Assembly Ventures, which supports and helps expand the next generation of mobility businesses with offices in Detroit and Berlin, today announced six new operator advisors to its enterprise.
After announcing the first wave of operator advisors in February of this year, it is adding David Brophy, Jody Kelman, John Moavenzadeh, Kathleen Ligocki, Michael Dunne, and Rueben Sarkar to the team.
The firm says it believes success in the mobility sector requires collaboration and constant dialogue between a diverse set of actors. The new advisors include:
Brophy is a professor of finance at the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business and director of the UM Center for Venture Capital and Private Equity Finance. His research focuses on structuring and valuation of venture capital, private equity, and initial public offering common stock.
His consulting activities in the public and private sectors include his advisory work with funds such as Compass Technology Partners, Plymouth Ventures, and BioStar Ventures, as well as with various corporations and government agencies in the United States, China, Australia, and France.
Kelman is head of Lyft Autonomous, where she leads self-driving vehicle deployments for the rideshare company. Prior to Lyft, she worked at McKinsey and Co. where she focused on public-private partnerships and technology driven infrastructure investments.
In 2008, Jody served on President Barack Obama’s technology, innovation, and government reform (TIGR) transition team, advising the incoming administration on using technology to improve government performance.
Moavenzadeh is an experiences mobility operator, advisor, and educator. Currently, he serves as executive director of the MIT Mobility Initiative, where he co-designed and co-instructs the graduate-level course Mobility Ventures. He is founder and managing partner at Mobility Nexus LLC, which provides strategic advisory services to drive innovation in transportation systems, and serves as Senior Advisor to Deloitte’s Future of Mobility practice.
He has held numerous other roles focused on the transformation of the global transportation systems, from his early days as a design engineer at Ford to strategy consulting to academic research.
Ligocki is an experienced operator and automotive executive serving on the board of directors for three public companies: Lear Corp., PPG, and Carpenter Technology. She also worked as an operating partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, a top venture capital firm. Prior to these positions, she held several leadership roles with a variety of start-up companies.
She has also held senior management positions at Ford, United Technologies Corp., and General Motors Co. She also is board chair at Farmers Business Network, a venture-backed agtech company.
Dunne is an Asia-Pacific mobility expert and advisor who currently serves as the CEO of ZoZo Go, a firm that advises automakers, tech companies, and investors on how to win in Asia. He also led JD Power China and General Motors Indonesia operations.
Dunne is an author of American Wheels, Chinese Roads and creator of the Winning in Asia podcast. He has been featured as a keynote speaker at conferences hosted by the Council of Foreign Relations, Financial Times, and JP Morgan.
Sarkar is an experienced energy and infrastructure executive whose experience includes roles in the private and public sector. He currently serves as the president and CEO for the American Center for Mobility.
He brings more than two decades of experience in transportation innovation in corporate, government, and entrepreneurial roles including serving as chief product officer for Forge Nano and deputy assistant secretary for transportation for the U.S. Department of Energy. He also held senior leadership roles in business development and engineering at Proterra and General Motors.
