Rob Wolk Bio

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Rob serves as the Board Chair at the Catalytic Impact Foundation (CIF), an impact investing venture capital group focused on innovative early-stage companies that address unmet healthcare needs. He is also the founder and Co-Chair of Princeton Alumni Angels (PAA), one of the largest and most active alumni investing groups, with over 2,500 community members globally. Between CIF and PAA, Rob has been involved in investments in 120 early-stage companies since 2018. Previously, Rob was a Partner at the Carlyle Group in Hong Kong, in charge of Carlyle’s technology, telecom, and media private equity and growth capital investments across Asia. The fund he co-led, Carlyle Asia Partners I, was one of the most successful early Asian PE funds, with a 25% Gross IRR and a 4.0 MOIC. Prior to Carlyle, Rob served as an Executive Director in the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs in London and Hong Kong, where he helped build and lead Goldman’s mergers and acquisitions and privatization practices in Europe and Asia. 

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Rob serves as an instructor and mentor in the National Science Foundation I-Corps Northeast Hub based at Princeton University and as an advisor and mentor to several early-stage companies and founders. He teaches in an undergraduate/graduate course on Biotech Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Princeton University and has mentored in the Tri-Institutional (Weill Cornell Medicine, Rockefeller University, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center) Accelerating BioVenture Innovation Program. Rob is advising the leadership team at Cambridge University on the University’s entrepreneurship and innovation strategy. He is President of the Princeton in Africa (PiAf) Board, a member of the Princeton Internships in Civic Service (PICS) Board, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC), which sets the priorities of the Princeton, and the Princeton Student Ventures (Princeton’s venture capital club) Advisory Board. Rob is the USA Board Chair and a member of the International Board of Amref Health Africa, the largest healthcare NGO in Africa, Vice Chair of the Board of Volunteers of America – Greater NY, Vice Chair of the Michael Wolk Heart Foundation, a member of the Board of the New York Cardiac Center and previously served as a member of the Board of Trustees at the Trinity School in New York. He received an A.B. from Princeton University and an M.Phil. from Cambridge University.