Vanessa Chan

United States Department of Energy

Chief Commercialization Officer and Director of the Office of Technology Transitions

Dr. Vanessa Z. Chan is the Chief Commercialization Officer for the Department of Energy and Director of the Office of Technology Transitions. In this role she is responsible for all commercialization activities across DOE, the 17 National Laboratories, and the Department’s other research and production facilities across the country. She is an innovator who has worked across a wide range of ecosystems, from academia to Fortune 1000 companies to startups. She has two decades of experience helping organizations grow at the interface of technology and business, across a diverse set of industries. Chan is currently on a leave of absence from her position at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. She is a former McKinsey & Company partner, experienced Venture Board Director for Vanguard and United Technology Corporation, and a board member at multiple startups. Chan was the first woman and the first East Asian elected partner in McKinsey’s North American Chemicals practice. Chan earned her Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her B.S.E. in Materials Science & Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Sessions With Vanessa Chan

Monday, 7 March

  • 01:00pm - 01:30pm (CST) / 07/mar/2022 07:00 pm - 07/mar/2022 07:30 pm

    Driving Low-carbon Innovation: Criteria for investing in early-stage companies
    Finance & Investment/Trading & Risk Management/ESG Carbon Management/Decarbonization

    Diverse types of innovations and technologies are required to tackle the Climate Change crisis. This is prime time for startups with smart, low-carbon ideas to access seed funding and venture capital. How is this time different to the “cleantech” investment boom in the early 2000s? How are early-stage investors prioritizing the types of companies and technologies to back? And in what space? What criteria are they using to those companies that can make the biggest impact to lower carbon?

  • 01:30pm - 02:00pm (CST) / 07/mar/2022 07:30 pm - 07/mar/2022 08:00 pm

    A Conversation with Dr Vanessa Chan on Technology Commercialization
    Carbon Management/Decarbonization

    Vanessa has wide-ranging experience in commercializing innovations and technology, for example an Angel investor and supporting startups and larger companies, before taking on her current role as Chief Commercialization Officer and Director of the OTT at the DoE. Come and speak with her directly about her career trajectory which led to her serving in her current role, as well as how to move the needle on getting technologies from the laboratory to the marketplace.

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