Who we are

Champ Suthipongchai

Champ was chief strategy officer at SHARP Electronics where he headed the digital transformation and technology sourcing effort. He also ran new product development initiatives and supply chain at Jonhson and Johnson. Champ holds an M.Sc. in industrial and operations Engineering and an MBA from University of California, Berkeley.

James Wang

James was on the core investment team at Bridgewater Associates, founded a health-tech startup, and worked at Google X. He is a reviewer for various technical publications in AI, especially in reinforcement learning. He holds an M.S in computer science specializing in AI/ML from Georgia Tech and an MBA from University of California, Berkeley.

Alex Luce

Alex has extensive experience launching and investing in bold entrepreneurial ventures enabled by revolutionary science. Previously, Alex led CalCharge, the energy storage subsidiary of the California Clean Energy Fund. He was also a co-founder of SuperCharge US, a nationwide battery manufacturing consortium, and a solar energy startup. He is a frequent reviewer for ARPA-E and the US Department of Energy.

Alex holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Material Science and Engineering from University of California, Berkeley. 

Kulika Weizman

Kulika was a co-founder and CEO of a synthetic biology company producing functional ingredients naturally found in human breast milk. She also launched and led R&D projects for food and cosmeceutical applications using fermentation technologies at BIOTEC. Kulika holds a Ph.D. in Microbiology from University of California, Berkeley.

Ted Thirapatana

After working at a startup in the first dotcom boom, Ted became a C-level executive at one of the fastest growing construction companies in Asia. An experienced investor and advisor, Ted is an expert on helping startups grow.

Daniel Lin

Daniel is the founder of a tech-landing pad in Asia, FutureWard. With his experience as an international business development executive, Dan has been helping startups and tech companies expand their business internationally.

Stamp Suksantiswad

Stamp is an ex-management consultant and digital project leader. His knowledge in project management and marketing is ready to support both Creative and its portfolio companies.

Orn Orpong

Orn is an experienced office manager who has supported companies around the world. Here at Creative, she helps solidify and synergize our working culture.

Nydia Zhang

Prior to joining Creative, Nydia has experience leading Investor Relations and Community Strategy for the APAC Region at FTW Ventures, an early-stage food-tech venture firm. Located in Hong Kong, Nydia works across a diverse investor base and partners in Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia.

Nydia served as Chair of Advisory Council to The Good Food Institute (GFI) APAC, an international NGO advocating for the transformation of the global food system. She is also the co-founder and trustee of the Social Alpha Foundation, a group dedicated to funding Blockchain for social impact programs, as well as a member of the fundraising board of The Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children and director’s circle of SFMOMA.

Sarah Chen

Sarah has a background in public equity with expertise in financial analysis and investment research. She brings with her two years of auditing experience at KPMG, a global leading accounting firm. Here at Creative Ventures, she assists the investment and fund management teams with growth and operations.

Michael Mayer

Managing Director of Montreux Growth Partners.

Mr. Mayer began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), where he was a Partner, working primarily with high technology companies and VC firms in Silicon Valley.

Early in his career at PwC, the firm sent him to Europe for a two year assignment, providing him broad exposure to multi-national companies (including HP and IBM) and to their international operations. That experience set the stage for a career that has had a strong focus on technology companies and global operations. His immersion into the VC scene of the early 1980’s led Mr. Mayer to leave PwC to join Berkeley International, a VC firm client, where he initially served as COO/CFO and later as President. During his nearly 25 years there, he was deeply involved in all aspects of VC investment and portfolio management, across a broad range of technology sectors, including healthcare. Berkeley’s investments included Oracle, AOL, 3Com, Cypress Semiconductor, LSI Logic, and Nellcor. He served on numerous portfolio company boards, and played an active, hands-on role at many portfolio companies. In 2008, Mr. Mayer was recruited to join the private equity firm, Geolo Capital. At Geolo, he was a Partner, with responsibility for portfolio management, due diligence/closings, and exits/M&A. He retired from Geolo in 2015 and joined MGP in early 2016, where he focuses on portfolio company and firm operations. Mr. Mayer graduated from Washington State University with a BA in Accounting and several honors, and was a Gold Medal winner on the CPA exam. Over the course of his long career, Mr. Mayer has served on many boards, including boards of both public and private companies, and non-profits.

Brian Frank

Brian is the Founder and General Partner of FTW Ventures. He is experienced in both Technology & Food, and understands the complexity of running startups at the intersection of these two, challenging spaces.

Prior to founding FTW, Brian led 3 venture-backed businesses to successful exits and directed innovative products in communication, mobile, social & AI/ML for both startups & Fortune 500 Companies over his 20+ year career.

Linda Pouliot

Linda is a serial entrepreneur with deep expertise in robotics, product management, operations, and manufacturing. She is the CEO and Founder of Dishcraft Robotics.

In 2004, Linda co-founded Neato Robotics and was VP Product Management and Operations. She led the design, development and manufacturing of Neato’s revolutionary laser guided vacuum cleaner. The company is now the number two player globally in consumer robotic vacuums.

After Neato, Linda became the Chief Operating Officer of Adiri (acquired by ReliaBrand), where she oversaw the redesign and manufacturing of the international award winning Adiri bottle. She then co-founded the game advertising platform Mahoot.