Lara Druyan is a Managing Director with Silicon Valley Data Capital. She joined SVDC from RBC where she was the Head of Innovation on the West Coast, responsible for the Bank’s transformation through the smart use of technology. She led the development of innovation strategy as well as the identification and evaluation of start-ups and partnerships that drove the Bank’s technology, analytics, payments and infrastructure roadmaps. She built a team that initiated, developed KPIs and managed over 20 proofs of concept across the Bank. Lara served on RBC’s Innovation Council and the Crypto Asset Oversight Committee. Previously, Lara served as a Venture Partner for Almaz Capital, an Adviser to Pilot Growth Equity and as a Venture Adviser to SRI International where she helped them conceive of, launch and incubate new ventures. Lara served as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees and Chair of the Investment Committee for the City of San Jose’s Federated Employee Retirement System (a $2B pension plan) for six years.
Previously, she was an Investor in Residence at US Venture Partners and a General Partner with an early-stage venture capital firm. Lara also worked at Silicon Graphics as a product manager in its heyday and released a dozen software products while at SGI. Lara has led many investments and served on numerous boards of directors and advisory boards. Some of the companies in which she has invested or served as an adviser include: Xactly (XTLY), Powerset (MSFT), Skout (MEET), Xlink, and Deduce. In 2016, she was named as one of the “Silicon Valley Investors You Need to Know” by Inc. In 2017, she was named to the “200 Thought Leaders in Crypto and Blockchain” by Medium. In 2018, she was named as one of the “Innovators to Watch: 44 Executives Shaping the Future of Banking” by Bank Innovation and to Constellation’s “Business Transformation 150”. Lara serves on the Global Alumni Boards of the Harvard Business School and of the University of Chicago.
Lara holds an AB in Economics with Honors from the University of Chicago and a Master of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School.