Lee Tae-won, FCI researcher turned CEO

With nearly 25 years of experi­ence in the energy-related tech­nology development field, Fuel Cell Innovations Chief Executive Officer Lee Tae-won is a veteran engineer.

An expert in fuel cells, bat­teries, hydrogen, energy storage systems, and carbon capture, Lee has held the reins at FCI since the company was established in 2018, steering its key policies.

After obtaining his doctoral de­gree in Chemical Engineering at Columbia University in 1996, Lee worked as a fuel cell and battery researcher at major US research firms.

He returned to Korea in 2005 and served as head researcher of clean energy technology and fuel cells at Doosan Heavy Industries and Posco Energy.

Utilizing his background in re­search, Lee has been expanding FCI’s cooperation with domestic and global research firms, and has led the creation of the firm’s development strategy and road map for fuel cell and hydrogen technologies.

Lee also uses his expert knowl­edge to serve the community. He chaired the Energy and Environ­ment Expert Committee of Korea’s Presidential Advisory Council on Science and Technology from 2015 to 2020. The council is an advi­sory consultative group made up of government officials and field experts that provides the govern­ment with insights on forming national policies.

He has also been a member of the Korea Carbon Capture and Sequestration Research and Development Center since 2015.

Lee’s contributions has been recognized by the government. He received awards from Korea’s science and ICT minister in 2017 for con­tributing to the development of a national R&D strategy, and from the SMEs and startups minister in 2020 and 2021, for excellent innova­tion.