Victor
Victor is Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Lumos Capital Group.
Prior to Lumos, Victor was Managing Director and Global Head of Education Technology & Knowledge Services Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs. Victor co-founded the Education Technology and Knowledge Services practice at Goldman Sachs, and led a global team that advised, financed and invested in leading global education and education technology companies, completing over $50 billion in transactions during his tenure.
Victor believes deeply in the power of education to transform society and help people reach their full potential. Growing up in Asia and Africa, he saw how a commitment to investing in human capital is the foundation for lifting entire societies out of poverty. He comes from a family of pioneers and practitioners in the education sector; his grandmother was the first female president of the leading teacher’s college in Taiwan in the 1960s and helped to educate an entire generation of K-12 school teachers. Victor also deeply believes in entrepreneurship and the role of private capital to drive innovation and change. He is passionate about working closely with entrepreneurs to help them build lasting businesses that can create tremendous impact and value.
Prior to Goldman Sachs, Victor worked as an investment professional at Zephyr Management, an emerging markets private equity firm, and as an attorney at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, an international law firm.
Victor received an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, a JD from Harvard Law School, and a BA from Amherst College. He is originally from Taipei, Taiwan and now lives in North Carolina with his wife and two rambunctious daughters.
James
James is Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Lumos Capital Group.
With over 16 years of investing experience, James has led and completed 17 platform transactions (majority and minority deals), having deployed over $1.6 billion of equity in education, software, business services, and digital media companies. His investments have ranged in enterprise value from less than $10 million to over $1 billion. James has served as a member or observer of the Board of Directors for 15 public and private companies.
James was previously a Principal at Quad Partners, a private equity firm focused exclusively on the education sector. Previously, he was with Apax Partners, where he focused on financial, business and digital services investments around the world. Prior to Apax, James was an investment professional at Irving Place Capital. He began his career at McKinsey & Company, where he worked on strategy, M&A, and corporate finance engagements across a variety of industries.
James received an MBA from Harvard Business School and earned an AB in Economics from Princeton University with certificates in Finance and Political Economy. He lives in New York City with his wife and two rambunctious boys.
Yichen
Yichen Feng is an Advisory Director and former Growth Partner at Lumos Capital Group.
The re-centering of our education system to one where all students are thriving, not simply surviving is core to her values and has driven her career. She is a proud daughter of creative, bold, and rebellious first-generation immigrants and a graduate of multicultural and working-class schools within the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Her work in the human development sector has moved between the public and private sectors, and includes founding a primary school in Hayward, CA, developing teacher training programs in Egypt, go-to-market strategy for African edutainment shows at UBONGO, assessing online learning programs in Nepal and developing entrepreneurship training curriculum in Tibet with the US State Department.
Prior to Lumos, Yichen led Asia expansion for Nova Credit and was a technology investment banker at Goldman Sachs. She has advised early stage education technology entrepreneurs at Village Capital, created television shows at Amazon Studios and started her career at Cisco’s in-house venture capital arm focused on emerging markets. She is a Business Council board member of the National Head Start Network, an RSF Social Finance Integrated Capital Fellow and a 2019 Resident of the House of Beautiful Business.
Yichen received an MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia, and a BA from Harvard University.
Rohan
Rohan is a Managing Director and founding member of Lumos Capital Group.
Rohan has spent his entire career in the education sector. He is motivated by the power of education to enact change and level the playing field. Rohan brings education-specific experience as a former entrepreneur, consultant, and investor.
As an entrepreneur, Rohan founded and subsequently sold a higher education exam preparation company in Canada. He later joined the consulting firm Oliver Wyman, helping launch their Education Practice. During his time at Oliver Wyman, Rohan led over 15 projects advising education companies on growth strategy, and working closely with investors in evaluating investments, including some of the largest transactions in the sector. Prior to joining Lumos, Rohan was a Principal at Round13 Capital, a venture capital firm, where he grew as an investor, focused on growth stage technology investing.
Rohan is also heavily involved in non-profit work in the sector. He has split time between the UK and India working directly with TED-Prize winner Sugata Mitra on scaling his School in the Cloud platform in impoverished areas. Locally, Rohan sits on the advisory board of KIPP NYC, one of the largest charter school networks in the US, and leads the board’s efforts around education advocacy and external engagement.
Rohan holds a Bachelor’s of Commerce from the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University in Canada, where he graduated as valedictorian.
Nicole
Nicole is a Vice President at Lumos Capital Group.
Nicole believes access to inclusive and equitable education is fundamental to achieving the other 16 UN SDGs. She is motivated by the power of education to transform our relationships with our community, with each other and with ourselves.
As a Strategy & Operations consultant at Deloitte, Nicole was exposed to a variety of core business functions, from helping manage a $50M tech implementation to optimizing pricing for over 20,000 products. She later joined a 30 person team at LearnZillion, a venture-backed digital curriculum publisher, and reported directly to the CFO. During a period of tremendous growth which culminated in an acquisition, Nicole was responsible for all aspects of financial reporting and operations, setting pricing strategy and managing the proposal process. Prior to joining Lumos, Nicole was a Strategic Finance Senior Analyst at LinkedIn, where she helped drive performance management, predictability and long-term planning for LinkedIn’s fast growing Marketing Solutions business.
Nicole is also involved in non-profit work. She serves as a volunteer Executive Director to Brighter Children, a venture philanthropy that invests in educational entrepreneurs around the world and is currently in the top 30% of charities in the US.
Nicole holds a Bachelor’s of Commerce from the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce, where she graduated with distinction.
Mady
Mady is an Associate at Lumos Capital Group.
Mady has long believed that quality early education lays the best possible foundation for a successful future. Looking ahead, she is excited to see how technology can continue to help increase equity and improve educational outcomes.
Prior to joining the Lumos team, Mady was a Consultant within EY-Parthenon's Education practice. During her time there, her clients included financial sponsors, corporations, higher education Institutions, and state governments. Through her work with financial sponsors, she advised on 30+ buy- and sell-side processes that spanned early childhood education through corporate training software markets. A highlight of her time was her work redesigning a state's child care subsidy program to better serve families and providers during the latter part of the pandemic. Prior to that, she has experience has an educator in Lebanon and working in operations at an OER start-up.
Mady is also involved with non-profit work, currently serving on the Leadership Council at Stanford Professionals in Investing & Finance, and having previously held leadership positions at a non-profit consulting firm, Inspire Inc. Outside of work, Mady enjoys spending time with friends while either biking or skiing.
Mady holds a Bachelor's of Science in Management Science & Engineering from Stanford University.
Lionel
Lionel is the Controller at Lumos Capital Group and helps to lead finance and operational functions at the firm.
Lionel believes that education is the key to building a prosperous and healthy life, and joined Lumos to help further its mission of partnering with the most impactful companies in the sector.
Lionel is a seasoned professional in the investment space, having worked at a variety of private and public equity funds. Previously, Lionel served as the controller for Serengeti Asset Management, a private equity firm with over $1 billion in AUM. Lionel was central to running the firm’s day-to-day operations, managing valuations, treasury and all other back office related matters. Previous to Serengeti, Lionel was at Sandton Capital Partners, a special situation private equity firm, with over $1.3 billion in AUM, and at Arsenal Group, formerly known as Mellon HBV, a hedge fund with a global event strategy.
Lionel is a Certified Public Accountant and has a B.A. with double concentration in Accounting and Economics from Queens College of the City University of New York. Lionel was born in Guyana and migrated to New York after finishing high school. He now lives in New Jersey with his wife and three children.
James Ahn
James Ahn (“Jimmy”) is a Managing Director and Head of Asia at Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (“CD&R”), a New York-based global private equity firm founded in 1978. Jimmy is also a Partner and member of the Investment Committee of Principle Capital, a middle market focused growth and buyout firm in China. Since joining CD&R in 2011, Jimmy has been responsible for building CD&R’s presence in Asia, building strategic partnerships with local investment teams such as Principle Capital in China and Kedaara Capital Advisors in India, and deepening CD&R’s capital relationships in the Asia-Pacific region. Before joining CD&R in 2011, Jimmy was a Partner in McKinsey & Company’s Hong Kong office, where he was the Head of Asia-Pacific M&A practice. He was also a co-founder of the Asia-Pacific Private Equity Practice and was the one of the most active partners in Asia serving private equity firms on due diligence, business plan development, and strategy engagements.
Jimmy received a JD from Harvard Law School and an MS in Industrial Engineering and AB in Economics (with Distinction) from Stanford University. At Stanford, he was awarded the President’s Award for Academic Excellence, was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi, and was the Chairman of the Nominations Committee for the University. Jimmy is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of Dulwich College Seoul.
Tom Barry
Thomas C. Barry is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Zephyr Management, L.P., an emerging markets investment management company which he founded in 1994. Zephyr has sponsored thirteen specialized investment funds with approximately US $2 billion in committed capital. Zephyr Management has sponsored discrete funds for private equity investing in South Africa, Nigeria, Pan-Africa, Mexico, Korea, India and Sri Lanka.
Prior to founding Zephyr, Mr. Barry was President and CEO of Rockefeller & Co., the investment management arm of the Rockefeller family, from 1983 to 1993. Previously, Mr. Barry was employed by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. from 1969 to 1982 where he was President of Rowe Price New Horizons Fund.
Mr. Barry received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1969 and an undergraduate degree from Yale University in 1966 where he majored in Latin American Studies. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Mr. Barry is active in numerous not-for-profit institutions.
Tom Davidson
Tom Davidson is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of EVERFI, Inc. based in Washington, D.C. Since starting the company in 2008, Tom has led EVERFI from a startup in a Georgetown apartment to an organization with over 4,300 corporate customers and financial institutions.
Tom has convened the world’s most prominent technology and financial services leaders to reimagine how financial institutions connect with their communities, regulators and other key constituencies.
As CEO of EVERFI, he has raised over $250 million of venture capital from the world’s leading institutions and technology leaders including TPG, The Rise Fund, New Enterprise Associates, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, Twitter Founder Evan Williams, Allen and Company and U2 lead singer Bono. EVERFI’s technology now powers major initiatives for customers like American Express, Bank of America, Bank of the West, BB&T, BBVA Compass, Boeing Employees Credit Union, California Credit Union League, Charles Schwab, Hancock Whitney Bank, John Hancock, MassMutual, Mastercard, Morgan Stanley, Navigant Credit Union, Regions Bank, and UBS.
Tom has been a leader in education technology issues for over 20 years. While a senior at Bowdoin College, Tom ran for the Maine House of Representatives, was elected in an upset and served three consecutive terms before deciding not to pursue reelection. He served as one of the youngest committee Chairs as Chairman of the Utilities and Energy Committee where he led efforts to expand the wiring of schools and libraries across the State. He introduced and passed major legislation on health policy, government ethics and economic development. He also served as a senior member of the Taxation Committee and the Banking Insurance and Business and Economic Development Committees. Tom was recognized as a Top 100 Entrepreneur Innovator and Builder by Goldman Sachs and was the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Greater Washington, D.C. Tom was recognized by Glassdoor as the 4th highest nationally ranked CEO amongst SMB companies with a 99% employee approval rating. He has been featured in numerous media outlets including Wall Street Journal, Fortune, TechCrunch,Washington Post, Bloomberg, CNN Money, Fox Business News, Yahoo Finance, and Fast Company.
Paul Kim
Paul Kim is the Chief Technology Officer and Assistant Dean at Stanford University Graduate School of Education. For the past 18 years, he has been advising numerous education businesses and participating in a series of M&A, due-diligence, and corporate finance engagements in the areas of education technology, data analytics, online training, and technology infrastructure. He also served as an advisor to National Science Foundation, National Academy of Sciences, and WestEd. He has developed and taught graduate-level courses and MOOCs related to educational entrepreneurship, technology design, and international development. His recent government-backed development projects include the design of a new science and technology university for the Sultan of Oman, the strategy design for the national online learning initiative of Saudi Arabia, and the national education technology assessment initiative for Uruguay.
John McIntire
John is an early stage investor focusing primarily on technology opportunities in the U.S. and Latin America. He led the early financing and is a director (chairman 2010-15) of Open Education, the parent company of Open English and Next_U, two of the leading online learning platforms in the Americas. John is an investor in and lead director of itopia, which is Google’s exclusive partner in the SME cloud migration space. Together, these companies have raised over $100 million of venture capital. He recently co-founded the software outsourcing company CodeLabs, which is working with programmers in Cuba, Chile and Argentina.
John is an advisory director of the language services company ProTranslating and the casual dining group Sushi Maki.
He is a Senior Advisor to Endeavor Global, the leading non-profit organization promoting entrepreneurship in the developing world, and has been actively involved in entrepreneur mentoring and selection with that organization for the last 15 years. John is also a member of the Council of the Americas.
John has been dedicated to various non-profit and policy initiatives related to his native Cuba since 2004, including being chairman of the Cuba Emprende Foundation, a 501(c)3 organization which supports the largest entrepreneur training program and the only incubator/accelerator programs on the island. He was one of the Cuban Americans invited to the White House to meet with President Obama ahead of his trip to the island in March of 2016.
John had a 25 year career as an international investment banker in New York and London. He retired in 2004 as a partner of Goldman, Sachs & Co, where he spent 12 years focused on Latin America, including being Goldman’s CEO for that region. He graduated from Princeton University with an A.B. in Economics.
Chip Paucek
Christopher “Chip” Paucek is the co-founder and former CEO of 2U, Inc., an education technology company that partners with leading colleges and universities to deliver the world’s best digital education. In March 2014, Paucek led the company’s successful Initial Public Offering, establishing 2U as one of the leaders in ed tech. Prior to 2U, Paucek served as CEO of Smarterville, Inc., the parent company of Hooked on Phonics. Earlier he served as vice president of business development and then president of Educate Products for Educate, Inc. Paucek began his career in 1993 by co-founding Cerebellum Corporation, the media company behind the award-winning educational television program and video series Standard Deviants, and he led Cerebellum as co-chief executive officer until 2003. In 2004, Paucek served as deputy campaign manager for the successful re-election campaign of United States Senator Barbara Mikulski.
Paucek’s innovative work at 2U has earned him many accolades, including the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2012, the Goldman Sachs 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs Award in 2013, and multiple Highest Rated CEO awards from Glassdoor. He holds a BA from the George Washington University and an MBA from the 2U-powered MBA@UNC program at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School.
Louise Rogers
Louise is an experienced digital business leader with a 25-year track record in Private Equity-backed, Corporate, and Venture Capital businesses both in Europe and the US and with extensive board experience with both Charterhouse Private Equity and TPG. Significant reputation for digital change management and strong strategic leadership which results in significant revenue, product and profit growth, plus multiple enhancement.
Louise takes a highly customer-focused approach – with emphasis on establishing strong cultural drivers in order to achieve significant global growth. Louise has experience across multiple industries, including B2B, B2C, Digital Classified, Higher Education, K12, Workplace learning, Music, Architecture and Construction. Extensive experience of different Private Equity requirements, having successfully worked for five very different PE houses – leading M&A, strategic review, competitive analysis, restructuring and full-process exits, plus raising funds through restructure, senior leveraged finance and public bonds.
Louise has Board-level experience of numerous digital companies in the US, Italy and the UK.
Hesong Tang
Mr. Hesong Tang was the former Vice President of Baidu and fully in charge of strategic M&A and investments. Mr. Tang led several landscape changing deals in China internet industry such as Baidu’s acquisition of 91 Wireless ($1.9B), controlling investment into Qunar ($306mm), investment into iQiyi, acquisition of PPS ($370mm), and acquisition of Nuomi, etc. Prior to Baidu, Mr. Tang was the Director of Strategic Investment at Microsoft Greater China. He also worked at Cisco, Applied Materials, etc. Mr. Tang teaches MBA courses at Tsinghua University and is also the Academic Advisor for Master students at Wudaokou Financial Institute of Tsinghua University. Mr. Tang holds BS and MS degrees in engineering from Tsinghua University, MBA degree from the University of Chicago, and MPA from Harvard Kennedy School.
Dennis Yang
Dennis Yang is the former CEO of Udemy, the online marketplace for learning and teaching committed to breaking the bottleneck on opportunity so people everywhere can lead limitless lives. Dennis guided the company’s high-performing team in its mission to improve lives through learning. Under his leadership, the company grew to serve more than 16 million students in 190 countries. Students everywhere rely on Udemy for career-making confidence and skills.
Dennis is passionate about unleashing human potential and removing barriers to upward mobility. He speaks at numerous conferences, including the Fortune Global Forum; makes appearances on Bloomberg; and is frequently quoted in leading publications including The Wall Street Journal and Fortune. A veteran technology executive who saw firsthand the power of software and potential of mobile, Dennis previously held leadership roles at Good Technology and Siebel Systems. Dennis earned an MBA from Stanford University and a BS from Northwestern University.