Jan Odegard

Jan E. Odegard is a seasoned technology leader, innovation architect, and venture advisor andinvestor with over 30 years of experience connecting opportunities at the intersection of academia,startups, industry, and government. He is the founder andChief Vision Officer (CVO) of 62x Ventures, a boutique firm that partners with universities, developers, municipalities, and industry leaders to design, launch, and scale innovation districts and ecosystem strategies. He also serves as Head of VU - Texas, leading a channel partnership with Venture University (VU) to bring its unique Venture Investor Accelerator program to Houston and Texas — aimed at expanding the venture investor base in undercapitalized markets like Houston, sourcing early stage deals, and mentoring founders and entrepreneurs to accelerate investment readiness. Jan previously served as the Executive Director of the Ion, the centerpiece of Houston’s innovation ecosystem and a Rice University - led initiative to transform Midtown Houston through inclusive innovation and entrepreneurship. During his tenure, he helped shape the Ion’s community activation strategy, programming, and academic - corporate partnerships (Ion Impact Report 2020–2023).

His leadership contributed to establishing the Ion as a key convening platform for innovation and startup activity in Houston and beyond. Prior to that, Dr. Odegard served as Executive Director of the Ken Kennedy Institute at Rice University, where he championed multidisciplinary research and collaboration in high - performance computing, data science, artificial intelligence, energy, and health technologies. He also held the role of Associate Vice President for Research Computing, overseeing the development and operation of advanced computing infrastructure. During his tenure, he launched influential industry - facing conferences, including the Oil & Gas High Performance Computing (HPC) Conference (now the Energy HPC Conference) and the Data Science Conference (now the AI in Health Conference). He also established leading industry bootcamps designed to upskill professionals in HPC and AI/ML, bridging academic expertise with evolving workforce demands.

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Dr. Odegard’s technical and leadership expertise spans computing and cyberinfrastructure, AI, data science, ed-tech, health-tech, and signal and image processing. He is deeply committed to building purpose-driven innovation ecosystems, advancing technologytransfer, and developing and retaining talent. With a systems - level mindset and a collaborative approach, he works across sectors to bridge research and real-world application, helping unlock economic and societal value.