MIKE LYONS | Managing Director | mike@newlineventures.com
Mr. Lyons is currently Chairman and CEO of RapidAscent, Inc., a cyber security-focused academy addressing the lack of experientially trained experts needed to reduce corporate risk-of-loss. He also serves as Chairman of IronMill, Inc., an advanced Web3 distributed computing platform company. He also serves in Board of Director roles for PrecisionOS, a VR enabled surgical education platform, and Real-Time Innovations (www.rti.com), focused on advanced real-time integration of complex systems and a major thought leader in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).
In addition, he is a Partner with the Ratio Academy, a developer of online and corporate entrepreneurship and tech company management programs delivered worldwide. He was formerly Chairman of CypherPath, a converged infrastructure virtualization company, sold to Mantech, and former Chairman of Shadow Networks, Inc. a cyber security company acquired by Alcalvio in 2016; both were based on technology developed through a tech transfer partnership with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
He is a Managing Director of Newline Ventures, LLC, a management consulting firm. Additionally, from 2008 to 2011, he served as a Venture Partner with the Paladin Capital Group in Washington, D.C. and as a Venture Partner for ePlanet Ventures I and II. He was a co-founder and General Partner of Zilkha Venture Partners (Fund closed out in 2003), an early-stage venture capital partnership focused on seed and first round investments in IT and bio-technology companies, principally located in Silicon Valley. That fund was top 5 percentile rated by Cambridge. He founded SafeView, Inc. in 2002, a Government Laboratory (PNNL) spinout, to address aspects of the anti-terrorist physical security market; the Company closed A and B rounds totaling more than $23M led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, ePlanet Ventures, GE/Invision, Paladin Capital Group, and Novak Biddle. He served as Chairman until its sale to L3 Harris in March,2006. This technology is now the security standard in airports worldwide and was acquired by Leidos for $1B in 2020.
Concurrently, Mr. Lyons is an Adjunct Professor at the Stanford University Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Serving in the Stanford position since 1988, he was a co-developer and funder of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program with Prof. Tom Byers and the founding professor of Technology Venture Formation- now merged with Entrepreneurship for The Real Economy. Both of these courses are some of the highest rated courses in the School of Engineering. He is the co-creator of the Stanford Innovation and Entrepreneurship two-week program for existing high-tech companies produced and managed by the Stanford Center for Professional Development (SCPD). This program has just completed its ninth year. He has co-produced and delivered numerous other SCPD and STVP programs. He is a co-founder of the Ratio Academy focused on creating training platforms for entrepreneurial education that has co-developed an online program with SCPD called Idea to Market (I2M) which is now available online, worldwide.
From 1980 to 1991, he was a co-founder, a Vice-President, and a Director of Integrated Systems Inc. (INTS, founded 1980), a leading implementer of high-performance real-time control systems for aircraft, automotive, and manufacturing applications. INTS was fundamentally a spinout from the Lockheed Palo Alto Research Lab and Systems Control, Inc. The Company was merged with WindRiver Systems in 1999. WindRiver was acquired by Intel in 2009.
Mr. Lyons received a Bachelors and Masters (equivalent) in Engineering Physics from Cornell University, an MSEE from Stanford, did Ph.D research in Aero/Astro at Stanford (abd) and an MBA, with Distinction, from the Pepperdine Presidential/Key Executive Program. He is a graduate of the Stanford/AEA Institute for the Management of High Technology Companies and a Price-Babson Fellow in Entrepreneurship Education. He holds an FAA multi-Engine Airline Transport Pilot License and Certified Flight Instructor Certificates for Instrument and Multi-Engine Aircraft and was a line instructor for Flight Safety International. He is an avid sailor and motorcyclist.
PEDRAM MOKRIAN | Managing Director | pedram@newlineventures.com
Pedram is driven by re-imagining how digital technologies will help address the challenges of global urbanization. He is an Adjunct Professor at Stanford University and a Lecturer at the Haas School of business at UC Berkeley where he teaches and advises entrepreneurs and global 1000 companies alike on the topics of entrepreneurship, business model disruption, and technology innovation strategy. He was previously a Principal at Mayfield, one of Silicon Valley’s most storied venture capital firms, where he was part of the investment team with over $3.5B assets under management.
Pedram is a founding Partner of the Ratio Academy, New Line Ventures, and an Entrepreneur in Residence at General Electric. In his various roles, he focuses on accelerating the development of new venture efforts, seeking out entrepreneurs who are equally passionate around the applications of machine intelligence, connected systems, data analytics, and the internet of things (IOT). He serves as a mentor or advisor to a number of start-ups, innovation incubators, including the Texas Medical Center Innovation Center and Innovation Labs, and serves on the advisory board of Phillips66. He received his Ph.D. in Engineering from Stanford and had a brief and exciting stint in the Commodities Trading group at Credit Suisse.
AARON GREENBLATT, PHD | Managing Director
Dr. Greenblatt holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, where he received the NDSEG, NSF, and Maitra-Luther Graduate Fellowships. Dr. Greenblatt holds 5 patents / patents pending and has published peer-reviewed papers in multiple respected venues, including Information Sciences, IEEE, AES, and SPIE. Dr. Greenblatt’s PhD dissertation introduced hypercomplex learning algorithms with applications in computer vision. One particular focus is automated prostate cancer biopsy Gleason scoring, where Dr. Greenblatt’s hypercomplex algorithms outperformed existing automated systems. Additional research interests include other forms of machine learning, distributed computing, cybersecurity, and digital audio processing. After completing his PhD, Dr. Greenblatt led machine learning efforts at the hedge fund Arrowgrass in New York and London.
In addition to his academic background, Dr. Greenblatt is an Internet entrepreneur. Prior to his PhD, Greenblatt founded an IT consulting firm, focused on computing infrastructure deployments, data management, and HIPAA compliance. In 2017, Dr. Greenblatt founded Westlight AI, a zero-trust cybersecurity company that developed novel, behavior-based endpoint security tools. Working closely with Kessel Run at the US Air Force and with BAE Systems, Westlight AI built technology allows for decentralized control of sensitive data, including on unmanaged contractor computing devices.
Dr. Greenblatt is currently Founder & CEO of IronMill, a Web3 computing infrastructure startup. IronMill combines zero knowledge tooling with a modular blockchain approach to enable the next generation of performant, scalable decentralized Web3 applications. IronMill is a member of the Stanford Blockchain Accelerator and is funded by industry-leading VCs including, Gumi Cryptos, Superscrypt, LongHash, Seven X, Kestrel 0x1, and others.
CRAIG SCHULTZ, PHD | Managing Director
Dr. Craig Schultz is a leader in the nexus of cyber security, financial risk, and education. He has led product and engineering teams, launching advanced security and advanced financial risk products and platforms globally, with a portfolio that includes patents and publications in detection, large data fusion, advanced sensors, satellite systems, corporate cyber security for systems and networks, and quantitative risk management. He has been a senior advisor for over two decades on advanced risk modeling and analytics across threats that impact corporate, government, and defense infrastructure.
Dr. Schultz has held the roles of CEO and Chief Product Officer at Neo Prime, a leading company in quantitative cyber risk management; Vice President of Research at Shadow Networks, providing advanced deceptive corporate network products to protect corporate-wide systems from advanced threats; Vice President of Software Product Management at Risk Management Solutions, the largest global provider of high performance financial catastrophic risk modeling in the insurance space. Prior to his corporate tenure, Dr Schultz was a senior physicist for over a decade at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) specializing in cyber, energy, nuclear stockpile and escalation risk, leading Laboratory Director's National Security Office projects targeting national security capabilities in cyber analytics, counter-terrorism, non-proliferation, high performance data analytics, and artificial intelligence processing.
At Elysian Global, Dr Schultz leads product development for the Elysian Academy as VP for Products. He is responsible for products design and release of recruitment and enrollment, the cyber security EdTech curriculum, and SaaS corporate products for matching Academy students to companies and their specific cyber job requirements. This includes next generation AI/ML, advanced automation, and live-fire immersive training to educate and create job-ready candidates.
Dr Schultz taught while at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and continues to advise and lecture at universities including Stanford, trains companies requiring next generation cyber risk management, and has held roles including adjunct faculty at University of Maryland Physics and Security program. He received his PhD in Applied Seismology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
LINDA HALL | Advisory Director
Linda is a specialist in building C-Level executive teams for tech companies. She founded L J Hall & Company on Sand Hill Road in 1989, LJHSV, and is widely known in Silicon Valley. For over a decade, she served as in-house search executive for several Silicon Valley VC firms. She regularly serves as an Advisor to early stage companies and has been an invited speaker on the benefits of robust governance and independent directors from early in the life of a board. She has had clients in energy tech since the mid-90's, and attends as many national key clean-tech conferences throughout the year as time will allow.
Previously, she held a management position at Spectra Physics, was a consultant with executive compensation firm Olanie, Hurst & Hemrich, and spent a couple of years at Korn-Ferry and Bacci Bennett where she conducted executive searches for technology companies that have grown to become recognized brands.
She holds advanced degrees in English and Communications, did graduate work at Oxford, and was a full time Lecturer at UC Davis for three years.
ALI RIAZ | Senior Advisory Director
Results driven senior executive with progressive leadership experience in the software industry and a track record for founding and building innovative and growth oriented companies. Proven capacity to architect and deliver leading- edge strategies to enhance organizational capabilities, drive customer focus, scale operations and compete on a global scale. Demonstrated success in developing talent and leading and motivating worldwide teams comprised of more than 800 employees. Highly skilled at actively managing and strengthening relationships with key stakeholders including management teams, investors and banks, as evidenced by successfully raising more than $300M from investors and architecting successful M&A transactions in excess of $2.5B.
CHRISTOPHER B. NICHOLSON | Managing Director
Experienced and driven finance and technology executive with a proven 30+ year track record of leading companies, ensuring they have well-founded strategic plans, appropriate financing strategies, and solid financial and technology back-office platforms to deliver efficient operations. Proficient in building and cultivating strong internal, external and investor relationships, while keeping strong ethics and good governance at the forefront of new venture creation.