Built to Endure: What Living Systems Teach Climate Founders (Raleigh-Durham Climate Week)

Nature has spent billions of years solving the problems founders face: scarce resources, constant change, and the need to grow without breaking. What if your company was built the same way? Bert Bruggeman has spent more than three decades building and scaling technology companies. He'll show you what living systems teach about resilience, adaptation, interdependence, and long-term vitality, and how to turn those principles into practical choices about how you lead, build your team, and spend scarce resources. You'll leave with a new lens for navigating uncertainty and building a climate company designed to endure, long after the breakthrough technology is built.

Speaker

Bert Bruggeman

Bert Bruggeman is a technology executive, entrepreneur, board leader, and advisor with more than three decades of experience building, commercializing, and scaling breakthrough technologies. He has held senior leadership roles at Tesla, SunEdison, Cypress Semiconductor/Infineon, and Biomason across semiconductors, renewable energy, electric mobility, advanced manufacturing, and sustainable materials. Bert currently serves as Chairman of The Ocean Cleanup and works on growth, commercialization, transformation, and execution. He is also the Founder of Aurelia, a leadership and innovation platform helping leaders navigate complexity and build innovations that create enduring value for humanity and the living systems upon which we depend.