Overview

Gender

male

Colin Gounden is CEO and co-founder of VIA. Colin has led the company’s entry and expansion in the energy industry. He also initiated the development of VIA’s blockchain application, Trusted Analytics Chain (TAC), to meet the high data security needs required to make predictive analytics and other AI applications successful in energy. Prior to VIA, Colin was the first investor and co-founder of five successful MIT spinouts with a focus on energy and deep science applications. In 2009, he sold Grail Research, where he was founder and CEO. Under Colin’s leadership, Grail Research grew from its first employee in 2006 to more than 300 full-time employees in North America, Europe, Africa, Middle East, India, and China. Colin went on to become chief marketing officer and then president across all business units of the acquiring company (18 locations and 2,000 people). Previously, Colin was a partner and elected board director at a top five global strategy consulting and private equity investment firm with $2Bn in assets under management. He started his career with IBM working with utilities in Europe and North America before co-founding a technology services firm with major customers such as Royal Dutch Shell that he grew and sold for $97M in 1999. Colin has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fast Company, Wired, and the Financial Times. He is also a frequent guest speaker on the subject of blockchain and energy at events held by industry experts and energy regulators (public utilities commissions and FERC). Colin graduated from Harvard University with a degree in biochemistry and molecular biology.
Colin has been featured in articles in the Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek and the Financial Times and is a frequent guest lecturer at Harvard Business School.