Michael G. Lyons
Cyber Security Executive, Venture Capitalist, Associate Professor Stanford University
Mr. Lyons currently serves as Chairman of Shadow Networks, Inc. a cyber security company based on technology developed through a tech transfer partnership with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Executive Chairman of CypherPath, a converged infrastructure virtualization company. He currently serves as a Director of Real-Time Innovations, a privately held software company focused on advanced real time integration of complex systems and the Industrial Internet of Things (IoT). Also, he is serving as a Director of MARSEC, Inc., a navigation and control products company in the commercial marine industry.
He is also a Managing Director of NewLine Ventures, LLC, a management consulting firm. From 2008 to 2011, he also served as a Venture Partner with the Paladin Capital Group in Washington, D.C. and as a Venture Partner for ePlanet Ventures I and II. He was a co-founder and General Partner of Zilkha Venture Partners (Fund closed out in 2003), an early stage venture capital partnership focused on seed and first round investments in IT and biotechnology companies, principally located in Silicon Valley.
He founded SafeView, Inc. in 2002, a Government Laboratory (PNNL) spinout, to address aspects of the anti-terrorist physical security market; the Company closed A and B rounds totaling more than $23M led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, ePlanet Ventures, GE/Invision, Paladin Capital Group, and Novak Biddle. He served as Chairman until its sale to L3 Communications in March 2006. This technology is now the security standard in airports worldwide.
Concurrently, Mr. Lyons is a Consulting Associate Professor at the Stanford University Department of Management Science and Engineering. Serving in the Stanford position since 1988, he was a co-developer of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program with Prof. Tom Byers and the founding professor of Technology Venture Formation. He also co-teaches, with Prof. Ray Levitt, Entrepreneurship in Civil and Environmental Engineering in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department of the School of Engineering. Both of these courses are some of the highest rated courses in the School of Engineering. He is the co-creator of the Stanford Innovation and Entrepreneurship two-week program for existing high tech companies produced and managed by the Stanford Center for Professional Development (SCPD). This program just completed its four- year anniversary and is a significant revenue producer for SCPD. He has co-produced and delivered numerous other SCPD and STVP programs. He is a co-founder of the Innovation Institute focused on creating training platforms for entrepreneurial education.
From 1980 to 1991, he was a co-founder, a Vice-President, and a Director of Integrated Systems Inc. (INTS, founded 1980), a leading implementer of high-performance real-time control systems for aircraft, automotive, and manufacturing applications. The Company was merged with WindRiver Systems in 1999. WindRiver was acquired by Intel in 2009.
Mr. Lyons received a Bachelors and Masters (equivalent) in Engineering Physics from Cornell University, an MSEE from Stanford, and an MBA, with Distinction, from the Pepperdine Presidential/Key Executive Program. He is a graduate of the Stanford/AEA Institute for the Management of High Technology Companies and a Price-Babson Fellow in Entrepreneurship Education. He holds an FAA multi-Engine Airline Transport Pilot License and Certified Flight Instructor Certificates for Instrument and Multi-Engine Aircraft.