Celebrating Exceptional Humans with Cooper Rinzler

December 30, 2021
Jessica Easter

For Cooper Rinzler, the Hertz Foundation’s value proposition is easily defined: people.

“We celebrate exceptional humans who are deeply committed to addressing science’s biggest, baddest problems,” he explained. “Support from the foundation frees fellows’ minds to work outside traditional incentive structures to pursue the most meaningful questions and solve the most important problems.”

Rinzler is a technologist and entrepreneur and an investor at Breakthrough Energy Ventures. He is currently focused on enabling entrepreneurs to translate innovation into scaled climate impact and creating the frameworks and investment vehicles that support the efficient development and deployment of solutions to the most recalcitrant challenges in climate. He also serves on the board of the Hertz Foundation and has been a consistent donor and volunteer.

“I believe that a commitment to service extends well beyond career,” Rinzler said. “I’m always looking for the highest- leverage involvement, whether in time or money. Direct engagements with Hertz Fellows have been both personally meaningful and professionally beneficial, through graduate school at MIT and beyond.”

Commitment is key to Rinzler, especially when it comes to supporting future generations of Hertz Fellows and leveraging their success.

“Fellow giving to the foundation matters,” he said. “This is how external parties judge the foundation’s value — by how much fellows value it through their own philanthropy. It’s a massively important signal.”

Learn more about Cooper.

2013 Hertz Fellow
Technologist and Entrepreneur, Breakthrough Energy Ventures