Our Team
KYLE TEAMEY
Managing Partner
BRIGID O’BRIEN, PhD
Managing Partner
KATHRYN MENG, PhD
Investment Director
MICHAEL GILLESPIE, MD
Investment Director
CHRIS BROWN, PhD
Associate
WALTER DAUKSHER
Associate
KERRY KLEMMER, PhD
Associate
CELI KHANYILE-LYNCH, MBA
Associate
JAIMIE KIRKPATRICK, MPH
Senior Research Assistant
KYLE TEAMEY
Managing Partner
Kyle Teamey joins RA Capital as a Managing Partner, Planetary Health. Kyle's primary responsibility at RA is to lead investments in private companies that are developing innovative solutions to address climate change and environmental sustainability. Prior to joining RA, Kyle was a Partner at Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), where he led investments and served on company boards that span the utilities, energy storage, chemicals, agriculture, automotive, recycling, and consumer products sectors. Prior to BEV, Kyle was a Principal at In-Q-Tel, the strategic investment arm of the CIA and US Intelligence Community, where he invested in early stage manufacturing, materials, energy, computing, and defense companies. Kyle was also the CEO and co-founder of Liquid Light, developer of a proprietary process to make major chemicals from CO2, which was sold to Avantium in 2016. Kyle also recently retired as a Colonel in the US Army Reserve after 24 years of service. He holds a BA in Environmental Engineering from Dartmouth College (1998), an MA in International Finance and Energy Policy from John Hopkins University (2008), an MS in Materials Science from Columbia University (2012), and a Masters of Strategic Studies from the Army War College (2020).
BRIGID O’BRIEN, PhD
Managing Partner
Brigid O’Brien joins RA Capital as a Managing Partner, Planetary Health. Brigid's primary responsibility at RA is to lead investments in private companies that are developing innovative solutions to address climate change and environmental sustainability. Prior to joining RA, Brigid was the Head of Venture Investments for BHP Ventures, the internal venture capital unit within the world’s largest mining company, where her investment mandate was to help the decarbonization of BHP’s operations and to improve the sustainability of resource extraction. Brigid was responsible for starting the venture fund and led investments in multiple sectors, including advanced analytics platforms, biomining and bioremediation, novel chemical leaching, long-duration energy storage, traceability of products, carbon removal, and green steel. Prior to BHP, Brigid was at In-Q-Tel (IQT), the strategic investment arm of the CIA and the US Intelligence Community; she co-founded IQT's Australian subsidiary, served as its Managing Director, and built an international program to support a global innovation initiative through investing in the Asian-Pacific region. Brigid holds a BS in Chemistry (Hons) from the Commonwealth Honors College at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (2002) and a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from Johns Hopkins University (2009).
KATHRYN MENG, PhD
Investment Director
Kathryn Meng is an Investment Director within the Planetary Health division of RA Capital. Kathryn’s primary responsibility at RA is to invest in companies developing solutions that address climate change and environmental sustainability. Prior to joining RA, Kathryn was SVP of Strategy at Energetic Insurance where she addressed regulatory-driven commercial lender limitations to enable financing for renewable energy and efficiency via financial insurance products. Before Energetic, she was Head of Carbon Strategic Partnerships at Indigo Ag, where she led external innovation focused on solutions that minimize or sequester agricultural GHG emissions and deliver additional environmental, social, and economic co-benefits. Prior to Indigo, Kathryn was Investment Principal at the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) where she invested in enterprise and consumer-facing clean energy companies, including software and hardware companies focused on utility and grid resilience, grid edge, next-generation renewables, efficient mobility, industrial efficiency, sustainable buildings, and the water-energy nexus. Kathryn holds a BA in Geography and Peace and Conflict Studies from Colgate University, a MSc in International Development: Environment and Development from the University of Manchester (UK), and a MA and Ph.D. in Geography from Clark University (2016).
MICHAEL GILLESPIE, MD
Investment Director
Michael Gillespie is an Investment Director within the Planetary Health division. Michael conducts due diligence on various companies at RA Capital. Previously, Michael worked closely with the Healthcare Investment Team, to originate conviction in potential investments by identifying breakthroughs and putting data into context, as well as advising RA's portfolio companies on many aspects of program and pipeline strategy. Michael's previous experience includes venture development at Health Wildcatters Seed Accelerator and product development in various roles at the Institute for Environmental and Exercise Medicine and as an Aerospace Medicine Clerk at NASA. Michael holds a BS in Exercise Science from Brigham Young University and an MD from the University of Texas Southwestern School of Medicine.
CHRIS BROWN, PhD
Associate
Chris Brown is an Associate within the Planetary Health division at RA Capital Management. His primary responsibility is to create detailed competitive landscapes of planetary health solutions. Prior to RA, Chris worked as a post-doc in the Johnson group at MIT, and he has eight first-author publications in research that spans degradable polymers, energy-efficient catalysis, and low-energy lighting devices. Chris has a Master of Chemistry in Organic Chemistry from Newcastle University and a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of British Columbia.
WALTER DAUKSHER
Associate
Walter Dauksher is an Associate within the Planetary Health division of RA Capital Management. Walter's primary responsibility at RA Capital is to create competitive landscapes of biotechnology and planetary health. Walter has a BS in Biology from Davidson College and a MS in Genetics from University of Georgia.
KERRY KLEMMER, PhD
Associate
Kerry Klemmer is an Associate within the Planetary Health division at RA Capital Management. Her primary responsibility is to create detailed competitive landscapes of planetary health solutions. Prior to RA, Kerry worked as a Postdoctoral Associate at MIT, where her research focused on atmospheric modeling, turbulence, and computational fluid dynamics to advance wind energy modeling in diverse atmospheric environments. Kerry has a BA from Wesleyan University, an MSc in Advanced Computational Methods from Imperial College London, and a PhD in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University.
CELI KHANYILE-LYNCH, MBA
Associate
Celi Khanyile-Lynch is an Associate within the Planetary Health division at RA Capital Management. Her responsibilities include creating competitive landscapes of climate change solutions and analyzing investment opportunities across climate technology. Prior to RA, Celi served as a Sustainability Analyst for Private Investments at Wellington Management, where she developed market maps, conducted due diligence on investments, and integrated environmental, social, and corporate governance factors across the platform. She served in a similar capacity at Morgan Stanley and Manulife Investment Management. Celi holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management and an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School.
JAIMIE KIRKPATRICK, MPH
Senior Research Assistant
Jaimie Kirkpatrick is a Senior Research Assistant at RA Capital Management. Jaimie's primary responsibility is to conduct research and analysis for competitive landscapes of drugs and medical devices across a range of disease indications and capabilities. Jaimie previously held roles as data analyst at Massachusetts Department of Public Health and Anne Arundel Medical Center Department of Medicine. Jaimie holds a BA in Biology Boston College, with Minors in Medical Humanities and Sociology, and a Master of Public Health from Boston University School of Public Health.
Planetary Health Investments
Information listed is as of November 01, 2024. The Crossover/Venture Investments tab of this website reflects private companies that currently are in RA Capital’s portfolio in an open side pocket. If a company becomes public or is acquired by a third-party acquirer, it instead will be reflected under the Investments Acquired/IPO’d tab of this website. If a company is dissolved or redeems RA Capital’s investment, or another investor in a company purchases RA Capital‘s investment, such company will be removed from this website. Companies listed in the 'Our Portfolio' Planetary Health section of this website reflect private companies that are currently in RA Capital's Planetary Health portfolio.
The companies listed herein are not intended to provide a complete snapshot of all portfolio holdings. For example, certain private companies are not illustrated (1) because of confidentiality restrictions or arrangements or (2) because, to the best of RA Capital’s knowledge, such company does not have a logo or active website. References, either general or specific, to securities and/or issuers are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to be, and should not be interpreted as, recommendations to purchase or sell such securities. The earliest illustrated Crossover/Venture Investment occurred in February 2012. RA Capital makes no representations, and it should not be assumed, that past investment selection is necessarily indicative of future investment selection or performance.
Non-Ferrous Metal Sorting
Supports our investment in Sortera
Li-Ion Battery Manufacturing
Supports our investment in AM Batteries
Hydrogen Production
Supports our investment in Koloma
Module-Level Power Electronics
Supports our investment in Optivolt
