Mr.Lyons is Executive Chairman of PNW BioIndustries, a stealth startup, currently CEO Emeritus of RapidAscent, Inc. a cybersecurity-focused academy addressing the lack of experientially trained experts needed to reduce corporate risk of loss, and Chairman of their advanced standards advisory boards. He also servesas Chairman for PrecisionOS, a VR-enabled surgical education platform https ://www.precisionostech.com/,and as a former director of Real-Time Innovations (https://www.rti.com/en/)focused on advanced real-time integration of complex systems and a major thought leader in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). He has served as a key advisor to Moog Industries for the creation of their compact construction machine robotics business line. He served as a Venture Partner with the Paladin Capital Group in Washington, D.C., as a Venture Partner for ePlanet Ventures Iand II, and as a co-founder and General Partner of Zilkha Venture Partners an early-stage venture capital partnership focused on seed and first-round investments in IT and biotechnology 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; this technology is now the security standard in airports worldwide and was acquired by Leidos for $1Bin 2020. He was a co-founder, Vice-President, and Director of Integrated Systems Inc. (Nasdaq IPO, INTS),then merged with WindRiver Systems (WIND), subsequently acquired by Intel. Venture track record as a GP shown separately.
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 (STVP) and the founding professor of Technology Venture Formation (MSE 273)- now merged with Entrepreneurship for The Real Economy (CEE 246). Mr. Lyons received a Bachelor’s and Master’s(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.
Dr. Aaron Greenblatt is an entrepreneur and investor who holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He creates new ventures at the intersection of novel research and customer-centric applications. Dr. Greenblatt has employed unusual forms of information processing to create companies serving the cloud computing, defense, and healthcare industries. As an investor, Dr. Greenblatt led AI investing efforts at the London-based hedge fund, Arrowgrass. Dr. Greenblatt’s areas of technical focus include AI algorithm development, computer networking and security, novel methods of computation, and digital audio processing.
Dr. Greenblatt’s graduate studies at Stanford focused on adaptive systems and neural networks. His dissertation introduced hypercomplex learning algorithms for pattern recognition and computer vision. Hypercomplex algorithms are especially effective for multidimensional data where there is correlation between the dimensions, for example, an RGB-encoded color image. Dr. Greenblatt also performed research with Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, where he developed computationally efficient, real-time audio processing algorithms. Dr. Greenblatt’s work has been published in the IEEE, SPIE, Audio Engineering Society, and other respected venues. He holds 5 patents in areas that include zero knowledge proof computation, computer data security, and digital signal processing. At Stanford, Dr. Greenblatt received the NDSEG, NSF, and Maitra-Luther Graduate Fellowships.
In addition to his academic background, Dr. Greenblatt has started several companies: His first business, started prior to graduate studies, focused on HIPAA-compliant datacenter deployments and robotic process automation for the healthcare industry. In his next company, Dr. Greenblatt worked closely with the US Air Force and BAE Systems to develop a zero-trust filesystem, wherein AI is used to make real time access control decisions based on user behavior and location. Based on this experience, Dr. Greenblatt founded an additional company focused on efficient verifiable computing and decentralized database systems. Dr. Greenblatt’s entrepreneurship interests broadly include systems using AI for scalable compute and security.
Peter Kent is a seasoned Silicon Valley senior financial executive with decades of experience with startup companies, teaching, coaching, mentoring, and managing funds. His startup experience began in the 1980’s as CFO of a company named MicroPro, best-known for its worldwide leading software program called WordStar. He successfully took that company public through an IPO process. That started him on his journey as a serial entrepreneur. His next major company was named Adaptive, which created technically sophisticated telecommunications equipment in the 1990’s following deregulation of the telecommunications industry in the United States. That company was successfully sold to a much larger telecommunications company.
Later in the 1990’s Mr. Kent formed a consulting firm called Insight Business Systems. He is still Managing Partner of the business, whose goal is to provide high-level operational expertise and financial oversight, while also providing coaching and mentoring to CEO’s of startup companies as they move through stages of growth. He has now been involved with dozens of startup companies, and has helped them raise over $300 million in either debt or equity. He served as part-time or interim CFO at many of them over the years.
Mr. Kent manages a venture fund called KING Fund LLC. There he provides mentoring and coaching to portfolio company CEO’s as well. For over 30 years Mr. Kent has been helping teach an entrepreneurship class to graduate engineers at Stanford University. The focus is on financial management and financial modelling. He also has been helping teach a Leadership course at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University for over 20 years.
Mr. Kent earned a degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Michigan, and an MBA from Stanford University.
Dave Blakely serves on boards as an independent director, advises startups and large organizations on new venture creation, and invests in deeptech and hardtech startups. Focusing primarily on complex challenges such as energy transition and autonomous systems, Dave helps companies to navigate the intersection of emerging technology, large-scale business opportunity, and human need. He makes heavy use of AI tools to accelerate each phase in the venture process.
Dave leverages his experience as an early employee of two startups with successful exits, Kevex and bebop, to apply methods and tools of startups and venture capital to innovation programs inside large companies. He combines his startup experience with many years at design and innovation firm IDEO, where as Global Director of Technology Strategy his work with clients like Cisco, Microsoft and Eli Lilly generated billions in business value (and gave him six patents as well).
Over the last ten years, Dave has focused on helping Global 1000 companies to transform their global network of professionals into successful venture builders and venture investors. Dave led the incubation of a disruptive new energy venture for Schneider Electric that reached unicorn valuation shortly after its market launch. His work with TDK, Schneider Electric and Hitachi helped them to build businesses that were not imaginable just 5 or 10 years ago.
Dave’s current roles include advisory work and board membership with large corporations such as SLB and startups including recent unicorn Invisible.tech. He is also an advisory board member and limited partner with Energy Transition Ventures. Dave enjoys teaching at the Graduate Business Schools of both Stanford and UC Berkeley.
Dave received a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Physics with honors and a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering with a robotics specialization with honors, both from the University of California at Berkeley.
Dr. Craig Schultz is a technology and risk executive with a career spanning advanced security, AI, cyber operations, and financial risk analytics. He has founded and scaled ventures at the intersection of cybersecurity, AI, and insurance risk, building products adopted by insurers, reinsurers, hedge funds, and enterprise security teams.
Dr. Schultz previously served as CEO and Chief Product Officer of Neo Prime, where he launched quantitative cyber-risk and loss-modeling platforms used to inform underwriting and enterprise risk strategy. He led global product management at Risk Management Solutions (RMS, acquired by Moody's), developing financial and catastrophe models that underpin pricing and portfolio decisions across the insurance and reinsurance markets. Earlier, he directed advanced cyber and analytics initiatives at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, focused on large-scale data fusion, escalation risk, and national security systems.
As Co-Founder and CTO of RapidAscent, Dr. Schultz builds AI-driven cyber and technical upskilling systems that align workforce capability with measurable risk reduction—supporting insurers, regulated industries, and high-growth technology organizations. He advises founders, investors, and corporate leaders on product strategy, scalable technology design, and market entry for advanced cyber, AI, and insurance-aligned innovations.
Dr. Schultz has lectured at Stanford and has held faculty roles at the University of Maryland. He received his PhD from MIT.
Ali Riaz is a senior technology executive with more than two decades of experience leading global software companies across enterprise data, maritime operations, and advanced analytics. He currently serves as CEO and Chair of OrbitMI, a maritime intelligence platform that helps shipowners, operators, and charterers improve voyage performance, fuel efficiency, and regulatory reporting by bringing data from onboard and onshore systems into one place.
Ali has led OrbitMI since its spin out from Stena Bulk in 2019. Under his leadership, the company has built a global client base, expanded through acquisitions in Sweden and Canada, and secured strategic investment from organizations such as Bureau Veritas and Ifchor Galbraiths.
Prior to OrbitMI, Ali was Founder and CEO of Attivio, where he led the company’s growth as a unified information access platform serving large enterprise clients including GE, Goldman Sachs, Citi, Fidelity, Cisco, and Qualcomm. He raised $76M in venture funding and built global partnerships with Accenture, Wipro, EMC, and KPMG.
