Our Leadership Team

We are aided and abetted by, and grateful to, a growing network of visionary scientists, technologists, financial partners, and world-changing entrepreneurs.

Chris Anderson

Chris Anderson is the head of TED, a non-profit organization that provides idea-based talks free to the world. Chris is also known for his leadership of new ideas around climate change and recently hosted the global COUNTDOWN climate change initiative in Edinburgh, Scotland. Through the Audacious Project, Chris has raised over $1 Billion for worldwide impact-driven projects.

Solomon Goldstein-Rose

Solomon Goldstein-Rose is the author of The 100% Solution: A Plan for Solving Climate Change (Melville House, 2020). He has been a climate activist since age 11 and carries a rare blend of expertise, having studied both engineering and public policy. Solomon was the youngest Massachusetts state legislator 2017-19.

Stephen Petranek

Stephen Petranek is a science and financial writer and editor. He was senior editor for science at Life magazine, as well as editor-in-chief of Discover Magazine, Tropic Magazine, The Washington Post‘s Magazine, and the financial newsletter Breakthrough Technology Alert. His book How We’ll Live on Mars was published in 2015.

Why “Virya?”

Virya is Sanskrit for “positive energy” – chosen by Chris (who grew up in Pakistan and India) for its double meaning in the context of clean energy and our fund’s particular focus on clean electricity generation.