NEA promotes Lay, Pappas and Huang to partner

• New partners focus on consumer tech and digital health
• Firm also named Alex Sharata as principal and promoted Arjun Jain, Mustafa Neemuchwala and Hunter Worland to senior associate
• Based in Maryland, NEA invests in tech and healthcare companies

New Enterprise Associates has promoted Danielle Lay, Luke Pappas and Lily Huang to partner.

“There’s a long-running quip at NEA that promotions typically come after someone has already been doing the job for quite some time, and it’s hard to imagine two more apt examples than Danielle and Luke,” NEA co-president Tony Florence said in a statement. “They are culture carriers who reflect the very best of NEA in all they do, and each has shown tremendous leadership, acumen, and commitment in their work — from Luke’s efforts to expand our operations in Europe to Danielle’s role in developing NEA’s sector theses in emerging areas of focus. We’re very excited to celebrate their many contributions with these promotions.”

Huang focuses primarily on digital health investments, while Lay invests in consumer technology, with particular focus on social-viral and e-commerce infrastructure, and Pappas invests in consumer and enterprise companies.

Separately, NEA named Alex Sharata as principal and promoted Arjun Jain, Mustafa Neemuchwala, and Hunter Worland to senior associate. Healthcare investing team promotions include James Buxton and Lulu Xu to principal and Michael Li to senior associate.

In addition, NEA named tech investors Aaron Jacobson and Vanessa Larco to the firm’s venture capital investment committee. Jacobson joined NEA in 2011 and Larco came on board in 2016.

Based in Maryland, NEA invests in tech and healthcare companies. Founded in 1977, NEA has more than $25 billion in assets under management.