People

Rob Romero has over 20 years of investment, marketing, and engineering experience in the technology space. Mr. Romero’s professional experience includes engineering & management roles at Baldur, TCSI, Bay Networks, Netsys, and Cisco. Mr. Romero also co-founded and served as VP of Marketing at eVoice, a leading voicemail provider, sold to AOL in 2001. In 2001, Mr. Romero founded Connective Capital Ventures, and made early-stage investments in companies such as Vonage, IronPort and LiveOps. In 2003, Mr. Romero founded Connective Capital Management, a public equity investment firm, focused in the high growth sectors including technology and alternative energy. Mr. Romero holds a BS in EE, a BA in Economics, and an MS in Engineering Economic Systems from Stanford University. Rob has lived in several countries in Europe and Latin America and speaks Spanish and Portuguese.

Thomas K. Y. Hor is a Senior Research Analyst covering climate change-related sectors (solar, wind, biofuels, coal/gas, energy efficiency, agriculture, transportation, utility, industrials) globally. Thomas brings six years of hedge fund (Natura Capital), investment banking (Morgan Stanley) and business development (AMD/Spansion) experience. In addition, Thomas has held engineering positions at PMC-Sierra. Thomas holds a BASc in Engineering Physics from the University of British Columbia; an MASc in Electrical Engineering from Simon Fraser University; and an MBA from London Business School.

Tao Long is a Senior Research Analyst covering technology-related sectors (semiconductor, semi equipment, telecom, digital media). Tao brings over ten years of product management and technology experience (Broadcom, Infineon), and has expert domain knowledge in wireless and network infrastructure markets. Tao holds a BS with honors in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and an MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Tao is currently enrolled in the Wharton School’s EMBA program, and expects an MBA in May 2012. In addition, Tao has passed all levels of the CFA and of the CAIA exams.

Praveen is a Research Consultant covering the climate change-related sectors (solar, wind, biofuels, coal/natural gas, energy efficiency, agriculture, transportation, utility, industrials) globally. Prior to Connective Capital, Praveen held senior management positions at a technology startup – Cobalt Networks (company did a successful IPO and was later acquired by Sun Microsystems). Prior to the start-ups, Praveen held engineering and marketing positions at Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Novell, and Sun Microsystems. Praveen holds a B.Tech (Electrical Engineering) from Indian Institute of Technology, an MS in Electrical Engineering from Washington University at St Louis, and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley. Praveen was born in India and speaks Hindi.

Sidney Chen is in charge of IT infrastructure, trading, portfolio accounting, risk management and attribution analysis at Connective Capital. Sidney has more than 10 years of risk management, IT operations and accounting experience from GE Capital, Union Bank, Boston Scientific and LendingClub. He has a BA in Economics from UCLA and an MBA from Santa Clara University.

Ivan Tsurikov is a trader and risk manager for Connective Capital Management. Ivan has an BS in Management Science from the University of California in San Diego.

As the Administrator at Connective Capital Management, Cindy Matsuyama is responsible for investor correspondence, including document review and performance reporting, and human resources. She has an undergraduate degree from UC Santa Barbara and an MBA from Santa Clara University.

As an Advisory Partner to Connective, Rob brings over 20 years of investing and operational experience. Rob is the founder of Treehouse Capital, LLC which invests in private and public technology companies. He is a Venture Partner with Oak Investment Partners and serves as an Advisory Partner to several investment funds. Rob has also been a Lecturer with the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of California, Berkeley and has also served as the Director of Entrepreneurship at the Berkeley Center for Law, Business & the Economy. In addition, he has also been an investment banker and a mergers & acquisitions attorney. Rob received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University and a law degree from Stanford University.

Bruce is President and CEO of Pixelworks, and serves on its board of directors. Prior to Pixelworks, Mr. Walicek served as an Executive in Residence at Sevin Rosen Funds, and from 2003 through 2006, Mr. Walicek was employed by Worldview Technology Partners. Mr. Walicek worked at Deutsche Bank Alex Brown from 1996 through 2003, leading the semiconductor investment banking efforts from 1996 to 2000. Before entering the financial services industry, Mr. Walicek held a number of executive positions in the semiconductor industry over a 15-year career at firms such as Texas Instruments, VLSI Technology, and Cirrus Logic. Mr. Walicek began his career at Tracor Incorporated, where he developed image and signal processing technology for underwater sound applications. He holds an MBA from Santa Clara University and a BS in mathematics with highest honors from Texas State University.

Nicholas is co-founder and VP of Operations of Allopartis Biotechnologies, a company developing tailored industrial and therapeutic proteins. Prior to founding Allopartis, Nicholas held engineering and marketing positions at DOW Chemical, Motorola SPS, Union Carbide and TwoF. Nicholas has over ten years of operational experience in the fields of industrial biotechnology and chemical manufacturing. Nicholas holds B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Arizona and a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of California, Berkeley.