Chris Thomas
Co-Founder & Partner | Detroit | Assembly Ventures
Chris Thomas is a co-founder and partner of Assembly Ventures.
Prior to Assembly Ventures, he co-founded the Detroit Mobility Lab and the Michigan Mobility Institute. Previous to this, Chris co-founded Fontinalis Partners and for over a decade worked to build it into one of the premier investment firms in next-generation mobility. While at Fontinalis, he served as a board member for nuTonomy (acquired by Aptiv in October 2017) and Karamba Security, and as a board observer at ParkMe (acquired by INRIX in September 2015), Parkmobile (acquired by BMW in January 2018), Life360 (IPO in May 2019), Ouster and SmartKargo.
Prior to Fontinalis, Chris served in the U.S. Army as a communications officer in the U.S. and Iraq. Before joining the military, Chris worked as an investment banker at UBS within its Technology and Energy groups in San Francisco and New York. Additionally, Chris acts as a senior advisor to the COMMIT Foundation and is a member of the Global Cleantech 100 expert panel. He is also a co-owner of Buddy’s Pizza, the birthplace of original Detroit-style pizza, and an avid angel investor. Chris has previously advised a number of mobility startups around the globe; served as the chairman of Read to a Child, a national children’s literacy and mentoring nonprofit in the United States; and acted as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Personal Transportation Systems.
Chris earned his master’s degree in business administration from the Yale School of Management. While at Yale he served on the Honor Committee and graduated with distinction in former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s seminar on Faith and Globalization.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in both economics and international relations from Michigan State University. Chris is a resident of the city of Detroit where he lives with his wife and sons. He is a staunch advocate of connected communities, early childhood literacy, and the doctrine of the strenuous life.