Course Instructors
Mike Lyons
Adjunct Professor in Management Science & Engineering and Civil & Environmental Engineering, Stanford University
Mr. Lyons is currently a managing director of NewLine Ventures, LLC, a technology advisory and venture capital group working with Fortune 500 clients and the U.S. Government. He also serves as Chairman of cyber security firm CypherPath, a converged infrastructure virtualization company. He was former Chairman of Shadow Networks, Inc. a cyber security company acquired by Alcalvio in 2016; both are based on technology developed through a tech transfer partnership with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. He also serves as a Director of Real-Time Innovations (www.rti.com), a privately held software company focused on advanced real-time integration of complex systems and a major thought leader in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). He is a strategic advisor to ICEYE, a SAR-based microsatellite data acquisition company and to SpinLectrix, an energy storage company.
From 2008 to 2011, he served as a Venture Partner with the Paladin Capital Group in Washington, D.C. and as a Venture Partner for ePlanet Ventures I and II. He was a co-founder and General Partner of Zilkha Venture Partners (Fund closed out in 2003), an early stage venture capital partnership focused on seed and first round investments in IT and bio-technology companies, principally located in Silicon Valley. He founded SafeView, Inc. in 2002, a Government Laboratory (PNNL) spinout, to address aspects of the anti-terrorist physical security market; the Company closed A and B rounds totaling more than $23M led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, ePlanet Ventures, GE/Invision, Paladin Capital Group, and Novak Biddle. He served as Chairman until its sale to L3 Communications in March, 2006. This technology is now the security standard in airports worldwide.
Concurrently, Mr. Lyons is an Adjunct Professor at Stanford University in both Departments of Management Science and Engineering and Civil and Environmental Engineering. Serving in the Stanford position since 1988, he was a co-developer of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program with Prof. Tom Byers and the founding professor of Technology Venture Formation. He also co-teaches, with Prof. Ray Levitt, Venture Creation for the Real Economy. Both of these courses are some of the highest rated courses in the School of Engineering. He is the co-creator of the Stanford Innovation and Entrepreneurship two week program for existing high tech companies produced and managed by the Stanford Center for Professional Development (SCPD). This program is just completing its eighth anniversary. He has co-produced and delivered numerous other SCPD and STVP programs. He is a co-founder of the Ratio Academy focused on creating training platforms for entrepreneurial education, and has co-developed the online REV program.
From 1980 to 1991, he was a co-founder, a Vice-President, and a Director of Integrated Systems Inc. (INTS, founded 1980), a leading implementer of high-performance real- time control systems for aircraft, automotive, and manufacturing applications. INTS was fundamentally a spinout from the Lockheed Palo Alto Research Lab and Systems Control, Inc. The Company was merged with WindRiver Systems in 1999. WindRiver was acquired by Intel in 2009.
Mr. Lyons received a Bachelors and Masters (equivalent) in Engineering Physics from Cornell University, an MSEE from Stanford, did Ph.D research in Aero/Astro at Stanford (abd) and an MBA, with Distinction, from the Pepperdine Presidential/Key Executive Program. He is a graduate of the Stanford/AEA Institute for the Management of High Technology Companies and a Price-Babson Fellow in Entrepreneurship Education. He holds an FAA multi-Engine Airline Transport Pilot License and Certified Flight Instructor Certificates for Instrument and Multi-Engine Aircraft. He is an avid sailor and motorcyclist.
Jack Fuchs
Adjunct Professor in Civil & Environmental Engineering and Lecturer in Management Science & Engineering, Stanford University
Jack is an entrepreneur a teacher, and an angel investor. From 2007 through 2012, Jack was CFO of ForteBio, Inc., a private life science equipment company, which was successfully sold to Pall Corporation on 1-March, 2012. Previously, he has held Finance, Business Development, Sales, Marketing, and Product Management positions at a number of private companies, including IPWireless, a 120-person broadband wireless company that was successfully sold to a strategic buyer in 2007. He also sold Lumitrend, a leading SAS applications provider, to Asurion, a device insurance company.
Previously in his career, Jack held several senior positions with Becton Dickinson & Company including Vice President of e-Business, North American Business Leader, Vice President Worldwide Marketing, and Director of Corporate Planning. In addition, Jack was an Engagement Manager with McKinsey & Company, where his client focus was health care and wireless communications.
In addition to his entrepreneurial pursuits, Jack is a Lecturer in MS&E273. He is also a Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at the Haas School of Business at The University of California at Berkeley. Jack mentors entrepreneurs, serves as a director of several private companies, and acts as an angel investor. He holds an AB in Engineering Sciences with Honors from Dartmouth College magna cum laude and phi beta kappa, and he received his MBA from Stanford University as an Arjay Miller Scholar.
Pedram Mokrian
Adjunct Professor in Civil & Environmental Engineering and Lecturer in Management Science & Engineering, Stanford University
Dr. Pedram Mokrian is currently a Managing Director of Newline Ventures, LLC, a technology advisory and venture capital group working with Fortune 500 clients and the U.S. Government. He is currently focused on creating new ways for large corporations to innovate and increase their competitiveness. His expertise lies at the intersection of how new technologies (connected devices, mobile, software systems), analytics (big data stack), and new business models (consumer marketplaces, product-driven services) that can disrupt large incumbent markets such as energy, manufacturing, logistics, education, and commerce.
Prior to this focus, he was a Principal with the world-class and category-creating VC firm Mayfield, joining in 2009. Partnering and working with entrepreneurs, he was part of the investment team in CPower (acquired by Constellation Energy) and SolarCity (SCTY). He also served as a board observer for enterprise SaaS companies SmartRecruiters and CloudPhysics, and other private companies in lighting and power generation.
Prior to Mayfield, Pedram spent time understanding how global markets worked on Wall Street as a member of the commodities trading desk at Credit Suisse in New York. He began his career by actually building things as an engineer and held positions at Ford Motor Company, JDS Uniphase, and Nortel Networks, broadly covering the areas of power generation, fiber-optic communications, and chip design.
He holds a BS and MS degree in Electrical Engineering, and a PhD from Stanford University with a focus on Operations Research, Quantitative Finance and Economics.
