Anna B. Albright
Co-Founder & CEO, Clema
San Francisco, CA · on the ground in Abilene and Houston most months
I build on-body cooling for the 2.4 billion people who work in extreme heat, and I sit on the committee writing the first federal standard that will govern it.
The company
Clema builds active cooling that a worker can wear through a full shift.
Our smart suspenders hold skin temperature more than 25°F below ambient across a full 8 to 12 hour shift on a single battery swap, with no ice and no water. They weigh under three pounds and are slim enough to wear under FR gear or harnesses, which is what makes them usable on a real jobsite in construction, energy, logistics, or manufacturing.
Every deployed unit also instruments a worker. That is the second product: continuous on-body data for a workforce that has never had any.
The standard
I am the only startup founder on the ISEA 600 committee.
The committee is writing OSHA's first federal heat-safety standard. I hold that seat alongside 3M and Cintas, on a rule expected to reach an estimated 36 million American workers. It is an unusual position for a company our size, and it means we are helping define the specification our category will be measured against.
The market
Heat is the largest unpriced drag on industrial labor.
people work in extreme heat worldwide, from construction sites to warehouse floors.
lost from the global economy in idle and slowed labor each year.
of that loss lands in the United States alone, before any OSHA penalty.
consecutive record heat years, with the exposure compounding.
Background
I didn't pivot into heat.
I spent a decade learning how it breaks industrial operations from the inside, then built the company no one else would.
- Age 16
- Testified on climate legislation at the Massachusetts State House, before I was old enough to vote.
- Yale
- Sat on the board of a student investment fund and built its climate-investing team from scratch, leading 7 analysts against a $450K portfolio.
- J.P. Morgan
- Structured green debt, and learned how capital actually moves into climate infrastructure and where it stalls.
- BCG
- Led industrial and energy engagements, including launching a new business line for a $30B+ industrial. I watched heat wreck operating plans every summer and never once appear on a budget line.
- Clema
- Co-founder and CEO. The idea started on a tarmac in Houston, on a flight that could not push back because it was too hot for the ground crew to work.
Selected press
- Harvard Business School, Climate Week NYC, September 2026 Heat and Labor in a Changing Climate
- Harvard Salata Institute · Probable Futures, September 2026 Risk, Resilience, and Decision-Making in a Changing Climate
- Yale Environmental Studies, July 2026 Anna B. Albright ’23 is the Co-Founder and CEO of Clema
- Yale Scientific, 2021 Undergraduate profile: Anna B. Albright
- Yale News, 2022 Honored with a Y-Work Award for going above the call of duty
Podcasts & talks
- Safety & Risk Success · Christian Harris Why heat is a hidden safety and productivity risk
- Occupational Safety Leadership · David Ayers Heat and cooling vests, and what a full shift actually demands
- OHSIS Safety Podcast · Amir Shahzad Can technology stop heat deaths?
- Segurança Diferente · Hugo Ribeiro Heat isn't just a safety problem, it's killing your productivity
- Climate Summit · Talk Awareness is not enough
Elsewhere
- Company clemacooling.com
- LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/annabalbright
- Substack substack.com/@annabeea
Contact
Press questions, speaking invitations, or a conversation about heat and the people it affects: my assistant Rica will get you to me at rica@clemacooling.com.
Professionally I'm Anna Albright. Personally I'm Anna B. “B” was my first name, before Anna, and the people closest to me still use it.