Mike Zak spent 33 years as an entrepreneur and early stage venture capitalist. He is a Partner, Emeritus, at CRV, located in Boston and Silicon Valley, where he made investments in categories such as telecommunications equipment, internet infrastructure technologies, and alternative energy systems. A number of his projects achieved successful outcomes such as initial public offerings or acquisitions. Prior to joining CRV, Mike was a co-founder of a successful internet technology company, backed by venture capital.
In 1975 Mike received an engineering degree from Cornell University and then served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps. He completed Cold War deployments throughout the western Pacific and East Asia, and in NATO/West Germany. He then graduated from Harvard Business School with an MBA in 1981.
Mike is a Trustee Emeritus at Cornell University, and is also a member of its President’s Council. At Cornell he was the founder of its program on China & Asia-Pacific Studies. He is on the Board of Directors at WBUR, the NPR flagship station in Boston. He has worked extensively with the Marine Corps University at Quantico in developing new approaches to professional military education. He is a member of the Board of Directors at the Center for a New American Security, and in the wake of intelligence failures after 9/11 he served on the Advisory Board on Strategic Analysis for the United States Intelligence Community. At one time, Mike could read, write, and speak passable Mandarin Chinese.