Charles Chi is an entrepreneur, venture investor, and served as

Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to serve returning World ...

from 2011 to 2017.

Biography

Chi has had a diverse career in engineering, marketing, sales, and executive leadership. Most recently, he has been an investor in early-stage technology start-up companies. Since graduating from

with a Bachelor of Systems and Computer Engineering in 1988, Chi has worked with

Bell Canada Bell Canada (commonly referred to as Bell) is a Canadian telecommunications company headquartered at 1 Carrefour Alexander-Graham-Bell in the borough of Verdun in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is an ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier) in t ...

and Unitel in engineering, later moving to marketing. Moving to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...

in 1995, Chi joined

Stratacom StrataCom, Inc. was a supplier of Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and Frame Relay high-speed wide area network (WAN) switching equipment. StrataCom was founded in Cupertino, California, United States, in January 1986, by 26 former employees of t ...

, subsequently

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...

, after Cisco's acquisition of the company. Chi then co-founded Lightera Networks. When Lightera was acquired by

Ciena Ciena Corporation is an American telecommunications networking equipment and software services supplier based in Hanover, Maryland. The company has been described by ''The Baltimore Sun'' as the "world's biggest player in optical connectivity." T ...

, Chi became Ciena's vice-president of marketing. In 2000, Chi joined

Greylock Partners Greylock Partners is one of the oldest venture capital firms, founded in 1965, with committed capital of over $3.5 billion under management. The firm focuses on early-stage companies in the consumer, enterprise software and infrastructure as wel ...

, one of the original venture capital firms in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. As a partner and board member, Chi invested in early-stage technology startups engaged in hardware and software business throughout the world. These startups include companies located in the U.S.,

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

that have since been acquired by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

Broadcom Broadcom Inc. is an American designer, developer, manufacturer and global supplier of a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. Broadcom's product offerings serve the data center, networking, software, broadband, wirel ...

Microchip An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tiny M ...

, and

McData Brocade is an American technology company specializing in storage networking products, now a subsidiary of Broadcom Inc. The company is known for its Fibre Channel storage networking products and technology. Prior to the acquisition, the comp ...

. While at Greylock Partners, Chi seeded Lytro, a

Mountain View, California Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, it has a population of 82,376. Mountain View was integral to the early history and growth of Silicon Valley, and is the ...

company specializing in a

light field The light field is a vector function that describes the amount of light flowing in every direction through every point in space. The space of all possible '' light rays'' is given by the five-dimensional plenoptic function, and the magnitude of ea ...

digital camera for consumer use. The Lytro camera captures the direction of light, producing images with multi-dimensional space, allowing photographs to be refocused and perspective to be shifted after they have been taken. At Lytro, Chi served as Executive Chairman from May 2010 to July 2012 and interim CEO from July 2012 to April 2013. Chi was appointed as Carleton University's 11th chancellor in August 2011, being formally installed in June 2012. President

Roseann Runte Roseann O'Reilly Runte, CM is president and CEO of the Canada Foundation for Innovation. Previous to that, she was a university professor and the president and vice-chancellor of Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. She was also the seventh pr ...

noted that Chi will "inspire students to pursue their dreams through his example of hard work, dedication and strategic thinking. He epitomizes the global Canadian, at home around the world." He served in this role until 2017.

References

External links

LytroCharles Chi Profile on Lytro's "About Us" Page (NO LONGER AVAILABLE)Major Entrepreneurial Drive at Carleton Wows New Chancellor Charles Chi - Carleton NewsroomCarleton Entrepreneurs Benefit from Chancellor Charles Chi's Diverse Experience - Carleton Newsroom
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20130110060407/http://newsroom.carleton.ca/2012/06/01/carleton-university-to-install-charles-chi-as-chancellor/ Carleton University to Install Charles Chi as Chancellor - Carleton Newsroom] {{DEFAULTSORT:Chi, Charles Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Chancellors of Carleton University, Chancellor Canadian businesspeople Carleton University alumni