Ryan Macpherson

Ryan Macpherson is a Portfolio and Investment Manager at Autodesk Foundation, the corporate foundation of Autodesk, Inc. In his role, Ryan leads Autodesk's impact investments into early-stage, world class technologies addressing society's most pressing global challenges. Ryan is passionate about developing new financing mechanisms and incentive structures to support the commercialization of science and engineering-based breakthroughs. He has done so throughout his career by leading investment operations at PRIME Coalition, directing the 2016 MIT Clean Energy Prize, and establishing new technology transition programs within the Department of Defense and General Services Administration. Ryan holds a Master of Business Administration from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a Bachelor of Science with high distinction in Civil Engineering from the University of Virginia.

  • Four Found Energy employees—1 man (far-left), three women (middle, middle-right, right) wearing blue Found Energy branded jumpsuits with black collars and protective eyewear and latex gloves. The group is standing around, working on, and looking at a contraption with metal rods, electric wiring, mechanical components, and a small computer fan. Setting: Fluorescent-it lab space.

    Our investment in Found Energy

    The Autodesk Foundation welcomes Found Energy—a climate tech startup building rechargeable aluminum fuel power systems aimed at eliminating carbon emissions from heavy industrial applications—to its Energy and Materials portfolio.

    Funding

  • Our investment in Applied Carbon

    The Autodesk Foundation welcomes Applied Carbon—a climate tech startup developing and scaling technologies to regenerate soils and permanently sequester atmospheric carbon—to its Energy and Materials portfolio.

    Funding
  • Wide angle view of dozens of pallets of concrete blocks in an open-air dirt field on an overcast day. Foreground: A person in a forklift facing the camera, behind a few large pallets of concrete blocks.

    Our investment in CarbonBuilt

    The Autodesk Foundation welcomes CarbonBuilt—a startup that is decarbonizing concrete and enabling manufacturers to make industry-standard products with 70-100% less embodied carbon than conventional concrete—to its Energy and Materials portfolio.

    Funding
  • Avalanche employee Daniel working on micro fusion reactor, "Janice".

    Our investment in Avalanche Energy

    The Autodesk Foundation welcomes Avalanche Energy—a startup creating micro fusion reactors to mobilize carbon-free energy for hard-to-abate sectors—to its Energy and Materials portfolio.

    Funding
  • Two sets of hands hold a Prometheus Materials bio-cement brick.

    Our investment in Prometheus Materials

    The Autodesk Foundation welcomes Prometheus Materials—a sustainable building materials company that aims to replace portland cement with an ultra-low-carbon bio-cement alternative—to its Energy and Materials portfolio.

    Funding

  • Our investment in Nth Cycle

    The Autodesk Foundation welcomes Nth Cycle—a startup that is revolutionizing materials recovery and refinement—to its Energy and Materials portfolio.

    Funding
  • Skyline view of oil refinery in Germany, illuminated at dusk. Natural gas flaring out of one of numerous smokestacks.

    Our investment in M2X Energy

    The Autodesk Foundation welcomes to its Energy & Materials portfolio M2X Energy, a startup that has developed a modular, scalable waste gas-to-liquid technology that captures methane gas and converts it into valuable commodities.

    Funding
  • Grass in wind

    Our investment in Closed Loop Partners

    Today’s linear economy—where we extract resources, make something, use it, and then throw it away—creates an amazing amount of waste. Yes, waste in terms of energy and materials, but also waste in terms of a missed opportunity for delivering greater value to consumers, companies, and brands.   The circular economy movement, on the other hand, embraces…

    Funding

  • Our investment in Heirloom

    To meet the guiding goal of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, we need to not only limit greenhouse gas emissions but also aggressively remove CO2 from the atmosphere. This reality is emphasized more than ever in the recent landmark scientific assessment from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate…

    Funding