Chris is working in the Private Companies team at Baillie Gifford, based in the Bay Area. Prior to Baillie Gifford, he was a Partner at China's Sinovation Ventures for 10 years, initially in Beijing and then in Silicon Valley. He has 20 years of “hands on” entrepreneurial and early stage investments experience. With Baillie Gifford, Chris has worked on the investments behind Joby Aviation, Allbirds, Nuro, Honor and goPuff. With Sinovation in Beijing, Chris invested in the early rounds and actively worked on multiple portfolio companies, including Zhihu (NYSE:ZH), Wandoujia (acquired by Alibaba), Umeng (acquired by Alibaba) and Anquanbao (acquired by Baidu). He also designed, setup and operated the firm's incubation programs, as well as led the firm's fundraising efforts and investor relations. In Silicon Valley, Chris established and managed the firm's team and investment practice in the US. He invested in the early rounds and actively worked on multiple companies, with a focus on industrial automation, robotics, and edtech, including Fictiv, Compology, Eight Sleep, Dishcraft Robotics, Traptic, XYZ Robotics, Deep Vision, Fero Labs, Swivl, Abl Schools, Securly, ClassWallet, Swing Education, and others. Prior to Sinovation, Chris was a Managing Partner at Eastern Bell Venture Capital. He also served as the CEO of ICDL Asia, an organization in the computer skills certification sector with operations in over 25 Asian countries, which he helped turnaround and relocate to Singapore. Prior to going to Asia, Chris co-founded and managed ECDL Hellas in his native Athens, Greece. Chris holds a M.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College in London and an MBA from INSEAD.