ÂÜŔňÂŇÂ×

Connor is a fintech investor at Lightspeed and is primarily focused on Insurtech, DeFi, Payments, Lending/Credit, Regtech, Proptech and Neobanking. “Over the last 5+ years fintech companies have disrupted most financial categories and generated the majority of the industry’s growth. Despite this fast disruption, I believe we are still in the early innings of the fintech revolution. With the emergence of Crypto and Web 3, DeFi will add fuel to this fintech revolution and create even more market disruption,” he said.

A former active duty Captain in the US Army, it was during his deployment in Northern Iraq in 2019, when Connor first became interested in Venture Capital. He was many years into a military career and had been accepted into the Stanford Graduate School of Business to pursue his MBA. Out of a sense of duty to keep serving his country, he decided to forgo joining the GSB class of 2021 and spend 12 months in Northern Iraq working alongside the U.S.’ joint military community and Iraqi-Kurdish partners. It was also around that time, while Connor was deployed, that he was first introduced to Barry Eggers and Lightspeed.

“The most important thing in my professional life is a strong sense of community and teamwork,” said Connor. “I am privileged to have worked with incredibly strong teams in the military. I saw first-hand what highly motivated, purpose driven, and in-sync teams could achieve.” And he shares Lightspeed’s belief that differing backgrounds, technological expertise, and broad viewpoints lead to better investments. “Lightspeed is a firm that values diversity in background and a global approach. If I’ve learned anything from my years around the world in the military, we are living in an ever interconnected, global world. Understanding businesses, markets, and products can’t be done for a U.S. only approach.” The depth of Lightspeed’s global network and expertise helped attract him to the firm.

Connor was raised to look at things with nuance and critical thought. His mother is a lifelong educator and school principal (retiring in 2022 after 25 years!). He credits her for his openness and critical thinking nature and desire to continually learn. He is also a former college athlete, and draws on this experience in many aspects of his life. “All high functioning and top performing teams have one thing in common: the strongest quality people possible,” he said.

Connor received his Master’s Degree from the University of Oxford in the UK and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Prior to his Master’s studies, Connor worked as an active duty Army liaison officer in the Office of Chief Legislative Liaison in Washington, D.C.. Connor graduated from the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point. He also previously served as a strategic advisor and speechwriter to General Robert Brown, the Commander of US Army Pacific. Since he stopped competing on the collegiate level in baseball and rowing, he’s picked up some new sports to include cycling, golf, and slow pitch softball. He also loves to travel with his fiance Clare.