About:

Caroline is an experienced industry executive and strategic advisor with over 25 years of global leadership across industrial automation, semiconductors, and advanced manufacturing. She is an Operating Partner at Long Knife, a venture firm investing in leading-edge defense tech and physical AI, and sits on the Advisory Board of Pontis Group, a private equity firm focused on control investments in lower middle‑market industrial companies. Caroline also serves as Vice Chair of the Board and Chair of the Nominating & Corporate Governance Committee at the 1990 Institute, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization advancing constructive U.S.–China relations and empowering Asian American youth. Caroline has held C‑suite roles in both public and pre‑IPO companies, including as SVP, Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Ventures at Lumentum (NASDAQ: LITE), a market leader in optical transceivers for AI data centers and high‑performance lasers for precision manufacturing. Prior to Lumentum, she was CMO of Bright Machines, a venture-backed, software‑defined automation and robotics company transforming factory operations. Caroline spent more than a decade living in Asia and working across global emerging markets as a senior executive at Fortune 100 companies such as Intel, Hewlett‑Packard, and Honeywell. She holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from Harvard Business School, and is a frequent public speaker at industry conferences and corporate governance events.