
Today, Andy Karsner is a Senior Strategist & Space Cowboy at Alphabet’s X and a newly elected activist board member of ExxonMobil. Andy sat down with Emily Kirsch to discuss his early days in renewables and the new challenges that entrepreneurs face today.
Andy began his career developing large-scale energy infrastructure and has led or contributed to project development, management and finance on six continents. From 2005 to 2008, he served as US Assistant Secretary of Energy. As a private equity investor, venture partner, and advisor, his portfolios have included Nest and Tesla. Andy is a Senior Strategist at X (formerly Google X), former Managing Partner at Emerson Collective, and Co-Founder of Elemental Excelerator. He holds a BA with honors from Rice University and an MA from Hong Kong University.
“Whether by design or by default, we are going to move into the future with an amount of innovation that overwhelms incumbency.”