BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Chuck Mattera is Founder and CEO of Avalanche Thinking, Inc., a seed-to-scale investment and advisory platform focused on partnering with founders and knowledge experts building the technologies, companies, and industrial capabilities that will shape the future.
Dr. Mattera retired in 2024 as Chairman and CEO of Coherent Corp. (NYSE: COHR), where he led the bold transformation of II-VI Inc, including through the acquisition of Coherent Inc, after which II-VI adopted the name on its way to building a global leader in engineered materials, photonics, and lasers, all underpinned by compound semiconductor materials, devices and systems. Over a career spanning more than four decades, he has worked at the intersection of breakthrough technologies and the scalable manufacturing of disruptive products and services underpinning irreversible market mega trends.
Beginning at AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1984, Dr. Mattera held leadership positions in research and development, manufacturing, and general management of electronic and photonic businesses. His work contributed to foundational semiconductor laser technologies and manufacturing infrastructure that enabled the fiber-optic communications networks connecting the modern world and that today underpin AI data centers and the digital economy.
Drawing on over 40 years of experience operating from the United States to Asia, and Europe, he is interested in the strategic intersection of innovation ecosystems, advanced materials and manufacturing, and the policies required to rebuild resilient capability chains that will sustain long-term US competitiveness. To that end, Dr. Mattera is a member of the Foreign Policy Leadership Council of the Brookings Institution, where he also serves on the Board of Trustees.
Dr. Mattera holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Brown University and a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Rhode Island.