01 / Home

Leni Peterson Redondo

I look for the patterns shaping the future, then help build the systems that will define it.

I work across engineering, design, strategy, and climate to make complex systems easier to see and possible futures easier to build. My work is guided by a simple belief: the world's hardest problems rarely belong to one discipline, and meaningful change begins when we learn to connect what has been kept separate.

MS/MBA (Engineering Sciences + Business), Harvard · BS Engineering, Stanford · Based in Mexico City.

LinkedIn ↗Celeste ↗

02 / About

Engineer. Designer. Founder.

Building solutions for complex systems.

I am a systems thinker, engineer, designer, and founder drawn to problems that sit between disciplines and resist simple answers. I tend to look beyond the visible problem to understand the incentives, relationships, and structures underneath it, then translate that complexity into something people can act on.

Today, I am the Founder and CEO of Celeste, where I work at the intersection of water, finance, and resilient supply chains. My path has taken me from designing adaptable shelters for displaced communities, to helping Fortune 100 leaders anticipate emerging risks, to building new ways for companies to understand and invest in water resilience.

I hold an MBA and an MS in Engineering Sciences from Harvard, as well as a BS in Mechanical Engineering Design from Stanford. Across each of those experiences, the common thread has been a desire to connect rigorous analysis with human understanding, and to build practical solutions for complex systems.

03 / Journey

A path through systems.

2023 – Present
Founder & CEO · Celeste
Mexico City (Hybrid)
Celeste provides AI-enabled financial services for water resilience. We quantify the cost of inaction, optimize investment opportunities, and unlock capital to scale high-impact solutions, bridging water risk and financial performance to guide smarter capital allocation across priority basins in global supply chains.
Winner, Innodrop Initiative · Winner, Savia Ventures Lotus Award · Winner, Chany Ventures Demo Day.
2021 – 2023
MS/MBA (Engineering Sciences + Business) · Harvard
Boston, MA
A joint MS/MBA combining an MS in Engineering Sciences (Harvard SEAS) with an MBA (Harvard Business School). Focused on strategy, supply chain, product management, and entrepreneurship. Active in the Sustainability, LatAm, and Impact Investing Clubs; competed in the Turner MIINT impact-investing competition.
2022
Entrepreneurship Fellow, ESG Strategy · Endeavor México
Mexico City (Internship)
Built the foundations of a core "Access to Impact" service to support Endeavor Entrepreneurs' social and environmental strategies and Endeavor Mexico's internal ESG directives.
2019 – 2021
Innovation Strategist · Jump Associates
San Francisco Bay Area
Jump works with Fortune 100 companies that don't yet know what question to ask. I combined ethnographic field research, STEEPLE-based scenario planning, and war-gaming to help leadership see around corners, from multi-hour interviews with extreme users to C-suite facilitation, translating weak signals into strategy.
2018 – 2019
Head of Product · Mawa Modular
Palo Alto, CA
Mawa Modular (from the Arabic word for shelter) is a sustainable, kit-of-parts panel system for displaced populations and refugees, easy to assemble, expand, and reuse while minimizing waste. I researched modular semi-permanent housing worldwide, designed longer-lasting sustainable shelter for Syrian refugees in Jordan, and prototyped materials and joints.
2015 – 2019
BS, Mechanical Engineering (Product Design) · Stanford University
Stanford, CA
Activities: Stanford Innovation Food Lab, Stanford Women in Design, Stanford Women in Engineering Mentorship, Design for America, Apple Mentorship Program.

04 / Current Work: Water & Finance

Where water systems, financial systems, and supply chains intersect.

Translating water risk into the language of capital.

At Celeste, we are building the financial intelligence platform for water resilience. Water risk is financial risk. The question is no longer whether to integrate it into financial analysis; it's how fast, and by whom. The gap isn't a lack of interest; it's a lack of fluency on both sides. That translation is the work.

Visit withceleste.com ↗

Follow on LinkedIn ↗

05 / Recognition & Speaking

Awards, stages, and rooms.

Winner, Innodrop Initiative (1st place, 91 water startups)
Winner, Savia Ventures Lotus Award
Winner, Chany Ventures Demo Day
Guest lecturer, Harvard Business School, AI & Climate / Adaptation series
Panel moderator, YPO Mexico City, "The True Value and Business Case of Water"
Speaker & pitch, FLII (Foro Latinoamericano de Inversión de Impacto)
Education: MBA & MS Engineering Sciences, Harvard · BS Engineering, Stanford

Top skills

EntrepreneurshipDesign StrategyProduct ManagementClimateTechDesign ThinkingCapital AllocationWater Resource ManagementClimate Adaptation

06 / Personal

Outside the office.

Artist. Diver. Traveler.

When I'm not translating water risk into financial terms, I'm usually near the water, or painting it. Diving taught me to see water systems from the inside; painting is how I process what I see; travel keeps my sense of the world honest.

Painting