Cervest adds economics leader Dr. Byron Auguste and corporate sustainability expert Dr. Sara Boettiger to the Climate Intelligence Council

An economist and former presidential advisor, Dr. Byron Auguste is CEO & Co-Founder of a social enterprise he co-founded to rewire the U.S. labor market for skills-based inclusion and mobility. He served for two years in the Obama administration as Economic Advisor and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council (NEC) focused on innovation, infrastructure, and labor markets. Prior to that, Auguste was a senior partner at McKinsey & Company, for 20 years providing strategic counsel in the fields of software and digital services, semiconductors and technology supply chains, advanced manufacturing, data analytics, platform economics and business models, product development, talent management, and economic development. He brings a depth of leadership to bear across public, business, and non-profit sectors to help adapt a more climate-aligned economy.

Dr. Sara Boettiger, an agricultural and resource economist, is a leading expert in the field of corporate sustainability, with extensive experience advising companies, foundations and governments on social and environmental impact. Currently an independent consultant, Boettiger was previously Senior Vice President, Head of Public Affairs, Science & Sustainability for the Crop Science division of Bayer. She also co-led the McKinsey Center for Agricultural Transformation, served as Deputy Director at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was a faculty fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Councils and advisor to start-ups and nonprofits.

Auguste and Boettiger join current CIC members including Carol Browner, Former Head of the EPA, R.P. Eddy, CEO Ergo, Professor Mark Girolami, Chief Scientist of the Alan Turing Institute, ​​David Sobotka, former Head of Fixed Income at Merrill Lynch, and Dr. Karen McKinnon, Assistant Professor of Statistics and the Environment at UCLA. CIC members bridge the worlds of science, policy, finance, technology and business and work alongside Cervest to champion climate intelligence, which is asset-level business intelligence, as a critical instrument in the race for organizations and markets to adapt with climate change.

The CIC’s work comes at a critical point in the climate crisis. Reports from the IPCC and other experts continue to highlight how the persistent rise in global warming is triggering more volatile and frequent extreme weather—and what that is costing us. In the U.S. alone last year, losses topped $145 billion. The world needs to simultaneously decarbonize and build asset-scale resilience in order to protect our economic, social and environmental security, and climate intelligence will help make this possible.

“While many business leaders recognize the bottom-line risks posed by climate volatility, as well as the need for adaptation and resilience to secure their futures, the majority have no idea where to start,” said Iggy Bassi, founder and CEO of Cervest. “Climate intelligence provides that starting point. It is the decision-making ‘superpower’ that will help all of us unlock new opportunities and make better decisions about climate adaptation. And with the help of the CIC, we will be able to put climate intelligence at the core of every business, government and investment decision in the next five years.”

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