After graduating from Dartmouth College and UC Berkeley Law School, I began my legal career representing technology companies at all stages as well as the VCs and financial institutions that fund and support them.  As an attorney, I advised start-up companies on formation, capital raising and virtually all aspects of their operations, represented companies and investment banks in their IPOs and advised on M&A transactions, other complex corporate matters, SEC compliance and both private and public company corporate governance.  Along the way, I taught Securities Law at UC Berkeley Law School and chaired the California Bar Committee on Start-Up Transaction Documents. 

I then joined The Sobrato Organization (TSO), a diversified investment, real estate and philanthropic organization.  While at TSO, I served as the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Investment Officer, creating and growing Sobrato Capital into a substantial private and public securities investment platform.  Later, I became TSO’s Chief Executive Officer, overseeing all investment, real estate and philanthropic operations and helping set firm strategy, while serving on the Governance Board and Sobrato Philanthropies Board of Trustees.  At TSO, my proudest accomplishment was to help develop and implement an integrated vision for the organization whereby all facets of its operations are aligned for positive social impact while pursuing a high-growth business plan.  

My wife, Lisa, and I have embraced giving back as a core objective and value of our lives and careers, which has inspired the creation of AIC and Ravello Impact.  Areas of focus for our philanthropic and impact work include grass-roots organizations that seek to level up opportunities for all members of our community to share in the extraordinary growth of Silicon Valley.   We have also sought to support differentiated social entrepreneurs who would make a salutary dent in the world and possess the talent and grit to do so.  I am a former board member of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Peninsula and supporter of other local non-profits.  In addition, as Builders of Berkeley, Lisa and I have given back to our alma mater through our support of the Law School, the Center for Connected Learning, the School of Education and SkyDeck, of which I am an advisor, among other institutions and programs.  

Now, with AIC, I hope to practice and apply what I have learned as a start-up advisor, investor, executive and philanthropist and to express our values of giving back by empowering academic innovators to develop and commercialize technology as a force for good.