Elaine Kloss

Elaine A. Kloss is the Chief Financial Officer of Empire State Development (ESD), New York State's chief economic development agency. She joined ESD in June 2005 as Vice President, Finance and Treasurer and has led the organization's financial operations since. ESD is a public benefit corporation (comprising the Urban Development Corporation and related entities) responsible for administering the state's business-incentive programs, grants, loans, and tax credits, as well as supporting small businesses, MWBEs, workforce development, and regional development projects.

Before joining ESD, Kloss built a corporate treasury and finance career across public companies and financial institutions. She served as Vice President and Treasurer of NUI Utilities, Inc., a natural gas distribution company, from January 2004 to January 2005, and as a Treasury Associate for Resources Global Professionals, Inc., an international professional-services firm, from 2002 to 2004. Earlier, she was Vice President and Treasurer of Ventiv Health, Inc., a contract pharmaceutical-sales company, from 1999 to 2001.

Over her career she has held a range of treasury and financial-management positions at major institutions including New York Life Insurance Company, Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, Inc., AT&T, and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. This trajectory reflects a specialization in corporate treasury, capital management, and financial oversight rather than venture or angel investing.

Important accuracy note: The stub record classified Elaine Kloss under "Angel Investors / Seed Round." Available sources do not support this. She is a public-sector CFO overseeing the finances of a state economic development agency, not a private individual angel investor. There is no evidence of a personal angel/seed investment portfolio. The sections below are framed around her verifiable institutional role; unsupported investor-specific details (personal check sizes, personal deals) have been omitted rather than invented.

• No personal/individual angel investment thesis is publicly documented. As ESD's CFO, Kloss oversees the finances behind the agency's capital deployment rather than making personal seed-stage bets.
• ESD's institutional "investment" activity takes the form of state economic-development capital: grants, low-cost loans, tax credits/incentives, and financing programs aimed at job creation and business growth in New York State.
• Priority areas for ESD capital include small businesses and MWBEs, workforce development, advanced/clean manufacturing, technology and life sciences, film and media, and regional/real-estate development.
• Decisions at the agency level are tied to public-policy criteria — job creation, capital investment commitments, and regional economic impact — rather than private-market return targets.