The Chevron Venture Capital team keeps abreast of developments across the entire technology spectrum. We understand the broad scope of Chevron's operations, and we work closely with our portfolio companies as promising ideas are transformed into full-fledged, sustainable businesses.
Located in San Ramon, California, and Houston, Texas, we screen more than 400 opportunities per year and manage more than $250 million in strategic investments.
Trond Unneland, Managing Executive
Trond Unneland has more than 25 years of domestic and international experience in crude oil and natural gas exploration, petroleum engineering, offshore oil production operations, information technology, and venture capital.
Unneland began his professional career as a petroleum engineer with Statoil in Bergen, Norway, working in offshore oil production operations. After serving in various positions of increasing responsibility, he was then named vice president of Information Technology. Unneland joined Chevron in 2000 as technology account manager for Chevron Energy Technology Company. In 2004, he was named country manager for Chevron Denmark where he was responsible for leading upstream operations. In 2006, he became country manager for Chevron Norway where he was responsible for the upstream business. Unneland assumed his current position leading the venture capital team in 2007.
The author of numerous articles on reservoir management and well dynamics, Unneland has been cited as an expert source in more than 100 international technical papers. He has been recognized three times by the Society of Petroleum Engineers for his service to the organization. Unneland is a board observer for BrightSource Energy, Cubility, Novophage and Reality Mobile.
A native of Norway, Unneland has a Bachelor of Science in petroleum engineering and a Master of Science in reservoir engineering from Stavanger University. He later received his doctorate in technical sciences from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He has served as a visiting scholar at Stanford University and has worked for the Norwegian industry attaché at the Royal Norwegian Consulate General in San Francisco, California.
John Hanten, Venture Executive
John Hanten has more than 30 years of experience in the petroleum industry,primarily in upstream petroleum technology. Initially joining Chevron in 1978 as a research geophysicist, he subsequently held supervisory and management positions of increasing responsibility in application development, technical services management, strategic planning, operational management and e-business development. In 1995, as strategic planning manager for Chevron Petroleum Technology Company, Hanten pioneered the internal use of Web technology to streamline communications and other business processes. Most recently he was a senior consultant with Chevron e-Business Development Company working on new venture startups and internal Web initiatives.
Hanten has been active in industry standards and e-business initiatives and served as an elected board member of the Petrotechnical Open Software Corporation from 1999 to 2001 and chairman during 1999 and 2000. He participates as an observer to the boards of Amphora, Inficomm, Oxane Materials, Panzura, Silixa and SpectraSensors.
Hanten earned a Bachelor of Arts in earth science from the University of Minnesota, a Master of Science in geophysics from Purdue University and a Master of Business Administration from St. Mary's College.
Don Riley, Venture Executive
Don Riley has more than 37 years of experience with Chevron. Early in his career, he led research efforts in advanced 3-D seismic processing and supercomputing technology at the company's La Habra, California, research laboratory. In 1999, Riley co-founded Chevron's first venture investment group, Chevron Technology Ventures, which developed a portfolio of investments in information technology, material science and biotechnology startups. Prior to that, Riley was chief geophysicist for Chevron U.S.A. and Chevron Canada, where he was also general manager for human resources. He is currently a board observer for Arisdyne Systems, Ember Corporation, Ensyn, Foro Energy, Konarka, LS9, Microfabrica, MicroSeismic Inc., PanGeo Subsea, Sub-One Technology, Ziebel and ZiLift.
Riley received doctorate and master's degrees from Stanford University in geophysics and also holds a Bachelor of Science in geophysics from the University of Tulsa.
Matthew McElhattan, Principal
Matthew McElhattan has more than 15 years of industrial experience serving in both technical and consultative capacities at small private companies and large public companies. Prior to joining the venture team, McElhattan worked for Chevron’s Oronite division where he was responsible for the transfer of technical knowledge on Oronite’s products to customers and employees. McElhattan was a management consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers’ supply chain practice where he was involved in assessing and deploying Web-based supply-chain models and completing integrated supply-chain analysis for a variety of clients. Earlier McElhattan led market analysis and technology feasibility studies for Ducker Worldwide, focusing on market size, configuration, target customers and applications for various industrial technologies. He was specifically focused on the introduction of new industrial motor technologies and supervisory control and data acquisition equipment, which is a focus area for Chevron’s operations.
McElhattan has a Bachelor of Science in industrial engineering from Purdue University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Southern California.
Richard Pardoe, Principal
Richard Pardoe has more than 25 years of experience working in a variety of technical industries. Prior to joining Chevron, he organized field trials for electrochlorination and cathodic protection systems as the field manager for a small startup company. Pardoe joined Chevron as a process engineer supporting the sale of specialty catalysts for hydroprocessing units in Asia and Europe. He also participated in and led design teams for residuum desulfurizers and hydrocracking units in Japan and Poland. Pardoe then moved to Chevron’s Supply and Trading organization working on the scheduling and delivery of Chevron’s California crude oil production as well as marine deliveries to Chevron’s California refineries. Pardoe joined the company’s venture capital group in 2006.
Pardoe has a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from the University of California, Davis.
Shakir Shamshy, Technology Transfer Coordinator
Shakir Shamshy joined the venture capital team in 2011 with more than 15 years of experience in the petroleum industry upstream areas of seismic exploration, development geology, exploration geophysics and decision analysis.
Shamshy began his career in 1994 as a geophysicist for CNPC (PetroChina) and advanced to a team leader position in 1997 managing seismic exploration operations and hundreds of employees. In 2003, he joined Chevron as a development geologist in the Gulf of Mexico business unit where he led a number of development drilling projects. During 2005, he moved to Chevron’s Deepwater Exploration and Projects business unit as an exploration geophysicist working on multiple projects improving Chevron’s deepwater exploration capabilities. He joined the Southern Africa Strategic Business Unit in 2008 as a decision analysis advisor leading the company’s decision analysis process for Chevron’s exploration investments in Angola.
Shamshy earned a Bachelor of Engineering in geophysical prospecting from the China University of Petroleum, a Master of Science in geological sciences (geophysics) from Indiana University Bloomington and a Master of Business Administration from Rice University.
Dane Zehrung, Technology Transfer Coordinator
Dane Zehrung has more than 15 years of experience in a wide range of areas, including: semiconductor test equipment electromechanical interfaces; design, build and support of automated manufacturing equipment; manufacturing and test of medical devices; construction project management; as well as environmental sustainability and real estate portfolio strategies. Prior to joining the investment team, Zehrung spent almost 5 years with Chevron Business and Real Estate Services managing both tactical and strategic projects to improve Chevron’s facilities worldwide. In addition to working at an earlystage medical device startup, Zehrung spent 8 years creating and leading a team focused on designing, building and supporting high-volume, automated/robotic manufacturing lines at Rainin Instrument, LLC. Early in his career, he worked as a mechanical applications engineer for Teradyne, Inc., acting as the technical liaison and facilitator between design engineers and customers. Zehrung has also worked as a maintenance supervisor for Ford Motor Company.
Zehrung has a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Master of Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley.
Colleen Mazza, Business Support
Colleen Mazza joined Chevron Technology Ventures in 2002 as an administrative assistant. She provides administrative, planning and data management support and maintains back office systems and processes. In addition, Mazza acts as the principal administrative contact for portfolio companies and venture capital limited partnerships. Prior to joining Chevron, Mazza worked as an accounting analyst and an office manager.
Mazza has a Bachelor of Science in finance from Brigham Young University.