Patrick McGrath

Program Director, Climate Tech

Patrick McGrath is the Program Director for Climate Tech at The Schmidt Family Foundation.  Pat has spent his career in R&D for low-carbon energy technologies.  Most recently, Pat has served as an advisor to climate tech companies and investment funds across a range of sectors and development stages.  Pat was previously the Deputy Director for Technology at ARPA-E in the U.S. Department of Energy, where he led a diverse staff of technical and commercialization experts to develop and deploy next-generation energy technologies.  In his time at ARPA-E, Pat oversaw new program initiatives in long duration energy storage, advanced fission and fusion technologies, flexible carbon capture, advanced grid optimization, renewable generation, and low-GHG agriculture.  Prior to ARPA-E, Pat served as a technical advisor to DARPA on power and energy technologies for defense applications. 

Pat completed a PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and a BS in Chemical Engineering at the University of Virginia.