Ben Gaddy is Senior Director of the Breakthrough Energy Fellows program, where he supports early-stage climate innovators bringing their technology from the laboratory to market. Prior to joining the Gates Ventures and Breakthrough Energy team in 2020, Ben was Chief Technology Officer and Director of Investments at Clean Energy Trust. Previously, he held a fellowship at the U.S. Department of Energy, where he focused on the challenges faced by cleantech startups in scaling new innovations to manufacturing. His research on the history of cleantech investments has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Economist, and the New York Times.

Ben holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering, specializing in the electronic and optical properties of wide-bandgap semiconductors, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from NC State University, and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Ben was born in Sweden and stays connected to the community by teaching his two young children the language and by playing Nordic folk music on the cello, guitar, and accordion. He loves learning new languages and on weekends you might find him exploring local running trails.