May Samali

Venture Partner, NextGen Venture Partners & COO, New Ventures, High Resolves

San Francisco

May Samali is passionate about investing in people and ideas that can change the world.

May currently wears two hats. First, she is a Venture Partner at NextGen Venture Partners, a network-driven venture capital firm. Second, she is the Chief Operating Officer, New Ventures at High Resolves, where she is building a technology platform for citizenship education across the US.

May has extensive experience advising and investing in startups across the US and Australia. She was formerly an investor and first employee at the Urban Innovation Fund, a venture capital firm investing in entrepreneurs shaping the future of cities. Prior to that, she was a Director at Tumml, an urban ventures accelerator in San Francisco. She has also worked as a strategy consultant at a boutique venture firm and as a corporate attorney in Sydney.

May's primary areas of interest include venture financing, tech policy, social entrepreneurship and the future of work. Her work has been featured in numerous press outlets, including Forbes, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, the Stanford Social Innovation Review, the Jolly Swagmen Podcast, the Piloting Your Life Podcast, Philanthropy News Digest, and the San Francisco Chronicle. She is also a regular speaker at conferences and industry events, including the Future of Wealth Summit, 500 Startups Unity Inclusion Summit LA, the Harvard Social Enterprise Conference, the Women of MENA in Tech Conference, Plug&Play FoundHER Series, the Hacker Exchange, and the Expat Woman, among others.

Also, May holds a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, and degrees in Law and Economic & Social Sciences from the University of Sydney.