After two years leading the quasi-public Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, Emily Reichert will be stepping down on Nov. 21.
In announcing her pending departure, MassCEC did not say what Reichert plans to do next or give a reason for her exit. Reichert, who has been earning an annual salary of just over $250,000, will be succeeded on an interim basis by Jennifer Le Blond, the managing director of emerging climate-tech for MassCEC, while the MassCEC board, chaired by state energy and environmental affairs secretary Rebecca Tepper, looks for a more permanent successor.
The change comes roughly one year after the state Legislature passed a sweeping economic development bill that would step up the state’s investment in climate-tech work by hundreds of millions of dollars, with the disbursements overseen by MassCEC. The agency draws funds from a charge on ratepayer bills and the state’s operating budget, among other sources, to help support clean-energy and other climate-tech businesses and workers, and has more than 130 employees, excluding temps and interns. The agency has an operating budget of nearly $41 million, as well as an annual budget for grants of nearly $130 million and $33 million in capital projects.
In a statement, Reichert said she considered it an honor to serve Massachusetts during “such an exciting time” for climate-tech and she was thankful to Tepper and her boss, Governor Maura Healey, for the opportunity. Reichert might be best known, though, for her work building Somerville-based Greentown Labs into what’s believed to be the largest climate-tech startup incubator in North America, as its CEO from 2013 through 2022.
Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com. Follow him @jonchesto.
