Joe Swider

Joe Swider is a results-oriented technology executive with more than 25 years of experience successfully scaling novel advanced materials, mining and metals, oil and gas, and energy technologies in commercial, federal, military, and international markets. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer and co-owner of Terravive, a Virginia-based manufacturer advancing healthier lifestyles through American-made, certified-compostable foodservice products. An accomplished international executive, Joe has traveled and operated in 35 countries over the course of his career and is highly adept at cross-cultural business exchanges and relationship building. 

Joe has built his career commercializing dual-use technologies for military, commercial and industrial applications, then rapidly scaling those ventures into successful businesses – delivering significant revenue growth across advanced technology companies, engineering consultancies, and a Fortune 200 corporation.  

His work has included M&A and the development of strong intellectual property portfolios, including patents, trademarks and proprietary know-how that protect and monetize the technologies he brings to market. A creative, hands-on marketer, Joe has also directly guided the marketing and brand strategy of numerous companies, and has recently integrated AI-driven tools into his executive toolkit to sharpen market analysis, brand messaging, and operational decision-making. 

Earlier in his career, Joe generated value-creating results for a wide range of companies across global and domestic markets, including United States Steel, MJS Partners, LLC, The Bode Technology Group, Spec Ops, Inc., and Prime Photonics, LC. He has applied that same operating discipline at Terravive since 2019, helping scale the company to operate from 16 U.S. manufacturing facilities supporting more than 1,000 American jobs, with customers that include the U.S. House of Representatives, Virginia Tech, Washington and Lee University, US Foods, and the US Government. He is a frequent voice on Made-in-USA manufacturing, sustainable packaging and veteran entrepreneurship, cited in national publications such as Forbes, CNN, USA Today, Bloomberg and more. 

Joe is also an active Strategic Advisor to InPleo, BioInterphase, Intufo, and the National Veteran Small Business Coalition, which align with his passion of helping early-stage technology and veteran-owned organizations rapidly scale globally. He previously served on the advisory boards for the Colleges of Engineering at the Virginia Military Institute and West Virginia University.  

A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Joe earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia, and spent four years in the United States Navy as a Surface Warfare Officer, with multiple deployments including 48 ports in 24 countries, seeing the world and appreciating all of its cultures.