The VU Team

 

 

 

• Ranked Top 100 Powerlist VC
• 10+ years of VC/PE Investing, 80+ Portfolio Companies
• Select Prior Portfolio Companies: Beyond Meat (IPO'd), Sensity (Acquired by Verizon), ShopKick (Acquired by SK Telecom), FabFitFun, MeUndies, Le Tote, Helix Sleep, ZeroCater, Deliv
• Former Managing Director of Investments at Cleveland Avenue (VC/PE Fund co-founded by Former CEO & President of McDonalds), focusing on food and beverage brands, food related technologies, and new restaurant concepts
• Founder, Head, & Former Managing Director of Simon Venture Group (Corporate investment arm of Simon Property Group, S&P 100, largest retail real estate company in the world), grew to top 5 corporate VC focused on commerce alongside Google Ventures, Intel Capital, and Comcast Ventures
• Adjunct Professor at New York University teaching Venture Capital Intensive
• Creator of Multiple Top Ranked Entrepreneur Resources: #1 Startup Investor Pitch Deck Template (viewed & downloaded 500,000+ times, used by leading business schools and accelerators)
• Co-Founder of the #1 Startup Board Game: The Next Big Thing: The Game of Entrepreneurship, backed by over 25+ of the top accelerators and VC investors

• Partner at GRC Fund, a $300M+ technology fund, focused on Energy & Resource Efficiency and Health & Wellness in the US & China
• Adjunct Professor of Venture Capital & Entrepreneurship at HKUST (Hong Kong University of Science & Technology) Business School
• Co-Founder & General Partner at Formation 8, a Silicon Valley based venture capital fund with over $1B+ under management and early backer of unicorns like Oculus VR, Wish.com, and Oscar.  Other notable team members of the fund included Joe Lonsdale (Co-Founder of Palantir Technologies) and Gideon Yu (CFO of Facebook and YouTube, Partner at Sequoia and Khosla Ventures)
• Venture Partner at SoftBank China Venture Capital 
• Entrepreneur in Residence & Venture Partner at Khosla Ventures, where he took Khosla's portfolio company LanzaTech to China by brokering deals between LanzaTech and Chinese steel-makers
• As a biotechnologist, Dr. Zhang was a co-founder of BioConsortia and founding member of Mendel Biotechnology. He led Mendel Biotechnology’s business development and its agricultural collaboration with Monsanto and biofuel collaboration with BP. 
• Dr. Zhang has a Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of California Davis and completed his post-doctoral and business training at Stanford University and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, respectively

• Manages VU’s Hong Kong office, focuses on deal sourcing within Asia and investor relations
• Strong network of family offices and institutional investors
• 7+ years living and working in Asia
• Senior Director of Corporate Ventures and Strategy at Axcelis, Inc., a semiconductor company
• Director of International Business Development at Blackboard, Inc., one of the world’s largest education technology companies
• Manager of Corporate Strategy and M&A at MAXIMUS, Inc., a consulting and operations firm
• University of Southern California, MPP (International Policy and Economic Development)
• University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, BA

LinkedIn

• Angel Investor for 7+ yrs & Serial Entrepreneur
• Founder, Chief Information Officer, & Technology Architech, Intuitive Technology Management 
• Founder of Freebie, social influencing app to obtain valuable products, services or experiences for free 
• Director of Enterprise Systems of University of Chicago
• VP of Streaming Operations (Formerly MusicNow.com), AOL
• Consultant, Accenture
• Systems Administrator, Giant Step LLC,  

LinkedIn

• Previously Vice President, Pietas Capital, Venture Capital (Studio Model Portfolio)
• Private Equity Associate, Kensington Capital Partners
• Risk Analyst, OMERS
• Portfolio Analysis & Investment Risk Analyst, Franklin Templeton Investments 

LinkedIn