Biography
Mike Pambianchi joins Breakthrough Energy’s Business Fellows program from Madison, New Jersey. Mike’s mission is to help companies avoid business failures so that promising technologies can grow and realize their full impact. He is looking forward to learning about some new industries and helping with business models, customer engagement, market entry strategy, and technoeconomic analysis.
Mike spent most of his career at Corning Incorporated where he developed cutting-edge technologies and market-leading products based on glass and ceramics. He is focused on industrial materials and process innovation to achieve decarbonization and circularity goals, and has gotten involved with projects in steel, aluminum, cement, and critical minerals.
In his free time, Mike enjoys gardening, making wood-fired pizza, going to jazz clubs, and travelling with his wife Christy and their four kids. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in physics from Cornell University, a PhD in condensed matter physics from the University of Maryland, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Q&A
01 What's the best piece of advice you've been given?
No matter what field you choose, spend the first 10 years of your career working really hard with good people on something that matters. Open doors, don’t close them, and you’ll have plenty of opportunities.
02 What beliefs drive you?
I believe that things which are unknown and or even seem unknowable will one day come to be known. I can’t prove it, but there is a lot of historical evidence that it’s true.
03 Share a fun fact about yourself:
I once dressed up as Elvis to attend a friend’s wedding in Las Vegas.