Tom Baruch

Tom Baruch currently invests in early-stage companies focused on resource scarce and climate sensitive markets out of his family office, Baruch Future Ventures (BFV). Tom founded Formation 8 (precursor of 8VC) in 2011, a venture capital fund with $950 million under management and currently serves as an Emeritus Partner. Tom earlier formed CMEA Capital [pioneer Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) fund] in 1988 with New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and 3M Corp. Tom managed a total of $1.2 billion of capital across seven funds at CMEA where he personally led investments resulting in 18 IPO’s including, Aclara Biosciences, Codexis, Inc., CNano Technologies, Flextronics, Inc., Intermolecular, and Symyx Technologies, and 8 M&A transactions including Silicon Spice, acquired by Broadcom (BRCM). Ten (10) of Tom’s successful portfolio exits were at market capitalizations of greater than $1 billion (“unicorn” category).

Earlier in his career, Tom worked at Exxon Mobil for 12 years and later founded Microwave Technology, Inc. where he served as CEO for 6 years. Currently, he serves on the boards of Windfall Bio, ALTA Energy Technologies, and numerous other privately held companies and public service entities.

Tom was a founding member of Obama’s National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, where he advised the U.S. Department of Commerce and the White House. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the U.S. Council of Competitiveness and a member of the Steering Committee of its Energy, Security, Innovation and Sustainability Initiative and the U.S. Manufacturing Competitiveness Initiative.

Tom is a Senior Advisor to Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), a $2.7 billion venture capital fund founded by Bill Gates that is dedicated to investing in climate-impactful companies. BFV and BEV have co-invested in numerous companies, including: Aeroseal (high performance HVAC insulation), Fervo Energy (enhanced geothermal systems), Kobold Metals (AI for minerals exploration), Windfall.bio (transforming harmful methane emissions to rich organic fertilizer), LuxWall (high thermal performance and transparent widows) and Zero Mass Water (distributed scale water production).  Tom has an Engineering degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (where he currently serves as a Trustee) and a J.D. degree from Capital University and, is a registered U.S. Patent Attorney.