Alumni Portrait: Kyle Teamey '98

Kyle Teamey '98

A native of rural Oregon, Teamey became interested in environmental issues at a young age after witnessing the economic and environmental impact on his community from unsustainable logging practices.

In addition to his Dartmouth AB in engineering sciences, he holds an MA in international finance and energy policy from Johns Hopkins, an MS in materials science from Columbia, and a Master of Strategic Studies from the Army War College. Before his current position, Teamey was a partner at Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a Principal at In-Q-Tel, and co-founded and served as CEO of Liquid Light, which developed a proprietary process to turn carbon dioxide into major industrial chemicals. 

He is an inventor on 26 US patents and recently retired as a Colonel in the US Army Reserve after 24 years of service. He now lives in the Boston area with his three children and his wife, who is an environmental economist.

How did your childhood influence your desire to become an environmental engineer?

I grew up in Klamath Falls, Oregon, and spent a lot of time hiking, backpacking, camping, and fishing. It was pretty normal for me to just be like, "Hey, mom—I'm going into the hills," and that would quite literally mean just wandering around in the hills for the day and then re-appearing.

My hometown was—and to a certain degree still is—a timber and agriculturally-driven economy, and the big thing that happened in the 1980s and early 90s was that the timber industry basically ran out of trees. I witnessed the economic effects of this. Friends had to move because their parents were laid off as the lumber mills closed. I'd go camping or backpacking and see miles of clear-cut ground. It ended up being unsustainable both from an environmental perspective and an economic perspective, and that definitely got me thinking about how those things intersect.

What about Thayer appealed to you?

My geology teacher and one of my basketball coaches, Mr. Andretta '58, was a Dartmouth grad, and he used topographic maps from Hanover and the Upper Valley as examples for problem sets, and he would tell stories about canoeing down the Connecticut River. That was how I first heard of Dartmouth, which turned out to be the perfect fit. I wanted to study engineering, have access to the outdoors, run track, do ROTC, and get a well-rounded liberal arts education.

Are you still using what you learned at Thayer?

I call upon the fundamentals from Professor Richter's thermodynamics course and Professor Frost's mechanics of materials classes almost every day. Professor Trembly's systems class quite literally got me to see the world in an entirely different way and has been impactful on just about everything I've done. 

Thayer provided me a framework for defining problems and developing solutions and gave me the fundamental skills to understand technology. It taught me how to deal with complex problems in a time-constrained environment as part of a team.

In the job I have now, we’re constantly evaluating startup companies. A lot of them have novel technologies, and we have to quickly conclude whether they're doing something that's viable. To analyze the technologies, we build up our understanding from first principles to see if the new technology can work.

You also have to think through how the companies will develop their product or service and bring it to market. The analysis often becomes a blend of first principles engineering and the problem solving and product development you learn at Thayer in ENGS 21.

What did you work on in the machine shop?

When I did my thesis project with Professor Sullivan, we built a little radar system to track birds. I loved that everyone at Thayer had to go into the machine shop and build something. 

Hands-on experience is so important. When I ran startup companies, I would recruit engineers from various schools, and I needed them to be able to build things. When you’re in a startup, you need to have theoretical knowledge, of course, but you also need to know how to build things, and a lot of schools we were recruiting from, the students just didn't know how to make anything.

I still keep the Stirling engine from thermodynamics and the mug my team won in the bridge building competition on my desk at work.

What did you gain from your time in the military?

The Army is a great place to learn leadership, management, planning, and how to develop a strategy. A lot of tools from the military are directly applicable to start-ups and large corporations.

The concept of starting a tech company was not something that occurred to me growing up in small-town Oregon, but there are parts of the military that emphasize creative problem solving. My first duty station was with an armored cavalry unit where we were highly encouraged to show initiative and come up with new ideas. I actually got to apply things I learned in my thesis to defeat the latest generation of attack helicopters in a combat exercise, and we did it with aluminum foil, cardboard, and some charcoal. It's pretty fun to defeat a multi-billion dollar program with a few items from the grocery store.

A wartime environment is continuous innovation. Because it's quite literally life or death, everybody's trying to figure out the next move, the next innovation, as quickly as possible.

What were the origins of the startup you co-founded—Liquid Light?

I've always been fascinated by the idea of eliminating material wastes and getting value out of carbon dioxide. Fouad ElNaggar '98 and I came up with a concept to do that in late 2007, and we launched Liquid Light in 2009. There are now a bunch of startups that are doing the same sort of thing, but at the time we were the only one. It was cool to be at the leading edge, but I think we were at least 10 years too early.

Teamey at a portfolio company's manufacturing facility.

What are some of the criteria you look for when investing in companies?

The impact of our portfolio is generally to reduce emissions, improve resource availability, and to restore environmental quality. We look for entrepreneurs who care deeply about solving a problem for a customer. The mistake that is often made by entrepreneurs who want to solve a societal problem is they do not clearly determine who their customer is or how to serve them. Sustainable, impactful businesses start with their customers.

We are investors, so of course we're seeking a return on our investments. At the same time, we have the opportunity to positively impact society and improve everyone's quality of life. It's an absolute privilege to have this much fun in a job.

Are you connected to fellow alums and former classmates?

I am in regular contact with quite a few alums and classmates. Long hours on projects and all-nighters in the Great Hall working together on problem sets forged long-term friendships. Thayer had a wonderful impact on my life.

What advice would you give Thayer students today?

Focus on teamwork, communication, and the fundamentals. The liberal arts framework at Dartmouth is an advantage for developing teamwork and communication skills. Lean into those because they will often be more valuable to your career than technical knowledge. On the technical front, develop an intuitive understanding of the rules that govern the universe. The basics you learn in intro courses and core courses will help you for the rest of your life.

Given the state of the world, does your job give you hope?

One hundred percent. I'm a naturally optimistic person, but I think you have to be for the work I do. I run into people all the time who feel that the world is hopeless, and I fundamentally disagree with that. My wife's an environmental economist and is always looking at the big problems we're facing, and I get to tell her about the cool things we're working on that are going to solve those problems.