Longtime Yale climate and innovation leader will continue to serve as executive director of the Yale Center for Business and the Environment 

Yale Ventures is pleased to announce that Stuart (Stu) DeCew ’11 M.B.A., M.E.M., has been appointed the inaugural director of the Planetary Solutions Impact Accelerator (PSIA), a new initiative designed to accelerate the translation of Yale research into transformative solutions to planetary challenges.

After an extensive global search, DeCew was selected for his distinctive combination of climate leadership, innovation experience, and deep connectivity across Yale and the broader climate tech ecosystem. In this new role, he will split his time equally between PSIA and the Yale Center for Business and the Environment (CBEY), where he has served as executive director since 2011.

Housed at the intersection of the Yale School of the Environment (YSE) and Yale School of Management (SOM), CBEY has long served as a bridge between business, policy, and the environment. DeCew’s continued leadership at CBEY and his new role at PSIA will deepen Yale’s strengths in climate research, entrepreneurship, and impact-driven education.

“Stu brings a rare combination of vision, operational experience, and trusted relationships across Yale and the global climate community,” said Josh Geballe, managing director of Yale Ventures. “He has been one of our closest partners in advancing climate tech innovation at Yale, and this role formalizes and elevates that collaboration. With Stu helping to lead the Planetary Solutions Impact Accelerator, we’ll be even better positioned to support faculty as they turn breakthrough ideas into ventures and solutions that can succeed in the market and deliver real impact.”

Part of Yale Planetary Solutions (YPS), a university-wide effort to bring the full breadth of Yale’s  resources and insights to bear on the world’s most pressing planetary challenges, and powered by Yale Ventures, PSIA will provide Yale faculty innovators with the support needed to move their discoveries from the lab into society. The accelerator builds upon the existing YPS Grant Program and is part of a growing portfolio of accelerator funds managed by Yale Ventures.  

“Yale Planetary Solutions is about mobilizing the full breadth of the university to confront the climate crisis and other planetary challenges,” said Julie Zimmerman, Provost for Planetary Solutions. “Stu’s career sits squarely at that intersection – connecting scholars, students, alumni, and practitioners across environment, management, and innovation. His leadership of the Planetary Solutions Impact Accelerator will strengthen the bridge between Yale’s research and the scalable solutions the world urgently needs.”

A Yale alumnus with joint degrees from the Yale School of the Environment (MEM) and the Yale School of Management (MBA), DeCew has spent more than a decade building programs, partnerships, and communities at the nexus of climate, business, and innovation. As executive director of CBEY and a lecturer at YSE, he oversees strategy and development for research, education, and outreach programs that prepare leaders to drive environmental and social impact through business, including launching Yale’s professional certificate program in Financing and Deploying Clean Energy. Beyond campus, he is a founding board member of ClimateHaven, New Haven’s climate tech incubator, helping to grow a vibrant regional hub for climate startups and entrepreneurs.

“This feels like a natural evolution of Stuart’s work supporting innovative startup businesses to help people and the planet,” said Brad Gentry, one of CBEY’s faculty directors. “Having supported student efforts through both CBEY and the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale, it is exciting to think about how many more threads this opportunity enables him to weave together across the university.”

“Yale has an incredible history of firsts at the intersection of environment, management, and innovation,” DeCew said. “Across YSE, SOM, and the broader university, you see students, alumni, faculty, and practitioners who are already bending the curve on climate and building the markets, technologies, and policies we need. The Planetary Solutions Impact Accelerator is our next rallying point: it connects that creativity and research with the capital, partners, and practical support required to move ideas from the lab into the world at scale. We have a remarkable amount of work ahead of us, but an equally remarkable community to do it with, and I’m excited to help turn that shared commitment into solutions that make this planet more just, resilient, and thriving for the next generation. I’m deeply grateful to the Deans at YSE and SOM and the leadership teams at Planetary Solutions and Yale Ventures for creating this unique opportunity.”

Prior to his work at Yale, DeCew built a career at the intersection of policy, civic engagement, and sustainable development. He served as national logistics coordinator for the Bill Bradley for President campaign, worked as a legislative aide in the U.S. Congress, and served in the Peace Corps in Paraguay, where he advised municipal and provincial governments on local governance. He later directed a nonprofit campaign promoting sustainable land-use practices in Florida and worked as an on-site producer in Cairo, Egypt, for Pangea Day, an international documentary film festival sponsored by the TED Prize.

DeCew holds a B.A. in history from Colorado College, an MBA from the Yale School of Management, and a Master of Environmental Management from the Yale School of the Environment.