Meet The Mentor

Chris Coburn, President of Coburn Pragmatic Solutions, is a mechanical engineer and entrepreneur with 30 years of industry experience from engine testing to organizational management and commercialization. He specializes in technology commercialization with government seed grants and small and startup companies. His growing portfolio of technologies through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs include carbon capture, sensors for fusion reactors, process waste heat recovery, thermal management for spacecraft and physics experiments, and other cutting-edge green technology development. His commercialization experience includes assisting companies with manufacturing strategy development, customer discovery, market research and sizing, business plan development, customer value proposition, proforma financial analysis, intellectual property evaluation, and product pricing strategy.  

Over his 30 years in industry, he’s gained a deep understanding of corporate echo systems and how organizations work, and the processes that support them. Working with Original Equipment Manufacturers and suppliers in the USA and internationally, he’s brought millions of dollars of products to market and managed multimillion-dollar product lines. He is also experienced in providing customer needs evaluation, product validation and verification, and working with high-mix with low-volume production lines. 

He brings to the table a lifetime of engineering and study of internal combustion engines, expertise in highly complex assemblies and processes such as transmissions, hydraulics, test methods, high-speed video and instrumentation, and root cause failure analysis. Appropriately for Springfield, he has seven years of remanufacturing leadership expertise. He also has experience in explosive weapons technology development with previous DOD clearance and bird strike testing on military and civilian aircraft. 

Education: 

University of Wisconsin-Madison, MEPP, Engineering Professional Practice 

Old Dominion University, Bachelor’s, Mechanical Engineering Technology 

Alfred State College – SUNY College of Technology, A.A.S in Mechanical Engineering Technology 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-coburn-78795b5/