Garry Cooper

Athlete, Brainstormer, Care taker, Doctor, Musician, Public servant, Scientist, Social entrepreneur, Technologist

Dr. Garry Cooper is CEO and Co-founder of Rheaply, a B2B climate technology company working to scale reuse and the circular economy by helping lower procurement and storage costs and reduce waste. He also serves as a General Partner with LongJump, a pre-seed venture fund based in Chicago and designed to invest in the next generation of underrepresented founders and overlooked ideas. Previously, Garry was an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Northwestern, helping trainees, faculty, and staff more seamlessly connect to the Chicago business community. Prior to his faculty position, Garry facilitated supply chain and performance improvement for leading biotechnology enterprises at Ernst & Young. Before this, Garry began his career as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Scholar at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, where he led the drug discovery effort to find a selective L-type calcium channel inhibitor for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, for which he holds a US patent. He is a member of the board of directors of P33 Chicago, 1871, and Improovy, and is the Chairman of the Board of Rheaply. He has been twice recognized as a Goldman Sachs 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs 2021 & 2022, an Emerson Collective Dial Fellow, one of Crain’s 40 Under 40 Chicago, Chicago Power 30, and Forbes Next 1000. He is a former Google for Entrepreneurs Fellow and a member of YPO Chicago Chapter, the Forbes Chicago Business Council, and The Economic Club of Chicago. Garry is a member of the 2023 Class of Henry Crown Fellows within the Aspen Global Leadership Network at the Aspen Institute.

Beyond sustainability, I’m pretty passionate about working out, and in particular, boxing. I’ve been boxing training for 4 years, and I continue to learn every time I’m in a training session. Even at peak fitness, I still find myself gasping for air and energy. I find the constant journey of trying to not be bad at boxing quite exhilarating.

We won’t solve the climate crisis with one person, one company, one organization, or one country at a time. We all have to do our part to transition to a low-carbon, circular economy; we all have to participate. But if we can, our future is bright.

Circular Economy, Neuroscience, Sustainability

I’ve always been a huge fan of TED talks. And as a somewhat nerdy science kid since I was little, I love the presentation by David Christian, entitled, “The history of our world in 18 minutes”. I watch it on repeat. Never did I actually think I’d share the same red circle with the likes of David Christian or so many other heroes that have presented here before.

The violin. I’ve been playing the violin since I was six. Though, I’m still learning how to play.