Christian Buckley
Board Member
Christian Buckley is a Partner and General Counsel of Karmel Capital Management, a private equity manager focused on AI Infrastructure and AI Enterprise Software. He is the co-founder and managing partner of Pelagos Ventures, LLC, a seed stage investment and incubation firm based in San Diego. Through Pelagos he co-founder Finnish cybersecurity firm KilpiTek LTD and was a founding investor in Freedom Flight Works, a San Diego based manufacturer of contested logistics drone platforms. In addition to his business work, Christian is an accomplished appellate lawyer and has given more than 175 oral arguments before California appellate courts including the California Supreme Court. He is a lecturer in the political science department of the University of San Diego and is a published author on humanitarian theology. Christian is a fervent supporter of the arts and humanitarian organizations. He serves on the Board of Directors of The Old Globe Theater, where he will be Chairman from 2026 through 2028, and the Timken Museum of Art where he chairs the Governance Committee. Christian and his wife Bridget live in Rancho Peñasquitos and have two children, Maeve (22) and Brendan (18). Christian has a Doctorate of Jurisprudence, with Specialization in Business Law from UCLA and a Bachelor of Arts in History from UCI. As a former beach lifeguard, he can be found in the ocean whenever possible.
