Welcome to 2025 and the Chinese Year of the Snake.
The Snake represents wisdom, knowledge, intelligence, intuition, and creativity. Snakes are also revered for their ability to shed their skin and renew themselves, symbolizing transformation and rebirth. Wharf42 and our key partners and clients can relate. These are important traits that drive our behavior, now and in the future.
Reflecting on lessons learnt in 2024, we have identified ways we can further adapt to the ever-changing environment of AgriFoodTech products and services. This includes re-imagining investment into this vital sector. Our success requires not just a deep understanding of the market we represent, but a more holistic appreciation of how important ‘megatrends’ more broadly, align with our industry.
It’s with this context that I am delighted to share the news that Claire Lee is joining the team as Wharf42’s inaugural Director, Growth Strategies. Based in Palo Alto, California, Claire — aka Mother Funder — set up her own consulting firm in February 2022 after spending eight years at Silicon Valley Bank – six of those as Head of SVB’s Startup Banking Division and later as Global Brand Ambassador at SVB’s investment arm, SVB Capital.
Claire joined SVB in 2014 from Microsoft, where she spent a decade working on emerging technologies, including cloud and emerging businesses (startups) in emerging markets. During her time at Microsoft, Claire led the Local Software Economy initiative engaging Government, Academia and the private sector, before moving to California in 2011 to join Microsoft’s Emerging Business Group. Claire was part of the leadership team that brought Microsoft BizSpark and Microsoft Ventures to market.
Claire is a long tenured advisor to the U.S. Department of State, where she executed the first DEMO Africa event under Secretary Clinton’s leadership. Claire travelled to Nairobi, Kenya, in July 2015 with President Obama and a small delegation of U.S. investors and went on to partner with the Obama administration on the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) in 2016 at Stanford University. Claire has served as Board Advisor on two boards at RAND Corporation since 2018, including the Center for Middle East Public Policy (CMEPP) and Global and Emerging Risks (GER).
Today, Claire brings a unique global perspective, significant investor networks and a particular passion for GenAI’s ability to transform the AgriFoodTech sector, to Wharf42. Claire will support clients develop Transformative Growth Strategies to accelerate market entry and opportunities in both the US and other key global markets.
We are absolutely thrilled to have Claire join the Wharf42 team. It reflects our own transformation as we build our global-focused footprint to address the world’s rapidly changing AgriFoodTech landscape.