Meet the LG NOVA Team

Jinhwan (Jin) An has been a core member of LG Electronics product management and new business development teams for the last 12 years, working for LG Business Solutions and Home Entertainment in the HQ office in Seoul, Korea. He currently is a member of the LG NOVA Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) team working on new business development with startups.    

Before joining the LG NOVA team and while working at LG Business Solutions, Jinhwan led product strategy and product planning for large format commercial displays. In this role, he was responsible for LG’s direct-view LED product strategy and was a leading member of the team that launched the world’s largest LED cinema screen (2020) and LG’s LED display for movie theatres. Through his experience with LG Business Solutions, Jinhwan has worked with many partners, including Walt Disney Studios, Warner Brothers, Universal Pictures, Dolby Laboratories, Cisco Systems, Cinemark, Planar, IMAX, Verizon, SiliconCore and Boeing.    

At LG Home Entertainment, Jinhwan worked on new business planning, focusing on digital signage, TV, set-top/media box, tablet, laptop and smart home device product lines.    

Prior to LG, Jinhwan served as a system engineer and a product marketing manager at Cisco Systems Korea, where he worked on advanced technology solutions. At Cisco, he led joint-marketing initiatives and global programs for the Korean market with partners such as EMC, NetApp, VMware, HP, IBM, and Intel.     

Jinhwan holds a Bachelor in Business Administration and a minor in Broadcasting and Journalism from Sogang University in Seoul, Korea. He is a wine enthusiast with a particular affinity for California wines. Jinhwan lives in the Bay Area with his wife and dogs. 

William Barkis, PhD, is Head of Grand Challenges and Ecosystem Development at LG NOVA, where he is focused on working directly with startups to drive the creation of transformative new businesses for LG.  Formerly, he led corporate strategy and innovation programs at Orange, directed two open innovation programs at Mozilla and served at the National Science Foundation where he collaborated with the White House on advanced computer science topics. Will holds a PhD in Neurosciences from UCSD and a BS with Honors in interdisciplinary computer science (Symbolic Systems) from Stanford.

Winston Choe is an entrepreneur, mentor and global tech executive with expertise in business, corporate and venture-development in Mobility, IoT, BigData, and Security. He recently joined LG as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) and Innovation Business Development Director at LG NOVA.

Winston has over 20 years of experience and a track-record working with startups to grow from seed to exit, working on corporate-development to engage startups through commercialization, investment, acquisition, and doing venture-development with startups at Accelerators based in Silicon Valley.

He was a Founding EIR at PlugandPlayTechCenter, a Venture Accelerator with 30000+ startups, 300+ VCs, 500+ corporate-partners, accelerator-programs in 20 industries, investment-portfolio including 14 unicorns, and global-operations across 30+ sites. Winston co-founded TechGrowthVentures, an accelerator for US-Asia businesses, where he built a portfolio of 20 companies, based on cross-border synergies for supply-chain, joint-development, market-entry, investment. He also worked with governments in South-Asia to establish Accelerator-programs leveraging their local ecosystems with a bridge to Silicon Valley. Winston was also the VP Programs and Partnerships at ReadWrite Labs, the world’s first IoT Accelerator, where he established programs for 100+ startups and developed corporate-partnerships for US-China businesses. Among the wide portfolio of startups that he has worked on, 3 of them in healthcare telepresence, mobile security and mobile advertising, were acquired for $1B+.

Previously, Winston was Senior Director of Business Development at Intel, where he established a team for strategic-deals in the Client Computing Group, their largest division with revenues of $40B. He worked with startups in Wireless Charging and Immersive Vision through commercial-licensing, and investments through Intel Capital.

He was also Senior Director of Business Development in Hewlett-Packard, where he managed a team for strategic-partnerships and new market-development for the Mobile division, and led commercial-deals with Google, Microsoft and acquisition of a Mobile Device Management startup.

Winston holds a Bachelor of Math degree from the University of Waterloo, Canada, majoring in Computer Science and Operations Research. He started his career in R&D at Bell-Northern Research in Canada and Institute of Systems Science in Singapore, and subsequently completed a High-Tech Executive Management program at Stanford.

He is an avid outdoorsman who has completed overlanding trips across North America, with a passion for cooking and playing tennis.

Maria Dayton is a successful social entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in management and award-winning project development globally. She has a proven track record of creating innovative projects with a multitude of stakeholders and providing disruptive technology solutions to entrepreneurs and civil society groups.

Maria received the 2019 Service to the Citizen Award for working across 24 U.S. agencies to create the first “Voice of the Citizen” campaign and public-facing dashboards on “citizen experience” for the US government.

She founded of Transterra Media - an innovative online marketplace that connects thousands of video producers across 124 countries with large media outlets and brands. Responsible for the establishment of a patented omnichannel customer experience process, IT systems, and media development projects. Honors by: US State Department, Red Herring, Wamda, The Dublin Web Summit, and Mashables as a Top 25 Startup, Top 100 Global Startup, and Top 100 Asian Startup. (8000 video stories and 280 content buyers = billions reached with 70% of profits returning to local producers)

She has developed, funded, and managed over 20 major development projects on 4 continents ($140mil) with a variety of stakeholders including international organizations, governments, civil society, and the private sector.

Maria has extensive experience building public/private partnerships and various online networks in difficult environments - as evidenced by the successful founding and incorporation of the first two NGO coalitions in the Arabian Gulf / GCC.

She is a founding member of impact fund aggregator - “ProsParity” The platform uses fin-tech and immersive storytelling to develop new ways of funding impact-based organizations on the ground - a critical component in successful sustainable development efforts.

She has also created online businesses and advocacy tools for female entrepreneurs in cooperation with Vital Voices Global Partnership, MEPI, Exxon Mobile, and Pearson Learning.

Joshua Di Frances is the head of incubation at LG NOVA and a cofounder of U.S Digital Corps.

He previously served as Senior Advisor for Technology Innovation and New Ventures to the Director / Commissioner of the Technology Transformation Services at GSA. He is also passionate about breaking down barriers to entrepreneurship in healthcare and translating technology into commercial healthcare products.

In his spare time, he enjoys being outdoors (running, hiking, biking, skiing, etc.), reading, cooking, traveling, and spending time with family and friends.

Jami Diaz, Senior Manager, Ecosystem Community has over 15 years of experience building online communities for tech giants including Intuit, PayPal, eBay and Yahoo.  She’s been responsible for enhancing the customer experience to foster an ongoing, value-driven relationship between the company and its customers, building communities of connection, inspiration, loyalty, and evangelism. Passionate about forging strong reciprocal relationships and representing the voice of the community internally, Jami is skilled at amplifying customer success stories and thought leadership as well as translating customer needs into tailored products and features.

A true community pioneer, Jami has been focused on community initiatives long before it was popularized and when it was still a nascent space. Prior to her current role, Jami was Senior Practice Director, Community at Influtive where she developed and defined methodologies and best practices to help Influitive customers design, build, and launch thriving, deeply engaged advocacy and community programs. Before that she was Senior Community Manager at Intuit where she was instrumental in building Mint.com’s support community which was awarded a Forrester Groundswell Award.

Jami is a published author and cultural anthropologist.  This foundation serves as the basis in building content rich customer-centric communities that drive innovation, success and evangelism. 

Michael is the Strategic Partnership Manager, a role to which he brings years of business development values and meaningful networks from various industries to LG worldwide. Prior to joining LG, he served as Director of Business Development and consultant at multiple startups specializing in gaming, Virtual Reality (VR), drone technology, and 3D animation. Michael started his business development career at the Korea Trade-Investment Agency (KOTRA), an arm of the Korean government, in Los Angeles.

Younghoon (Paul) Ma has been at LG Electronics and for LG Holding Company since 2008. In his latest role, as a member of the LG NOVA team, Mr. Ma manages LG’s relationship with strategic partners to expand LG’s business offerings in new and emerging markets.  

Prior to LG NOVA, Younghoon served as Senior Manager of Corporate Business Strategy with LG Holding Company in the HQ office in Seoul, Korea. In that role, he was responsible for developing comprehensive strategic plans to help LG diversify and expand its product portfolio. Prior to that role, Younghoon was a product planning manager for smartphones.    

Before coming to LG, Younghoon worked at Gameloft Korea as a key account manager for OEM partnerships. In this role, he helped Gameloft Korea extend its footprint in Korea, working to build relationships with key smartphone OEMs, such as Samsung, LG and Motorola.   

Younghoon  holds a Bachelor in Information and Computer Engineering from AJOU University in South Korea and Diploma in Information and Technology from Martin College.  

Ali Naveed is currently a Sr. Manager in the Corporate Development/Strategy team at LG NOVA. He comes from a diversified professional background ranging from work experience in corporate strategy/development, consulting, equity research and early-stage fin-tech. He most recently worked at Equinix in their corporate strategy practice where he helped develop business cases to assist in organic growth for the company. Prior to that, he worked at ADM where he helped lead due diligence efforts to advise on acquisitions for the company. He has also had exposure in the fin-tech sector at Trefis where he helped lead a research team as well as advised on product initiatives to improve the company’s retail solutions and increase customer penetration.

Ali holds an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in business administration and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. He is also a CFA charter holder.

Jay Park is a life adventurer who takes risks and tries new methods to make people happier.

Jay is the strategy and operations manager at LG NOVA. In his role, Jay initiates operational programs to improve efficiency and connect internal dots across LG NOVA’s challenge, incubation, corporate development, strategic partnerships, and ecosystem. Jay started his career at an international trading company as a business developer in South Korea. He managed a renewable energy business portfolio and ensured the successful execution of more than 100 solar energy projects. This experience broadened his business horizons from Korea to the world, leading him to the US in 2019. Jay was also a host & producer of the MBAsians podcast, which provided various perspectives on MBA programs by having diverse guest speakers.

Jay holds an MBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Yonsei University in South Korea.

Shilpa Prasad is an experienced leader in the startup ecosystem with a strong passion for entrepreneurship & corporate startup engagement/innovation. As an Entrepreneur in Residence at YouNoodle Inc, she was instrumental in driving innovation for various open innovation projects across corporations, governments & accelerators & establishing new partnerships across the global startup ecosystem.

A keen interest for creating real value within corporate startup ecosystems & enthusiasm for new innovations, she brings her global experience in corporate-startup strategy to LG NOVA.

Linda Quach heads up marketing and PR for LG NOVA. In this role, she leads marketing and engagement programs with startups; and is responsible for driving awareness of the LG NOVA program within the startup community.  Linda joined LG in June 2021, from Immersion, a haptics company, where she was the director of marketing programs. Prior to that, she was at Rovi Corp (now Tivo).  Based in Silicon Valley, Linda has been in marketing and PR for technology for 20+ years, working to help companies, large and small, share their story. 

Christopher (Chris) Ryu is a tenured LG team member, spending the last 14 years of his career at LG split between the R&D Division in Santa Clara and headquarters in South Korea. In his various roles, he has continually worked on creating innovations through new business development, strategic partnerships and open innovation as a part of the CTO office. 

Christopher was a founding member of LG’s first Open Innovation Initiative launched in 2009. In his current role as an entrepreneur-in-residence at LG NOVA, he will be leading the collaboration with startups for business creation. 

Christopher is the co-author of the book “A Guide to Open Innovation and Crowdsourcing.” He has a personal passion for working with startups to build new businesses in different emerging market areas, including connected health, smart home, IoT, services and more. 

Christopher holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Florida and a Master’s, M.B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business.

Sokwoo Rhee is Corporate Executive Vice President for Innovation at LG Electronics and Head of LG NOVA, a new Silicon Valley-based innovation center. He leads LG Electronics’ global innovation projects, new business creation, strategic partnerships, and ecosystem development. Prior to joining LG, Sokwoo served as Associate Director for Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) Innovation at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce, covering innovation programs for Internet of Things (IoT) and Smart Cities. He managed the Global City Teams Challenge (GCTC), a U.S. federal government program to develop a global ecosystem of major business and technology stakeholders to create replicable and scalable IoT/smart city projects. Sokwoo previously served as a Presidential Innovation Fellow on CPS, a program by the White House. During his tenure, he co-led the SmartAmerica Challenge, which brought together IoT technologies and organizations across the nation to demonstrate how they can collaborate to create technology-based projects with a focus on socio-economic benefits.

Prior to joining the U.S, government, Sokwoo was a co-founder and CTO of Millennial Net, Inc., one of the first organizations to successfully commercialize low-power wireless mesh/sensor networks and IoT technologies from academia. He also worked on wireless medical sensors as a research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His work and achievements have been widely recognized and he has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the MIT Technology Review’s “Top Innovators under 35.” Dr. Rhee received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Darren Sabo champions innovative ideas that change the way people think about and interact with technology to empower those on the front lines of social and environmental change with the tools to drive greater outcomes.

Using product innovation as a force for good, Sabo delivers best-in-class solutions that shape how fast-growing companies strengthen communities, society, and the environment. His experience in CSR methodologies and global trends to structure and simplify complex problems in support of marginalized communities. As an archeologist turned International MBA, Sabo is known as a catalyst for change who employs compelling storytelling to cultivate learning, cross-company collaboration, and advancements that push the status quo and are adopted as company standards.

Curtis Sasaki has over 30 years in Silicon Valley and is currently Senior Advisor to LG NOVA as well as several startups developing hardware, software and services. He was most recently at Samsung Electronics as VP of Ecosystems, Marketing and Communications, General Manager of IoT, and SVP of Media Solutions Center of America where he was responsible for partnerships, developer programs, and development of innovative new services. Prior to Samsung, Curtis held executive positions at RIM, Sun Microsystems where he was responsible for Java in consumer devices, managing Sun’s thin client solutions, and data centers. Prior to Sun, Curtis managed product management at General Magic, NeXT, and Apple. He has appeared at a number of prestigious conferences as keynote/invited speaker including CES, JavaOne Conference, Blackberry Developers Conference, Samsung Developer Conference and Apple Developer Conferences. He is the recipient of more than 8 patents for innovative technologies.

Limor Schafman is the Director of Strategy at LG NOVA, a team within LG Electronics working with startups on building businesses.  She also leads the Cleantech/Climatech Task Force which is developing NOVA's first new venture in this market sector. 

In her role, she leads strategy development and cross-team collaboration for incubation, corporate development, strategic partnerships, ecosystem, engagement and fund activities. This global program works with startups and entrepreneurs to innovate for the future.

Prior to joining LG, Limor co-founded and lead the Telecommunication Industry Association’s Smart Building Program, which convened commercial real estate and information, and communication technology experts to develop its TIA-UL smart building benchmark and certification. As founder of KeystoneTech Group, Limor provided expertise in market strategy and business development consulting services to PropTech and other startups. She co-led the National Institute of Standards and Technology– Global City Teams Challenge Smart Buildings SuperCluster.

Limor has a deep understanding of the digital and digitized environment, stemming from her work in theme park, video game, mobile and communications infrastructure and other technology sectors, and her experience as an international corporate attorney. She has led technology-oriented organizations, serving as President of the World Future Society DC Chapter and Co-founder and chair emeritus of the IPv6 Forum Israel Chapter. Limor is also an international speaker and a moderator and has served as a show host for several online media outlets.

Don is the Director of Strategic Partnerships in the LG NOVA team in Santa Clara, California. He is a 30 year veteran in Silicon Valley with a career that spans data storage, storage networking, video conferencing, consumer electronics, streaming video applications, Android app marketplaces, Augmented/Virtual Reality, and IoT Smart Home products. 
During his career, Don has lived and worked in Japan twice, and started up a new Systems Engineering group for the Asia/Pacific region.  Don previously worked at Olympus, Ricoh, Hitachi, Brocade, Veritas/Symantec, Skype, and Samsung in roles that included Systems Engineering, Product Marketing, Partner Management, and Business Development. Don currently manages a group that engages with both big and small partners with strategic technology and platforms that are highly relevant to LG current and future products.