bella) Satellite Division
Dinesh SharmaHead of Science, Technology, Product
- Global VP SAP, Internet of Things
- Global VP SAP, Cloud Platforms, launched first in-memory cloud platform
- GM, AMD, Workstation Graphics Division
- Three time founder, two successful exits
Kris HansenHead of Global Sales
- 20+ years as a proven sales leader, building and rebuilding world class sales teams
- Extensive experience in AI, ML, cloud computing, big data, and SaaS
- VP of Sales and Sales Leader: Cloudera, Splunk, Snow Software, SevOne, and NetApp
Josh HackerChief Science Officer
Co-founder
- NCAR Director Joint Numerical Testbed Program, Science Lead for National Security Applications Program
- Along with university partners, led the containerization work in the NSF-funded Big Weather Web project
- Expert in weather and climate applications for DoD and NOAA
Brian CzarnyHead of Marketing
- 20+ year Marketing and Product veteran for high growth, B2B startups and specialization in SaaS, data, location, cybersecurity, identity and ad-tech/mar-tech sectors
- CMO of RapidSOS, SecureAuth, Factual (now Foursquare), TeleSign, Symplified (now RSA), Webroot, and MessageLabs (now Symantec)
- Advisor at Sendoso, the leading Sending Platform, and a mentor at Techstars, supporting early stage startups and entrepreneurs
Betsy WeatherheadScience Fellow
Jupiter Promise Lead
- Nobel laureate and contributing author for the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)
- Renowned expert in climate analytics and forecast verification
- Lead author of first international assessment of Arctic climate change
- AMS Fellow and NOAA Science Advisory Board member
Alan BlumbergScience Fellow
Co-founder
- World renowned urban oceanographer, innovator of Predictive Modeling & Ocean Physics
- Developed Princeton Ocean Model (POM), used by over 5700 research and operational groups from 70 countries
- Led group that developed 2-hour to 4-day flood predictions for Port Authority of NY & NJ, and NJ Transit
Pat HarrScience Fellow
- Atmospheric Section Head, National Science Foundation (NSF), $120M budget, Federal Senior Executive Service
- Chair, American Meteorological Society (AMS) Committee on Hurricanes & Tropical Meteorology
Kevin Cei Head of Solutions Architecture
- Over 14 years experience working with (re)insurance and financial services companies to design, build, and deliver data analytics solutions focused on weather and climate
- Founded a data and analytics company focused on improved underwriting data in the life and annuities industry
- Led business transformation projects across 3 continents to accelerate adoption of a new risk management platform
- Director: QualRisk and RMS
Beth-Anne SamaHead of People
- 20 years of experience in human resources, people operations, talent acquisition/retention, strategic consultation, and organization development across a broad range of industries both domestic and international
- Oakwood, Garten, The Help Group, Bloomingdales
- Society of Human Resources Management-Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP)
Andre BakkenHead of Product Management
- 20+ years experience in building and delivering applications in analytics, AI, ML, and big data for mobile, desktop, IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS
- Product leader building and delivering safety-critical applications in aviation and business-critical applications in retail, financial services, manufacturing, healthcare and technology
- Led Product for the aviation division at the Weather Company and the managed file transfer products at Axway
Anupama RaoHead of Engineering & Cloud Operations
- 20+ years driving large scale transformations in data and analytics, cloud data platforms, and information security space
- Expertise in platform modernization efforts, including migration from on-prem to cloud platforms
- Known track record of driving process improvements and building high performance global teams
Advisors
Jupiter’s advisors add enormous value through a wide range of skills and experience. They are business executives, scientists, public policy experts, and active participants in government climate work. The Jupiter team is honored to work with these acclaimed individuals.
Todd SternJupiter Co-founder
- United States Special Envoy for Climate Change
- United States Chief Negotiator, 2015 Paris Climate Agreement
- Senior White House Negotiator Kyoto Protocol and Buenos Aires
Sherri Goodman
- Deputy Undersecretary of Defense (Environmental Security)
- Senior Fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center
- Senior Strategist, Center for Climate and Security
- President and CEO of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership
- Experienced executive in the fields of national security, energy, science, oceans and environment
Jesse Keenan
- Global expert on the intersection of climate change adaptation and the built environment
- Member and Co-Editor, Climate-Related Market Risk Committee, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
- Chair of the U.S. Community Resilience Panel for Buildings and Infrastructure Systems
- Led climate adaptation research at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
Jeff WeckerJupiter Co-founder
- Chief Technology Officer, Two Sigma
- Chief Data Officer, Goldman Sachs
- Chief Business Architect, Bridgewater
- Managing Director at Lehman
- Quant Strategies, Goldman Sachs
Josh Leavitt
- Renowned authority with over 35 years of construction and engineering law experience
- Thought leader on emerging standards of care in construction and engineering design intensified by climate change
- Principal at Much Shelist, P.C., and chair of its Construction practice
- Elected Fellow of the American College of Construction Lawyers
Adam Sobel
- Professor, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia University
- Leading researcher in extreme weather and climate, working with government, academic and private sector partners
- Fellow, American Meteorological Society
- Author of 175+ peer‑reviewed journal articles, Storm Surge, 30+ media pieces; podcast host of deep‑convection.org
Greg Douquet
- Chief of Staff, Marine Forces in Europe and Africa
- Commander, Marine Corps Base Parris Island
- Senior Fellow with Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center & Millennium Leadership Program
- Co-Founder of Red Duke Strategies, a veteran-owned business managing climate risk for military and municipal infrastructure
Ladeene Freimuth
- Energy & Environmental Aide to Sen. Byron Dorgan and Rep. Frank Pallone, Chair of the House Energy & Commerce Committee
- Drafted major clean energy, climate change, energy efficiency, and alternative transportation legislation
- Global Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Center
Ken RudinJupiter Co-founder
- Google, Head of User Growth and Analysis
- Facebook, Head of Analytics & Data Science
- Zynga, Head of Analytics and Platform Technologies
Ari Gesher
- Palantir, 10 years
- Designed & built data source and data interchange
- Kairos, Director, Software Development
Board of Directors
Rich Sorkin
- CEO and co-founder, Jupiter
- 20 years commercializing new technologies
- Extensive experience with weather models, machine learning, sensor data and risk
- CEO, Zip2: Pioneering Internet GIS company, acquired by HP
- President, Kaggle: Pioneering machine learning company, acquired by Google
Neal Wolin
- Co-founder, Jupiter
- Deputy Secretary of US Department of the Treasury
- President and COO of The Hartford’s property and casualty insurance companies
- Member, President’s Intelligence Advisory Board
Katie McClain
Investing Partner at Energize Ventures
VP of Public Affairs at Invenergy
Director at the William J. Clinton Foundation
Board member at DroneDeploy, Fast Radius, and Sitetracker
Nick Sturiale
- Founding Managing Partner, Ignition Partners
- 18 Years in Venture Capital, Top 1% Track Record
- Early investor in market defining companies such as Splunk, XenSource, Bill.com
- Partner/Managing Director with Sevin Rosen Funds, Icon Ventures and The Carlyle Group
Matt O'Connell
- Operating Partner at DCVC
- CEO GeoEye, a leading global provider of satellite and aerial imagery, and geospatial information products
- Managing Partner, Seraphim Capital
Scott Scharfman
- Independent investor with over 25 years at Blackstone, Bear Stearns and Mill Road Capital
- Managing Director, Equity Capital Markets at Robertson Stephens
- CFO of Mercata
Board Observers
Kathy Matsui
- General Partner, MPower Partners – Japan’s first ESG-focused global VC fund
- Vice Chair of Goldman Sachs Japan, Co-Head of Macro Research in Asia and Chief Japan Equity Strategist
- Named one of Wall Street Journal’s “10 Women to Watch in Asia”
- Bloomberg Markets magazine’s “50 Most Influential” list
Meggie Daoust
- Director in the Capital Solutions team at CDPQ, a global investment group
- Focused on quasi-equity and opportunistic credit across industries
- 15+ years of experience in investing, mainly in equity research and stewardship investing
- Expertise in the consumption sector with a focus on global consumer discretionary companies
Daniel Ahn
- Extensive experience in venture capital investing, portfolio company management, and technology entrepreneurship
- Managing Partner, Clearvision Ventures and Envision Ventures
- Partner and Managing Director, Woodside Fund
- Co-founder and President of Endpoint Technologies, acquired by Applied Materials.
Jupiter raised almost $100 million in strategic and venture investing during its five years in the marketplace. Investments from leaders in the energy, infrastructure, insurance, asset management and NGO sector underscore the urgent need to regularly quantify and assess climate-related physical risk using forward-looking analytics. Moreover, investment from the U.S, EU, Asia and Australia highlight the global nature of our business and the rapidly growing worldwide demand for our portfolio of solutions.
Bringing diversity to prepare our planet for a changing climate
We seek new colleagues—data scientists, Earth and climate scientists, software engineers, sales and marketing, and more—who share our passion, commitment to excellence and innovation, and collaborative ethos.
Jupiter is committed to fostering, cultivating, and enhancing a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our colleagues, in every department, are the most valuable resources we have at Jupiter. Together, we can improve the world and make it safer for our generation and those to follow.
To learn more about Jupiter’s efforts, read our full statement here.