Indiana Tech names Nate Cheviron executive director of Junction 36

February 3, 2025

Indiana Tech has named Nate Cheviron as executive director of Junction 36, its new advanced manufacturing innovation center initiative under development at Electric Works in Fort Wayne. Cheviron will begin his service at the university on Feb. 10. In his role as executive director, he will lead the development of community partnerships, the programs and services to be provided via Junction 36, the fundraising efforts to support the initiative and the project team members who will serve regional students, entrepreneurs and companies.

Cheviron comes to Indiana Tech after a five-year stint of co-founding and serving as CEO of multiple companies, including a real estate brokerage, a coaching, training, and consulting company, a home/auto insurance company as well as a prototype design and development firm. All these companies continue to thrive today. Prior to building his own businesses, Nate worked nearly a decade within Allegis Group, focusing on technical recruiting, consulting and engineering services.

With an extensive background in technology-driven business development, operational strategy and leadership, Cheviron has spent his entire working career leading strategic partnerships, market expansion and innovation initiatives across multiple industries and numerous technical disciplines—key components that align with Junction 36’s mission of advancing innovation and industry collaboration.

Cheviron holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and Physics Teaching from Indiana-Purdue University Fort Wayne, as well as multiple certifications in project management, business development and leadership training.

Indiana Tech first announced the Junction 36 initiative in August 2024 when it received a five-year, $21 million grant from Lilly Endowment, Inc. in support of the project. Junction 36 is comprised of three central components:

• Transformation of Building 36 on the Electric Works campus into a center for hard tech and advanced manufacturing innovation that will help grow local companies by connecting them to university-led research, development, and training. It will provide training related to Industry 4.0, business assistance for small-to-large organizations, spaces for business innovation teams and startups and a variety of event spaces to host community gatherings as part of the innovation ecosystem at Electric Works and throughout Northeast Indiana. Under the leadership of Indiana Tech, Building 36 will facilitate and include:
  • Research and development
  • Testing and prototyping
  • Small-batch production
  • Workforce training
  • Creator space/maker space
  • Automation innovation and development
  • Enterprise support services
• The Talent Connection, a program that will provide unique learning experiences that connect talent to the community in ways that create strong bonds and lead to enhanced talent attraction and retention. The program includes significantly expanded student service learning for Indiana Tech and other regional students, a new Fellows program focused on keeping top talent in the region and assigning Indiana Tech students as project partners and mentors for Amp Lab high school students.
  
  The Talent Connection Fellowship will recruit outstanding student leaders from the region and across the country to address larger problem-solving around the region’s most complex issues. Challenges will be submitted to the Fellows by area companies, nonprofits, civic organizations and communities for the development of solutions over a 1 to 2-year time period of collaborative work by the Fellows team.
• Public Workshop, a program to help diverse learners and entrepreneurs access support and overcome systemic barriers to advancing their education. Public Workshop will work to bring the benefits of the Indiana Tech initiative to wider regional audiences, helping more area residents and entrepreneurs reach their full potential by connecting them to a diverse set of resources. Working with partners around the region, Public Workshop will connect learners and entrepreneurs with wrap-around services such as early childhood education, affordable housing, training pathway guidance and resources for personal health.

Indiana Tech President Dr. Karl Einolf commented, “All of us at Indiana Tech are pleased to welcome Nate Cheviron to our team. Nate’s entrepreneurial background, engineering and technical experience and passion for this project and the advancement Northeast Indiana overall stood out among the many excellent candidates for this critical position. I’m confident he will be an outstanding leader for Junction 36. He’ll help us turn our ambitious vision for the initiative into a real-world operation that will serve as a great asset to our area’s students, entrepreneurs and companies for years to come.”

“I couldn’t be more excited to join the Indiana Tech team and lead the Junction 36 initiative,” commented Mr. Cheviron. “Northeast Indiana has been longing for a facility of this kind to drive innovation, collaboration and economic growth in our region. This is a unique opportunity to build something truly transformative—where industry and education converge to create lasting impact. I look forward to enhancing partnerships, supporting entrepreneurs and empowering the next generation of talent in advanced manufacturing and hard tech development.”