Senior Vice President of Commercial Business and Chief Commercial Officer, Battelle.
Melinda Sych attended Oregon State in the 1990s and noticed that, as a woman, she did not look like the majority of students in the chemical engineering program. She worked full-time for a reactive metals company as an engineering intern throughout her college years. It was a balance, juggling work hours with school while finding a network of people to collaborate with who understood that balance.
Sych believes the culture and quality of the staff and students at Oregon State were instrumental in her success. It taught her to set priorities and practice disciplined time management. Sych adds that the network of amazing people she developed as a result of those practices is invaluable and inspiring for her, both professionally and personally.
Sych has held a variety of roles throughout her career, spending more than a decade at Dow Chemical Co., ending her tenure there as a global business director with profit and loss responsibility for the company’s advanced materials business. She was the global vice president of sales, marketing, business development, and commercial operations at Suterra, a division of The Wonderful Company, and was global vice president of commercial operations at Tektronix (Fortive), where she managed commercial operations serving all electronic test and measurement segments.
“My advice to anyone pursuing their engineering degree today: Absolutely take advantage of the opportunities that degree will provide to you to do things that matter to you, to contribute in ways that are meaningful to you, and to inspire others to great things. ”
In October 2021, she was appointed senior vice president of commercial business and chief commercial officer at Battelle, an independent research and development organization. Sych and her team are responsible for growth in commercial sales through expansion of current business and the development of new market opportunities.
Sych has earned leadership certifications from Wharton Executive Education and Georgetown Executive Education, and holds certifications in consultative and strategic selling, as well as in channel management. She serves on the board of the Brian Grant Foundation.
Degrees
- B.S., Chemical Engineering, 1997