Henry T. Schek, Ph.D., Principal
Technical and commercial leadership for deep tech and hard tech companies — from the difficult questions to the finished product.
I partner with founders, investors, and boards to answer the questions that decide a company's future: Will the technology work? Can we build it? Who will buy it? And what do we do when the answer isn't what we hoped?
Where I work
Life science instrumentation · Optics and photonics · Climate tech and clean energy · Advanced materials
I work with companies at every stage, from venture-backed startups to private equity portfolio companies and corporate business units.
Services
Two Ways to Work Together
Diligence and assessment
A focused project that delivers an independent evaluation of a technology and the team behind it, whether you're building it, funding it, or acquiring it.
Learn more ↓ Retainer · 3–12 monthsFractional executive leadership
Experienced CTO, Chief Commercial Officer, or Chief Strategy Officer leadership, part-time or interim, for as long as you need it.
Learn more ↓Diligence and Assessment
An independent read on whether the technology and the company can deliver.
A hard tech company's future depends on whether its core technology can scale within the planned time and budget. Founders are too close to it, investors often lack the technical depth to test it, and by the time the answer is obvious, the runway is gone.
I provide a rigorous, independent assessment of what the data actually supports, where the critical risks are, and what it would take to close gaps.
Investment diligence
For venture investors, private equity firms, and corporate development teams evaluating a deal, I answer the key questions early: Can this technology meet the performance, cost, and manufacturability the business plan depends on? What gaps or weaknesses need to be closed?
Company assessment
For boards and founders who need an honest outside view of the technology, team, development process, and spending: what's working, what's broken, and what to do about it.
Engagements can include
- A structured review of technical data, development plans, and the team
- A feasibility assessment that names the key risks and what would retire them
- A techno-economic view of performance, cost, and manufacturability against market requirements
- A clear recommendation: proceed, fix, or pivot, with options for each
- A written report and a briefing for founders, the board, or the investment committee
Fractional Executive Leadership
Senior leadership for the stage you're in, without a full-time hire before you're ready.
Hard tech startups need executive experience long before they can justify or find a full-time executive for every seat. I step in as a fractional leader, bringing the discipline of an established company without the bureaucracy, and building the team and processes that will outlast my engagement.
Fractional CTO
From lab results to a product you can build and sell.
A working prototype is a milestone, not a product. I lead the move to a manufacturable product: development processes with clear stage gates, engineering operations sized for a startup, data practices you can trust, design for cost and manufacturing, and supplier strategy. I also build and coach the leaders who will run it next.
Fractional Chief Commercial Officer
Getting your technology designed in, under contract, and generating revenue.
The fastest route to market often runs through a larger partner. I identify the right OEM and channel partners, build proposals that speak to their engineering and procurement teams, structure joint development and supply agreements, and run the programs through design-in, qualification, and first production orders.
Fractional Chief Strategy Officer
The right direction — and the board behind it.
I shape technology roadmaps, ground major decisions in techno-economic analysis rather than optimism, and align boards and investors around the plan. When a company has lost momentum or its founding technology won't deliver, I lead the turnaround or the pivot.
Choose your level of involvement
A few days a month. Strategy, key decisions, and guidance for the leadership team.
One to two days a week. Hands-on leadership of the team and the work.
Close to full time. For transitions and turnarounds, including interim CEO, with a clean handoff to a permanent hire.
Selected Results
Results from Startups to a $100M Business
3 months
As CEO of SunDensity, led a turnaround that saved the company from shutdown, then reassessed the core technology and led a board-backed pivot, including a $3.8M acquisition that secured critical IP.
$36M
New product revenue in two and a half years from an internal startup within a global corporation.
$18M
Follow-on OEM programs secured with a major customer through a competitive proposal.
+10 points
Profit improvement in one year on a $65M P&L, while sustaining 13% growth.
SPIE Prism Award
Built the team behind the award-winning Heliophor light source and directed the development of a novel laser light source still in profitable production a decade later.
About
Henry T. Schek, Ph.D.
I've spent more than 20 years building technical products and the organizations that make them, across life science instrumentation, optics and photonics, advanced materials, and clean energy.
Most recently, I was CEO of SunDensity, a solar materials startup, where I led a turnaround, a technology pivot, and an acquisition. Before that, I ran a $65M life science optics business at IDEX Health & Science, where I also led R&D for a $100M optics portfolio. Earlier, I was CTO at Chroma Technology and the founding engineering leader at 89 North.
I've worked at every stage, from a two-person startup to a global public company, and I bring the same approach to each: tell the truth about the technology, build discipline without bureaucracy, and develop people who can lead after I'm gone.
I hold a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Michigan.
Getting Started
How Engagements Start
- 1A short introductory callYou tell me what you're facing; I tell you honestly whether I'm the right fit.
- 2A scoping conversationWe define the question to answer or the role to fill, the timeline, and what success looks like.
- 3A written proposalA clear scope, deliverables, and a fixed fee or monthly retainer, usually within a few days.