Top 50 Rising Stars 2022 (in alphabetical order by CVC unit): Kevin Chen, partner, Lam Capital
Kevin Chen is a partner at Lam Capital, a corporate venturing arm of US-based semiconductor technology producer Lam Research. He joined the unit in June 2020 after more than 15 years of entrepreneurial and operating experience in materials, deeptech and biotech companies.
In his current role, he invests in and supports entrepreneurs who are developing technologies and products related to hard technology challenges in advanced materials, manufacturing, hardware, and industry 4.0.
He sits on the boards of three portfolio companies as an observer: 3D metal printing company Holo, medical visualisation software developer Echopixel and an undisclosed additive manufacturing group.
Before he joined Lam Capital, Chen had been chief executive for almost five years for Crop Enhancement, a US-based supplier of crop yield improvement products that help the agricultural industry replace synthetic pesticides, leading it from seed to series B round. He remains a member of the board of directors for the company.
Previously, Chen held senior roles at renewable energy company Hanergy as executive vice-president of Silicon Valley product development group and semiconductor technology provider Applied Materials as chief marketing officer of energy and environmental solutions and general manager of energy storage solutions.
Prior to joining Applied, he led business development and product management initiatives at small industrial products manufacturer NanoGram, semiconductor group AMD/Spansion and telecommunications equipment producer Lumentum. He had already co-founded optical networking equipment startup Cumulus Photonics early in his career.
He holds PhD and master of science degrees in materials science and engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a bachelor of science in engineering science from Penn State University, and is a Kauffman Fellows finalist.
