Jan Odegard | Source | Executive Director at Ion

Dr. Jan Odegard is the Executive Director of the Ion, Houston’s innovation hub. Ion brings together entrepreneurs, corporations, and academia under one roof to collaborate and advance diverse knowledge, teams, technologies, and products for global progress. Jan oversees the Ion's daily operations, signature spaces such as the Ion Prototyping Lab and Investor Studio, strategic partnerships with industry leaders in tech, aerospace, oil and gas, energy and healthcare, including Microsoft, Chevron, Houston Methodist, ExxonMobil, United Airlines Ventures, among others, and various programming, from Ion's community engagement events, accelerator and incubator hubs, and pitch competitions tailored for startups.

He is passionate about keeping and growing jobs and talent in Houston, creating programs to open opportunities for underrepresented entrepreneurs, connecting academics with corporations and startups for mindshare, raising capital for startups, and empowering Houston’s talent to lead the nation’s energy transition.

Prior to Ion, Jan was the Executive Director of Ken Kennedy Institute at Rice University, where he focused on solving global challenges through collaborations across the conventional boundaries of university, research, and laboratory, as well as building strategic partnerships to serve as catalysts for research and education in data and computing.