Rick Needham

Advisory Board, S.E.E.D.S.™

As Chief Commercial Officer of Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), Rick Needham oversees the company’s commercialization efforts, working closely with investors, customers, and partners. Since joining CFS in 2022, Needham has laid the foundation for the company’s future ARC power plants and identified additional applications for partners and customers based on technologies developed by CFS, including high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets.

Needham brings over 20 years of climate experience spanning technology research and development, strategy, finance, operations, and investment. Before joining CFS, he spent nearly six years at TPG as a partner and served as the energy sector lead for the Rise Fund, where he helped make growth equity investments out of over $10 billion in funds to support climate tech companies. Prior to TPG, he spent eight years at Google, where he spearheaded climate and energy efforts, which included investing over $2.5B into renewable energy projects, accelerating energy access in emerging markets and leading several of Google’s internal sustainability initiatives.

Previously, Needham served as an executive at DEKA Research & Development for six years, leading business and technology development projects in clean energy, medical products and robotics. He also served as a submarine officer in the United States Navy for eight years.

Needham earned a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy, an M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Education

— Harvard Business School, MBA
— Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MS
— U.S. Naval Academy, BS