Omkaram Nalamasu

A transformative business and innovation C-Suite leader with extensive experience driving profitable growth at a Fortune 150 global corporation (Applied Materials), leading disruptive innovation at a world-class R&D laboratory (Bell Labs), and a global research university (RPI). At Applied Materials, as head of the Emerging Businesses, he incubates multiple new and adjacent market businesses ranging from Photonics, Advanced Packaging, Energy Efficient Compute (Optical Interconnects to Quantum Computing) to Advanced Batteries, and Pharma/Life Sciences. As president of Applied Ventures (AV), he established AV as a global leader in deep-tech investments, with approximately $500M invested in nearly 100 portfolio companies across 19 countries, supporting several deep-tech inflections and facilitating seven IPOs of portfolio companies. He transformed AV into an exemplary corporate venture capital arm, strategically aligned to drive growth for Applied through Invest to Learn, Invest to Acquire, and Invest in Supplier strategies. He also pioneered joint investment funds with government organizations in Korea, Taiwan, and New York ESD. He has extensive board experience with start-ups, non-profits, universities, and government advisory bodies. He conceived, recruited, built, and chairs a world-class Growth Technical Advisory Board (GTAB, https://www.appliedmaterials.com/us/en/about/leadership/gtab.html ) for Applied Materials, comprising four university presidents, three Nobel Prize winners, a former US DOE Energy Secretary, heads of R&D, and repeat entrepreneurs. He recently spun out Elevated Materials, a battery company with multi-$100Ms investment from TPG, where he serves on the board. He has led board work with Applied Materials' Strategy and Investment committee for over ten years. His contributions have earned him numerous recognitions and awards, including the IRI (Innovation Research Interchange) Innovation Leadership Award, IEEE Fellow, membership in the US National Academy of Engineering, the IEEE Frederick Philips Award, the ACS Roy W. Tess award, the Japan Photopolymer Science and Technology award, among others. A prolific inventor with over 300 patents, he has published extensively with more than 170 papers. He is an advocate for "Make Possible a Better World for Everyone" through Materials Engineering. He is internationally recognized as an expert in materials science and technology, a global thought leader, and keynote speaker on open innovation, entrepreneurship, and building a better and more sustainable world through technology.