Bio
Melissa Chee is an award-winning tech CEO, entrepreneur, investor and independent director who has created global companies and transformative technologies.
Melissa is a highly respected leader in Canada’s Deep Tech ecosystem and champion of inclusive innovation and the advancement of women and girls in STEM. With extensive experience in building public-private partnerships, scaling complex tech ventures into global markets, and shaping national tech policy, Melissa has been instrumental in shaping Canada’s deep tech landscape in semiconductors and artificial intelligence.
Melissa currently serves on several public, corporate and not-for-profit boards in inclusive organizations who are driving the innovation economy through technological and industrial transformation. She currently serves as an Independent Director on the boards of EllisDon, the Vector Institute of Artificial Intelligence, and the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. She also serves on the national advisory boards of Canada’s Semiconductor Council and the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP). She is a past board director at NGEN - Canada’s Global Innovation Cluster for Advanced Manufacturing, Scientists in School, Mackenzie Health Innovation Institute and Make-A-Wish Canada’s Corporate Cabinet.
Building on a 25-year career scaling global technology multinationals and start-ups, Melissa most recently was the CEO of ventureLAB, a leading global founder community for hardware and enterprise software companies in Canada. At ventureLAB, she elevated Canada in the global semiconductor industry as the founding CEO of the Hardware Catalyst Initiative, Canada’s first and only hub for semiconductor and hardware tech companies and a founding member of Canada’s Semiconductor Council. During Melissa's tenure the organization was recognized as one of Canada's most Admired Corporate Cultures and thrice as a Great Place to Work for Inclusion, Technology, and Managed by Women. Melissa also currently serves as a Senior Advisor to Antares Ventures, a leading early-growth stage venture fund investing globally in transformative deep-tech ventures focused on energy transition, sustainable agriculture, and advanced mobility by catalysing growth into Asia.
