NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Lux Capital (www.luxcapital.com), a leading venture capital firm, today announced the promotions of Adam Kalish to General Partner, Shahin Farshchi, Ph.D. to Principal, and Zack Schildhorn to Vice President and Director, Operations. The promotions follow the recent addition of former CIA Director Jim Woolsey and long-time McKinsey Senior Partner Dick Foster to the firm as Venture Partners.
“Adam, Shahin and Zack have been integral to Lux’s success over the past several years,” said Robert Paull, Managing General Partner at Lux Capital. “We’re fortunate to have them as part of the Lux team. These new roles reflect our confidence in them and their contribution of meaningful value to our firm, portfolio and new investments.”
Before joining Lux in 2005, Adam served as a Director of Everest Capital, a leading multi-strategy, opportunistic hedge fund with several billion dollars in assets. Prior to Everest, he worked at Quellos Capital Management (acquired by BlackRock - NYSE:BLK), a multi-billion dollar alternative investment firm. He also worked at DreamWorks SKG in Los Angeles, where he reported directly to the President of the Studio. Adam holds dual degrees in Economics and Communications from the University of Miami. He also studied Economics and Finance at the University of Westminster in London, England. Adam has been a frequent lecturer at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Yale, MIT, and Johns Hopkins, as well as featured in the New York Times. He helped appoint a technology expert to the Wall Street Journal, and was invited to open the NASDAQ market. Adam currently serves on the Communications Committee for the Prostate Cancer Foundation and has served as a coach for the Special Olympics. He is an avid supporter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Melanoma Research Alliance.
Shahin has worked with Lux Capital since 2006, focusing on investments in energy and technology. Before joining Lux, he held technical positions at General Motors and several Silicon Valley technology startups. He received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering Computer Science with College of Engineering Honors from the University of California at Berkeley, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Management from the University of California at Los Angeles. Shahin has also served as a postdoctoral scholar at the UCLA department of Electrical Engineering, and staff research associate at the California NanoSystems Institute. His research on wireless biosignal telemetry has been published in over 10 IEEE conference proceedings and 3 IEEE journals. Shahin sourced Lux's investments in Silicon Clocks (acquired by NASDAQ:SLAB) and SiBEAM (acquired by NASDAQ:SIMG), and played key roles in Lux's investments in Everspin and Luxtera. He works closely in supporting all of Lux's energy and technology companies. Shahin has been an invited speaker/panelist at a variety of Universities and organizations including the IEEE, UC Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA, UCI, the California Cleantech Initiative, OCTane, and the MIT Club of Silicon Valley.
Zack has worked with Lux since 2006, focusing on operations and investments within energy, novel materials, and technologies at the intersection of the digital and physical worlds. Zack has worked extensively with a number of Lux portfolio companies including Transphorm, Kurion, and Siluria. Before joining Lux, Zack worked as an expedition photographer on the Colorado Plateau. He received his B.S. cum laude from Cornell University's College of Engineering, where he developed his own curriculum to study materials science engineering and business entrepreneurship. He also completed his MBA at Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management after being chosen for a highly selective dual-degree program. Zack is a regular contributing editor for Forbes and has been an invited speaker and guest lecturer at Cornell, Drexel, and the University of Pennsylvania.
About Lux Capital Management
Lux Capital Management is a leading venture firm focused on founding, seed and early stage investments in emerging technologies. Lux takes an active role in helping entrepreneurs build successful businesses in Energy, Technology and Healthcare. The Lux investment team has founded more than 20 companies from scratch, including Caliper, Genocea, Illumina, Kala, Kurion, Lux Research, Nanosys, Neurocrine, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. For more information please visit www.luxcapital.com