Gallery - Universe Group

Carmichael Roberts

Carmichael is a successful entrepreneur-investor with experience building companies and commercializing university based technology in partnership with Fortune 500 companies.

In 2016, Carmichael founded Material Impact Fund, which seeks out novel materials and grows them into great products and enduring companies that solve real-world problems. Material Impact’s investments include Soft Robotics, Zero Mass Water and Amastan Technologies.

As a General Partner at North Bridge Venture Partners, Carmichael financed and built several successful companies that create innovative products by applying material science, including CubicPV, Foro Energy, and MC10. Prior to North Bridge, Carmichael co-founded several ventures and the non-profit Diagnostics For All, and served as President and CEO of Arsenal Medical.

Carmichael received his BS and PhD in organic chemistry from Duke University and completed his postdoctoral National Science Foundation fellowship at Harvard University. Carmichael also has an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management.

Bill Burgess

Bill Burgess is a Partner with North Bridge Venture Partners. Previously he was Managing Partner of ABS Ventures. Bill has worked closely with emerging growth technology companies as an investor and adviser throughout his career. Prior to venture capital, Bill advised technology companies for two decades in matters of corporate finance and M&A primarily at Alex. Brown & Sons and subsequently at Deutsche Bank where he held several management positions including Vice Chairman of Global Corporate Finance and Head of DB Venture Partners.

Bill has deep experience on boards of public and private corporations as well as not-for-profit organizations. He currently serves as a board member of Actifio, Salsify and CubicPV among for-profit corporations. In addition, Bill serves on the boards of the Appalachian Mountain Club, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences (Treasurer), Dartmouth College (Vice Chair), Issue One (Executive Committee) and St. Mark’s School (Past Chair and current Campaign Chair). Bill chaired the board of The New England Aquarium for a decade through 2013. Leadership duties have included Finance, Advancement, Capital Campaign, Executive Search and Strategic Planning.

He holds a BA from Dartmouth and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Bob Metcalfe

Dr. Robert “Bob” Metcalfe is an Emeritus Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at The University of Texas at Austin and a Research Affiliate in Computational Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). He was an Internet pioneer at MIT starting in 1970 and in 1973 received his PhD from Harvard for Packet Communication. He invented Ethernet in 1973 and founded 3Com Corporation (now part of HP) in 1979. In 2022, he received the Turing Award, often referred to as the “Nobel Prize in Computing,” for the invention, standardization, and commercialization of Ethernet, the dominant way of connecting computers and billions of other devices to each other and the Internet.

Bob was also CEO of IDG’s InfoWorld Publishing Company (1992-1995). For eight years, he wrote an Internet column read weekly by 629,000 information technologists. He also wrote for The American Spectator, Forbes, Technology Review, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired.

For nearly a decade, Bob was a venture capitalist at Polaris Partners, where he invested in early-stage technology companies.

Awards:

In 1980, Bob received the Hopper Award from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).
In 1988, he received the Bell Medal from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
In 1995, Bob was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In 1996, he received the IEEE’s Medal of Honor.
In 1997, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, and in 1999, to the International Engineering Consortium.
In 2003, Bob received the Marconi Prize and was inducted into the prestigious Bay Shore High School Hall of Fame.
In a 2005 ceremony at the White House, Bob received the National Medal of Technology for his leadership in the invention, standardization, and commercialization of Ethernet.
Bob entered the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2007.

Bruce Sohn

Bruce Sohn is passionately committed to growing US manufacturing and reducing the adverse effects of energy on our global environment. He is currently a Principal at MEGE Associates where he is focused on addressing the unique needs of building manufacturing businesses in the greentech, electronics and energy products industries.

He was previously President of First Solar and served on the Company’s Board of Directors during the formative and growth years. During his tenure, annual corporate revenue grew to $3.5B and the company became the largest photovoltaic module manufacturer and builder of utility scale solar power plants in the world.

Bruce had been at Intel Corporation for 24 years. He played a leadership role in developing and manufacturing leading-edge semiconductor technology and was a primary developer of Copy Exactly! He served as an integral part of the start-up team at five Fabs, was program manager for Intel’s conversion to 300mm wafers and managed Intel’s two largest, multi-billion dollar Fabs.

Bruce is an engineering graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a certified Jonah and has been a guest lecturer at several universities including MIT, Stanford and Harvard. Tohoku University honored him with the designation of sensei for his semiconductor industry leadership.

Bruce chaired the US Commerce Department’s Manufacturing Council for the President of the USA and was a Clean Energy Ambassador to the WWF. He is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and a Senior Member of IEEE.

Victor Liu

Victor Liu is president of Hunt Energy Enterprises where he leads Hunt’s energy technology venture and investment business. Victor helped found and create Hunt’s new ventures in Motive Drilling Technologies (acquired by Helmerich & Payne), Hunt Perovskite Technologies (merged with 1366 into CubicPV), Hunt Energy Network (software and service for utility scale battery management), Hunt’s new GEO and ANT Battery ventures. Prior to leading HEE, Victor helped develop Hunt’s InfraREIT venture which IPO’d in 2016. Before joining Hunt in 2006, Victor was active in high tech venture capital as a general partner with Vortex Partners from 2000 to 2005, and Sevin Rosen Funds from 1999 to 2000. As a venture capitalist, he was active in internet infrastructure and wireless investment decisions that included Cyneta Networks (acquired by Tektronix), Navarro Networks (acquired by Cisco Systems), ipMobile (acquired by Cisco Systems), RealManage and GlobeRanger. Before his venture capital career, Victor worked in new product and new business commercialization as director of business development for Cyrix Corporation (acquired by National Semiconductor), and as a product manager at Texas Instruments in the DLP™ business.

Victor earned an MBA from Harvard Business School, a BA from Southern Methodist University, and studied PPE at University College, Oxford University.

Tim McCaffery

Tim McCaffery manages SCG’s Deep Technology and Life Sciences CVC funds, which include more than 7 LP relationships with VC firms and over 15 portfolio companies. SCG’s Deep Technology CVC invests in decarbonization technologies including clean energy generation, storage, CCUS, batteries, circular economy and industrial biotechnology.

Prior to leading the Deep Technology Investing for all of SCG, Tim led SCG Chemicals Deep Technology Investing and SCG Chemicals Functional Materials and Battery Materials businesses. To assist the COVID-19 response in Thailand, Tim helped to connect SBS and AstraZeneca to produce AstraZeneca’s COVID Vaccine in Thailand for the ASEAN Region.

Before joining SCG, Tim worked at Cabot Corporation, a US based materials company. He has worked across large and small organizations as a startup founder, to large corporates (in the US and Internationally), to the US ARMY.

Tim has an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management, an MS in Materials Science from the University of New Hampshire, and a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of New Hampshire.