YS

Young Sohn

Founding Managing Partner of Walden Catalyst | Chairman of the Board at HARMAN | Former President of Samsung Electronics

San Francisco Bay Area

Invests in

Stages:

  • Min Investment:

    $550,000,000.00
  • Max Investment:

    $550,000,000.00
  • Target Investment:

    $550,000,000.00

Skills

Business Strategy
Board of Directors

Work Experience

  • Founding Managing Partner

    2021

    Walden Catalyst is a venture capital firm helping early-stage companies in the U.S., Europe, and Israel build the next generation of category-defining businesses in deep tech. We back the bold and the daring—trailblazers who are changing the world and making life better for all of us. Walden Catalyst’s inaugural fund has announced a closing at over $550 million and is focused on early stage deep-tech investments.

  • Chairman Of The Board

    2017

    As President of Samsung, initiated and led the $8 billion Harman acquisition. Harman International is a global leader in connected car technology, lifestyle audio innovations, design and analytics, cloud services and IoT solutions.

  • Co-Founder

    2015

    At VivaTech 2019, relaunched a global startup competition dedicated to equipping a new generation of innovators with the resources, expertise, and support to develop emerging technology that can impact the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

  • Chairman of Semiconductor Advisory Board

    2024

    https://semiconductor.samsung.com/

2024

  • Board Member

    2024

    Building the Future of Computing on Arm

  • Board Of Directors

    2012

    Cadence is a leading electronic design automation and engineering innovator with a $28 billion market cap.

  • Advisor

    2023

    Astra Protocol is a decentralized KYC platform for Web3. Onboarding the next billion users to Web3

  • Corporate President and Chief Strategy Officer

    2012 - 2021

    Formerly the Corporate President and Chief Strategy Officer in charge of the company's global innovation strategy and responsible for a $2 billion fund investing in emerging businesses worldwide in areas including AI, digital health, IoT and data-driven technology.

2012 - 2020

  • Senior Advisor

    2012 - 2020

    Silver Lake is the global leader in technology investing with over $43 billion in combined assets under management and committed capital.

2006 - 2015

  • Board of Director and Chairman of Asia Advisory Board

    2006 - 2015

    Developed and supported corporate strategies for the leading supplier of microprocessor technology. ARM was acquired by Softbank in 2016 for $32 billion—its then largest ever investment.