Melissa Chee headshot

Melissa M. Chee

Independent Board Director - Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence, EllisDon, and Scientists in School; Advisory Board Member - NRC-IRAP and Canada's Semiconductor Council (Founding Vice-Chair); Former CEO, ventureLAB

Melissa Chee is an award-winning business and tech executive, entrepreneur, and independent corporate director who has created global companies and transformative technologies.  Melissa is a highly respected leader in Canada’s Deep Tech and semiconductor 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 Asia markets, and shaping national tech policy, Melissa has been instrumental in shaping Canada’s deep tech landscape in semiconductors and artificial intelligence.   

Melissa has extensive board governance experience and currently serves as an Independent Director on the boards of EllisDon, the Vector Institute of Artificial Intelligence,the  Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada and Scientists in School.  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, Mackenzie Health Innovation Institute and Make-A-Wish Canada’s Corporate Cabinet. 

In addition her role as an indepdendent director, Melissa is a senior advisor at Antares Ventures, a leading deep tech venture capital firm where she is shaping the company's Canadian strategy and providing valuable insights to global deep tech founders and their companies.   Building on a 25-year career scaling global technology multinationals and start-ups,  Melissa is the former CEO of ventureLAB, a leading founder community for hardware and deep tech 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 holds a MBA with Honours from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, and a Bachelor of Computer Engineering from McGill University.