HOUSTON, Sept. 02, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Flathead Forge, a Houston-based opportunity builder in hard-tech for water and critical minerals, today announced that Chad Bown has joined the firm as a Partner and Managing Director.
Bown joins after more than a decade at bp, where he served as a Managing Director of bp Ventures, the company’s corporate venture capital arm, which invested more than $1 billion in emerging technology companies worldwide. He led venture investment and portfolio activities across the Americas, directed sell-side transactions returning more than $600 million across 25 liquidity events, and served as a board director for portfolio companies including Eavor Technology, Xpansiv, Beyond Limits, and Saltworks Technologies. He was named to the Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist in 2023.
Flathead Forge invests where supercycles converge. AI and data centers, power demand, advanced manufacturing, and critical minerals all land on the same constraints: water, energy, and access to critical resources. Its principals are operators who have built, run, and sold industrial water and energy companies, and they put that experience to work inside the companies they back.
At Flathead Forge, Bown will work alongside partners Douglas Lee, David Lee, and Noel Knape across investments, portfolio value creation, capital formation, and institutional partnerships.
“Chad spent a decade proving his talent inside one of the best corporate venture programs in energy. Talent at that level eventually needs a platform of its own, one where the investing, the operating, and the building sit in the same room. That is what we built, and that is why he is here.”
Doug Lee, Managing Partner, Flathead Forge
“A decade of venture investing teaches you what separates the technologies that scale from the ones that stall, and it is rarely the science. It is the operating depth around the company. Flathead Forge is built out of exactly that, and I picked the platform whose edge I had spent ten years learning to recognize.”
Chad Bown, Partner and Managing Director, Flathead Forge
Bown is based in Houston, where Flathead Forge is headquartered.
About Chad Bown
Chad Bown brings more than 20 years of investment and corporate development experience across the energy, engineering, and defense sectors. Prior to joining Flathead Forge, he served as a Managing Director of bp Ventures, where he led venture investment and portfolio activities across the Americas and helped manage a global portfolio of emerging technology companies. His earlier career includes roles at Shell and Jacobs Engineering and service as a Captain in the US Air Force. He holds a business degree from Texas A&M University and an MBA in Finance from Loyola Marymount University, with executive leadership studies at INSEAD. LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/chad-w-bown-30185219
About Flathead Forge
Flathead Forge is a Houston-based opportunity builder investing in the infrastructure of the industrial supercycle. The firm backs founders and forms companies across four verticals: water purification and valorization, critical mineral processing, advanced gas systems, and hard-tech enablement platforms. Its companies turn industrial liabilities like produced water, brines, and waste gas into purified water, critical minerals, and specialty chemicals. To learn more, visit www.flatheadforge.com.
Media Contact
doug@flatheadforge.com
