Climate analytics startup Risilience has hired Dr Scott Kelly, a former senior advisor to the government of New Zealand.
- Dr Scott Kelly is joining Risilience as SVP of model development and analytics.
- The startup spun out of the Centre for Risk Studies at the University of Cambridge, where Dr Kelly was part of the research team in 2015.
- He will use his expertise to help the company develop a new generation of products.
Dr Kelly is joining Risilience as SVP of model development and analytics. He previously served as the chief economic advisor to the Parliamentary Commissioner of the Environment in New Zealand, after working as an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney.
The startup said he was “instrumental” in raising early awareness of the importance of sustainable finance, working to establish the Climate Measurement Standards Initiative to standardise climate reporting across the financial sector in Australia. During this time, he consulted with various government agencies in Australia and New Zealand, the Bank of England and the Central Bank of Netherlands to advise on physical and transition climate risks.
Risilience was spun out of the Centre for Risk Studies at the University of Cambridge, where Dr Kelly was part of the research team in 2015. He was the principal author of a paper discussing the potential for disruption in financial markets due to the near-and-present danger of climate change-related transition risk, at a time when it was only thought to be a problem many decades in the future.
Dr Andrew Coburn, co-founder and chief executive of Risilience, said: “Companies rely on Risilience’s strong science and high-quality analytical tools to underpin their transformation to a low-carbon economy. Scott’s experience in the economics of climate change and leadership in quantification and research will be instrumental in building the next generation of our products. We see this as the return of a longstanding colleague who will bring considerable expertise to the team.”
