Vibrant Planet Readies for Growth in Multiple Risk Management Markets with Appointment of New Chief Product Officer and Chief Science Officer

Jodi Alperstein and Dick Cameron bring deep product and science expertise as Vibrant Planet scales its analytics and software solutions for the wildfire crisis

TRUCKEE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Vibrant Planet, the technology leader partnering with communities, utilities, and land managers to mitigate wildfire risk, today announced two executive appointments: Jodi Alperstein as Chief Product Officer and Dick Cameron as Chief Science Officer. The hires pair product roadmap know-how with industry-leading scientific expertise, strengthening Vibrant Planet's executive team as the company scales its impact across fire and natural resource management agencies and utilities nationwide.

Alperstein and Cameron join Vibrant Planet at a pivotal point in its growth, as the company doubles down on its advanced AI and machine learning capabilities that model forest conditions and fire behavior at unmatched resolution, enabling the company to extend services to the Eastern U.S. and globally, as well as into new vertical markets. By combining ecological science, wildfire risk analytics, and AI-driven forest modeling, Vibrant Planet’s flagship application, the Vibrant Planet Platform, enables customers to run treatment scenarios in real time to identify the highest-impact interventions, allowing them to systematically reduce wildfire risk to communities and natural resources and improve ecological resilience. The company will continue to deliver analytics and data as a service, and is actively working with customers to develop new applications that serve emerging needs, all powered by its core analytics and peer-reviewed, published science.

"We are living in a time of multiple, interconnected crises – climate change, extreme weather, associated impacts from wildfire and drought, an aging utility grid with rapidly increasing data center demand, and a buckling insurance market that has halted underwriting in fire-prone markets across the West. The good news is we can mitigate risk, and improve community and wildland resilience to wildfire by coordinating critical actions across sectors," said Allison Wolff, cofounder and CEO of Vibrant Planet. "Jodi’s deep and relevant product expertise plus Dick’s science leadership are exactly what we need to accelerate our roadmap and deepen the impact we deliver for a growing mix of customers. I couldn't be more excited to welcome them both to the team in this next inflection point for the company."

Jodi Alperstein - Chief Product Officer

Jodi brings 25 years of product leadership experience to Vibrant Planet, having led product management, engineering, design, and analytics for public companies and high-growth startups in the technology sector. As Chief Product Officer, she will oversee product, engineering, design, and impact as catastrophic wildfires reshape how communities, governments, and carriers plan for and prioritize wildfire risk mitigation. Increasingly, Vibrant Planet is seen as the only AI-powered software solution built to scale and move at the speed this pressing issue demands.

During her five years as Managing Director of Moody's Analytics' Enterprise Risk Solutions (ERS) division, Jodi led the team that built one of the industry's first unified platforms for risk, portfolio management, and regulatory compliance in banking. She also led the division's deeper expansion into insurance and its shift to a subscription model. Additionally, Jodi has served as General Manager of Twilio Segment's Customer Data Platform business, General Manager of DigitalOcean's IaaS business, and as Credit Karma's first product executive.

"Wildfire risk is one of the most important challenges of our time, and Vibrant Planet is exactly who I'd want tackling it — a team with deep fire science expertise, wildfire industry experience, and exceptional technical talent, all committed to the same mission," Jodi said. "It's a privilege to build and scale our platform alongside them, turning that expertise into technology our customers can act on."

Dick Cameron - Chief Science Officer

Dick Cameron brings over 25 years of deep scientific and technical expertise to Vibrant Planet, including building geospatial tools to guide investments in ecosystem conservation and restoration. As Chief Science Officer, Dick will bring the fire, ecological, and applied science teams together under one roof to further strengthen the company’s scientific credibility and partner with the product team to develop a future-forward roadmap that delivers modern solutions customers urgently need.

Most recently, Dick served as Vice President of Science at Pachama, a technology company that pioneered the use of remote sensing and forest science in the voluntary carbon market. While there, he led a team of multidisciplinary scientists and machine learning engineers to build evaluation tools to make carbon markets more transparent and science-based. Previously, Dick was the Director of Science for The Nature Conservancy’s California Land and Climate programs, where he led teams finding ways to integrate natural climate solutions and biodiversity conservation into California’s land use and climate policies. His research has been published in journals including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Scientific Reports, and Global Change Biology, and covered in the New York Times, NPR, and the Associated Press.

"Wildfire is a necessary part of many ecosystems, but reducing its catastrophic impact on communities is the challenge of our time. Vibrant Planet has assembled an industry-leading team of fire and forest scientists and has created a rich analytical platform that brings actionable information to decision-makers to create positive change in fire-adapted systems," Cameron said. "I've spent my career using science and technology to pinpoint where ecosystems need protection and restoration to withstand environmental change, and I'm thrilled to lead this team as we scale that work to build a thriving, resilient world."

About Vibrant Planet

Vibrant Planet is the leading wildfire risk management platform, providing wildfire and ecological analytics that help communities, governments, utilities, and insurance carriers prioritize and measure the impact of actions to mitigate risk and build resilience. Its AI-powered technology is deployed across 177 million acres in 12 U.S. states, helping land managers, fire districts, counties, tribal governments, and utilities coordinate wildfire risk mitigation and PSPS prioritization. Customers include the USFS, CAL FIRE, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, PG&E, and communities including Truckee Fire. Investors include Ecosystem Integrity Fund, Citi Impact Fund, SIG Climate, Globivest, Grantham Foundation, Cisco, Blue Vision Capital, and CapShift. Learn more at vibrantplanet.com.