Ray Rothrock, chief executive officer of Red Seal Inc. and nuclear venture capitalist, delivered a seminar on 21st century innovation within the nuclear industry to the students, faculty and staff of the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Texas A&M University. The seminar discussed lessons Rothrock learned as a leader in the venture capital arena and how to apply them to the nuclear innovation sector, detailing how, in his own view, a small group of individuals can and have changed the way the U.S. government views the nuclear industry.
A nuclear engineer turned venture capitalist, Rothrock earned his bachelor’s degree in nuclear engineering from Texas A&M in 1977, and later became a partner in the venture capital firm Venrock, a firm dedicated to creating and financing technology solutions. Rothrock has long remained a proponent of clean nuclear energy. His co-production of Pandora’s Promise in 2013, a film that made the case for nuclear power as a clean and safe energy source, helped to reinitiate a national conversation about where nuclear power fits in the clean energy universe. In his current work, Rothrock and his associates work with legislators, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Department of Energy (DOE) to promote an environment that will foster the development of advanced reactors by nuclear startups and encourage the use of nuclear energy power sources.