Steve McGrath

As Managing Director and Head of Venture Studios, Steve McGrath leads Roadrunner's mission to build frontier technology companies essential to maintaining U.S. primacy in strategic technologies.

A serial entrepreneur and business builder, Steve has co-founded companies in applied AI, semiconductor manufacturing, and climate tech across the U.S. and Asia, guiding ventures from inception to exit via M&A. This firsthand experience in technology commercialization, technical risk mitigation, and company building—including partnering with scientists from national and corporate labs—informs his approach to working with founders from concept to scale.

A seasoned venture capital investor, Steve previously served as President of Shell Ventures for North America and China. He built cross-border investment platforms connecting Silicon Valley innovation with Asian manufacturing and market scale, directing investments across climate-tech startups, scale-ups, joint ventures, and corporate spin-outs.

As a Partner at Bain & Company in Singapore, he co-founded new ventures with Fortune Global 500 clients across Asia-Pacific and Japan in the energy, advanced manufacturing, and technology sectors. He worked with the Singapore Economic Development Board to architect national innovation frameworks, including the EDB's Corporate Venture Launchpad program.

Earlier in his career, Steve co-founded Strategos alongside Professors Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad, building one of the first firms dedicated to systematic technology commercialization and corporate venture creation.

Steve remains a Senior Advisor at Bain and advises venture-backed technology companies in the U.S. and Asia. He holds a BA and MA in Physics from Cambridge University and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.