Audrey Charles
Biography
Audrey Charles is senior vice president of corporate strategy at Lam Research. In this position, held since 2020, she is responsible for leading the executive management team in the development of strategic priorities and key initiatives that support the company’s long-term profitable growth. Audrey also oversees Lam’s Corporate Development team and the company’s investment arm, Lam Capital, which invests in disruptive companies that advance the semiconductor ecosystem through next generation industrial automation, technology and product innovation, and new market opportunities. She brings a broad base of experience to her role, including engineering, marketing, customer management and investor relations. Since joining Lam in 1995, she has served in a range of leadership positions including senior vice president of Global Human Resources, vice president of corporate initiatives and chief of staff to the CEO. Audrey earned an M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a B.S. in applied physics from Dublin City University.
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Ben Haskell
Biography
Ben is a Business Development Director at Lam Research and Principal at Lam Capital since 2023. Prior to joining Lam Capital, he developed and led Lam’s Technology Scouting program that identified, evaluated, and co-developed disruptive technologies in partnership with startups and established businesses alike. Before joining Lam, Ben was an entrepreneur and executive. He was co-founder and CEO of III-V CVD startup Inlustra Technologies, leading the company through its series B fundraising. He then joined micro-LED display startup Ostendo Technologies, where as Vice President of Technology he led nonpolar III-V epitaxy development and the company’s heterogeneous integration fab for monolithic displays. He has over 30 pending and issued patents and authored over 50 papers and book chapters with more than 3,500 citations. Ben earned his B.S.E in Materials Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and his Ph.D. in Materials from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Kevin Chen
Biography
Kevin joined Lam Capital mid-2020 bringing over 15 years of entrepreneurial and operating experience in materials-centric deep- and bio-tech companies. Most recently, Kevin was CEO of Crop Enhancement, an agriculture technology company commercializing novel products that replace synthetic pesticides, leading it from Seed through Series B. Prior to that, Kevin held senior roles at Hanergy (EVP of Silicon Valley Product Development Group) and Applied Materials (CMO of Energy and Environmental Solutions and GM of Energy Storage Solutions). Prior to Applied, Kevin led business development and product management efforts at NanoGram (acquired), AMD/Spansion, and Lumentum. Kevin’s passion for entrepreneurship was ignited early in his career when he co-founded Cumulus Photonics to commercialize innovative optical networking equipment. Kevin earned PhD and SM degrees in Materials Science & Engineering from MIT, a BS in Engineering Science from Penn State University, and is a Kauffman Fellows Finalist. He is a director of Crop Enhancement and mentor with the MIT VMS.
Eva Liu
Biography
Eva joined Lam Capital in early 2020 and is responsible for operations, financial modeling and deal sourcing at Lam Capital. Before joining the Lam Capital team, she cofounded and worked for several start-ups in the Internet of Things space, such as meShare and Zmodo, and was in charge of fundraising and product commercialization. She received an M.B.A. from the University of California – Berkeley, Haas School of Business and holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in Economics and Accounting.
Mike Huang
Biography
Mike joined Lam capital in 2022, focusing on the investment of semiconductor supply chain optimization in Asia. Prior to Lam Capital, Mike was a market research analyst and an industrial consultant in semiconductor sector. He worked for Samsung Electronics and TSMC on strategic procurement, market intelligence, and supply chain management initiatives. Prior to Samsung, he led the research team at Isaiah Research, advising the key hardware tech companies across Asia. Mike earned an MBA degree from London Business School; Master’s degree in Technology Management and B.S. degree in Biotechnology from National Chiao Tung University.
Lucas Prioli
Biography
Prior to Lam Capital, Lucas worked at Goldman Sachs on the funding origination team with a focus on US fixed income securities and deposits. He received a BS and MBA from Wharton where he graduated as a Palmer Scholar. He is currently pursuing a Master of Computer and Information Technology degree at the University of Pennsylvania.