Michael Decelle

Mike Decelle is the Dean of UNH Manchester, a multidisciplinary, research college of the University of New Hampshire. He assumed leadership of the Manchester campus in February 2016 following a 35-year career in the technology sector as an engineer, corporate executive, and startup company CEO. Decelle has deep experience in the commercialization of early-stage, advanced technologies, in both large company environments as well as in small startups.

Mike also serves as the Chief Workforce Officer for the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI). In this role, he is responsible for the identification and implementation of strategies that develop the educated and trained workforce required for the long-term, sustainable growth of the advanced tissue biofabrication industry. Mike works with a nationwide network of industry and educational partners that bring a diverse perspective to the needs of this emerging technology space.

Decelle graduated from UNH with a bachelor’s in electrical engineering, and was recruited on campus by Bell Laboratories and accepted into their graduate fellowship program, earning a master’s in electrical engineering from Cornell. He later completed the Program for Management Development at Harvard University. Decelle worked at Bell and, after its spinoff from AT&T, at Lucent Technologies for 17 years. Since then he has led as CEO, five venture-funded technology companies, three of which were university spinoffs. During his tenure at Sun Catalytix, an MIT-spinout, Decelle established the company’s reputation as an emerging leader in energy storage technology and systems, and developed relationships with strategic partners that led to Lockheed Martin acquiring the company in 2014. Most recently, Decelle was president and CEO of CrossFiber, a venture-funded startup company in San Diego which he led until its sale in 2016.

Mike is an experienced technologist and engineer. The startup companies he has led began as small ventures without well-formed market or product plans. These companies spanned a range of technical areas including optical and data networking, semiconductor design and manufacturing, image processing, grid-scale energy storage, and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).

Education

• MENGR, Electrical Engineering, Cornell University