From Scientist to Founder to Investor: Reinventing Yourself in America

Immigrant careers rarely move in a straight line. At Open Atlas Summit 2026, Preetha Ram will explore how professionals can reinvent themselves across disciplines, moving from technical expertise to leadership, entrepreneurship and investing without treating an earlier career as wasted time.

Meet the Speaker

Preetha Ram

Managing Partner at Pier 70 Ventures. Her career spans science, university leadership, entrepreneurship and venture investing; she previously held an Associate Dean role at Emory University.

What This Session Is About

Preetha’s trajectory across science, higher education and venture capital makes this conversation less about “switching careers” and more about compounding skills. Reinvention works best when a person carries forward judgment, domain knowledge, relationships and credibility into a new arena.

What Will the Session Explore?

Your first identity does not have to be your final identity

A scientist can become an operator. An academic can become a founder. A founder can become an investor. The valuable question is which capabilities transfer and which new ones must be deliberately built.

Translate expertise into a new language

Career transitions often fail because professionals describe themselves using the vocabulary of the old field. Reinvention requires communicating the same capabilities in terms the next industry values.

Build optionality before you need it

Advising, mentoring, publishing, angel investing, side projects and community participation can create exposure to a new field before a full transition.

Use networks as learning systems

For immigrants, a network is not only about introductions. It can reveal how a new industry makes decisions, what credibility looks like and where hidden opportunities exist.

Reinvention is easier when the story is coherent

The strongest pivots do not look random. They connect a person’s prior experience to a new problem they are uniquely positioned to understand.

Why This Session Matters

This fireside is for immigrants who feel boxed in by the degree, job title or industry that originally brought them to America. Reinvention does not require erasing the past. It requires understanding which parts of the past become an unfair advantage in the next chapter.

Book your Summit tickets: https://luma.com/8c4qusfp