Luke Mairo Of Voltpost On 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective C-Level Leader Of A Climate Tech Company

An interview with Kieran Powell

Preserve Principle. My most challenging moments have come when highly impactful decisions must be made in tight timelines. In these moments, I’ve found guidance from referencing core principles to justify critical decisions. Maintaining a foundation of personal principle can help weather storms and protect oneself in the process.

Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges of our time, and effective leadership in climate tech companies is paramount for driving meaningful impact. We would like to hear about the insights, experiences, and expertise of esteemed leaders who have demonstrated excellence in navigating this complex landscape. In this series, we’re talking with seasoned professionals, industry pioneers, and visionaries who are C-Level leaders of climate tech companies. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Luke Mairo.

Luke Mairo is the Co-Founder and COO of Voltpost. He previously worked at Techstars as a Lead Mentor. Luke Mairo attended Columbia University.

Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

I grew up in New Jersey and had the fortune of spending summers at the beach with my family. In October 2012 when Hurricane Sandy hit, my hometown was underwater, as well as the Jersey Shore towns. This moment was a rude awakening for me to the reality of climate change. With a goal of raising a family in the future, I was on the hunt to find a way to be a driving force in fighting climate change in order to provide my future children a better life.

I started my career in banking at Barclays covering industries across energy, industrials, and technology. Some of my work included using banking products to encourage companies in these industries to make sustainable choices. Off the desk, I co-chaired Barclays Environment Network of Americas, leading several environmental initiatives. To extend a career in climate, I enrolled in a Master’s in Sustainability Management program at Columbia University.

There I was president of the Columbia University Environmental Entrepreneurs student group, a student organization focused on educating, mentoring, and incubating climate tech entrepreneurs and startups at the Columbia Climate School programs. Through this group, I met Jeff Prosserman, the current CEO and Co-founder of Voltpost, a classmate in the Columbia program. After connecting with Jeff and discussing a number of ideas about what we could do to solve for climate change, it was his paper for the Practicum, which was focused on powering electric vehicle (EV) adoption through lamppost charging, that immediately stood out as a critical innovation for urban decarbonization. This paper served as the foundation for the company we’d come to co-found together: Voltpost.

Today, Voltpost is democratizing charging access and making EV charging more accessible to everyone. Jeff, our co-founder Joern Vicari, Voltpost’s Chief Product Officer, and I had complementary skills, and I was thrilled to use the experiences I gained early in my career in banking and Columbia’s program to bring a sustainable and equitable infrastructure solution to life.

Is there a particular person who you are grateful for who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

It’s hard to narrow the important mentors and influences I’ve had in my life down to just one. One of the first people to really see potential in me was my fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. Scholz. I am a better person today because of what I learned from her. She nominated me for a leadership program in Washington, D.C. — a trip only a few lucky students from the school were selected for. This was my first push into leadership that instilled confidence in growth towards my ultimate entire entrepreneurial journey. Beyond seeing my potential, she was emblematic of what I aspire to be as a leader today — caring, innovative, and hopeful.

Can you please share with us what makes you an expert on climate tech?

I appreciate being considered an expert; at the least I consider myself an activist. In addition to my day job, I began my professional climate journey in 2020 serving as the co-chair of the Barclays Environment Network of the Americas. There I organized U.S. environmental initiatives at the bank, bringing deep subject matter experts in climate science and environmental justice to speak. I was nominated me for the Barclays Citizenship and Diversity Award for this, and drew inspiration from these speakers.

During my time at Barclays, I pursued my master’s degree in sustainability management at Columbia University. I led the Environmental Entrepreneurs Club as President, with the mission to incubate and spin out climate innovation from Columbia’s climate programs. I’m grateful to have been able to do that myself with Voltpost.

Today, as the COO of Voltpost, I lead finance, operations and business development strategy for the company. My task is to solve bottlenecks in the challenging space of climate infrastructure to scale Voltpost to support the millions of public chargers needed across the US. Every day, I am privileged to learn by working with a community of similarly-minded people bringing our world closer to Net Zero.

Can you share a transformative idea you have for integrating sustainability with technology? How would you measure its success in terms of environmental impact and business growth?

To create the long-lasting change we need for environmental sustainability, we need human-centric technologies that encourage people of all backgrounds and ideologies to use them. Thinking people first with in-built sustainability into the technology can drive business growth and environmental impact in the process.

Voltpost stands at the intersection of sustainability and technology to empower people to make sustainable choices. By seamlessly weaving into the fabric of communities (via lampposts) with a user-centric design and accessibility, we hope our technology excites people to choose electric. We’ve spent significant time and effort to make features across hardware and software that are more safe, reliable, and easy to use versus other products available today. Aspects like our cable management system, custom ChargePlug, and light features create an encouraging user experience for adoption.

As people adopt our technology, we achieve business growth, but importantly we build ground-up advocacy for expansion of our technology but also environmental impact through their lived experience.

Leading a climate tech company demands a blend of innovation and pragmatism. Can you describe a scenario where you had to balance cutting-edge technological solutions with practical implementation challenges? How did you navigate this balance to achieve a sustainable outcome?

• Leading a climate tech company requires balancing groundbreaking advancements with practical solutions. Every day, we face the challenge of building a startup with an incredible engineering and design team capable of leading monumental technological innovations, but needing to focus on incremental steps of problem-solving. The challenge lies in prioritizing what is essential now with future planning.
• At Voltpost, we uniquely strike this balance through our product’s modularity. We start with a pragmatic but powerful concept: turning existing lampposts into charging platforms. We’ve spent our early years perfecting the approach of this base to implement our retrofit solution successfully. However, in-built into the technology is our modularity: the major components of our platform can be replaced seamlessly with updated technology. As the industry evolves, we can blend our innovations with the market’s movements to stay at the cutting edge of technology. In doing so, we ensure that our infrastructure installed today will successfully serve communities for decades to come.

Climate tech companies often face scrutiny from various stakeholders, including investors, customers, and regulatory bodies. Can you give an example of how you successfully aligned these diverse stakeholder interests with the company’s sustainability goals?

There is a challenge in EV charging deployment with multi-stakeholder interests related to usage of charging versus equity factors. Profit motive drives deployment in specific communities with high usage, but this excludes communities that may need this infrastructure the most.

Seven in 10 EV chargers in the U.S. are in the country’s wealthiest counties, according to recent research, while many rural, low-income and disadvantaged communities have few, if any, places for EV drivers to plug in. This has created what we know today as ‘charging deserts.’ To meet our climate, equity, and air quality goals, America needs a national charging system that is accessible to all.

Our mission is to democratize access to charging, serving every community, and especially those in need.

We’ve aligned investors who share this vision, and partner with organizations to tackle this challenge. For example, we’re partnering with ride share companies with curbside parked electric vehicles to bring affordable electric mobility to communities. Through charging ride share vehicles, we can guarantee usage and create a win-win across all stakeholders while promoting equitable deployment.

The climate tech landscape is rapidly evolving with new challenges and opportunities emerging regularly. Was there a time when you had to pivot your strategy in response to unexpected market changes or technological advancements? What was the outcome?

We are early in the technology curve for electric vehicle charging. A great example of unexpected market changes is this past year when Tesla moved the auto industry to adopt its NACS plug. The entire EV charging industry has to grapple with this change. However, this is a prime example of how our modularity futureproofs us for market shifts. Even with the units we’ve deployed, we can swap out the major components including the charger handle to integrate this new technology without disrupting the service we provide to end users. This will not be the last industry change we see. By staying nimble both as a team and technology, we can adapt to similar pivots seamlessly.

Ethical considerations are important in climate technology. How do you ensure that your company’s innovations not only advance sustainability goals but also adhere to high ethical standards? Can you give us an example?

Unfortunately, existing EV charging stations are often inaccessible, despite being designed and built decades after the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was enacted. Voltpost chargers are designed to meet the ADA requirements. With a patent-pending plug handle with a glowing knob with a cord that extends from it at a 90-degree angle to lie flat against the car it’s plugged into, and a pedestrian-friendly cable management system that is ADA compliant risks like snagging or falling are reduced. Combined with the fact that Voltpost chargers are located in accessible spaces, people with disabilities are able to charge their EVs independently with Voltpost. We believe that leading the charge with these standards will cause others to follow.

Based on your experience and success, what are the ‘5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective C-Level Leader Of A Climate Tech Company’?

Here are the five key elements that have been instrumental in shaping my journey as a highly effective C-level leader of a climate tech company:

1. Be a “Happy Warrior”: As a leader if you aren’t enjoying yourself and your work environment, what do you expect from the rest of the company? Leading in climate is not easy. Showing up with a smile, maybe even a dose of humor, oftentimes seems impossible, but it is a key ingredient for maintaining culture. We try to celebrate small wins while we embrace challenges to create optimism across the business. It’s a piece that is easy to overlook day to day.
2. Require Self-care: I believe the amount of time spent on self-care directly multiplies one’s leadership value to their company. With a significant portion of startups folding because of people issues, it is a space where mental health needs more attention. Setting boundaries and investing in mindfulness can create balance for better leadership.
3. Maintain composure: Early-stage companies are a rollercoaster. “Fire drills” happen frequently and easily lead to escalating tensions across the organization. The ability to “keep cool” will calm these tensions and lead to more productive decision-making. Mindfulness can support this effort. We have an endless list of examples of fire drills we’ve faced as a company, but I’m proud to look back on how many we’ve put out collectively.
4. Preserve Principle. My most challenging moments have come when highly impactful decisions must be made in tight timelines. In these moments, I’ve found guidance from referencing core principles to justify critical decisions. Maintaining a foundation of personal principle can help weather storms and protect oneself in the process.
5. Practice Humility: The climate space today is solving novel, technical challenges that are not to be diminished. However, previous leaders from parallel industries have a wealth of lessons to teach emerging leaders. I have gained significant insight and perspective from my network of advisers and peers (including from outside the industry) that I’ve been able to take back to today’s climate tech development.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

• “Keep on keeping on.”
• This is a quote we use a lot in my family and I’m proud to bring it into my professional world. Life knocks you down, but pushing through adversity is crucial — not just on an individual level but especially as we navigate a constantly changing, high-pressured climate industry. Setbacks will happen, but day-by-day progress is paramount to address the crisis at hand. This is an individual job as much as collective to make a lasting change in today’s world.

Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!

About The Interviewer: Kieran Powell is the EVP of Channel V Media a New York City Public Relations agency with a global network of agency partners in over 30 countries. Kieran has advised more than 150 companies in the Technology, B2B, Retail and Financial sectors. Prior to taking over business operations at Channel V Media, Kieran held roles at Merrill Lynch, PwC and Ernst & Young. Get in touch with Kieran to discuss how marketing and public relations can be leveraged to achieve concrete business goals.