SkyNano is growing again! We are excited to welcome Lilly Tench to our leadership team as our new Chief of Staff.
Lilly joins us with a background in driving innovation and supporting the next generation of advanced technology. As Chief of Staff, Lilly will be the “right hand” to our leadership, ensuring our team, operations, and strategic partnerships move in lockstep as we build the foundations for a more resilient economy.
Although she is new to this position, Lilly is not new to SkyNano! Lilly has been a friend and mentor to the company since 2022, when she first crossed paths with the team through her role as Executive Director of the Spark Innovation Center at the University of Tennessee Research Park. At Spark, Lilly oversaw entrepreneurial support programs such as the Spark Cleantech Accelerator and the Spark Incubator, a program that provides wet lab space to advanced technology startups and was instrumental to SkyNano’s growth. The SkyNano team has witnessed first-hand Lilly’s effectiveness, commitment to the entrepreneurial community, and embodiment of key SkyNano values, such as integrity and leading with a “people-first” approach.
After supporting the company from the outside for several years, Lilly decided to make the jump to join the SkyNano team as Chief of Staff this Fall and officially stepped into the position in January 2026. “I’ve been a huge fan of SkyNano for several years and am thrilled to be a part of their next stage of growth,” Lilly said. “By making a high value material from a waste product, SkyNano exemplifies the kind of innovation that will change our world for the better.”
What Lilly Brings to SkyNano:
- Ecosystem Builder: Having directed the Spark Cleantech Accelerator and Spark Incubator, Lilly has spent years training entrepreneurs in business planning, financial modeling, and pitching. Her ability to navigate the intersection of advanced technology and business strategy is exactly what SkyNano needs as we scale.
- Deep Roots in Sustainability and Business: With an MBA and a Master’s in Agricultural & Natural Resource Economics and a background in supporting new technologies, Lilly’s career has been dedicated to creating a better world through entrepreneurship and innovation.
- Published Thought Leader: She is the author of Good Business: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Creating a Better World and was recently named to the 2025 “40 Under 40” by Knox News.
- Operational Expertise: From helping to turn a former ship building facility into a thriving innovation space called NewLab in Brooklyn that now houses hundreds of startups, to managing environmental education programs around the world with the No Impact Project, Lilly knows how to build the operational backbone of a fast-growing organization.
Please join us in giving a warm welcome to Lilly!
Media Contact:
Name: LillyTench
Email: lilly.tench@skynano.co
Website: https://www.skynano.co
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/skynano/
About SkyNano
SkyNano is a science-based technology company focused on commercializing a free-market solution to carbon pollution. It specifically develops a novel electrochemical manufacturing technology for the capture and conversion of CO2 from various sources (atmospheric, concentrated, flue gas) into valuable carbon-based materials including SkyNano’s flagship product – carbon nanotubes. Our technology has been featured in many peer-review scientific papers and received recognition from a 2020 R&D100 award, a 2021 TechConnect Defense Innovation Award, 2022 Governor’s Environmental Stewardship Award, the 2023 Knoxville Traction Award, and was recognized with two Forbes 30 Under 30 award to the company Co-Founders, Anna Douglas and Cary Pint.