Joseph Raffa

Board of Directors

2023

Board Observer. Ayar Labs develops photonic I/O solutions for applications such as AI datacenters that require high bandwidth and low latency to move data.

Investor

2020

Investor

2020

Carbice is a George Tech spinout that builds thermal solutions based on carbon materials that remove heat from chips and chip packaging. It is setting the standard for performance, reliability, and low-cost assembly within the world’s most important electronic, energy, and industrial products.

Venture Partner, Foresight Ventures

2020

Foresight focuses on Series A companies with differentiated IP in hardware, AI-based science, simulation and decarbonization segments. https://www.foresight.group/growing-companies/meet-our-team/joe-raffa

Quantum California Initiative

2024

Focused initiative at UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley Labs and Advanced Quantum Testbed of the DoE to raise the visibility of quantum computing with state lawmakers and the Governor's office in Sacramento in pursuit of a Quantum Innovation Zone in Northern California. Represented the VC industry as part of a team which includes the Dean of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, .Director of Government Relations and University Provost. There is now a bill being drafted in the CA Assembly to designate a Quantum Innovation Zone in the state.

Senior Director, Strategy and Corporate Development

2024

Leading the creation and delivery of strategy analysis and recommendations to the Chairman and senior executives. Initiated strategic partnership discussions with Nvidia focused on memory appliances connected to Nvidia GPUs, working with the Nvidia board, general management, technical leadership and product leadership. Initiated partnership discussions with Ayar Labs focused on photonic solutions for high-bandwidth memory and memory appliances. Presented an introduction to quantum computing viewed by over 1000 Samsung employees. Samsung Semiconductor develops semiconductor solutions, including HBM, DRAM, SSD, processors and image sensors.

Executive in Residence, Board Advisor

2024 - 2024

Worked closely with the Quantum Delta board to help accelerate the commercialization of quantum technologies at the country level. Projects include drug discovery, research commercialization and VC-funded spinouts. In addition, I am personally coaching, mentoring and actively helping 10-12 startups. Based in the SF Bay Area with occasional trips to the Netherlands.

Speaker and Discussion Leader

2024 - 2024

Quantum Computing for Drug Discovery. Speaker and discussion leader on the topic of VC-funded research spinouts and commercialization. The Network on Evolving Quantum Technology (NEQT) is facilitated by Innovation Centre Denmark Silicon Valley. This collaboration brings together distinguished partners from the NNF Quantum Computing Programme (NQCP), Quantum Foundry Copenhagen at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Berkeley Lab, BioInnovation Institute (NATO DIANA), and the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

Technical Advisory Board

2020 - 2024

Corporate development, fundraising, R&D partnerships, fabrication partnerships and product strategy. Initiated the partnership (announced December 2023) with the Advanced Quantum Testbed of Berkeley Labs focused on QPU design and fabrication. Based in the SF Bay Area.

Advisor, BCG Tech Ventures

2019 - 2020

Startup company formation based on corporate research projects. Venture capital fund formation.

Director, IBM Ventures (IBM Research focus)

2015 - 2019

Initiated IBM's outreach to quantum computer startups and their VC investors, exploring a variety of partnerships, joint development relationships and corporate direct investments. Additional focus on AI chip and infrastructure startups. Numerous small projects in additional areas, including network virtualization, enterprise AI, enterprise storage and geospatial information systems. Represented IBM as executive speaker at numerous venture capital and quantum computer industry events.

Director, Corporate Development (Yorktown Research spinout)

2015 - 2017

Explored commercialization options for a network virtualization research project in IBM Yorktown Research, include forming a venture capital funded startup spinout.