Dr. Robert Walker

Dr. Robert C. Walker is a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, CEO and physicist. He currently works as a venture capitalist and mentor to several VC firms and optoelectronic start-up companies. He was a founder, an investor and served on the Board of LARQ, a UV-LED enabled self-cleaning water bottle. He was previously a founder and CEO of RayVio, which developed an enabling ultraviolet LED technology. Applications included water, air and surface disinfection, medical treatments and industrial curing. From 2007-2012, he was a Partner at Sierra Ventures, a private venture capital firm that manages more than $1.5 billion of committed capital. Dr. Walker focused on investments in solid state lighting, displays, clean technology, solar energy and semiconductors.

Prior to Sierra he was CEO of BridgeLux, a high-power LED lighting company, from 2005-2007, and served on its Board of Directors from 2004. In 2003 Dr. Walker founded YEBY Associates, a Silicon Valley-based consultancy specializing in the Solid-State Lighting industry. Key activities included launching Intematix’ phosphor business, Strategies Unlimited’s research in the Asian LED markets, the Chinese government’s solid state lighting program, and a series of LED conferences in Taiwan. From 2001-2004 he was Managing Director-USA of Vincera Ventures, a US$150M venture capital fund based in Taiwan with several investments in the areas of LEDs and compound semiconductors. During his 8 years at EMCORE Corporation, a leading provider of MOCVD equipment to the compound semiconductor industry, he held a variety of sales and marketing positions, including General Manager, Pacific Rim.

Prior to joining the compound semiconductor industry, Dr. Walker spent 10 years conducting high energy physics research, including several years living in Japan. He is an author of the paper announcing the discovery of the “Top” quark, one of the fundamental particles of nature. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from Caltech in 1989 and a triple major in math, physics and computer engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1984. He has traveled extensively throughout the Pacific Rim region, and has been involved with the solid state lighting industry in Taiwan, Korea and China since its inception.