Ericsson Ventures invests in leading companies to drive innovation in new areas, accelerate our core business, and generate strong returns. We leverage our global reach and deep customer relationships for the benefit of our portfolio companies.
Investment areas
We invest across all stages and focus on emerging growth areas for Ericsson and our customers, as well as our core businesses.
Leadership
Albert Kim, Ph.D.
Head of Ericsson Ventures
Vice President
Albert is a seasoned Venture Capitalist with over a decade and a half of experience. Prior to joining Ericsson Ventures he was with Investor Growth Capital, which was the late stage Venture Capital arm of Investor AB. His other professional experience includes Goldman Sachs and McKinsey and he is also an applied physicist with over 10 publications in peer reviewed journals.
Albert earned his Diplom degree in physics at the RWTH Aachen in Germany, and a Ph.D. in applied physics at Harvard University. Fluent in German, conversant in Korean, Albert is a passionate Windsurfer, instrument rated pilot, mediocre fly-fisherman and skier, and miserable pianist. Above all, Albert is a husband and father of two girls.
Graham Ackerman
Vice President
Graham is a telecom industry veteran with 20 years of experience. Prior to joining Ericsson Ventures in 2012, Graham oversaw corporate development including venture investing, mergers and acquisitions, as well as capital markets activities including investor relations at Telcordia Technologies. His other professional experiences include corporate finance and capital markets at AT&T Corporation and economic management consulting at Putnam, Hayes, & Bartlett. In his free time, Graham manages a small outdoor recreational organization and enjoys hiking, downhill mountain biking, and skiing.
Paul McNamara
Vice President
Paul McNamara is a software industry veteran who has been at the forefront of some of the industry’s most important trends. As the first outside executive officer hired at Red Hat, Paul was instrumental in the development of the Open Source business model and in guiding the company from a tiny start-up to one of the world’s premier software companies. Paul is also a pioneer in cloud computing. As CEO of Coghead (one of the first Platform-as-a-Service companies), he was an influential voice in the early development of the Cloud, and led the company from its founding to its ultimate acquisition by SAP (NYSE: SAP). Later, as the Vice President of the force.com platform at Salesforce.com, Paul led the world’s largest Platform-as-a-Service business.
Paul is a husband and father of two. He is also an accomplished guitar builder and can often be found late at night in his workshop.
Mark Weinberg
Vice President
Mark Weinberg is a technology leader with a deep passion for solving problems thru software. As a developer, architect and engineering manager, Mark has been at the cutting edge of the digital media industry for over 20 years. As a General Manager and Partner at Microsoft, he was one of the founders of the Windows Media Center operating system and led the engineering efforts that delivered five releases of the product. Subsequently, Mark led development teams in Xbox that were responsible for the console shell and browser as well as application services such as Netflix and Hulu. Before joining the Ventures Team, Mark was in charge of the TV Platform business for Ericsson with responsibilities for both the Mediaroom IPTV product and the next generation, cloud-based MediaFirst SaaS.
Mark has a Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics and a Master's Degree in Computer Science from the University of Colorado. He is an avid endurance sports athlete who has completed 13 Ironman Triathlons and 7 ultramarathons. When he is not running, Mark is skiing in the winter and golfing in the summer.
Asif Giga
Investment Director
Asif is an Investment Director at Ericsson Ventures. Prior, Asif was with Experian Ventures, helping setup their new venture efforts. He also was an investor with Singtel Innov8 Ventures where he supported their US investment efforts, particularly around cybersecurity and enterprise investments. Before Wharton he spent time at Data Collective Venture Capital which focuses on early stage deals around Big Data & Analytics.
Asif spent time with Accenture in their Management Consulting practice building his operating experience with clients such as eBay, Microsoft and Cisco. He also spent time in Ernst & Young's Advisory Service practice.
Asif received a BS in Business Administration from the University of Southern California, MMS from Duke University and his MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania where he was a recipient of The Meckler Family Fellowship. For fun he loves to watch USC Football and playing tennis.
