Trond Unneland has headed Chevron’s corporate venturing unit for more than five years, following a varied career in the oil and gas industry, which also included a foray into diplomacy.
Unneland is proud of what he has accomplished in that time. He said: “During the last five years Chevron has been recognised as probably having the best VC team among the oil and gas operators. I am proud to be part of this team and the impact we have on Chevron, using VC as a conduit for adoption of emerging technology, and a complementary way of doing research & development.”
Interestingly, Unneland holds a post at the US oil major, in part because his wife is from the US. He said: “You can resist as hard as you want, but you end up where your wife is from.”
Before his move to Chevron, and when he was at Norway state-owned oil major Statoil in the 1990s, Unneland worked for his native Norway at the attaché to the US. He said: “In 1995 I took a year leave of absence with half my time at Stanford and half my time at the Norwegian industry attaché to the US. After this short assignment I felt it right to go back to my base of oil.”
His career has included being Chevron country head in Denmark and Norway as well as working as technology account manager for Chevron Energy Technology Company.
Unneland says: “Just about every assignment I go into full blast to try to make an impact.” Unneland added that an achievement of which he was most proud was helping development of an innovation which had had an impact on the running of oilfields.
He said: “I was an early mover in Statoil on real-time reservoir management using data from permanently installed downhole pressure and temperature gauges in oil wells, which has inspired lot of initiatives today on how to run oilfields differently.”
As a result, Unneland has been cited as an expert source in more than 100 international technical papers but is now more focused on his portfolio companies, where he is a board observer for BrightSource Energy, Cubility, Novophage and Reality Mobile.
Unneland said: “[Chevron has] invested in 70 companies and our current portfolio is 36. We have looked at about 4,000 companies, which is approximately one company per day for 12 years.”
The company has invested about $210m in four funds. Unneland said: “We are continuing to invest and have made a good financial return. The only thing said publicly about our financial performance is that more than $100m in cash has been returned to the corporation.”
Lessons from the top: Unneland said: “Stay true to your objectives and your drivers. Keep in mind why you have this team. In our case we bring external technology in and create value by getting the technology used in our Chevron operations.”
He added: “I have always been surprised how much the quality of the portfolio management team matters. While we put a lot of emphasis on technology, management ability to execute is key.”