Preetha Ram
Dr. Preetha Ram is a VC, an entrepreneur, technologist, and educator with wins in all verticals.
She is General Partner at Pier 70 Ventures, which invests in innovation with impact in health tech.
As the visionary, founder, and CEO of OpenStudy, a peer-to-peer online community, and platform for mentoring and academics for high school and college learners, she raised multimillion-dollar funding. Her company was recognized as one of Fast Company’s Top 10 Innovative Companies in Education and Preetha was honored at White House Sci&Tech, Dept of Education (2012) as one of the Innovators in Post Secondary Education. As CEO she grew the company to scale, to over 60 million global learners served, built a profitable multimillion-dollar business which lead to a successful exit.
An educational thought leader and innovator, she has held many senior leadership positions in academe: Associate Dean for Science at Emory University and Executive Dean of Education at Alliant University, and Associate Provost of Internationalization and Chief Academic Expansion Officer at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology. Recognized for her innovative programs she is the recipient of many awards: the Andrew Heiskell Award for Study Abroad by the Institute of International Education, Emory University’s Winship Award of Excellence for Teaching, and recently, and the Innovators Spotlight, sponsored by Melinda Gates, the and League of Innovation in Community Colleges. She is a gifted speaker and has keynoted at several international conferences, at PBS NOVA and Tedx San Jose.
A committed and passionate mentor for entrepreneurs, she is an advisor for many tech startups. She volunteers at the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship of Santa Clara University, at the Korea Innovation Center, and TIE as a Charter Member. She serves on boards of several startups and the Association of Scientists and Engineers of Indian Origin (ASEI).
Preetha’s education spans two continents, starting from one of the most respected global brands, the Indian Institute of Technology, to a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Yale and an MBA from Emory University. She keeps her creative side engaged by painting and traveling to distant lands. She lives in Los Altos with her husband, Dr. Ashwin Ram.
