Ernestine Fu

Ernestine Fu is a Venture Partner. She joined Alsop Louie Partners in 2011 and landed her first investment within two months. To develop an investment thesis in commercializing university research, she supervised the firm’s campus associate program, recruiting talent at colleges ranging from UC Berkeley to UT Austin. As an investor and board director, she takes a hands-on approach in supporting portfolio operations on product development, partnerships, and sales.

Combining her business background with her engineering research and focus on emerging technologies, Ernestine has authored numerous publications ranging from autonomous vehicles to renewable energy. A champion of connected cars and smart cities, she programmed a full-vehicle driving simulator at Stanford University’s Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Lab. She subsequently published research on human operator and autonomous vehicle interactions with system bias and transitions of control. To address our world’s pressing environmental issues, she researched climate change and renewable energy, leading her to co-author Renewed Energy with energy economist John Weyant. Ernestine has also studied how frontier technologies such as additive manufacturing and 5G will shape our next economy.

Participating as active citizens in our democracy is a core belief that Ernestine advocates. After starting a nonprofit to serve the community through music and art, she co-authored Civic Work, Civic Lessons with former Stanford Law School Dean Thomas Ehrlich to encourage community engagement with informed moral and civic judgments. The two have since published several articles on political engagement and higher education. Ernestine has served as a board director for nonprofits such as Ad Council and lobbied for immigration reform in DC.

Ernestine completed her undergraduate and graduate degrees at Stanford University. Graduating with Tau Beta Pi and Phi Beta Kappa honors, she was awarded the Kennedy Prize for the top undergraduate thesis in engineering and the Terman Award as one of the top 30 graduating seniors in engineering. More recently, she has designed and taught courses on emerging technology, venture capital industry changes, and business-to-government startups.