Robert J. Robinson

Rob Robinson co-founded Topaz Management in 2010, Kolohala Ventures in 2006, is founder / president of Hawaii's angel investor network, Hawaii Angels (2002), and serves as a senior mentor at Blue Startups, Hawaii’s premier tech accelerator. He is co-author of Angel Investing: Matching Startup Funds with Startup Companies (2000), and is a charter member of the Angel Capital Association out of Kansas City. The various funds and organizations that he has headed have invested over $120MM in mostly Hawaii-based companies since 2001.

Dr. Robinson grew up in South Africa, earning a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1991. He spent ten years on the faculty of Harvard Business School, and in 2001 was recruited to the University of Hawaii as Entrepreneurship Chair and the Director of the Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship. He serves on the board of the Hawaii Venture Capital Association, as well as on the boards of other non-profits and a number of startup companies that his funds have invested in.