Henry Elkus

As a byproduct of his work at Helena, Henry developed a passion and hobby of collecting book recommendations from the Helena community, then documenting each book as he finishes them one-by-one.

Click here to take a look at what he’s reading. (Instagram page: @elklist)

Click here to see Henry’s writing.

Helena is a global problem solving organization comprising both a non-profit foundation and a for-profit investment firm with over $500m in assets. Its purpose is to identify potential solutions to critical global problems and directly implement them through individual projects.

Helena has operated and supported efforts across biotechnology and biosecurity, the energy transition, existential risk mitigation, drug discovery and development, telecommunications, education, political depolarization, mental health breakthroughs, marine technology, cybersecurity, space infrastructure and more. In its 10 year history, Helena’s projects have contributed to multiple Presidential executive orders, the passage of national and international legislation, and billions of dollars in collective enterprise value.

Helena’s “America in One Room” (A1R) project was one of the most significant political experiments in American History. A1R brought the most representative sample of the United States electorate ever assembled to a single location for a four-day deliberation on the most critical issues facing the country. The project and its publicly-released results were globally covered and awarded, including in a front-page, special feature of the New York Times that featured portraits of nearly every participant. Cited by global leaders including Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton as a needed method to address structural issues in modern democracy, America in One Room’s initial success led to the creation of 5 further eponymous projects, which brought together national representative samples for deliberations ranging from energy policy to democratic reform.

Helena’s “Shield” project identified and addressed critical vulnerabilities in the security of the North American electrical grid from threats due to solar storms, cyber-attack and electromagnetic weaponry, catalyzing state and federal legislation including a 2019 Presidential Executive Order.

In 2022, Helena’s biosecurity research team identified significant unintended pathogenic risks within a $125m government backed program called Deep VZN. Working with senior US national security officials and a bipartisan congressional coalition, Helena and its partners worked to terminate the program. This effort led to the creation of the Helena Biosecurity Project, a global taskforce designed to identify and address biosecurity threats arising from exponential advances in the intersection of artificial intelligence, biotechnology and genomics, with a focus on preventing the weaponization of synthetic viruses.

In response to COVID-19, Helena led two projects. During the early months of the pandemic, Helena addressed critical breakdowns in the supply chain of vital protective equipment, directly purchasing/financing and routing more over 37 million masks, gloves, gowns and other PPE into the hands of frontline workers are nearly 100 hospitals and care facilities across the US. In parallel, Helena built The Covid Network, a real-time data platform quantifying COVID’s spread across the United States and current PPE needs for individual hospitals. The platform was quickly adopted by health systems and suppliers across the country, including the US Air Force.

Helena’s for-profit arm, established in 2020, has built a portfolio of high conviction investments in companies at the forefront of technological breakthroughs addressing societal challenges.

Helena is the largest investor in Phaidra, a company using deep-learning artificial intelligence to autonomously operate some of the world’s most energy-intensive and complex industrial machines. Founded by key members from Google Deepmind’s AlphaGo team, Phaidra’s partners and customers now range from Nvidia to the UAE’s Ministry of Energy.

Helena is the lead investor in Level, a stealth education technology company founded by the team that created Fortnite, one of the most successful video games in history. Helena is also a major investor in Twin Health, a digital twin artificial intelligence platform for the reversal of Type 2 diabetes and other major chronic diseases that counts some of the Fortune 500’s largest companies, including Berkshire Hathaway, Blackstone and Walmart as flagship customers.

Helena’s other portfolio companies include Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a leading nuclear fusion company using high temperature superconducting magnets developed in collaboration with MIT, Resilient, a leading developer of psychedelic therapies for post-traumatic stress disorder, Star Catcher, a company building the first power grid in space, and Vivodyne, a robotic biotechnology platform capable of generating lifelike human organ tissue at scale for preclinical testing of new therapeutics.

Helena works alongside a small group of exceptional leaders called Helena Members. Created shortly after Helena’s inception, the Membership represent Helena’s differentiated ability to analyze global trends and problems, source and develop potential solutions to those problems, and implement those solutions. The members include Four-Star Generals, leading intelligence founders, Fortune 100 CEOs, Nobel Peace Prize and Scientific Laureates, Academy Award Winners, former CIA Directors, leading Academics, NGO Leaders, explorers, and more.

Outside of Helena, Henry serves on the board of International Bridges to Justice, the leading non-governmental organization supporting legal representation, the right to be free from torture and inhumane treatment, and the right to a fair trial in the world’s highest conflict zones. Henry also serves as a Special Advisor to the Berggruen Institute, was named to the 2020 Fobes 30 Under 30 List, and formerly served Social Entrepreneur in Residence at The Boston Consulting Group. Until 2014, Henry competed internationally as a ski racer.