Anne Lidgard is as of August 2012 Director of VINNOVA’s Silicon Valley Office and also Visiting Scholar at Stanford University. VINNOVA is the Swedish Governmental Innovation Agency. It has an annual grants budget of about 350 MUSD, and its mission is to develop Sweden’s innovation capacity for sustainable growth and for the benefit of society. Dr Lidgard started her career in corporate R&D at AT&T Bell Labs and at Ericsson, working in Lightwave Communication and later also in Mobile Communication. She has also spent many years working with small companies in various positions, both in operations and as board member. More specifically, 1997-1999, she held a position as Director of European Sales for a US based wireless software company, Geoworks. In 1999, she became CEO of CellTribe, a business group within the area of Wireless Services, which she founded together with three other partners, and which lead to a number of new ventures in the field. Between 2002 and 2005, she was Partner at Deseven AB, a venture catalyst company, where she primarily worked as a business advisor for high tech growth companies. She joined VINNOVA in January 2006, and has been part of the management team since May 2009. She holds a MSc in Engineering Physics from The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm (KTH), and a PhD in Physics (Laser optics), also from KTH.