Alexander Straub

Alexander Straub is a Co-Founder of Truphone, where he serves as Strategic Advisor and Board Member. He is the Founder of Empora Group, where he serves as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman. He is a Co-Founder of Material Machines, where he serves as President and Managing Director. Straub is a German-born entrepreneur and venture capitalist with Straub Ventures of London and Cambridge Accelerator Partners. He was a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, where he dropped out while completing his DPhil. However, he previously gained two engineering degrees, one from Darmstadt Dipl. Ing and the other from Cornell Master of Engineering (MEng). He held an internship position with Goldman Sachs' principal investment area in London, during which time he worked on an investment into SSL, which is today part of Parthus Ceva, an Irish-headquartered intellectual property company focused on semiconductors. Straub became a general partner at Lazard Technology Partners (LTP) in New York City. His listed investments include Stockholm-based software firm IBX, and e-invoicer OB10, which was floated on the London Stock Exchange as Tungsten PLC Corp and Summit PLC. In 2006 he co-founded mobile Voice over IPspecialist Truphone with James Tagg. As of 2014, Truphone has built mobile network operations in eight countries: USA, UK, Hong Kong, Australia, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands and Spain. Straub was named Technology Pioneer at the World Economic Forum in 2007 and 2008 for his work with Truphone.