Jay L. Koh
Co-Founder and Managing Director

Jay Koh is co-founder and Managing Director of The Lightsmith Group. Mr. Koh has over 20 years of experience in investing and public policy in the public and private sectors. More

Sanjay J. Wagle
Co-Founder and Managing Director

Sanjay Wagle is co-founder and Managing Director of The Lightsmith Group. Mr. Wagle has over 20 years of experience in investing, company management, and government focused on clean energy, resources, and climate. More

Praneet Singh
Senior Investment Advisor

Praneet Singh is a Senior Investment Advisor to The Lightsmith Group. Mr. Singh has over 30 years of global experience in private equity, built on a strong operational track record of leading and transforming businesses as a CEO, management consultant and marketer. His current focus is investing for social impact and climate change, and scaling global healthcare businesses, and has worked across India, SE Asia, Latin America and the US. More

Tara L. Guelig
Director of Sustainability & Impact

Tara Guelig is The Lightsmith Group’s Director of Sustainability & Impact. She designed the firm’s approach to measuring impact and ensures that ESG issues are considered at all stages of the investment process. Previously, Ms. Guelig spent 15 years at U.S. Development Finance Corporation (formerly known as Overseas Private Investment Corporation) where she originated investments in the financial services, logistics, climate finance, impact investing, and agribusiness sectors. More

Serena Y. Shi
Vice President

Serena Shi is a Vice President at The Lightsmith Group and joined the team in November 2018 as a Senior Associate. Prior to Lightsmith, Ms. Shi was an Investment Analyst at the International Finance Corporation, the private sector investment arm of the World Bank, where she focused on direct equity and debt investments in the telecoms sector in emerging markets. She was previously an Associate at Goldman Sachs, where she worked on structured debt transactions across the renewable energy, telecoms, media, pharmaceutical, and consumer retail sectors.

Ms. Shi holds a B.S. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Subbu Pichappan
Vice President

Subbu Pichappan is a Vice President at The Lightsmith Group. Prior to Lightsmith, Mr. Pichappan was a Senior Associate at Baring Private Equity Asia, a $35B+ global private equity firm. At Baring, he focused on investments in the technology, business services, and consumer sectors. Previously, Mr. Pichappan was an Associate at private equity firm Insight Equity, where he worked on middle market leveraged buyouts across several sectors. He started his career as an investment banker at Wells Fargo Securities in the Technology Mergers & Acquisitions group.

Mr. Pichappan holds a B.S. and M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania where he was named a Palmer Scholar for graduating in the top 5% of his class.

Jill Xu
Senior Associate

Jill Xu is a Senior Associate with the Lightsmith Group and joined the team in January 2021 . Prior to joining Lightsmith, Ms. Xu was an Investment Banking Analyst at Goldman Sachs in the Financial Institutions Group where she worked on M&A, equity and debt financing transactions across the financial technology, asset management and insurance sectors.

Ms. Xu holds a B.S. in Finance and Data Science from New York University’s Stern School of Business.

BRIAN PARHAM
Manager for Programs & Partnerships

Brian Parham is a Manager for Programs & Partnerships for The Lightsmith Group. Previously, Mr. Parham was the Chief of Staff at The ICCF Group where he managed global operations and oversaw multiple Global Environment Facility grants with programs in Africa and Latin America.

Mr. Parham holds an MBA from the University of Cambridge Judge Business School and was a Park Scholar at North Carolina State University where he earned a B.S. in Biological Science and a B.A. in International Studies.

KEVIN VENEZIA
Finance & Operations Manager

Kevin Venezia is the Finance & Operations Manager at The Lightsmith Group and joined the team in July 2022. Prior to joining Lightsmith, Mr. Venezia was a Manager on the Internal Finance Team at Riverstone Holdings, LLC, a $43B+ global private equity firm. During his time there he managed the finance and operations of multiple funds invested in the energy, power & infrastructure sectors, including renewable energy investments. He also worked on multiple energy related SPAC business combinations. He started his career in public accounting, working in the Financial Services Assurance group at BDO, where he audited private equity and hedge funds.

Mr. Venezia holds a B.S. in Finance from the Anisfield School of Business at Ramapo College of New Jersey.