Faculty
Tod Hynes is a Senior Lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he teaches a graduate course called Climate & Energy Ventures and cofounded and advises the MIT Climate & Energy Prize (CEP). Over 50 companies have come out of this course, and 160+ teams from 90+ universities in 44 countires participated in the last CEP. He is also a Senior Advisor for Climate & Energy at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and is the Vice Chair of the Board of the Woodwell Climate Research Center, a world leading provider of independent climate science.
Tod founded Clymate Studios to help others help the climate. He has started and invested in 20+ companies in the climate and energy space since 2002. He stared a wind development company before tax equity investors entered the U.S. market, and he started XL Fleet, one the first fleet vehicle electrification companies which scaled across the U.S. and Canada and went public in 2020. From 2004-2008 he was the dirctor of Alternative Energy at Citizens Energy where he launched the company’s wind development business and assessed various clean energy and carbon offset development opportunities.
He cochaired the Energy Committee of the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Conventions (CERC), the organization that greened the 2004 U.S. presidential Democratic and Republican National Conventions. He was treasurer and steering committee member of the Boston Climate Action Network from 2003-2008. In 2001, Tod started one of the first social networking companies, but he decided to focus on climate.
Hynes holds a Bachelor of Science degree in management science from MIT.
Tod Hynes said cleantech investment funds have stockpiled over $120 billion in cash over the past two years.
