Team

Tom Chi Board Member

Tom is the founding partner of At One Ventures, which backs early-stage (Seed, Series A) companies using disruptive deep tech to upend the unit economics of established industries while dramatically reducing their planetary footprint.

Previous to founding At One, Tom was a founding member of Google X where he led the teams that created self-driving cars, deep learning artificial intelligence, wearable augmented reality and internet connectivity expansion. He played a significant role in established projects with global reach including Microsoft (Outlook) and Yahoo (Search, Answers).

He has also spent time in the developing world and via social entrepreneurship accelerators, mentoring 200+ entrepreneurs working on global development issues such as access to clean water, electricity, education, health care, and employment.

Tom has spoken at TEDx, Aspen Institute, YPO, SuperVenture, IDEO, Unreasonable and Summit at Sea. He is also a lifelong inventor, with 75 patents across hardware, software, design, and mechanical systems.

Tom O’Neill Chief Commercial Officer & Corporate Counsel

Tom O’Neill brings 25 years of power industry experience to Blue Energy.  From 2001-2021, Tom held multiple senior executive positions at Exelon Corporation.  He joined Exelon Nuclear as a lawyer, and in 2005, he became VP of Licensing.  From 2007-09, he led Exelon’s project to develop a dual unit merchant ESBWR in Victoria TX and submitted a combined construction and operating license application (COLA) with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.  Also during this time, Tom helped form Exelon Nuclear Partners to market Exelon’s nuclear operating expertise worldwide. 

After the market declined, Tom helped start Exelon Transmission Company, and in 2010 he moved to the utility side of the business becoming ComEd’s SVP Regulatory and General Counsel.  In 2017, Tom was promoted to Exelon General Counsel where he served until 2021 prior to the company spinning off the generation business into Constellation Energy. 

Tom began his career at the law firm of Jenner & Block in Chicago where he returned in 2021 as a partner and co-chair of the firm’s Energy practice before joining Blue Energy in 2024. 

Tom holds an undergraduate degree in English from the University of Illinois and a JD from the University of Notre Dame.  While at Exelon, he completed the reactor technology course for executives at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2002.  Tom and his wife Ann have 2 children and 3 grandchildren and they split their time between Chicago and Colorado where Tom enjoys skiing and cycling. 

Walter J Williams Senior Licensing Engineer

Walter brings over fifteen years of experience in nuclear materials engineering, fuel development, and regulatory research to his role as Senior Licensing Engineer at Blue Energy. Prior to joining Blue Energy, Walter spent a decade at Idaho National Laboratory, where he focused on nuclear fuel development and materials engineering. He also served in the NRC’s Office of Research and in the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR) as a technical reviewer for advanced reactors, contributing to the evolving regulatory framework for next-generation nuclear technologies. Walter holds a Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from Purdue University, a MS from Oregon State University, and a BS from Embry-Riddle. His research has been widely recognized, including first place in the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy’s Innovations in Nuclear Energy Research and Development Competition in 2021, where he was named Innovator of the Year. He has authored or co-authored more than 24 publications in the field.

Wayne Hanekom Director of Procurement

Wayne joins Blue Energy as Director of Procurement, bringing over two decades of experience in the power industry building global supply chain teams and executing more than 20GW of utility-scale power projects worldwide.

Prior to Blue Energy, Wayne served as Director of Supply Chain Management & Logistics for HyAxiom Inc., focusing on the scale-up and delivery of CHP stationary fuel cell and PEM electrolyzer technologies. His career spans various leadership positions at GE Power (now GE Vernova) and Alstom Power, as well as early career experience at Vogt Power delivering HRSG projects for combined-cycle plants.

An Industrial Engineer from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, Wayne pairs his technical background with a Six Sigma-trained mindset, driving operational excellence. Wayne is passionate about working for innovative companies that deliver impactful solutions. Given the unprecedented demand for power, Blue Energy’s mission to provide accelerated, bankable, carbon-free nuclear solutions through modular manufacturing and concurrent construction inspired him to join the team.

Outside of work, Wayne enjoys golfing, skiing, staying fit, and traveling with his family. A cooking enthusiast, he also loves testing out new recipes at dinner time.