Jessica Elwell
Co-Founder & COO | OxEon Energy
How have you leveraged your position as a C-suite executive to influence business dynamics in Utah?
I have focused on contributing in ways that strengthen Utah’s position in advanced manufacturing and energy, rather than influence for its own sake. Through my role at OxEon Energy, I have worked closely with state and federal partners to advance funding pathways, support small business participation in federal programs and help bring complex projects into Utah. This includes engagement with the Department of Energy, Department of Defense and state economic development groups to align on manufacturing scale-up and infrastructure development.
I also contribute through industry and education. I serve on advisory boards, including 47G, Women Tech Council and the Colorado School of Mines Energy Advisory Board, where I focus on connecting technical development with real-world application and workforce needs. I am also involved in STEM outreach, working to increase visibility into career pathways in energy and advanced manufacturing.
At a practical level, my goal has been to help position Utah as a place where complex, high-impact work can be built and scaled, not just discussed. That comes down to execution, partnerships and showing that these systems can operate successfully here.
What do you consider to be one of your most significant achievements and why?
One of my most significant achievements has been helping take the core technology behind MOXIE from concept to real-world validation, and then building OxEon Energy to carry that capability forward into terrestrial applications. MOXIE proved that we could produce oxygen from the Martian atmosphere. That was a defining technical milestone, but what came next mattered just as much.
Forming OxEon was about translating that capability into something scalable and useful on Earth, converting waste streams and CO₂ into fuels, and enabling distributed energy systems. It is one thing to demonstrate a technology; it is another to build the systems, teams and execution discipline required to make it real in the world. That transition is the work I am most proud of.
What challenges have you overcome to get here today?
One of the biggest challenges has been operating in environments where very little is fully defined, and still being responsible for delivering outcomes. Much of my work has involved taking on complex, early-stage problems and building structure, teams and execution plans in parallel while things are still evolving. That includes scaling new technology, navigating funding uncertainty and making decisions without having complete information.
I have not always had the benefit of clarity going in. I have had to learn how to create it over time, often by asking better questions, testing assumptions and adjusting quickly when something doesn’t hold. There is also a personal side to that. Carrying that level of responsibility while maintaining stability for my family has required discipline and prioritization. It has not always been clean or balanced, but it has been intentional. What I have taken from those experiences is that progress rarely comes from waiting for the right conditions. It comes from building enough clarity to move forward and staying accountable to the outcome.
