Sustainable Investment Strategist & Author; Climate Champion; Co-Founder of Gigacorn Fund
Nelson Switzer Biography
Nelson Switzer is an investor and author who built his career on a single conviction: that the largest profit opportunities of this century lie in fixing the economy’s deepest inefficiencies. Over a 25-year career he has served as a Chief Sustainability Officer at Nestlé, held senior roles at PwC, Centrica, and RBC, and advised more than 150 corporations, asset managers, and governments operating in nearly every country on Earth. Today he co-leads a venture fund that backs companies capable of reaching billion-dollar valuations while removing a billion tons of carbon as an inherent result. Known as The Gigacorn Hunter, after his bestselling book, he reframes climate action as opportunity rather than obligation and insists that data beats dogma.
Switzer began as a trained environmental engineer and pioneered environmental risk valuation for asset managers, giving financial markets a way to price what they had long ignored, work that led him to coin the principle of the restoration economy. He co-founded his fund in 2020 to back companies that solve pervasive economic inefficiencies and generate outsized value, with deep carbon reductions following as an inherent outcome. Alongside investing, he has taught at leading universities and appears regularly in global media, where audiences describe him as authentic, direct, and able to make complex ideas simple. A husband and father based in Toronto, he holds a Master of Engineering in environmental engineering from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Science from the University of New Brunswick. His philosophy is steady and direct: solve the problem, create value while doing it, and set an example worth following.
Nelson Switzer Speaking Topics
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THIS IS THE CLIMATE ECONOMY: The repeatable pattern behind ventures that remove a billion tons of carbon while reaching billion-dollar valuations.
What if the biggest climate story isn’t about climate at all, but about the wholesale reinvention of the global economy? In his signature keynote, investor and The Gigacorn Hunter author Nelson Switzer reframes decarbonization as one of the largest capital-allocation and industrial transformations in history. Energy, transportation, food, buildings, manufacturing, and waste are all being rebuilt at once
• creating extraordinary opportunities for the companies and investors able to recognize where economic value and carbon reduction reinforce one another.
Drawing on more than two decades inside corporations, markets and climate-tech investing, Switzer reveals the repeatable pattern behind the companies he calls Gigacorns: businesses capable of removing or avoiding a billion tonnes of carbon while building billion-dollar enterprise value. Provocative, optimistic and grounded in real-world economics, This Is the Climate Economy gives audiences a new lens on the transition, not as an environmental obligation, but as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create growth, resilience, prosperity and competitive advantage.
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WHY INTUITION WON'T SAVE THE CLIMATE: Data is the key to successful climate technology investing.
The more complex the decision, the more dangerous it becomes to trust the feeling that the answer is “obvious.” In this highly engaging keynote, adapted from his TEDx talk, Nelson Switzer demonstrates just how easily experience, emotion and incomplete information can fool even sophisticated decision-makers. From a deceptively simple optical illusion to counterintuitive investment choices, he exposes the cognitive biases and information gaps that allow confidence to masquerade as insight and explains why instinct alone becomes less reliable as uncertainty rises.
Switzer then shows audiences how to rebuild intuition on evidence. Drawing from the analytical discipline he uses to evaluate climate technologies, he introduces a deceptively simple habit: before accepting the story, quantify what matters. How much? How fast? At what cost? The result is not an argument against intuition, but a blueprint for making it better
• giving investors, executives and leaders a practical way to challenge assumptions, recognize decision-making traps and make more confident choices when the data is imperfect and the stakes are high.
Nelson Switzer Videos
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What are the speaker fees for Nelson Switzer
Speaking fees for Nelson Switzer, or any other speakers and celebrities, are determined based on a number of factors and may change without notice. The estimated fees to book Nelson Switzer are $10,000 - $20,000 for live events and $10,000 - $20,000 for virtual events. For the most current speaking fee to hire Nelson Switzer, click the Check Availability button above and complete the form on this page, or call our office at 1.800.698.2536 to speak directly with an experienced booking agent. -
What topics does Nelson Switzer speak about?
Nelson Switzer is a keynote speaker and industry expert whose speaking topics include Business Authors, Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Environmental Science, Finance, Leadership, Sustainability, TED, Venture Capital -
Where does Nelson Switzer travel from?
Nelson Switzer generally travels from Toronto, Canada, but can be booked for private corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. For more details, please contact an AAE Booking agent. -
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Nelson Switzer is a keynote speaker and industry expert who speaks on a wide range of topics such as THIS IS THE CLIMATE ECONOMY: The repeatable pattern behind ventures that remove a billion tons of carbon while reaching billion-dollar valuations., WHY INTUITION WON'T SAVE THE CLIMATE: Data is the key to successful climate technology investing., QUESTIONING THE OBVIOUS: The four assumptions climate investors get wrong, and how to fix them. and THE RULE OF 44: A single test that separates a category-leading climate deal from one destined to stay a pilot. The estimated speaking fee range to book Nelson Switzer for your event is $10,000 - $20,000. Nelson Switzer generally travels from Toronto, Canada and can be booked for (private) corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. Similar motivational celebrity speakers are Andrew Winston, Jennifer Turliuk, Nili Gilbert, Peter Thum and Christiana Figueres. Contact All American Speakers for ratings, reviews, videos and information on scheduling Nelson Switzer for an upcoming live or virtual event.
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