Waterman Ventures Team

Bio: Ludwig Pierre Schulze is Managing Partner of Waterman Ventures, a venture capital fund focused on the Brown University community. Waterman is part of the Alumni Venture Group, the most active venture firm globally. Ludwig has been on all sides of venture; as an entrepreneur, a corporate buyer of ventures and as a venture capitalist. Previous to Waterman, Ludwig experienced the daily realities of being an entrepreneur as Founder and CEO of a mobile payments venture that served 12M+ people. Earlier, he held general manager and business development roles within a Global 50 telecommunications manufacturer (Nokia) which included investing in and acquiring venture-backed businesses. His first experience in venture capital was with an $800M global fund, focused on enterprise and mobile software both before and after the dot.com crash. Ludwig began his career as a strategy consultant with the Boston Consulting Group. He has a BA from Brown University and an MBA from Columbia.
Notable Deals: gate5, EMR Ventures

Bio: Dave has held operating roles in sales and business development at venture-backed companies focused on digital health (Zocdoc) and enterprise cloud software (Shibumi). He has also invested as a Venture Partner at NextGen and an LP at CRE Venture Capital. Dave began his career in investment banking and corporate strategy at Deutsche Bank. He has a BA in Economics from Brown.
Notable Deals: Circulation, Andela

Bio: Jai is a managing director, president and co-founder at Sapphire Ventures. He invests in startups which he believes are developing ground-breaking products and services, and have embarked on their journey to become a company of consequence. He has more than 15 years of experience helping companies innovate their product and marketing strategies in order to scale and become market leaders. Eleven of Jai’s investments have become publicly traded companies and 9 have been acquired. Jai is currently a member of the board (director or observer) at Catchpoint, DataRobot, JFrog, Narrative Science, OpsRamp, Portworx, PubNub, Punchh, Splashtop, Sumo Logic and ThoughtSpot. Jai’s previous investments at Sapphire include: Alteryx (NYSE: AYX), Apigee (acquired by Google), Box (NYSE: BOX), Connectiva Systems (acquired by Mara Ison), Cloudhealth Technologies (acquired by VMware), Control4 (NASDAQ: CTRL), Cyphort (acquired by Juniper Networks), ExactTarget (acquired by Salesforce), Five9 (NASDAQ: FIVN), GroundWork (acquired by Parallax), Ignite Technologies (acquired by Versata), Iron.IO (acquired by Xenon Technologies), Jaspersoft (acquired by TIBCO Software), JustDial (JUSTDIAL), MuleSoft (acquired by Salesforce), Newgen Software (NSE: NEWGEN), Nutanix (NASDAQ: NTNX), Paytm, Socrata (acquired by Tyler Technologies), Square (NYSE: SQ), and Tealeaf (acquired by IBM). Prior to joining Sapphire Ventures in 2006, Jai worked at Oracle, Intel Capital, Agilent Ventures, and MVC Capital (a DFJ affiliated fund). He has a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from Brown University and an MBA from University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.

Bio: Theresia Gouw is co-founder of Aspect Ventures, a leading early stage venture firm with a unique focus on bridging the funding gap between angels and the larger multi-stage VC platforms through collaboration and diversity. Aspect invests across sectors but has particular expertise in cybersecurity, enterprise software and solutions targeting the future of work, and digital health. Theresia has led the firm’s early investments in Cato Networks, Deserve, Exabeam, ForeScout (FSCT), The Muse, Crew, ShieldX and PredictHQ. Prior to Aspect, Theresia was a Managing General Partner at Accel where she championed many successful companies through IPOs or acquisitions including Imperva (IMPV), Trulia (TRLA), LearnVest (Northwestern Mutual), Jasper Design (CDNS) and Kosmix (WMT). As an entrepreneur, Theresia was founding Vice President of Business Development and Sales at Release Software, a venture-backed company that provided SaaS to enable digital rights management and payment technologies for the software industry. Earlier, she worked at Bain & Company and as a product manager at Silicon Graphics. Theresia holds an ScB in Engineering from Brown University, magna cum laude, and an MBA from Stanford University. Theresia serves as Treasurer of Brown University’s Corporation board, Vice-Chair of Donorschoose.org, is a member of the Global Leadership Circle of ONE.org, the Castilleja School board, and at Stanford co-teaches a course on Venture Capital at the GSB. She also serves on the GSB Advisory Council and DAPER investment fund. Theresia is a first generation immigrant and a passionate supporter of educational causes and increasing diversity in the tech industry. Theresia was named to Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women list, she has been recognized 7 times on the Forbes Midas List as one of the “world’s smartest tech investors” and was named one of the 40 most influential minds in tech by Time Magazine.

Bio: Barrett Hazeltine was Professor of Engineering at Brown University. He is now Professor Emeritus but continues to teach at Brown. From 1972 to 1992 he was also Associate Dean of the College. He is a graduate of Princeton University–BSE – 1953, MSE – 1956 and the University of Michigan–Ph.D. – 1962. His teaching and research interests are in engineering management, entrepreneurship, and appropriate technology. In 1991-92 he held the Robert Foster Cherry Chair for Distinguished Teaching at Baylor University. He was awarded teaching citations from thirteen senior classes at Brown University until the award was named in his honor. He has received various other awards. He has taught at the University of Zambia in 1970 and 1976, at the University of Malawi in 1980-81, 1983-84, and 1988-89, at the University of Botswana in 1993, and Africa University in Zimbabwe–1996-97, 2000, and 2006. Other foreign countries in which he has done teaching or consulting are Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mozambique, Nigeria, and South Africa. He was a Fulbright lecturer in 1988-89 and 1993. In 2015 he received the Susan Colver Rosenberger, the highest award the Brown Faculty can bestow. He was a Trustee of Stevens Institute of Technology and was on advisory committees at Baylor University, Roger Williams University, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He was also a Trustee of the Paul Cuffee School, a charter school in Providence. He was president of the Providence Engineering Society and on the Board of the Rhode Island Chapter of the Sierra Club, Hamilton House-a senior center, and the Capital Good Fund. He has consulted for TechnoServe.

Bio: Sam is co-founder and Chairman of Funding Circle USA. Funding Circle Ltd. recently went public on the London stock exchange. Under his leadership, the U.S. business has grown exponentially since its foundation in 2012 and has emerged as the world’s largest online marketplace exclusively focused on small business loans. He co-founded the company after seeing how hard it was to get a loan for a small business, a successful gym franchise, he helped build. Before co-founding Funding Circle, Sam served as Vice President of Business Development at SecondMarket, the leading marketplace for alternative investments. There, Sam was responsible for corporate and business development and the company’s geographic expansion efforts. Sam was also part of the investment team at Pequot Capital, an $8 billion global fund manager, where he covered investments in financial technology and information services. He started his career as a strategy consultant at Katzenbach Partners, where he advised financial services and technology companies. Sam currently serves on the boards of two private companies. He received his MBA and MS from Stanford University and graduated, magna cum laude, from Brown University.

Bio: Lauren is a partner at Aspect Ventures. Her investments include Chime, the Muse, Troops, Gusto, Mapper.ai and TalkIQ. Previously, Lauren worked in product marketing at Google. Lauren began her career in clean technology partnership development for the Clinton Foundation in India. She is a Brown University trustee emerita and was a Forbes 30 Under 30 for Venture Capital recipient in 2016.

Bio: Charlie Kroll is a serial entrepreneur, having spent his career in and around startups. Kroll is Co-Founder and President of Ellevest, a venture-backed digital investment platform based in NYC. Previously, he was founder and CEO of Andera, a venture-backed provider of customer acquisition solutions in the financial services industry, acquired by Bottomline Technologies (NASDAQ: EPAY) in April 2014. He led all aspects of company growth over 10+ years from dorm room startup to profitable industry leader with over 100 employees, 3 offices, and 600 financial institution clients nationwide. Kroll is actively involved in the entrepreneurial community, as former Chair of the Brown University Entrepreneurship Program, founding board member of Venture for America, Techstars mentor, and advisor to a number of startups. He is a past Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, and was named New England Young Entrepreneur of the Year by the United States Small Business Administration. Kroll has a BA from Brown University.

Bio: Kevin Luzak is a managing partner at LWJ & Co Capital Management, a multi-family investment platform presently focused on venture capital. Since its formation in 2013, LWJ has made investments in the forest products, packaging, logistics, social media, healthcare, and financial services industries. Prior to forming LWJ, Kevin was the president and CEO of Coastal Forest Resources Company. He has also been a partner at the UK based private equity firm Doughtly Hanson & Co, and a senior advisor to the investment banking firm of Gleacher & Company and to the multistrategy hedge fund Ritchie Capital Management. He started his career in the investment banking department at Salomon Brothers Inc in New York. Kevin is a director of several portfolio companies. He also serves on the board of the Medical University of South Carolina Foundation, where he chairs the investment committee, and on the governing council of The Wilderness Society, where he chairs the finance committee. An avid squash player, he also chairs the Squash Doubles Association Pro Tour. He graduated magna cum laude from Brown University in 1986.

Bio: Adam Nelson is a venture investor focusing primarily on B2B Software and Marketplaces. Most recently, Adam was a Partner as Social Capital where he led investments in WeeCare, Clearbanc, Workstep and OneLogin. Prior to that, Adam was at Dropbox where he led business development for monetization, executing on strategic partnerships with companies like Dell, Softbank, America Movil and Vodafone. Before moving into that role he built and had P&L responsibility for the Dropbox Channel Program which he grew to 2,000 value added resellers. Prior to Dropbox Adam was an investor at Lindsay Goldberg, a $10bn AUM Private Equity firm in New York and an Investment Banking Analyst at Merrill Lynch in their Consumer Products industry coverage group. Adam holds an M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.A. in Political Science from Brown University.

Bio: Michael Zuckert is SVB Financial Group’s General Counsel. He is responsible for leading the company’s legal department as well as providing strategic guidance to SVB’s management team and board. He joined SVB in 2014 from Citigroup, where he most recently was Deputy General Counsel. During his 12 years at Citi, Michael covered a wide range of legal matters, most recently focusing on Citi Holdings and mergers and acquisitions. He also served as senior counsel to Citi’s chief financial officer and the company’s finance organization, advising on public company disclosures and capital markets transactions. During the financial crisis, Michael advised on investments by the U.S. Treasury in Citi and led teams which prepared senior executives for Congressional hearings. Previously, Michael worked at Morgan Stanley as a Principal in the legal department covering investment banking and principal investing. He later served in a business role as a Chief Operating Officer for a private equity fund at Morgan Stanley. Michael also served as General Counsel of TheStreet, an Internet financial news provider. He advised the company on its initial public offering, corporate governance and international expansion. He started his legal career as a corporate associate at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP in New York. Michael holds a bachelor’s degree in history, and law and society, from Brown University and a law degree from New York University School of Law. He is on the boards of the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, a member of the Tech:NYC Leadership Council, and an advisory member of the Board of the Silicon Valley Directors’ Exchange. Michael previously served on the Board of the American Red Cross of the Bay Area.

Bio: Jan D’Alessandro is President of Blue J Strategies, a strategic advisory business that she founded with Jimmy Chamberlin (Smashing Pumpkins), that provides access, connectivity and strategic direction to companies across the media, entertainment, technology and non-profit sectors, creating opportunities that accelerate growth, time to market, and value. Jan is a partnership builder, focused on harnessing the power of digital media and technology to make the world a better place. She has held senior positions at AOL, Yahoo, Topspin Media (acquired by Apple), The Find (acquired by Facebook) and Backplane (founded by Lady Gaga). In addition to Waterman Ventures, Jan is also a Venture Partner at venture capital firms StudioVC, Correlation Ventures, and Savano Capital Partners. She speaks frequently on digital media, women’s empowerment, entrepreneurship, philanthropy and the intersection thereof. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center and her A.B. in English and American Literature from Brown University.

Bio: Bill joined Conviva as Chief Executive Officer in 2018 with a demonstrated track record of building high-performance teams and successfully launching disruptive technologies. Prior to Conviva, he was CEO at Shopkick. Previous to Shopkick, Bill served as CEO at Turn, building the only global, natively integrated real-time digital advertising hub for audience planning, media execution, and real-time analytics. Under his leadership, Turn increased its net revenue forty-fold during his six-year tenure. Before Turn, Bill served in executive roles at Yahoo!, Overture, and Microsoft. Bill is a mentor, angel investor, and advisor for multiple technology companies. He has been recognized by Goldman Sachs as one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs (2014) and by Ernst & Young as an Entrepreneur of the Year finalist (2012 and 2013). He holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and degrees in computer science and organizational behavior & management from Brown University. He is a proud dad of two boys, an aspiring tennis player, and a long-suffering KC Chiefs fan.

Bio: Paul Gallagher currently leads strategic projects for Pinnacle Financial Partners, a $23 billion regional bank headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. Paul’s previous work includes a variety of operational, technology, payment product, and risk management leadership roles at PayPal, First Republic Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, Wells Fargo, and Yahoo! Early in his career, Paul was a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group in Germany as well as a credit analyst with IBM Credit Corporation. Paul earned his MBA at the Yale School of Management in 1990 and his AB degree from Brown University in 1986. In addition to serving as a Venture Partner for Waterman Ventures, Paul is an Advisor to LexAlign, a RegTech platform designed to help financial institutions manage third-party compliance risk. Paul served as President of the Brown Club of Northern California from 1998-2002, during which time he also served on the national Brown Alumni Association board.

Bio: Grant Gurtin is the General Partner at Gurtin Ventures, an early stage seed fund, and Founder/Chairman of Trend, a marketplace connecting social media influencers with brands. He sold his first company Fanium to CBSSports in 2015 and has been an active angel investor since 2012.

Bio: A serial entrepreneur with a global reach, Michael has lived in the US, UK, and China, and has been building ventures in Europe over the past few years. Michael is currently based in Barcelona and leading Fotolog, a social network with 34M+ users. Prior to that, he served as the Chief Operating Officer at Klikin (acquired by Repsol) in Madrid and headed two ventures in Barcelona: Oliva Card and MyLogim. Before relocating to Europe, Michael worked in Silicon Valley, where he was responsible for marketing at Bitzer Mobile (acquired by Oracle). Michael holds a B.A. with honors from Brown University, and he spent one year visiting at the University of Oxford.

Bio: Wendy Nelson, Ph.D., has over 20 years of business development, project management, operational, and R&D experience in biotechnology, large pharma, international CRO, and Life Science conference organization. Dr. Nelson is currently CEO of LeadingBiotech, formerly known as the Boston Biotech Conferences, which produces a portfolio of executive level conferences around the US and in Europe. Before joining LeadingBiotech, she held business development positions of increasing responsibility at QPS, Worldwide Clinical Trials, inVentiv Health and most recently at Frontage Laboratories where she was VP of Business Development, Marketing and Strategic Alliance. Prior to her roles in business development, Dr. Nelson was with Alantos Pharmaceuticals where she was responsible for project management, preclinical and clinical operations of the entire Alantos pipeline, including the post-merger integration following the $300M acquisition of Alantos by Amgen in 2007. She began her career in R&D at Alkermes. Dr. Nelson is the Founder and President of the Boston Biotech Forum, LLC, which she initiated in 2011 to foster networking and address pertinent industry topics with technical and operational experts from over 120 biotechnology, pharmaceutical and venture capital companies. She has served on the organizational committees for the Progeria Research Foundation and the MIT Enterprise Forum, is a mentor for the MassConnect program, is an inventor of multiple patents and patent applications and is senior author on a number of scientific publications. Dr. Nelson received her ScB and MS in Engineering and PhD in Medical Sciences all from Brown University.

Bio: Daniel Rothman co-founded his first startup, a sleep technology company Zeo, as an undergraduate studying Cognitive Neuroscience at Brown University. He invented the core technology for Zeo while completing an independent study with Professor Hazeltine. He then co-founded NightPilot with Brown Professor Hendrik Gerritsen to commercialize an astronomy toy for children. Daniel launched PeraHealth, a life-saving EMR application that identifies patient health trends and reduces mortality in hospitals by 30%, and simultaneously completed his Healthcare Executive MBA at UC Irvine. In 2012 Daniel joined CityMD, a fledgling urgent care company, supported its growth it from 4 to 75 locations, then facilitated its sale to Warburg Pincus for $600M. Daniel is passionate about helping startups and has mentored them for many years in strategy, operations, and finance, and he also angel invests, mostly in healthcare.

Bio: Ryan Saari has 13 years experience in private equity/venture capital, having served as Director at Allegheny Financial Group, a $5B investment company, and as Director of Landmark Group and Springhouse Capital. Additionally, Ryan has placed many investments directly in startups through his own family’s office. Not just a finance guy, Ryan has started and sold four of his own companies in the logistics, distribution, financial services, and industrial services industries. He has closed deals with total enterprise value over $1B. For these accomplishments, he has been awarded M&A Advisor’s 40 Under 40 Leaders Awards and Pittsburgh Magazine’s 40 Under 40 Award. Ryan is very involved in the venture capital and M&A community. He serves as a Board Member of ACG, Member of the Pittsburgh Venture Capital Association and its Venture Fair Selection Committee, and as a Selection Committee Member of Invent Penn State since its inauguration. A lifelong learner, Ryan has attended Brown University (Masters in Healthcare), George Washington University (Masters in Public Health), University of Pittsburgh (Masters Business Administration), and West Liberty College (BS Business Administration).

Bio: For the past 20 years, Ned Sherman has devoted his career to innovation and entrepreneurship in the creative and technology industries as a successful entrepreneur, media executive and business owner, and trusted advisor and legal counsel to entertainment, media and technology companies. He is currently Counsel, Entertainment, Media & Technology, Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP, Director of Manatt Digital, the firm’s management consulting group, and an investor and advisor to the Manatt Venture Fund. He is also Chairman and Founder (previously CEO & Publisher) of Digital Media Wire, Inc., a marketing and strategy consulting firm representing an A-List clientele of entertainment, media and technology brands, government groups and trade associations and owner and operator of media properties and events. He was previously Global Artist Manager and General Counsel to multi-platinum, Korean- American hip-hop artist Jay Park (now signed to Roc Nation) and has held leadership positions in several media company ventures and with a boutique digital media-focused investment banking practice, which he co-founded. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Ned Sherman is more than the average pundit: He is an attorney and has an inside grasp of what is happening.” Sherman holds an A.B. with honors from Brown University, a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law, and is a cohort member of the Executive Master in Innovation & Entrepreneurship program at HEC Paris.

Bio: Jonathan Speed has 35 years of business development, finance, and start-up experience with companies such as Manufacturers Hanover Trust, Kidder Peabody, Citibank, and myCFO. For the last four years, Jonathan has been the CFO and VP of Operations at Versal Group, a San Francisco-based e-Learning technology company. In January 2020, Jonathan is launching a data insights company: 1790 Media.Jonathan has advised—as a mentor or board member—non-profit, professional, and entrepreneurial organizations such as Youth Mentoring & Sports and the San Francisco Housing Development Corporation, the CFO Leadership Council (co-chair of the San Francisco chapter)—and Astia, Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center, and the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship), respectively. He serves on the advisory boards of Audink, DiveIn, Qwotem, Skippit, Neumedics, Swytchback, and XBorders.Jonathan holds a BA in Political Science from Brown University. Since graduation, he has held a variety of volunteer positions: Emeritus Trustee, Brown University Corporation Board; Board Member and former Treasurer, Inman Page Council; Former President, Brown Club of Cleveland, Ohio; Former Member, Board of Governors, New York Brown Club; and Former Member, Brown Entrepreneurship Program Board. In 2014, Jonathan completed an MA in Military History from Norwich University.

Bio: Mark Tracy has spent the majority of his career creating innovative financial tools to solve intractable problems. While at Cargill, Mark and his team changed the way farmers market their crops through unique pricing flexibility. He also led the effort to use distributed ledger technology to create digitally traceable food. He serves on the board or committees of Hope Hospice and Palliative Care of New England, Rhode Island Public Health Institute, Save The Bay, and Ocean State Innovate. Mark is a named inventor on two US patents. Mark has worked advising startups from Brown and the Social Enterprise Greenhouse for over 10 years. Mark earned his Master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University’s JFK School of Government in 2011 and a bachelor’s degree from Brown University in 1995.

Bio: Anna Valcheva works with venture capital, private equity, startup founders and entrepreneurs on investments and exits at various stages of the private capital cycle – from seed and early stage to late-stage, pre-IPO. She is a Managing Director at FNEX Capital, a fintech-enabled alternative investment platform for investments into venture capital and growth private equity. Previously, she was a founding member of the first private equity sponsor and investment banking advisory firm for women founders and the C-suite of executive women on business and investor side. Anna spent the majority of her career at JPMorgan, in New York, London and Sydney, in Investment Banking M&A, Private Equity, public Equity Capital Markets, Equity Derivatives and Equity-linked Capital. She was a founding member of two startup businesses at JPMorgan that were built from the ground up into the #1 leading franchises in the U.S. and Emerging Markets EMEA. She advises the United Nations and its institutions around the world on Ocean investments ranging from impact, venture capital, private equity to infrastructure finance. She is an Advisor to the “100 Startups Against Cancer” CAI-MedImmune-AstraZeneca startup accelerator and an Advisor to the Tamer Fund for Social Ventures. She is passionate about mission-driven entrepreneurship, double bottom-line impact investing, environmental stewardship, sustainability and women founders. Anna graduated Magna Cum Laude from Brown with a triple Bachelor’s in Applied Mathematics-Economics, International Relations and Organizational Behavior and Management. She is an alumna of Oxford University and holds the global MBA of London Business School and Columbia Business School. She is a member of the Board of the I Can Too international foundation for children with special needs.

Bio: Howard is a partner in the Technology Transactions Practice within the Firm’s Mergers & Acquisitions Group. He represents clients in a variety of intellectual property and technology-related transactional matters in industries such as consumer electronics, payments and other financial services, software, energy, health care, and hospitality. Howard assists clients with patent license and joint development agreements, technology transfer agreements, payment processing agreements, trademark license agreements, supply and distribution agreements, transition services agreements, and outsourcing agreements. He also advises on a variety of corporate matters involving intellectual property collateral in secured financings, disclosures in public offerings, and due diligence in mergers and acquisitions.Howard rejoined the Firm in 2018. Howard was previously a member of White & Case’s Technology Transactions Practice for over eight years before joining Apple’s legal department in 2013. Most recently, Howard served as Vice President in the Visa legal department, where he led legal support for Visa’s data centers, sourcing function, and initiatives for payments in the fields of “Internet-of-Things” and “Connected Car.”In recent years, Howard has led payments-related technology transactions with every major bank in the United States and the United Kingdom, major payment networks, the largest providers of point-of-sale terminals, and the world’s largest technology companies. He has also led major supply chain and technology development transactions with some of the largest makers of consumer electronics components in Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan.Prior to his first tenure with the Firm, Howard served as Assistant Attorney General in the New York Office of the Attorney General’s Antitrust Bureau, where he was a member of the trial team in US et al. v. Oracle, he assisted in enforcing the settlement in New York v. Microsoft, and he prosecuted illegal shill-bidding on e-Bay. Prior to joining the Office of the Attorney General, Howard clerked for United States District Judge Robert Pratt in the Southern District of Iowa.

Bio: Zach is currently an Analyst at BlackRock Private Equity Partners, where he is responsible for conducting diligence on both direct co-investments and primary fund opportunities. Prior to BlackRock, he was an Associate at Endeavor. He is also a co-founder of Flow Solutions, a startup launched out of a Brown class that focuses on developing water security products in India. He graduated from Brown in 2017 with a BA in International Relations.

Bio: Jack is currently a Strategy & Operations Associate at Innovation Department, a startup studio building an extraordinary portfolio of consumer brands. Prior to joining Innovation Department, Jack worked as an Investment Banking Analyst in the Technology group at Jefferies, advising companies on M&A and capital raises. Jack has a BA in Business Economics from Brown University, where he was on the men’s varsity soccer team.

Bio: Michael’s professional experience spans financial services, emerging technologies and global health. He has served as both an equity and ETF analyst covering themes ranging from cybersecurity and robotics to genomics and infrastructure development. Michael was previously a technology editor at The Economist Intelligence Unit and has worked on several grants from the National Institutes of Health. His work has been published in several peer-reviewed journals. Michael received his bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Brown University and is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.

Bio: Based in NYC, London, Beijing, and Seoul, Catherine is a recent Political Science graduate with diverse experiences in digital technology, luxury consumer markets, legislative politics and international law. In college, she was a varsity epee fencer and trained under Olympic gold medalist Yong-ho Kim. She claimed the gold medal from the 28th Seoul Fencing Championship and organized a fundraising initiative for Stanford’s varsity fencing squad. Previously, Catherine has worked at the Office of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Norton Rose Fulbright, Moschino and Guest of a Guest. Catherine holds a B.A. in American Politics from Brown University, and also studied at Harvard, London School of Economics (LSE), and Duke University in Beijing.

Bio: Alex is passionate about scaling innovation and technology globally, especially in his home country of Bulgaria. He currently works in monetization strategy at LinkedIn; in addition, he leads a small team developing a fitness music app that leverages machine learning and IoT. Alex holds a B.A. in Economics from Brown University.

Bio: Adam Kiki-Charles (BU’11) is an MBA candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management. He started his career at Epic Systems, an electronic medical records software company. After Epic, he worked as a field organizer on the 2012 Obama campaign and then as an assistant to Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code, during her 2013 run for New York City Public Advocate. He returned to the healthcare industry thereafter and has a total of seven years of medical software consulting experience, most recently working as a Senior Consultant for Nordic Consulting Partners, specializing in the implementation and optimization of revenue cycle applications for hospitals systems across the US. Adam holds a BA in Political Science from Brown.

Bio: Ileana (’18) is passionate about scaling medical innovation globally and sustainably. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Medical Engineering at Stanford University, as a member of the pioneering cohort of the Knight-Hennessy Scholars. At Stanford, she has also been involved in the entrepreneurial ecosystem as an InSITE Venture Fellow with Uncork Capital, and currently as a Venture Fellow with RDV (General Catalyst). Her research has spanned fields ranging from genetic engineering to medical diagnostics to interventional medical devices. During her time at Brown, she co-founded a venture to develop an embolic protection device for open-heart bypass surgeries. She holds a BS in Biomedical Engineering with Honors from Brown University.

Bio: Shane’s experience thus far has been international, entrepreneurial and broadly based in finance. He currently operates a strategy consultancy for Fortune 500 companies such as Deutsche Bank and Allianz. Additionally, he serves his alma mater as chair of two alumni committees, including a 1,500-member fundraising council. Shane graduated from Brown University with his B.A. in Business Economics and was a four-year member of the football team.

Bio: Alexandria’s professional career spans the financial services, education, and non-profit sectors on both sides of the globe. Currently, she works at an early stage venture capital / private equity firm with a focus on transactions in the energy, biotech, and technology industries between North America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. In her spare time, she works on a world music initiative affiliated with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble. Alexandria holds a B.A. in Economics and Music from Brown University.

Bio: Kayla is a brand strategist by trade with experience in product development, brand positioning and research. Most recently, she worked in the agency world at the independent agency Phenomenon. She has worked with clients across industries including tech, retail, entertainment, financial services and fitness to name a few. Kayla has a bachelor’s degree from Brown University, where she played varsity water polo.

Bio: An entrepreneur at heart, Amos has held several roles in product, strategy, engineering management, and business development in venture-backed start-ups focused on blockchain, fintech, and enterprise software. Amos is currently leading product at Enplug, the market leader in Digital Signage software that serves top tier global companies including WeWork, YouTube, Google, Marriot, and Audi. Previously, Amos founded MakeCents Network, a spin-off of his final year academic project at Brown. As the sole product manager and technical founder, Amos led the development of a highly scalable public blockchain platform producing 1k+ tps with a rolling pool of 200-1000 validators and engaged with a dozen Fortune 500 companies as well as top crypto projects, such as MakerDAO and Gemini. Amos has an M.Sc. in Engineering and B.A. in Economics from Brown, where he served as the lead vocalist and guitarist for the Brown Jazz Band.

Bio: Ho Jun is currently the Head of M&A and Business Development at LBS Local, a holding company composed of three early-stage companies (TruckPad, Maplink, and Apontador), working to transform the logistics industry in Brazil. LBS Local is part of the Movile group, invested in by Naspers. Prior to LBS Local, he had experiences in private equity and in a value investing hedge fund as a generalist equity analyst. He graduated from Brown in 2016 with a B.A. in International Relations and Economics.

Bio: Prior to joining AVG, Chris was a Customer Advocate at Graphic Packaging and in Sales & Marketing at Putnam Investments, where he created materials for reps and investors. He’s a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Manning School of Business, where he studied Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Studies.

Bio: Previously, Anne was an Applied Behavioral Analysis Counselor for Melmark and a medical biller for Physicians Resources. She is also a certified Certified Personal Trainer and Group Fitness Instructor, with her own clientele. Anne has a Bachelor’s in Psychology from the University of New Hampshire.

Bio: Prior to joining AVG, Jenna was an Investor Service Representative at Putnam Investments, where she provided customer support to both clients and brokers. Jenna is a graduate of Merrimack College, Girard School of Business, where she studied Business Administration with a dual major in Management and Marketing.

Bio: Prior to joining AVG, Jordan worked in consumer and commercial lending with New Hampshire based firms. A Massachusetts native, Jordan graduated with honors from Plymouth State University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Management with a focus in business law.

Bio: Taylor graduated from Southern New Hampshire University with a B.S. in Finance/Economics. Prior to joining Alumni Ventures Group, Taylor spent the early part of his career at Fidelity Investments as a licensed Financial Advisor, providing existing 401k clients with financial planning advice.

Bio: Prior to joining AVG, Hilary was a Staffing Executive and Program Manager at Robert Half. Previous positions include Retirement Planning & Guidance Consultant for Fidelity and an Investor Assistant for an independent investor. She has a Bachelor of Science, Business Management & Marketing from Fisher College.

Bio: Jamie was the Clinical Secretary Sr for Pediatric Gastroenterology at Dartmouth-Hitchcock. Earlier, he served as a Claims Processor Associate and then a Senior Associate at Cigna Health. He has also served in multiple church youth ministries for over 15 years throughout Ontario, Canada, in many different cultural contexts. He was part of the adjunct faculty in the youth ministry department at Tyndale University College. He has a BA in Psychology from York University, a Masters of Divinity from Tyndale Seminary, and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Theological Seminary.