Forecasting Climate Risk with Geospatial AI: Sarah Russell of X , the Moonshot Factory at Alphabet
- 02 JUL 2025
- |
- Climate Rising
This episode, part of the Climate Rising series on climate resilience, features Sarah
Russell, General Manager of Project Bellwether at X, The Moonshot Factory at Alphabet
(formerly Google X). Sarah shares how geospatial data and artificial intelligence
can help communities and businesses anticipate and respond to climate risks. Sarah
shares insights from her work building predictive wildfire risk models using satellite
imagery, AI, and systems design to enable more targeted insurance underwriting and
disaster preparedness. She also explains how Bellwether is creating geospatial AI
infrastructure and tools to support natural disaster response by the National Guard.
Sarah also shares how emerging foundational geospatial models will transform adaptation,
and she offers career advice for those in climate tech and applied AI.
This episode, part of the Climate Rising series on climate resilience, features Sarah
Russell, General Manager of Project Bellwether at X, The Moonshot Factory at Alphabet
(formerly Google X). Sarah shares how geospatial data and artificial intelligence
can help communities and businesses anticipate and respond to climate risks. Sarah
shares insights from her work building predictive wildfire risk models using satellite
imagery, AI, and systems design to enable more targeted insurance underwriting and
disaster preparedness. She also explains how Bellwether is creating geospatial AI
infrastructure and tools to support natural disaster response by the National Guard.
Sarah also shares how emerging foundational geospatial models will transform adaptation,
and she offers career advice for those in climate tech and applied AI.
Carbon Reporting Urgently Needs Fixing—Here’s How to Do It
Re: Robert Kaplan
- 15 Jun 2025
- |
- Financial Times
Is Boston Losing Its Biotech Crown? Bio Conference Takes Place Amidst
Re: Satish Tadikonda
- 10 Jun 2025
- |
- Mass Live
Measuring Climate Tech Investment Yields a New Shade of 'Green' Business
Re: George Serafeim
- 27 May 2025
- |
- Newsweek
Vail Resorts: Responding to Activist Pressure (B)
- JUNE 2025
- |
- Teaching Material
Supplement to the (A) case, 225-082.
Vail Resorts: Responding to Activist Pressure (A)
- JUNE 2025
- |
- Case
On January 27, 2025, the head of a relatively small hedge fund named Late Apex Partners sent a highly critical letter to the board of directors of Vail Resorts, the world’s largest ski resort operator. In his letter, and the 88-slide presentation that accompanied his letter, the activist investor criticized the firm’s strategy, leadership, and financial performance. In fact, he was calling for fundamental change: replacing the CEO, CFO, and board chair; changing the firm’s capital allocation strategy; and focusing more attention on customers and employees to fix the company’s damaged reputation. On the day the letter became public, Vail’s stock price jumped 6%, representing an increase in almost $350 million of market value. With the stock price down more than 50% in the past few years, Vail’s relatively new CEO (Kirsten Lynch) and the board chairman (Rob Katz, the former CEO), had to decide whether to respond to the letter and, if so, how. What made this decision difficult was that several relatively small and unknown activist investors had won important victories against large corporations in recent years. Examples of this kind of “David vs. Goliath” battle included BlueBell Capital successfully removing Danone’s CEO in March 2021 and Engine No. 1 winning three board seats at ExxonMobil in May 2021.
Supporting a Community of Learners
MBA Experience
As an MBA student at HBS, you will prepare yourself for leadership in a rapidly changing world in which natural resources are increasingly scarce and the threat of climate change ever more urgent.
Alumni
The Business & Environment Initiative connects alumni with students, faculty, and each other for learning, careers, and impact.
Executive Education
An advanced curriculum for corporate and nonprofit executives from all over the world to prepare them for new levels of leadership.
As we increasingly experience the effects of climate change – predicted by scientists over 50 years ago – business is vital.