Background

About

Most consultants specialize. Micah Sze accumulates. Four US patents from a research lab. An MBA from MIT Sloan. A company co-founded, funded, and brought to pilot. Multi-hundred-million-dollar savings delivered for Fortune 500 companies. Software built from scratch when the right tool didn't exist. These aren't parallel careers — they're the same career, each phase making the next one sharper.

His foundation is rigorous: a B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering from Princeton and an MBA from MIT Sloan with a Certificate in Entrepreneurship & Innovation — where he won the MIT $1K competition and was recognized by the Executive Vice President of Operations at Amgen. He approaches business problems the way engineers approach design problems: with models, with data, and with an obligation to be correct.

His career began at GE Global Research, where he worked at the frontier of materials science — developing next-generation display films for television, engineering anti-piracy systems for optical media, and synthesizing advanced materials for medical imaging and secure applications. Four inventions earned US patents. He received back-to-back technical honor roll awards and led the commercialization of a new product in under a year. It was his first lesson in what it takes to move an idea all the way from concept to market.

After MIT, he applied that same instinct directly — co-founding a clean energy startup, leading Series A fundraising, and developing a concentrated solar thermal technology from concept to pilot. He then spent years as a director at a leading energy consulting firm, advising the largest utilities in North America on capital planning, RFP strategy, and supply chain optimization across multi-billion-dollar portfolios. His reputation there was built on financial modeling that held up under scrutiny and an ability to find savings where others had stopped looking.

That reputation led to senior roles inside Fortune 500 companies, where he operated at the intersection of strategy and operations — serving as Chief of Staff to executive leadership, managing analytical frameworks for billion-dollar procurement portfolios, and leading the negotiations that generated documented results at scale. He has held authorized delegate status with regulators and been trusted with the most sensitive commercial decisions.

He also builds. Where most executives commission tools, Micah writes them — in Python, R, JavaScript, SQL, and more. It is the same disposition he developed in the lab: if the model you need doesn't exist, build it. If the process is broken, redesign it. This technical fluency is not incidental — it fundamentally shapes how he approaches every engagement.

Micah is an enrolled member of the Hopi Tribe, based in San Francisco. Outside of work, he is an avid fly fisherman in fresh and saltwater — drawn to problems that reward patience, precision, and a deep understanding of the environment.

Career

General Electric Global Research · 2002–2006

Where it started: the lab

Micah began his career as a Chemical Engineer at GE's Global Research Center in Niskayuna, NY — one of the most prestigious industrial research institutions in the world. Over four years, he worked on a range of technically demanding programs: developing large-area display films that made televisions brighter and more efficient, engineering anti-piracy and authentication systems for optical media in partnership with GE Plastics and NBC Universal, and synthesizing novel materials for medical imaging and secure applications. He improved manufacturing processes via Six Sigma methodology — reducing inspection time by 600% on one program and improving electroforming yield from 25% to over 80% on another. He received back-to-back technical honor roll awards and led the commercialization of a new product (the SecurOQ™ detector) in under a year. Four of his inventions were awarded US patents. The discipline instilled here — define the problem precisely, model what you can't observe, validate rigorously — has shaped every subsequent phase of his career.

MIT Sloan / Raw Solar · 2006–2010

The entrepreneurial turn

Micah pursued an MBA at MIT Sloan with a deliberate focus on innovation and entrepreneurship, earning a Certificate in Entrepreneurship & Innovation. He won the MIT $1K competition, reached the semi-finals of the MIT $100K, and was a finalist in both the NEEIC $150K and Ignite Clean Energy competitions. He was also recognized with the Amgen summer intern poster presentation award, presented by the Executive Vice President of Operations. During and after Sloan, he joined Raw Solar, Inc. as VP of Finance & Business Development — developing financial models for investors, leading Series A fundraising efforts, and driving the development of a low-cost concentrated solar thermal dish tracking technology from concept to working pilot. This was his first experience building a company from the ground up, and it shaped his understanding of what it takes to translate technical innovation into a fundable, scalable business.

Power Advocate · 2010–2013

Building the consulting practice

At Power Advocate, Micah rose from Manager to Director, advising utilities across North America on supply chain strategy, RFP design, contract negotiations, and renewable energy procurement. He led the company's solar practice area, tracking industry trends across thin film, crystalline, CPV, and solar thermal technologies and developing the financial risk frameworks utilities used to evaluate contractors and suppliers. His engagement work ranged from a 1,800MW coal plant SCR retrofit strategy in New Mexico, to a compressor station RFP for an 86 Bcf natural gas storage field, to a ten-year capital demand plan covering $14.5B in transmission and substation investment. He identified $71M in savings on a high-voltage transmission line carrying 4,500MW of renewable energy, and surfaced $165M in savings opportunities across 33 categories from $4.3B of addressable spend. He co-authored two industry white papers on solar M&A and utility-scale cost evaluation. This period defined his approach to high-stakes consulting: rigorous analysis, defensible models, and negotiations anchored in data.

Pacific Gas & Electric / Bristol Myers Squibb · 2013–Present

Enterprise leadership at scale

At Pacific Gas & Electric, Micah served as Principal Business Analyst and Chief of Staff to the VP of Supply Chain — one of the most demanding procurement roles in North American utilities. He developed and implemented a seven-step strategic sourcing process, led organizational redesign of the supply chain operations and strategy groups, and served as authorized delegate for CPUC Confidential Declarations. He built and managed the analytical infrastructure supporting $1.6B in annual contracted gas sourcing spend — including KPI frameworks, cost-to-serve models, and savings tracking systems. Over the engagement, he tracked and validated $128M in procurement savings against a goal of $95M, achieving 11.6% savings versus an 8.6% target. In a single six-week sprint, he helped capture $100M+ through strategic renegotiation of vegetation management contracts. More recently, he has expanded his practice into the life sciences sector through an engagement at Bristol Myers Squibb, bringing the same procurement rigor and analytical discipline to pharmaceutical and clinical supply chain.

Education

MIT Sloan School of Management
MBA · Certificate in Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Cambridge, MA · 2006–2008
MIT $1K Winner · MIT $100K Semi-Finalist
NEEIC $150K Finalist · Ignite Clean Energy Finalist
Amgen Award — presented by EVP of Operations
Princeton University
B.S.E. Chemical Engineering
Princeton, NJ · 1998–2002
Thesis: Thin Films of Nano Porous Silica (No. 14833)

Certifications

  • Certified Professional in Supply Management (CPSM #13211)
  • Six Sigma Greenbelt — Design For Six Sigma (DFSS) & DMAIC

Personal

Micah is an enrolled member of the Hopi Tribe, based in San Francisco, CA. Outside of work he is an avid fly fisherman in both fresh and saltwater — drawn to problems that reward patience, precision, and a deep understanding of the environment. He brings the same methodical discipline he developed in the lab to every client engagement.