Aspiration Announces Olivia Albrecht As CEO; Andrei Cherny Will Retain His Position On The Board And Remain On As An Advisor For Aspiration During The Transition Period
Sustainable finance veteran named Chief Executive Officer
Aspiration, a global business leader in climate solutions, today announced the appointment of Olivia Albrecht as the company's new Chief Executive Officer. She will assume day to day leadership of the company and will also join Aspiration's Board of Directors. Albrecht takes on the role following Aspiration's co-founder and CEO, Andrei Cherny. Cherny will retain his position on the board and remain on as an advisor for Aspiration during the transition period, following nine years spearheading the company from its infancy to its current market leading position.
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Olivia Albrecht, Chief Executive Officer of Aspiration. (Photo: Business Wire)
Albrecht joined Aspiration this year as its Chief Sustainability Officer, leading its carbon markets business, built to deliver carbon reduction solutions to enterprise clients through high quality, curated carbon assets with multi-year contracts.
Albrecht's appointment marks a new chapter for Aspiration, as the organization accelerates its growth and leadership as one of the world's largest providers of carbon assets, enabling enterprises and individuals to make climate action part of everyday life. As CEO, Albrecht will continue to build Aspiration's carbon origination, project finance, and trading desk, while developing unique distribution channels across retail, small business, and large enterprise clients.
"As the world accelerates toward large-scale decarbonization, the carbon credit markets will play an increasingly important role in corporate strategy, capital allocation, and consumer engagement," said Brian Laibow, Managing Director and Co-Head of North America for the Global Opportunities strategy at Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. "We are thrilled with Olivia's leadership, building Aspiration's market-leading position to capitalize on megatrends generated by the transition to climate neutrality."
As a core business, Aspiration originates high-quality, bespoke carbon solutions that go beyond decarbonization with innovative distribution channels across enterprises and consumers. Growing demand for carbon assets demonstrates that stakeholders are eager to incorporate climate action and high-quality carbon credits into their business models and daily lives. Driven by the rapid growth of Aspiration's Enterprise business under Olivia's leadership, Aspiration is on track to deliver well north of 200% YoY revenue growth beating projections.
A sustainable finance veteran, Albrecht, spent ten years at investment management firm PIMCO, where she was most recently the Head of ESG Business Strategy. She helped lead a diverse and integrated team of over 50 investment professionals with more than $550 billion of sustainable investment assets under management. She also served as the Global Head of ESG for The TCW Group, building their ESG investment platform from research and investments to strategy and policy. Albrecht is an advisor to several companies, including a carbon accounting software company and geospatial data companies focused on satellite imagery in tracking, monitoring, and analyzing sustainability risks.
"We thank Andrei for his tireless dedication building Aspiration from initial insight to a significant and rapidly growing company," said Nate Redmond, Chair of the Aspiration Board of Directors. "Olivia is precisely the right leader to realize Aspiration's compelling vision of the future of carbon. Markets will reward pioneers that build comprehensive solutions for a net zero world. Andrei built a talented team at Aspiration that will continue, under Olivia's leadership, to achieve the development of innovative products that are unlocking this rapidly emerging category of climate solutions."
Aspiration has entered into a merger agreement with InterPrivate III Financial Partners Inc. (NYSE:IPVF), a publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company, which, upon closing, will result in Aspiration becoming a listed company as a Public Benefit Corporation, building on Aspiration's existing commitments to generate social and public good and operate in a responsible and sustainable manner.