Joanna Patsalis

I started my career somewhat by accident while doing my part-time MBA at NYU. I was taking entrepreneurship classes and found an opportunity connecting national labs technologies to business people. I discovered a technology about batteries, power sources, and nuclear energy that I found very interesting, so I signed up for a program and that's how I got involved in this field. Before that, I worked in consumer goods, specifically cosmetics, where I focused on project management, operations, and supply chain. That's where I learned about manufacturing and operations in general, which translated to a lot of what I do today. I moved from an initial marketing internship to a project operations role, and then worked at Revlon on cost savings projects before founding my own company about 7 years ago. Now as Chief Operating Officer, I lead a company that designs and makes radioisotopic power sources - think of a large nuclear plant but in the palm of your hand, like a little battery that will last forever. We use isotope elements to extrapolate their energy for different sensors and applications. What I'm most proud of is building something from scratch, bringing a team together where there was no team, and finding the right people to do the job and getting them under the same vision. We're currently in early research and development stages, working to commercialize over the next year and a half.