Steven Ahn initially joined building materials company Owens Corning in 2017 as a scientist in the corporate R&D team, before moving to the composites business as a senior scientist and product developer. Eventually, he got a call asking if he wanted to get involved with the newly formed CVC unit, and the rest is history.
While he splits his time between the CVC and Owen Corning’s wider strategic work, he loves the outside-in innovative thinking that comes with the venture side.
“For the first four years of my career, it was just internal organic growth – projects that Owens Corning will consider in three-to-five-year time horizons,” he says. Venture has now allowed the company to look at startups whose technologies Owens Corning may have considered in the past, but not seen as appropriate to incubate.
In a short time, Steven has also built an impressive network of connections with VCs, CVCs and other stakeholders in the ecosystem
Virtual reality, digital twins and whole-lifecycle sustainability technology are particularly exciting to Ahn, who stresses the importance of bringing the executive team along with the CVC’s vision and timeframes, making them understand the value of seeing an opportunity flourish five years or more down the line.
“Steven is a scientist by training and holds a PhD. That, combined with his R&D experience, has been an invaluable addition for Owens Corning to evaluate and work with companies that require a deep understanding of materials or manufacturing tech and processes. In a short time, Steven has also built an impressive network of connections with VCs, CVCs and other stakeholders in the ecosystem,” says Ilmar Norvik, corporate strategy lead at Owens Corning.
“Steven has influenced the development of deep tech and material-science-related investment themes. In particular, he has been impactful with our insulation and composites business-adjacent themes thanks to knowledge of the businesses, technology and people.”
See the full list of GCV Rising Stars for 2024 here.