Murray Clay

Murray Clay is President of the Ulupono Initiative, a Honolulu-based impact investment firm founded in 2009 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam (both of whom spent parts of their childhood in Hawaiʻi). Ulupono operates as a mission-driven venture of The Omidyar Group and works to make Hawaiʻi more sustainable and resilient across four areas: locally produced food, clean and renewable energy, clean transportation, and better management of fresh water and waste. As President, Clay oversees all aspects of the organization, sets overall strategy, and guides the team's due diligence and analysis toward the firm's mission goals. He previously served the firm as Managing Partner and Managing Director before assuming the President role.

Clay brings more than 15 years of experience managing hedge fund and private equity portfolios. He has led due diligence and negotiated and structured direct investments across many industries, including energy, natural resources, and biotechnology. Before joining Ulupono, he served as Deputy Chief Investment Officer of SDS Management LLC in Connecticut, and earlier held a principal role at Brightforge Management.

Before his finance career, Clay served for five years as an intelligence officer supporting U.S. Air Force special operations forces. He is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, where he earned a B.S. in international affairs with a minor in Japanese, and he holds an MBA with High Honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Beyond investing, Clay is one of Hawaiʻi's leading advocates for performance-based regulation (PBR) as a tool to accelerate the state's renewable-energy goals, and he engages directly with policymakers on energy and sustainability policy. He serves on the board of the USS Missouri Memorial Association and on the Oʻahu Economic Development Board. He is married to Jodi and has five children, and lists scuba diving, European history, and collecting medieval artifacts among his personal interests.

• Invests to advance Hawaiʻi's self-sufficiency and resilience across four systems: local food, renewable energy, clean transportation, and fresh water/waste management.
• Defines "sustainable" along three axes — environmentally sound, socially supported by communities, and financially viable over the long term — and looks for ventures that satisfy all three.
• Deploys a "systems" approach that pairs investment capital with research, policy/regulatory engagement, and strategic communications: as Clay puts it, "truly catalyzing change in these systems required more than just a checkbook."
• Uses profitable ventures as proof points — demonstrating that sustainable businesses can work so that others follow, magnifying impact beyond the initial capital.
• Deploys capital across both for-profit and non-profit structures (equity investments, grants, and loans), typically several ~$1M–$3M investments per year, and prizes high leverage (e.g., a $685,000 investment in grant/loan-writer programs that yielded ~$23 million in funding — roughly 34x).
• On policy: "By working directly with policymakers and civil servants, we are helping redefine and shape how the government looks at Hawaiʻi's self-sufficiency and resilience in our sector areas."