Jim Kapsis

Jim Kapsis is the founder of The Ad Hoc Group, an advisory firm that helps startups build successful businesses in complex, regulated markets with a focus on energy, mobility, and sustainable cities. Jim is also the co-host of Technopolis, the podcast from CityLab and Atlantic Media about how technology is disrupting, remaking and sometimes overrunning cities. Jim has been a Senior Advisor to Sidewalk Labs, Alphabet’s urban venture, and spent six years building and leading the global regulatory team at Opower, Inc., a Software-as-a-Service company headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. At Opower, Jim supported the full life cycle of the business from startup to IPO to acquisition by Oracle in 2016. Before entering the private sector, Jim was a climate negotiator in the Obama Administration where he helped broker the Copenhagen Climate Accord in 2009. Jim has worked in the U.S. Treasury, State, and Defense Departments, and in Congress. Jim earned a B.A. in Political Science from Haverford College and a M.P.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. Jim lives in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and three daughters and serves on the Board of the City’s Transit Company.