Former Joint Office Executive Director Gabe Klein Joins ChargeMate as Advisor

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – October 19, 2026 – ChargeMate, an AI startup automating operations for EV charging networks and energy infrastructure, today announced that Gabe Klein has joined the company as a strategic advisor. Klein was the first Executive Director of the U.S. Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, where he led the federal effort to support both government and the private sector in building a national EV charging network and set common standards for how chargers should perform.

The appointment connects two efforts aimed at the same problem. Under Klein, the Joint Office launched the ChargeX Consortium to make public charging more reliable, and ChargeMate was a ChargeX Group 1 Driver Experience member. Public networks commonly report uptime near 98%, yet drivers still fail to charge on up to 29% of first attempts, according to J.D. Power and ChargerHelp research. ChargeMate’s AI agents close that gap from the driver’s side; at Mercedes-Benz High-Power Charging, they cut call volume by 48% and served 1.9x more drivers at a fraction of the cost.

Klein has worked across nearly every way people get around, from cars and bikes to scooters, public transit and electrification. Before the Joint Office, he led the transportation departments in Chicago and Washington, D.C., where he launched the Divvy and Capital Bikeshare systems, and built all forms of infrastructure in public space. He co-founded Cityfi, an advisory firm that helps cities and companies plan new mobility and infrastructure, and advises EV charging companies Paren and Voltpost. He has worked with ChargeMate’s founders since July and advises the company on strategy, product and go-to-market, drawing on his experience scaling Zipcar and setting national standards for charger reliability.

“Gabe helped set the reliability bar for the country’s charging network, and he knows that investment only pays off when drivers can rely on both private and publicly funded infrastructure,” said Brad Crist, CEO and Co-founder of ChargeMate. “Gabe’s experience with the utilities, cities and public agencies that own and fund charging infrastructure will help us reach the operators who need us most.”

“At the Joint Office, our mission was to support deployment of sustainable charging and fueling infrastructure nationwide and establish clear standards for how it performs,” said Gabe Klein, former Executive Director of the U.S. Joint Office of Energy and Transportation. “The next challenge is operating these networks at a high level. Operational uptime is the floor, not the finish line. Operators need to identify issues before drivers encounter them, resolve them quickly, and deliver strong customer support without growing headcount in step with their networks. ChargeMate is bringing AI to that operational layer, and its work with operators is already demonstrating better outcomes at lower cost than traditional approaches. I’m pleased to support the team as they scale.”

Klein joins ChargeMate’s advisory team alongside Bill Loewenthal, former Chief Product Officer at ChargePoint, and Loren McDonald, founder of Chargeonomics.

About ChargeMate

ChargeMate is an AI startup automating operations for EV charging networks and energy infrastructure. Its AI agents resolve driver support calls and diagnose failed charging sessions, drawing on the Omnimanual, a proprietary knowledge base covering 99.7% of EVs on U.S. roads. ChargeMate integrates with AMPECO and Driivz, is a member of the U.S. Department of Energy’s ChargeX Consortium, and is backed by 500 Global and operators and executives from across energy and applied AI.

Media contact: Brad Crist, CEO · brad@chargemate.ai