New York state's innovation division has named a new executive director.
Ben Verschueren will start as executive director of Empire State Development's Division of Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR) Monday, working with startups and entrepreneurs as well as incubators and universities.
Verschueren spent over 20 years at General Electric, mostly in its research division. There, he established an incubator lab focused on funding projects that were building prototypes for industrial ecosystems. He also established GE Research’s formal independent research and development portfolio, and he forged university and business partnerships, from startups to large corporations.
Most recently, he was director of global labs at startup Fluence, which makes large batteries for grid-scale energy storage.
The ability to work across industries like he did at GE was a big draw to the executive director job, Verschueren said.
"The thing I really missed was that breadth of industries and technologies," he said. "Whether it's manufacturing, whether it's health care, whether it's some of the new startups that are in the portfolio, really I'm excited to get back and help enable both New York state and all the innovators inside it to do the things that they're passionate about and want to do and move them forward."
Verschueren said a big part of his job was to disrupt GE from within by innovating up-and-coming technologies that could challenge the company from the outside. He said NYSTAR's work highlights what some of the state's biggest companies should be paying attention to.
"Honestly, it's harder for these large companies to truly innovate because there's so many reasons why people are going to say no or 'here's how we've always done it' or the inertia of the company is against it," he said. "Understanding what these startups are doing really can tap you into that energy, that passion and that excitement around something that is truly new, where they're not saying, 'Here's why I shouldn't do it.' They're saying, 'How do I make this work?'"
Verschueren is also a Capital Region resident. He got his master's degree in computer science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and lives in Niskayuna.
In the interim, the executive director role was held by Heidi Knoblauch. She will officially join the leadership team of ESD's venture capital arm, NY Ventures, as senior director of accelerator fund investments. Knoblauch will oversee the $52 million program that awards investments to funds supporting entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds.
"I've been managing this program while also working for NYSTAR, so when I came to the decision about what I wanted to do next in my career, I ultimately decided to manage this equity program under New York Ventures," she said.
