Kairos Ventures portfolio company, Tanvas, proudly welcomes Phillip LoPresti as Chief Executive Officer. Tanvas, the surface haptic pioneer positions for growth as it moves from development phase into broader commercialization of its award-winning TanvasTouch® technology. LoPresti was previously at Everspin where he served as President and CEO in the seven-year lead-up to a successful IPO in 2016.
“Phill epitomizes everything we could want in a leader as Tanvas builds momentum and transitions to the next phase of growth.” – Ed Colgate, Co-Founder of Tanvas
LoPresti has a wealth of management, engineering, sales and marketing experience having led two venture-backed startups. He started his career as an engineer in the ASIC design center at NEC. During his 20-year tenure at the company, LoPresti served as Associate Vice President and General Manager of the Custom LSI Solutions Strategic Business Unit at NEC Electronics America where he expanded the ASIC technology business to more than $400M annually.
“Phill epitomizes everything we could want in a leader as Tanvas builds momentum and transitions to the next phase of growth,” said Ed Colgate, co-founder of Tanvas. “His technical expertise and proven experience will carry on our vision to bring surface haptic technology to touchscreens everywhere.”
“There is nothing on the market like TanvasTouch surface haptics,” said LoPresti. “Ed and his talented team have advanced this groundbreaking research and development to the company’s first commercial product. It is a privilege to transition the business into the commercial success it deserves and show the world how programmable textures on flat, physical surfaces can enrich our interactions with touch-enabled devices.”
Colgate will return to teach at Northwestern and run his robust research program which led to the launch of Tanvas as well as two previous spinoff companies. He will continue to evangelize the technology, advise the company and serve on the Board.
We wish Phill and the Tanvas team our very best and look forward to supporting them in their continued and future success.
