If Scott Strazik wanted confirmation that Cambridge is the place to be, the GE Vernova chief executive found it at MIT on Monday.
Strazik helped preside over the launch of a partnership between the energy company and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, held at the MIT campus. This past spring, GE Vernova announced it would pump $50 million into this alliance over five years to fund research initiatives, fellowships, and other programs with an eye toward improving energy technologies and decarbonization.
Former General Electric boss Jeff Immelt famously moved the conglomerate from suburban Connecticut to Boston in 2016, to better connect the company with the entrepreneurs, professors, and students here to help propel GE’s innovations. That move didn’t work out as planned, and GE eventually broke apart. The energy businesses split off last year under the new name, GE Vernova.
Strazik had picked Cambridge in late 2022 for his company’s home, for similar reasons as why Immelt chose Boston. The successful launch of this climate alliance with MIT provided yet more proof to Strazik that it was the right call.
“I have the same aspirations today that I had when GE Vernova moved here,” Strazik said. “This neighborhood should be as renowned for electric power and green-tech as it is for pharmaceuticals. That’s the game we’re playing here.”
Among those on hand to celebrate on Monday were MIT provost Anantha Chandrakasan, MIT professor and alliance faculty director Betar Gallant, GE Vernova chief corporate officer Roger Martella, state energy secretary Rebecca Tepper, and new state economic development secretary Eric Paley.
GE Vernova announced its first 13 research initiatives, each with hundreds of thousands of dollars of backing from the company, as part of this alliance. The topics range from building a more adaptive electric grid to adopting more sustainable manufacturing processes for wind turbines. MIT teams will collaborate with GE Vernova scientists on these projects, most of whom work out of a GE Vernova lab in Niskayuna, N.Y., near Albany. The hope is to turn most of this research into commercial applications.
After the event, the company’s leadership team committed to adding 100 new internships next summer with MIT students.
Strazik said he’s been impressed with the passion and talent for clean-tech among the new generation of students, at MIT, and at other universities in Greater Boston.
“I started these discussions with the objective that we should inspire future leaders to come into our industry and ideally come to our company,” Strazik said. “They’ve probably inspired us more than we’ve inspired them.”
This is an installment of our weekly Bold Types column about the movers and shakers on Boston’s business scene.
Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com. Follow him @jonchesto.