Francois Pichot has added the role of investment principal to his existing investment manager duties at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology’s innovation fund.
Kaust Innovation Fund, the university venture fund of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Kaust), has promoted investment manager Francois Pichot (pictured) to investment principal.
Pichot’s LinkedIn suggests he will fulfil the role while continuing in the post of investment manager, which he started in April 2017.
As investment principal, Pichot will manage the fund’s investment portfolio, source new deals and conduct due diligence. He will also represent the fund as a board member at its investees, though all deals must first be cleared with the Kaust investment committee.
Kaust Innovation Fund was formed in 2015 as a more stage-agnostic successor to the university’s previous seed funding program. It typically invests between $200,000 and $2m, targeting both Kaust spinouts and companies prepared to relocate to Saudi Arabia.
Earlier in his career, Pichot was a tech transfer project manager within University College Dublin’s office of the vice-president for innovation from 2007 until 2015.
His job description included work identifying, protecting and commercialising UCD research in physical sciences and engineering, as well as efforts supporting the business plans and strategy of UCD spinouts.
Pichot started his career as a post-doctoral research fellow at the US government-operated National Renewable Energy Laboratory in 1997, departing some two years later for an R&D and quality assessment management post at electronic display developer Ntera, which ended in 2007.
Following his time at UCD, Pichot spent two years as a strategic advisor for foreign institutional development agency International Development Ireland, where he began advising an unspecified Saudi Arabia-based public body on projects related to clean technology and energy.
Pichot earned his PhD in materials at Colorado State University before completing a diploma in business finance at Irish Management Institute. He had previously studied chemistry at École Supérieure de Chimie Organique et Minérale.
– Image courtesy of LinkedIn
