Jay L. Koh

Member of the NYSERDA Board
Appointed June 2014
Reappointed June 2021

Work History

Jay L. Koh is Co-Founder and Managing Director of The Lightsmith Group. Jay has over 20 years of experience in investing and public policy in the public and private sectors.

Prior to co-founding Lightsmith in 2016, Jay was a Managing Director and Partner of Siguler Guff, a global alternative investment firm with over $10 billion under management. Prior to joining Siguler Guff in 2012, Jay was the Head of Investment Funds and Chief Investment Strategist at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). In this role, Jay led the agency’s $2.6 billion active emerging markets private equity program. From 2007 to 2009, Jay led private equity and illiquid investing for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at R3 Capital, formerly the Global Principal Strategies Division of Lehman Brothers. Previously, he focused on direct growth equity investing as a Principal at The Carlyle Group, where he worked from 2000 to 2007 and also from 1993 to 1995. From 1998 to 2000, Jay served as a law clerk to Justice David H. Souter, United States Supreme Court, and to Judge Michael Boudin, United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

Jay is an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Boards

Jay serves on the Private Sector Advisory Group to the United Nations Green Climate Fund and the advisory committee to the NY Green Bank. He is also Founder and Chair of the Global Adaptation & Resilience Investment Working Group, a private investor-led initiative that was launched at Paris COP21 and is an official partner of the United Nations Secretary General’s A2R Climate Resilience Initiative.

Education

Jay holds a bachelor’s degree magna cum laude in economics from Harvard College, a master’s degree in management from Oxford University, and a juris doctorate from Yale Law School.