Ben Soltoff is an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) and the Ecosystem-Builder in Residence at the Martin Trust Center.

He is a systems thinker who is passionate about exploring how new ideas, technologies, and business models can address the world’s most pressing problems, particularly climate change and other environmental challenges.

Ben wears many hats at the Trust Center. He’s the point person for all things climate tech; he manages a partnership between Boston and Texas to train entrepreneurs tackling the energy transition; he coordinates our relationship with the Queensland University of Technology in Australia; and he leads the delta v accelerator, the capstone entrepreneurial experience for students at MIT.

Prior to joining MIT, Ben was the Environmental Innovation Manager at the Yale Center for Business and the Environment (CBEY) and the Environmental Innovation Fellow at the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale (CITY). In that dual role, he helped students to design, build, and launch environmental solutions.

He has been part of several environmentally relevant startups, ranging from a social enterprise in Mexico installing off-grid solar energy, to a hardware company in Silicon Valley building energy-efficient ovens that cook with light. He has also worked on international climate policy at World Resources Institute in Washington, DC, as well as at grassroots climate resilience initiatives in rural India.

Ben holds dual master’s degrees from the Yale School of Management and the Yale School of the Environment, as well as a Bachelor of Science degree from Duke University.

In his spare time, he likes to make climate fiction, animal sculptures, and bad jokes.