2018 Mentors

Ali Syed

Ali Syed is the global development coordinator for Capital Factory, the largest technology accelerator in the state of Texas. A longtime member of the Austin startup community, he currently focuses on helping global companies access the U.S. market. In the past, he founded his own startup, worked at a family office, and worked at multiple startup companies.

Jonathan Windham

Jonathan Windham started Blackhawk Digital Marketing in 2016 out of a passion for marketing and sales as well as a desire to see growth in small businesses. He received a dual Master of Business Administration from Cornell University and Queens University. He is married and has three beautiful children.

Lauren Paver

Lauren Paver is the founder and principal consultant of Higher Order Consulting. Prior to this, she served as the chief operating officer at CLS Partners where she was responsible for leading the implementation of the strategic operating plan and served as the executive sponsor of the people optimization strategy. She also led the executive team and served as the executive sponsor on key client relationships. She has served as chief operating officer of United Way Austin and as a United Way Worldwide global resident fellow. Lauren is also the president of the board of directors for Impact Austin, a women's foundation, and was awarded the Ballet Austin Woman on Her Toes Award. She holds a Bachelor's degree in business administration and communication from Southwestern University.

Meghan Rauker

Meghan Rauker serves as the Bloom Lab manager and advancement specialist for PeopleFund, a nonprofit community-development financial institution that promotes economic opportunity and financial stability for underserved entrepreneurs such as women, minorities, veterans, and low-income census tracts in Texas. She oversees PeopleFund’s digital marketing strategy, community outreach, and women-focused educational programs while also managing the Bloom Lab, PeopleFund’s business center and co-working facility in Austin. Meghan served as the chair of the Marketing and Outreach Sub-Committee and the Creative Economy Committee with the Greater Austin Asian Chamber. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from the University of St Andrews in Scotland, studying modern history and international relations.

Michael Lake

Michael Lake is the president and chief executive officer of Leading Cities, which is headquartered in Boston and has operations in 10 countries. As such, he establishes and develops relationships with municipal governments, businesses, and universities around the world, creating a global network of partner cities dedicated to implementing Smart City solutions that improve the quality of life in cities. Michael’s career in public service ranges from serving three U.S. presidents as special assistant for White House operations and presidential advance to serving the former prime minister of Ireland as a policy research analyst. The work he led at Leading Cities informed the development of Boston’s Innovation District, and he established the very first Bridge to MassChallenge program, connecting MassChallenge and the city of Zapopan, Mexico. Through this effort, Reto Zapopan was launched and became recognized as the most successful entrepreneurship program in Mexico in its first year. Michael is developing an international network of Smart City-focused accelerators, enhanced by an intense Smart City Startup Boot Camp in Boston to connect urban tech startups globally with investors and customers, resulting in revenue generation and long-term success. Michael is also a world-renowned keynote speaker at Smart City congresses and events globally.

Michelle Lampa

Michelle Lampa is currently the vice consul and trade and investment officer for technology at the United Kingdom’s consulate in Boston. Having full-stack development skills, she is also the co-organizer of the Docker meetup in Boston. Prior to her current role, she was in product management at Wayfair. She has an extensive background in international business development, having launched seven new non-stop international flights out of Boston Logan Airport while at the Massachusetts Port Authority, built bridges and initiatives to promote innovation between the United States and Russia while at the Russian Venture Company USA, Inc., and promoted trade and investment opportunities among companies in Massachusetts, Asia, and Eurasia while at the Massachusetts Office of International Trade and Investment.

Navroop Sahdev

Navroop Sahdev is a fellow at MIT Connection Science and holds a host of leadership roles in the distributed ledger technology space as a practitioner and a researcher. An economist by training, Navroop is currently building a financial technology company that seeks to leverage blockchain technology. She is also a research associate at the Centre for Blockchain Technologies at University College London and holds three Master’s degrees: in intellectual property management, economics of innovation, and applied economics. A United Nations Youth Delegate for 2017, Navroop has co-authored Hyperledger’s Blockchain for Business online course. She speaks regularly at financial technology and blockchain conferences, and she currently serves on the advisory board of a host of blockchain companies across industries. Previously, she has worked at Harvard University and the United Nations Environment Programme.

Tom Bird

Tom Bird has been an entrepreneur and investor in early-stage impact firms since 1988. Professional highlights include time spent as mentor and entrepreneur in residence at the Harvard Innovation Lab, managing director of Sonen Capital, founder and chief executive officer of the Silicon Valley information management firm FARM Inc., trustee of the American University in Bulgaria, director of B Lab, board chair of the Global Giving Foundation, and founder of the FARM impact investing collaborative. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Dartmouth College, a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University, and a Master of Theological Studies degree with an emphasis on ethics from Harvard University.

Alexandra O’Rourke

Alexandra O’Rourke co-leads McGuireWoods’ financial technology industry group. Her practice focuses on financial technology advising, financial services litigation, and state and federal financial regulatory matters and investigations. Prior to joining McGuireWoods, Alexandra was senior counsel at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Office of Law and Policy in Washington, DC. She also served as an attorney with the Office of the Legal Adviser with the U.S. Department of State, for which she served as the representative to the National Security Council on several interagency groups working on national security and immigration issues. During that time Alexandra received a superior achievement award. She served as a judicial clerk for the Honorable Allyson Duncan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit and for the Honorable Legrome Davis of the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania. She graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School, where she had a full academic scholarship and served as executive editor for the Harvard Latino Law Review and co-founder of the Harvard Law School Immigration Project. Alexandra was born and raised in Mexico and immigrated to the United States with her family as a teenager.

Betsy Hauser Idilbi

Before starting Tech Talent South (TTS) – a tech education company leading the way in creating more tech talent in the southern United States and beyond – Betsy Hauser Idilbi ran a physical-product development company, Little Idea, which merged with the product-development giant Enventys. Since starting TTS, she has been named CIO of the Year by the Charlotte Business Journal, a Leader Under 40, one of the 25 People to Know in the Charlotte startup scene, one of the seven People to Watch in Charlotte in 2016 by the Charlotte Observer and honored by the Charlotte Business Journal as a 2016 Woman of the Year. She is also one of this year's honorees for the Charlotte Business Journal 's list of Most Admired CEOs. Betsy holds a degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Devin Collins

Devin Collins is associate director at Ventureprise at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is responsible for accelerating technology commercialization of university research and various entrepreneurial training programs across the North Carolina community. He serves as principal investigator and is on the teaching team for the National Science Foundation I-Corps Site program: Ventureprise Launch having taken over 65 technologies through customer discovery and business-model generation. He is also on the teaching team for the Ventureprise Launch NC IDEA program for Charlotte metro and western North Carolina entrepreneurs. He has served as the business lead for technology teams that have spun out companies. Prior to his current role, Devin served as assistant director of the Charlotte Research Institute at the $1.5 billion public-private North Carolina Research Campus, where he was responsible for business development and collaborations with industry, government, and academia. Previously, he was a strategy consultant with RAM Consulting, Inc. where he worked on international development projects with small-to-medium enterprises around the world. Prior to this, he founded the hardware startup Innervate Systems. He received his undergraduate degree from Babson College and his Master’s degree from American University.

James Walker

James Walker is founder and chief executive officer of Informative Technologies, a corporation committed to ending the digital divide and improving digital literacy as part of its vision of community empowerment through knowledge. Previously, he was an IT project manager and business systems engineer for Barnhardt Manufacturing, the largest organic cotton manufacturer in the United States. He studied computer science at North Carolina State University and holds a certification in Six Sigma Process Improvement from the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering. Skilled in the digital preservation of rare Hebrew and Arabic manuscripts, in 2014 James was a North America finalist in Israel's International Bible Competition. He serves as an active board member for several nonprofits from Uganda to Charlotte.

Denver

Barbara Bauer

Barbara Bauer is the director of the Women’s Investor Network, for the Rockies Venture Club, Denver. She started this initiative to recruit and support women interested in early-stage investments and prepare them to become active and engaged angel investors. Prior to this position, Barbara was the executive director, Myanmar, for Partnership for Change, a Norwegian social enterprise impact investment and international development organization. She founded the Myanmar Women’s Entrepreneurship Conference in 2014 and continued to host it for three years. Barbara is the founder and chief executive officer of two boutique businesses: GlobalSight Partners, an international management consulting organization, and Silk and Stones Travel, a travel company specializing in custom-designed sustainable-tourism tours to Southeast Asia. Her consulting services include a Princeton in Asia Senior Fellow project in northern Thailand, a program supporting the Vietnam Women’s Union. Barbara also developed and led the innovative Center for Women Entrepreneurs at the University of Denver. During her career as a software-development business leader, she held executive positions at Sun Microsystems, StorageTek, US West, Raynet, and Bell Laboratories. Her academic credentials include a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in physics, and the Stanford Summer Executive Program.

Emily Winslow

Emily Winslow is the founder and chief executive officer of Peak Impact Consulting, which supports early-stage social-entrepreneurship ventures, experienced and novice impact investors, high network individual (women and millennials specifically), family offices, and associations of impact investors. Prior to this, Emily achieved a deep understanding of impact investing in her experience at PeakChange. During four years with PeakChange, she managed a portfolio of 40 direct investments and 11 impact funds on behalf of one of the pioneering leaders in early-stage impact investing. Beyond portfolio management, she has actively engaged in providing management-consulting support to social entrepreneurs and their companies in Africa, Asia, and Central America, as well as across the United States. Emily has facilitated the work of nonprofit and for-profit boards, helping to implement best practices, establish clear communications, and build organization capacities. Prior to focusing on impact investment, she worked as a consultant, researcher, teacher, and innovator for JVA Consulting, Accion, Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center, 100 People Foundation, Cross Cultural Solutions, and McREL International.

Nina Sharma

Nina Sharma is the managing director of Project X-ITE, the innovation, tech, and entrepreneurship initiative at the University of Denver, where she is also a guest lecturer and is working toward her Executive Master of Business Administration. At Project X-ITE, she launched the Colorado Solutions Summit as well as Pioneering Summer, an accelerator for student-led ventures. In 2016, Nina co-founded The Whole Truth Booth and in 2017 she co-founded Kahani. In 2018, she launched The Sh*thole Project, an online platform to highlight the beauty and boost the reputation of countries in the developing world. Nina spent 15 years working in institutional fundraising and partnership development at the New York Public Library, Carnegie Hall, Yale University, and the Ad Council. After getting her Master of Public Administration degree from the New York University Wagner School of Public Service, she worked for Millennium Villages Project. In 2012, she worked for various nonprofits in Denver, including First Descents and Global Education Fund, launched her own consultancy, and worked for a boutique reputational consulting firm. Nina is a co-founder of +Acumen, serves on the board of directors of Global Dental Relief, and is on the Hamilton College Alumni Council. She was nominated for the Denver Business Journal 40 under 40 in 2018 and is an active alumnus of the Denver Metro Chamber Leadership Foundation. 

New Orleans

Daniel Applewhite

Daniel Applewhite is an entrepreneur, change-maker, and speaker leading the development of early-stage businesses in Propeller’s Accelerator programs. As director of programs and innovation with Propeller, Daniel works to grow early- and mid-stage businesses and to increase access to capital for the entrepreneurial community. Since 2011, Propeller accelerated over 130 socially impactful organizations, which have generated over $84 million in revenue and financing. As a leading force in social innovation in the region, Daniel works to build knowledge, empowerment, and scale for local businesses with national and international ambitions. He is a champion for equitably approaching fundraising and has worked with social organizations and entrepreneurs of color to raise pre-seed, seed, and series A funding rounds. Prior to joining Propeller, Daniel started two different companies, with a bulk of his experience centered in growth strategy and culturally relevant approaches to solving social problems. In between founding his two companies, he worked as the marketing manager for Class Wallet, one of 12 educational technology startups from around the world to be accepted into the TechStars and Kaplan Accelerator, where he successfully completed the accelerator program and integrally assisted in pitch preparation and securing over $2 million in seed funding.

Hermione Malone

Hermione Malone serves as executive director for Good Work Network, a New Orleans-based small-business development and technical-assistance provider with the mission of serving as a catalyst for women- and minority-owned business success. In its 17-year history, the organization has helped launch or strengthen more than 2,000 businesses and supported entrepreneurs in creating or sustaining more than 5,000 jobs. Previously, Hermione served as director of supplier diversity for Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. There, she created the corporate supplier diversity strategy, including metrics, policies, and protocols designed to increase purchasing from minority-, women-, and veteran-owned companies, among others. She has also worked as a professional journalist for U.S.-based newspapers, including The Boston Globe, from 1999 to 2003. She completed her Master of Business Administration in marketing and entrepreneurship at Case Western Reserve University and her Bachelor of Science degree in journalism at Florida A&M University. She originally hails from Detroit, Michigan.

Kate Yoo McCrery

Kate McCrery is the program manager for Loyola's Center for Entrepreneurship and Community Development and adjunct professor of entrepreneurship and marketing in the College of Business. Originally hailing from the New Orleans area, Kate was a Fulbright Scholar in Germany and taught essay writing to high school students in Busan, South Korea. Previously, she was with Echoing Green (a New York-based social entrepreneurship organization), produced a TEDx event at Columbia University, and served as a consultant to various USAID and UNICEF projects in Pakistan, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Mongolia, and South Korea. Prior to Loyola, Kate was Global Communications director for Village Capital, a Washington DC-based impact investment fund and accelerator program for entrepreneurs solving social problems. Kate received her Bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University and graduated from Columbia University with an Master’s degree in international educational development.

Nicole Muise-Kielkucki

Nicole Muise-Kielkucki joined Idea Foundry in 2012 to help launch InterSector, its social enterprise accelerator. She currently leads the organization's Impact Innovations Program. Nicole earned her Masters of Food Studies from the School of Sustainability and the Environment at Chatham University, where she was awarded a scholarship from the Institute of Food Technologists, as well as the Katherine M. Grosscup Scholarship from the Garden Club of America. She did her undergraduate studies at the University of Pittsburgh, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in political science and philosophy. She has also worked and volunteered for several local environmental nonprofits in the city, including Tree Pittsburgh and Phipps Conservatory. She is passionate about contributing to the development of resilient and sustainable communities, which includes building robust local economies and healthy regional food systems. She currently serves on the board of the Lawrenceville Farmers’ Market Advisory Committee.

Marissa Kuzirian

Marissa Kuzirian is an investment manager at Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse (PLSG), an organization that provides knowledge, connection, and capital to early-stage startups in the life sciences. Marissa provides support in commercialization and business-model strategy for pharmaceutical and healthcare IT companies, and she evaluates companies for investment by PLSG. In addition to her work at PLSG, she develops programming for the Pittsburgh chapter of Women in Bio, a nonprofit organization that promotes leadership, entrepreneurship, and career opportunities for women in the life sciences. Marissa is also active in the translation of innovative technologies to commercial products as a commercial translation architect with sciVelo at the University of Pittsburgh and as an innovation mentor at Brandeis University’s Innovation Center. Prior to her work at PLSG, she was vice president of business development at Fourth River Solutions, a nonprofit consulting group. Marissa earned a Bachelor of Art degree from Kenyon College and a PhD in neuroscience from Brandeis University. Marissa was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pittsburgh’s Pittsburgh Center for Pain Research. Throughout her career in academia, she raised money through eight successful grant applications and authored eight publications in peer-reviewed journals such as Cell.

Tim Zak

Tim Zak is associate teaching professor and director of the Institute for Social Innovation at Carnegie Mellon University. He has lectured and worked extensively with organizations in a variety of geographies including China and Southeast Asia, India, Europe, the Middle East, South America, Latin America, and Australia. He was the founding executive director of Carnegie Mellon-Australia, where he was also on the inaugural board of The Australian Centre for Social Innovation. He was also the founding chief executive officer of the Social Innovation Accelerator, a private operating foundation established in 2002. He has held leadership positions at McKinsey, IBM, and two startup companies, and he is also a venture advisor at AlphaLab Gear, one of the world’s first incubators for hardware and robotics startups. In addition, he sits on the board of Diamond Kinetics and on the advisory board of numerous other startup companies. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in computer science and industrial management from Carnegie Mellon University and a Master of Science degree in engineering science, with concentrations in manufacturing systems and reliability, from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He also has a Master of Business Administration with distinction from New York University in finance, marketing, and international business.

Jenny Poon

Jenny Poon is an entrepreneur and founder of CO+HOOTS. Ranked the Number Four coworking space in the United States by Inc.com, CO+HOOTS currently houses over 280 scaling entrepreneurs and small businesses, and it has played an integral role in creating hundreds of local jobs in Phoenix, Arizona. Jenny has led CO+HOOTS from its inception in 2010 to be the Number One most innovative coworking space in the world. 

Russ Yelton

Russ Yelton is president and chief executive officer of Yelton and Associates. Previously, he served as chief executive officer of Pinnacle Transplant Technologies (PTT). He currently sits on the advisory board for PTT and retains an ownership interest. Prior to PTT, Russ was president and chief executive officer of the Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, and he oversaw the development of multiple business incubation sites across Arizona, including the Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation at Gateway Community College, the Maricopa Center for Entrepreneurship in the City of Maricopa, and the Native American Incubation Network. Russ has served as president and vice-president of the North Carolina Business Incubation Association, chair of the Mountain South Incubator Alliance, founding president of the Arizona Business Incubation Association, chair of Arizona Bioindustry Association (AzBIO) from 2015 to 2017, and currently serves as past chairman of the board of AzBIO, chair of the Flinn Bioscience Entrepreneurship Committee, and a member of the Arizona District Export Council. Russ received his Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Appalachian State University and his Master of Business Administration degree from Western Carolina University, where he also completed continuing doctoral coursework. He also completed economic sustainability training from the Vienna School of Economics and he is a Flinn-Brown Fellow.

Tom Schumann

Tom Schumann is an experienced business counselor providing financial and technical assistance to small and medium-sized businesses across a variety of industries and stages of development. He uses his background in economics, accounting, and finance to help growing companies secure the financial resources required for growth through private investment and commercial and non-traditional lending. His education background includes degrees in accounting and economics, a Master of Business Administration, a doctoral candidate in computer and information systems. He holds certifications as a Small Business Administration commercial loan underwriter and an International Business Innovation Association certification in business incubation management, and he is a certified trainer in the Profit Mastery and Growth Wheel programs. Tom came to Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation (CEI) after a 25-year career in Michigan universities where he has held a variety of leadership positions and spearheaded multiple statewide outreach initiatives to support entrepreneurs that include the Inventors Center of Michigan, the Michigan Manufacturing Resource and Productivity Center, and the Michigan Business Incubation Association. Tom has been at the forefront of the use of technology in education for his entire career. He was recognized by the Michigan legislature as “Michigan’s E-Learning Pioneer” and has served as the vice president of academic affairs for the Michigan Virtual University and the Michigan Virtual High School.

David Harris

David Harris is the startup advocate for the city of Seattle's Office of Economic Development where he supports tech startups through the StartupSeattle program. In his role, he also helps to lead the TechHire initiative for the Seattle region, which aims to connect under-represented communities with training and jobs in the tech industry. David is a graduate of the University of Washington's Human Centered Design and Engineering Master's Program. In the past, he has worked at Microsoft as a software design engineer in test and most recently as the STEM Integration program manager for the Technology Access Foundation. In 2015, David received the “Making a Difference in Technology” award from the University of Michigan Black Alumni. The same year, he was also a finalist for “Geek of the Year” at the Geekwire Awards, among other notable finalists like Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft. David helped create Hack the Central District, an annual event that takes place in Seattle and showcases the latest in design, entrepreneurship, and technology from people of African descent around the world. This won the 2015 “Best Tech Idea” from the Seattle Weekly. For this work, David was listed as “Seattle’s 51 Most Influential” by Seattle Magazine in 2014.

Gillian Muessig

Gillian Muessig is the chief executive officer of Outlines Venture Group and general partner of the Sybilla Masters Fund, one of a growing number of funds focused on reducing unconscious bias and improving diversity in private equity funding. An active entrepreneur, Gillian is the co-founder of Moz (the world’s most popular search marketing software) and brettapproved (the fastest-growing booking site for travelers with disabilities and mobility challenges). She is a former tech advisor to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and consults with investors and founders and speaks worldwide on emerging entrepreneurial markets and the impact of global trends on valuations and startup activity. Her weekly radio podcast, CEO Coach, has been heard on webmasterradio.fm for more than eight years and is available on iTunes, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, etc. A board member at companies in four continents, Gillian has helped over 1,000 companies around the world to launch, grow, pivot and thrive.

Lowell Ricklefs

Lowell Ricklefs is managing partner of Traction Advising M&A and former founder, president, and chief executive officer focused on helping fellow founders/chief executive officers scale and sell their businesses. He understands both sides after acquiring companies at $10 million and $40 million and exits of $110 million, $260 million, and under $5 million. From these best practices he documented a five-step process for maximizing the value of business on an exit. Prior to exit he built teams that grew revenue from $1 million to $55 million and from $10 million to $120 million, both in less than five years. He is passionate about supporting the startup ecosystem in the Pacific northwest and in emerging countries. He is focused on helping companies valued at $5–$50 million find a buyer and successfully execute the process.

Ryan Biava

Ryan Biava is a practitioner-academic who works primarily in public-sector institutions to help cultivate an innovation-focused approach to policymaking and strategy. Having worked in several levels and parts of government, and as a comparative political scientist trained in the United States and Europe, he enjoys acting as a political interpreter between the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Ryan is the technology policy advisor to the Technology Innovation Division at Seattle City Light, the municipally owned electric utility in Seattle, where he researches how changes in electric-power technologies are shifting the policy positions and organizational strategies of electric companies. He is also an affiliate assistant professor in the Information School at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he lends his academic and professional expertise in the interaction between technology innovation, public policy, and politics. His primary research expertise is in privacy theory and regulation, and he is developing a course on smart cities. Ryan holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Washington, an Master’s degree in international affairs from Sciences Po Paris, and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He has also studied in Egypt and the United Kingdom.