At CEO (Boardroom Media) we track over 1,000,000 startups and over 5,000,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top San Francisco based CEO’ operating in the Nanotechnology space. If you think a CEO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on [email protected].
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.

Christopher Pickett
CEO & Board Member of DigiLens
Christopher Pickett is the President & CEO & Board Director of Pelican Imaging. Pickett is a seasoned Senior Executive and Business Strategist in both private and public company environments. During his more than 20 years of experience, Chris has helped to drive adoption and create financial success for companies with technologies spanning semiconductor packaging, camera modules, LCD displays, general lighting, cryptography, and memory systems. Most recently, Chris was the senior vice president of corporate licensing for Rambus – joining Rambus as part of the acquisition of Global Lighting Technologies where he was the President of the licensing division. At Rambus, he was responsible for global technology and patent licensing and helped grow Rambus’ aggregate revenue more than 50% during his two and a half year tenure. At Global Lighting Technologies, Chris developed the licensing, marketing and revenue plan resulting in acquisition by Rambus and market adoption of its technology by General Electric, Cooper Industries and others, as well as a broad array of contract manufacturers that act as a vibrant partner ecosystem. Before Global Lighting Technologies, Chris was the Executive Vice President of licensing at Tessera Technologies, bringing the company from start up phase to a successful mid-cap public company. During his 13 year tenure, Tessera achieved compound revenue and operating profit growth exceeding 50% annually which led to Tessera being cited in 2006 by Business Week as the Second Hottest Growth Company in America and by Electronic Business as the 4th Best Small Electronics Company in the US, also in 2006. He is the inventor on nine issued US patents. Chris has a JD from the University of San Francisco School of Law. BSEE from the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
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About DigiLens: DigiLens is an innovator in holographic waveguide display technology for extended reality (XR).
Gene Berdichevsky
CEO & Co-Founder of Sila Nanotechnologies
Gene Berdichevsky is the Co-Founder & CEO of Sila Nanotechnologies. Prior to co-founding Sila, Gene was the seventh employee at Tesla Motors where he served as Principal Engineer on the Roadster battery, leading the development of the world’s first, safe, mass-produced, automotive lithium-ion battery system. Gene holds two degrees from Stanford University; an MS in Engineering with a focus on energy and materials, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering. He has co-authored 42 patents and 4 academic publications. Gene has been named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list, the MIT Technology Review 35 Under 35, and was a recipient of the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans.
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About Sila Nanotechnologies: Sila Nanotechnologies is a provider and manufacturer of higher energy density lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles.

Vivian Qu
CEO & Founder of ViaeX
Vivian Qu is a dedicated professional operating within the material science and biotech venture space in Silicon Valley. She is the CPO at ORA Nano Mask, and she founded ViaeX Technologies, Inc. in 2016 to contribute to the advancement of our society through sustainable technological developments. For her work across her career, Vivian Qu has earned recognition as the recipient of the Dow Chemical SISCA Award, the Clinton Global Initiative Award, and the Fung Fellowship. Additionally, she received the NSF Innovation Corp Grant and the Big Ideas Berkeley – Energy and Alternative Resources Prize. Vivian was also recognized in the Pulse by Business Insider for her work as a graduate from the University of California, Berkeley.
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About Tidal Vision, ViaeX: ViaeX creates biological nanofiltration systems for water and air which are 400% more efficient than current solutions.
Kang Sun
Chief Executive Officer of Amprius
Kang Sun, Ph.D. serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Amprius Inc. Kang Sun is a Venture Partner at WI Harper Group. He has over 20 years business creation and management experience in various industries and also has experience in developing businesses and building strategic alliances worldwide and also in capital investment and enterprise management. Kang Sun has led business at Fortune 500 companies as well as startup ventures. He founded RayTracker, Inc. and served as its Chief Executive Officer since March 2009. Kang Sun served as Chief Operating Officer and President of JA Solar Holdings Co., Ltd. (alternatively JA Solar Ltd) from September 2007 to August 2008. He served as a Managing Director of New Business Development and Chief Strategy Officer of new business and new product group at Applied Materials Inc. since 2005. From 2002 to 2005, Kang Sun served as the President and Vice President of Business Development of Microfabrica Inc. Before joining Microfabrica, he was responsible for business development and marketing at a semiconductor technology startup FlexICs. Kang Sun served as a Vice President of New Venture Business at Honeywell, General Manager of Optical Devices Business at AlliedSignal and Vice President of New Business and Technology at Oce Group, where he developed and executed financing, licensing, partnership, joint venture and acquisition deals. He also held senior management and engineering positions with Polaroid and IBM. Kang Sun served as a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Index Capital Group in the U.S., since 2002. He founded and served as President of Index Technologies Inc. Kang Sun served as the Vice President at Microfabrica, Inc.
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About Amprius, Index Capital, RayTracker, WI Harper Group: Amprius develops an anode out of silicon nanowires for lithium-ion batteries.

Andre Watson
Founder, CEO & Chairman of Ligandal
Founder at Ligandal
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About Ligandal: Ligandal is creating cell-specific delivery systems for gene editing tools such as CRISPR using automation and peptide-based nanoparticles.
Ravi Srinivasan
Founder & CEO of Onconano Medicine
Ravi Srinivasan is the founder and CEO at Onconano Medicine.
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About Cage Bio, Onconano Medicine: OncoNano Medicine is a biotech company that develops pH-activated compounds that digitalize and exploit the variability of pH in disease.

Timur Bazhirov
Founder / CEO of Mat3ra.com
Founder / CEO at Exabyte.io.
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About Mat3ra.com: Mat3ra.com powers the adoption of materials modeling to design and discover advanced materials and chemicals from the nanoscale.

Charles Schaper
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Transfer Devices
Charles D. Schaper, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, has raised for TDIheadshot2 Series A and Series B preferred stock financings, as well as project-based financing. He developed the founding technology for TDI comprised of novel nanolithography processes, materials, and applications as a Senior Research Scientist of Stanford University, which has been granted approximately twenty international patents associated with this technology platform. His Ph.D. is in chemical engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Schaper was also a principal investigator with DARPA and the National Science Foundation.
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About Transfer Devices: Transfer Devices (TDI) was founded in 2004 to commercialize research in molecular transfer lithography.

Virginia Klausmeier
President & CEO of Sylvatex Inc
Virginia founded SVX and has been President and CEO since 2012.
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About Sylvatex Inc: Sylvatex has developed a next generation cathode active material manufacturing process for electric vehicles and energy storage that lowers cost, capital, and carbon footprint.

Tatsunori Suzuki
Co-Founder, CEO of Zeptor
Prior to founding Zeptor, Suzuki led the Micro Fuel Cell research project at Intel Corporation. His passion for that project led directly to the formation of Zeptor. Prior to join Intel, Suzuki worked on engine management systems for the automobile industry including the development of a Formula-1 racing engine. From there he branched out into EV research. His goal is to guide the world into a regime of economic and environmental sustainability.
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About Zeptor: Zeptor develops an innovative silicon anode that enables battery makers to produce lithium-ion batteries that exceed 700Wh/L.

Chris Yu
Founder & CEO of AnPac Bio-Medical Science
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About AnPac Bio-Medical Science: Anpac Bio-Medical Science is a biotechnology company focusing on early cancer screening and detection.