Barbara Burger, PhD

Barbara J. Burger, PhD, is a Chevron graduate where she ended her time with the company as the Vice President of Innovation and President of Chevron Technology Ventures (CTV). During her career, Burger held management positions across International Marketing, Chemicals, Technology Marketing, Lubricants, Ventures, and Innovation. While at Chevron, she also held a wide range of civic and industrial leadership positions including the governing board of the MIT Energy Initiative, the external advisory council for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Greentown Houston Advisory Council, the Rice University Corporate Innovation Advisory Board, Houston Exponential, the Activate Leadership Council, the Houston Symphony Society as well as the Board of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative Climate Investment LLP.

Three years into the next chapter, she remains focused on the big challenges in energy transition, equity, and access to education and has built a portfolio of roles including director roles on the Bloom Energy, Milestone Environmental Services, Heliogen and Revterra Boards, advisor to Energy Impact Partners, Emerald Technology Ventures, Marunouchi Innovation Partners, Syzygy Plasmonics and Epicore Biosystems. She serves as the Board President of the Houston Symphony.

Burger is an active alumnus of the University of Rochester where she serves on the Board of Trustees and the university’s River Campus Libraries National Council. She established the Barbara J. Burger Endowed Scholarship in the Sciences and founded the Barbara J. Burger iZone, where students generate, refine, and communicate ideas for social, cultural, community and economic impact. At Caltech, she supports graduate women in Chemistry that aim to contribute through careers beyond academia and serves on the Strategic Advisory Board for the Resnick Sustainability Institute.

Burger holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Rochester, a doctoral degree in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology and an academic honor MBA in finance from the University of California, Berkeley.