Charles Wan, Ph.D.

Manager at Bain & Company | MIT PhD

San Francisco, California, United States

About

Manager at Bain & Company with a strong technical background and track record of managing teams and leveraging analytics, decision modeling, and strategy across private equity and corporate strategy engagements to influence stakeholders. My work centers on building rigorous quantitative models and analytical frameworks to support high-stakes business decisions, including investment diligence, value creation planning, and operating model design. I'm most energized by problems that require deep technical understanding, cross-functional effort, and translating complexity into clear decision support for senior leaders. Before Bain, I earned my Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at MIT, where my research combined experimental and computational methods to develop designer porous carbon electrodes for next-generation energy storage technologies.

Experience

  • Bain & Company (3 yrs 6 mos)
    • Manager
      Jul 2025 - Present · 1 yr 1 mo

      - Led 3-5 person teams on corporate strategy and M&A integration engagements, owning analytical direction, workplans, and senior stakeholder alignment - Designed Day 1 organization operating model for a large-scale integration, identifying material synergy and value-creation opportunities - Built business cases to redesign commercial and customer success models, informing organizational changes and profitability improvement initiatives

    • Consultant
      Feb 2023 - Jul 2025 · 2 yrs 6 mos

      - Supported 8+ private equity buy-side diligences across technology, SaaS, retail, and infrastructure-adjacent businesses, as market and decision-modeling lead - Built predictive and scenario-based models integrating revenue, cost, and probability-driven assumptions to inform investment decisions - Developed market sizing, penetration, and growth models to assess competitive dynamics, GTM strategies, and technology disruption risks - Coordinated global teams to deliver interactive dashboards and executive-ready analytical insights

  • Ph.D. | Chemical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Sep 2017 - Nov 2022 · 5 yrs 3 mos

    Thesis topic: Designer Porous Carbon Electrodes for Redox Flow Batteries Co-Advisors: Prof. Fikile R. Brushett & Prof. Yet-Ming Chiang Minor: Data Analytics and Machine Learning

  • Corning Incorporated (1 mo)
    • Graduate Consultant
      2019 - 2019 · Less than a year

    • Graduate Consultant
      2019 - 2019 · Less than a year

  • Woodside Energy ()
    • Graduate Consultant
      2019 - 2019 · Less than a year

    • Graduate Consultant
      2019 - 2019 · Less than a year

  • Cornell University (3 yrs 10 mos)
    • Kinetics and Reactor Design Teaching Assistant
      Jan 2017 - Jun 2017 · 6 mos

    • Undergraduate Researcher
      Jun 2014 - May 2017 · 3 yrs

      • Pioneered strategies in lithium‑oxygen batteries to stabilize interphases • Examined aluminum carbon dioxide‑oxygen mixed fuel batteries as a dual platform of electrical output and carbon sequestration

    • Senior Captain
      Sep 2013 - May 2017 · 3 yrs 9 mos

      Fall 2016 - Spring 2017 (Senior Captain): Manage day-to-day operation of project team with 40+ members. 2nd place at the Northeast Regional AIChE competition. Fall 2015-Spring 2016 (Junior Captain): Led team to 1st Place at 2015 AIChE National Competition and 1st Place at Northeast Regional AIChE Competition in UMass Amherst. Fall 2014-Spring 2015 (Captain, Battery Sub-Team): Led the sub-team research and development effort with a zinc-alkaline battery, which placed 1st at the 2015 Northeast Regional AIChE competition. Fall 2013-Spring 2014 (Member, Battery Sub-Team): Developed aluminum-air battery which placed 1st at the 2014 Northeast Regional AIChE competition.