Rockaway Capital

Michal Šmída is a partner at RockawayQ who emphasizes the fund's commitment to validating industrial technologies in real operational environments and directly supporting enterprise transformation rather than relying on theoretical performance alone.

Pavel Falout serves as Chief People Officer at the Gates Foundation. His areas of focus include human resources, strategic planning, organizational development, leadership coaching, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Advisory Board member and Investment Partner since 2016 leading Rockaway's private equity investment team. He previously spent over nine years as Investment Director at MidEuropa Partners.

Andrea Lauren, Prague-based, bridges Nordic and Central European tech ecosystems, leveraging her investment banking and M&A background for transactional fundraising and exits while backing CEE hardware ventures like PteroDynamics.

Dušan Zábrodský combines six years at AVG Technologies with early-stage investing to digitize offline sectors (restaurants, grocery) via operational redesign, build Balkan infrastructure, and publish Central European startup content.

Jaroslaw Czernek has been an Investment Partner at Rockaway Capital since 2015, where he oversees the firm's travel industry holdings, including INVIA Group. He previously practiced law at White & Case in Prague and London, Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York, and Linklaters in London, and is a qualified attorney in the Czech Republic, New York, and England and Wales. His work has focused on cross-border transactions across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, with an emphasis on Russia/CIS and Central and Eastern European markets.

Operating Partner and investor with over 25 years of experience in business, technology, and marketing. She held senior roles at Google and joined the Rockaway Ventures Fund in 2021, overseeing investments and ESG.

Petr Šmíd champions keeping CEE founders rooted while connecting them to U.S. capital, using his Google Pay and Assistant experience to guide late‑seed to Series A international expansion.

Fund CFO at Rockaway since 2019 handling portfolio valuation, financial due diligence, and M&A valuation support. He previously spent over seven years in Risk Advisory at KPMG and holds ACCA and ASA certifications.

Max Palko combines dual early-stage and thematic investing roles and 5+ years of operational-plus-investment experience within the same ecosystem, yielding a broader group-wide perspective than ex-banking or consulting hires.

Petr Otava is the owner of MTX Group, which partners with RockawayQ. He describes how the partnership enables MTX's transformation through data and AI, citing concrete results such as quality control improvements using AI models and ongoing digital strategy development across 39 manufacturing facilities.

Investment Associate at Rockaway Ventures since January 2022 who sources and analyzes startups and manages the investment process. She previously worked at EY, Viso.ai, and WOOD & Company.

Chief M&A Counsel at Rockaway Capital with prior experience as an M&A lawyer at BBH and White & Case. He holds an LLB from Macquarie University and is admitted to practice law in England & Wales and New South Wales.

Jon Corbett is Managing Director and CFO of Schooner Capital, named to the CFO role in 2024 after serving as VP Finance from 2018 and Controller from 2011. He oversees Schooner's accounting, finance operations, and tax compliance, supports its public equities efforts, and works with several private portfolio companies, including a directorship at SRS Medical. Before Schooner, he spent over a decade in public accounting at Tonneson + Co, holds a business degree from Merrimack College and a Master of Science in Taxation from Bentley University, and is a CPA in Massachusetts.

Natalia Lopez uniquely combines Founder/Partner and General Counsel/CCO roles—an uncommon pairing in venture capital—bringing The Legal 500 Puerto Rico GC Powerlist–recognized legal leadership alongside active growth-equity investing.

CTO at Rockaway specializing in technology, product development, and IT for the firm and its portfolio companies. He previously worked at AVG Technologies and led R&D and IT at Kðík.cz.

Victor Drault is Head of Capital Formation and an investment partner at Rockaway Capital, where he represents Rockaway Fund and contributed to building the Rockaway Ventures platform across the CEE and DACH regions. He has more than twenty years of experience in global financial markets, including 13 years at JPMorgan and HSBC in London working in corporate advisory and technology investments, during which he executed transactions totaling over CZK 600 billion. He is also a co-founder of Roklen and Fundlift.