Frankel Commercialization Fund - Advisors

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Frankel Advisors
The Frankel Fund is directed by a board of advisors who are selected based on their in depth industry experience, experience founding and growing early stage companies, and or experience investing in early stage companies. The advisors serve as strategic advisors to the Frankel Fund as a whole and, based on the background of the advisor, as an advisor to one of the four Frankel Fund Teams. By complementing the experience of the Frankel Fund Team members, the Frankel Fund Teams are able to provide a very deep level of technical and business management expertise to the start-up companies in which they invest.

Tom Porter, Managing Director
In addition to his role as managing director of the Fund, Tom is general partner for Trillium Ventures in Ann Arbor. He has a broad range of experience in founding, managing and advising successful technology growth companies over a thirty-year period. Tom co-founded and is a general partner emeritus in EDF Ventures, an Ann Arbor-based venture capital firm investing in early-stage market-driven companies in health care and information technology.

Technology Advisors

Jim Adox, Managing Director, Venture Investors
Jim joined Venture Investors in 2007 as a Managing Director and heads up our Ann Arbor, Michigan office. He leverages his technical, operational and venture capital background by focusing on investment prospects in medical devices, hardware, software, and communications. Jim’s prior venture capital experience includes a combined nine years as a partner at RidgeLine Ventures and  EDF Ventures, where he led the spin-out, sourcing, financing, syndication and exit of numerous investments. During this time,  he performed the role of President, CFO and COO of select opportunities until a management team was recruited. Jim served on the Boards of Directors of Avail Networks and HandyLab, and as an observer for Alfalight, Ardesta, TherOx and Xtera Communications. Prior to his venture capital positions, Jim had nine years operating experience both domestically and internationally. In these roles, he wore many functional hats: marketing, engineering, business development and operations. Jim currently serves on the Boards of Directors of HistoSonics, Incept BioSystems, the Michigan Venture Capital Association, and is Chairman of Tissue Regeneration Systems. Jim led the firm’s highly successful investment in LenSx Lasers, which was acquired by Alcon in 2010.  He is on the Board of  Advisors  to  the  Frankel Commercialization Fund, The Medical Innovations Center, Tech Arb, and Huron River Ventures. Jim earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering and an  MBA  with  High  Distinction, all from  the  University  of  Michigan. He is a competitive triathlete and an IronMan finisher.

Lindsay Aspegren, General Partner, North Coast Technology Investors
Lindsay Aspegren is a co-founder and general partner of North Coast Technology Investors where he has led investments in Avidimer Therapeutics, Inc.. Gema Diagnostics, Inc. and Virtela Communications, Inc., among others. Prior to North Coast, Lindsay was a co-founder of Chromatic Research, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company. He also held a number of executive positions at Lotus Development Corporation, Approach Software Corporation and Everex Systems, Inc. Lindsay began his career with Goldman, Sachs & Co. where he worked in Corporate Finance with emerging technology clients. Lindsay received his M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration and his BA from Yale University. He also attended the London School of Economics.

Gregg Hammerman, Team Leader, Product and Business Development, GloStream
Greg serves as Team Leader, Product and Business Development for GloStream, an early stage company providing doctors with certified, voice-enabled Microsoft Office-embedded electronic medical record and practice management solutions. He serves as liaison between gloStream’s development and enablement teams and is responsible for managing gloStream’s relationships with industry groups such as the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and the Electronic Health Record Association (EHRA), while simultaneously looking for additional partners and revenue streams. Prior to joining gloStream, Gregg co-founded and served as President of TechStreet, a Web site that provides engineers, librarians and technical professionals with efficient, convenient, reliable access to mission-critical industrial codes and standards. Techstreet's Web-based tools and services help users efficiently acquire and manage information resources. Through an e-commerce Web site and Web-based subscription service, customers can freely access an online database of over 300,000 industry codes and standards aggregated from 350 of the world's leading Standards Developing Organizations (SDOs.  TechStreet was acquired by Thomson Reuters.  Gregg received his BSE  and MBA from the University of Michigan where he also was a Frankel Fellow.

David Hartmann, Mentor-In-Residence, UM Tech Transfer
Dave is currently a Mentor-in-Residence with UM Tech Transfer and the co-founder and CEO of Arbor Blue, an emerging technology company. Dave most recently served as Vice President and General Manager of Convergent Systems and Corporate Development for Sycamore Networks. He is an accomplished senior executive with successful experience in technology company startups, turn-around and public companies with extensive business development and operating experience in computing and communications technology. His experience includes the founding and management of a first wave internet equipment company from startup to IPO in 5 years. He then sold the business to a larger public company for $100 million. Dave has also had success unlocking the value of a semi-publicly held high technology company by creating a strategic plan to drive the next-step corporate investment strategy. The business grew 45% Y/Y with this new strategy and was acquired for $80 million.

Al Kortesoja, Formerly Capgemini/Ernst & Young
Al is a former vice president of the Critical Technologies Group at Capgemini/Ernst & Young, most recently focusing on enterprise integration services and the development of eCommerce strategies. He has extensive experience in the software, automotive, telecommunications, financial services and health care insurance industries. Al is currently an independent management consultant and an adjunct professor at the University of Michigan's computer science department.

Chuck Salley, Investor
Chuck Salley is an experienced entrepreneur who has founded two technology based companies and previously led information technology sales teams. He is past President of the Ann Arbor IT Zone and founding Executive Director of the Ann Arbor SmartZone Business Accelerator. He co-founded with Kurt Riegger, Entrepreneur Boot Camp and he continues to facilitate and teach this seminar semi-annually for Ann Arbor SPARK. He advises early stage technology companies and is a member of several Advisory Boards including the Frankel Fund at UM Ross Business School.

Ken Spenser, Director, Interphase Corporation
Ken is currently a Director at Interphase Corporation (NASDAQ: INPH), a supplier to the global telecommunications market where he is Chairman of the Nominating and Governance Committee, and also a member of the Audit and Compensation Committees. Ken is also President of Better Rehab, LLC a supplier of content to the Health Services Industry.  Previously Ken was a founder and President/CEO of two venture backed software development companies, MicroEngineering Solutions, Inc. and Entivity, Inc. MicroEngineering Solutions was successfully sold to Autodesk in 1993 and Entivity was sold to Phoenix Contact, GmbH in 2003.  Prior to his experience with venture capital backed companies, Ken was Vice President at Texas Instruments leading TI’s worldwide Industrial Automation Division.  Ken attended the US Naval Academy, graduating “With Distinction” in the top 10% of his class with a BS Degree in Physics and Applied Math.  He was one of 11 Midshipmen awarded Immediate Graduate Education and completed his MSEE (Acoustics) before going to Flight School.  Ken retired as a Navy Captain.

Health Care Advisors

Sundu Brahmasandra, President, Life Magnetics
Sundu currently serves as President of Life Magnetics™, Inc. a spin-out from the University of Michigan that is developing a novel, non-microscope based platform for real-time monitoring of cell growth, death and other binding events. Applications of this technology span the life science basic research sector where it could enable rapid detection coupled with high levels of multiplexing of cell based assays as well as the in vitro diagnostics sector where it could to lead to the development of rapid antimicrobial & chemotherapy susceptibility tests for microbiology and oncology applications. Prior to Life Magnetics, Sundu served as a VP of R&D/Assay Development in the Infectious Disease division at BD Diagnostics. Prior to BD, Sundu was a Co-Founder of HandyLab, Inc., and served as its V.P. Product Development where he led the development of proprietary nucleic acid preparation technologies as well as the development of a multitude of real-time PCR assays spanning molecular diagnostics, food-borne pathogen detection, GMO testing and other applications.  HandyLab was acquired by BD in Nov 2009 for more than $275 million in cash. He received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2001.

Mary R. Flack, Vice President, NanoBio
Dr. Flack has over 25 years of clinical research experience at the NIH and in the pharmaceutical industry. As VP of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs at NanoBio from 2002-2006, she was responsible for NanoBio’s first 2 IND submissions, as well as Phase 1 and 2 clinical studies in herpes and onychomycosis. As VP of Clinical Research and Medical Affairs from 2006 to the present, she oversees all the clinical research at NanoBio, including dermatology, vaccines and respiratory diseases and a Phase 3 program in herpes labialis being performed in support of an OTC product licensed to GSK. Before joining NanoBio in 2002, Dr. Flack was Clinical Director of Endocrinology and Women’s Health Care at Pfizer (formerly Parke-Davis/Warner Lambert) where she was responsible for clinical development of pharmaceutical products for osteoporosis, hormone replacement therapy, fertility and contraception. She directed the completion of multiple clinical studies (Phases I-IV), leading to four approved NDA submissions, and has extensive experience with three different divisions of the FDA, including dermatology, endocrinology and reproductive health.

Larry Hagerty, President, MedAptus Inc.
Larry is currently President of MedAptus, Inc., a healthcare software company focused on revenue cycle management applications. Larry is a recognized leader in the healthcare information industry and, earlier in his career, successfully led Ann Arbor-based Medstat through tremendous growth as the company's President and Chief Executive Officer. Medstat’s track record as a public company, prior to its later acquisition by Thomson Reuters, was recognized by the company’s inclusion on the Forbes’ Corporate Honor Roll and Business Week Best Small Companies lists. Larry has also held executive and management positions with R.L. Polk & Co., The Carroll Group, Hoover Universal, Gould, and Arthur Andersen & Co. He is currently a member of the Health Policy and Management Executive Council for the Harvard School of Public Health, the Dean’s Advisory Council for the University of Michigan School of Nursing and a number of other for-profit and not-for-profit boards.

Kalyan Handique, CEO, DeNovo Sciences
Kalyan Handique is currently the CEO of DeNovo Sciences, a cancer diagnostics start-up. Prior to joining DeNovo Sciences, Kalyan co-founded HandyLab, a start-up molecular diagnostic company which was recently acquired by Becton Dickinson (BD) Diagnostic Systems in a landmark deal valued at more than $275 Million. He served in a variety of roles including President (2000-2001), CTO (2000-2009) and Board Member (2000-2009) for HandyLab. He was pivotal in forming the vision, vibrant culture and team and was a key contributor in HandyLab’s successful entrepreneurial journey from start-to-exit. Contributions included: technology transfer, raising venture capital and government grants, growing the team, developing intellectual property, strategic collaborations, developing and launching FDA approved molecular diagnostics platforms to the eventual sale of the company. After HandyLab’s sale to BD, Kalyan served as the VP of R&D Systems Development for BD Diagnostics from 2009-2011. Kalyan has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan with Prof Mark Burns as his adviser and received a Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from IIT Bombay in 1995.  Kalyan is active in the entrepreneurial community and serves as an adviser for the Frankel Fund, Augment Ventures, Wireless Integrated Microsystems and sits on the board of 3D Biomatrix.

Mike Kurek, Partner, Biotechnology Business Consultants
Mike Kurek is currently a partner at Biotechnology Business Consultants (BBC) in Ann Arbor. Over the last 30 years, he has held senior management positions in marketing, sales and business development for a number of early stage life science companies—two of which completed successful initial public stock offerings. As Vice President of Business Development at the Michigan Center for High Technology, he was responsible for the business incubator program that served more than 50 start-up technology companies. He holds a Ph.D. in Genetics from Florida State University and an MBA from Boston University.

Paul McCreadie, Managing Director, Arboretum Ventures
Paul McCreadie joined Arboretum Ventures in 2006 and is responsible for sourcing and leading new investments in promising healthcare companies. He led Arboretum’s investment into Delphinus Medical Technologies and Wellfount Pharmacy and currently serves on the Board of Directors of each company. Paul has also been a board observer at VasoNova (acquired by Teleflex) and NeoGuide. He is the former Chief Operating Officer for CerviLenz, a portfolio company based in Ohio, where he led the re-design of the company’s first commercial product from concept to launch. Prior to joining Arboretum in 2006, Paul worked at Ford Motor Company for eight years, holding management positions within new product development, manufacturing, and business strategy. He was a member of the Wolverine Venture Fund (WVF) while an MBA student at Michigan's Ross School of Business. Paul was the fund’s liaison with IntraLase, one of the WVF's most successful investments to date, which was acquired by American Medical Optics in 2007. Paul earned a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Gerard P. Spencer, Retired Partner, Arthur Andersen
Gerard has spent most of his career (28 years) as a partner at Arthur Andersen. While at Andersen, he specialized in technology based clients (8 IPO’s and numerous financings), small and medium sized manufacturing and service companies, and Japanese transplants. He was the manager of the Emerging Company Business for Arthur Andersen’s Michigan Region and manager of Andersen’s Ann Arbor office. Following Arthur Andersen, Gerard became CFO of a $50 million sales manufacturing company. As CFO of the manufacturing company, he was instrumental in increasing per share value 4 times in three years after more than a dozen years of no growth. He then oversaw the sale of the company. Gerard has served on numerous boards of directors during his career. He received his MBA from the University of Michigan and a BA from Ohio Wesleyan University.

Cleantech Advisors

Peter Adriaens, Director, Global CleanTech Cluster Association
Dr. Adriaens is Director at CleanTech Acceleration Partners, a business investment services firm, and Director of the Global CleanTech Custer Association (GCCA), focused on open innovation and economic development by screening, repositioning and connecting best in class Cleantech clusters and companies. He is co-developer (with T. Faley) of the KeyStone Compact™, a startup positioning and investment analysis tool that has been applied on more than 400 early and later stage CleanTech companies in North America, Asia, and Europe.  Aside from GCCA, its clients include OnGreen, a broker for Chinese venture capital in US cleantech startups.  He founded Global CleanTech LLC, and executive education and legal advising firm, and is Director of Asian Operations at LimnoTech, an environmental services company focused on business water risks in the US and China.  He is Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Professor of Entrepreneurship and Strategy in the Ross School of Business. His professional appointments include past-President of the Association of Environmental Science and Engineering Professors (AEESP), and a member-by-eminence of the American Academy of Environmental Engineering. Following a 20-year career focused on validating laboratory-based bioremediation, environmental sensing and green building technologies in the field, his current work focuses on CleanTech innovation and entrepreneurship. He teaches courses on Business Models, Entrepreneurial Business Fundamentals, CleanTech Venture Assessment, and Sustainability Finance.

Michael H. Edison, Associate, M&A and Strategy, DTE Energy Resources
Michael is an Associate at DTE Energy's non-regulated business unit, DTE Energy Resources, headquartered in Ann Arbor. Michael is currently working with a team focused on developing and executing a renewable energy growth strategy for DTE Energy Resources. Prior to joining this group, Michael was part of DTE's MBA rotational program with assignments focused on coal asset acquisitions, carbon project development and trading, and on-site renewable energy project development. Michael is a Frankel Fund alum and is a co-founder of the Frankel Fund's Clean Tech team. Michael received his MBA and MS in Natural Resources and Environment from UM, as well as a BS in Chemical Engineering.

Pedro Guillen, Director of Industry Services, Next Energy
Pedro Guillen currently serves as Director of Industry Services at Next Energy. Pedro focuses on the advancement and development of clean renewable technologies. He joined Next Energy in 2009, and has contributed his expertise in diverse clean energy and transportation projects. Areas of expertise include product commercialization, technology road mapping and manufacturing strategy. Prior to joining Next Energy Pedro worked for various clean technology, and defense consultants. Pedro has led global engineering teams focused in new product development and operations management.  Pedro has taught corporate seminars in the areas of Lean Manufacturing and Lean Product Development. Pedro received his MBA from the Ross Business School, University of Michigan. Pedro holds a Master of Engineering in Manufacturing from the University of Michigan. He also received dual B.S. degrees from Columbia University with concentrations in Mechanical Engineering and Liberal Arts.

Kimberly Pargoff, Grid Storage Manager, Government and Military Solutions, A123 Systems
Kimberly Pargoff is the Grid Energy Storage Manager for Government and Military Solutions at A123 Systems.  Kim has over 10 years experience in the clean energy and clean technology space.  At A123, Kim is responsible for business and new market development for advanced grid energy storage solutions for all government and military customers worldwide.   Kim’s focus is on applying “smart” storage solutions to micro-grid, renewable integration, ancillary service, and vehicle-to- grid military applications.  
Prior to A123 Kim spent 3 years at the Cleantech Group as Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Business Development where Kim developed new markets and  cleantech growth strategies for governments in  North America, China, India, Brazil and the Middle East.   Previously, Kim also served as the Clean Energy Policy Director for an NGO in Washington D.C. and as Business Development Manager for Capstone Turbine Corporation.  At Capstone Kim developed new distributed generation markets and programs with partners such as Chevron Energy Solutions and United Technologies Corporation (UTC Power & UTC Fuel Cell).  Kim also has 4 years experience in high-tech and strategy consulting with Diamond Technology Partners and Accenture working on strategic and technology engagements with clients such as Goldman Sachs, T-Rowe Price, Alltel, Bell Mobility, and Telefonica SA.  Kim has a MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and a dual Certificate in Corporate Environmental Management and Sustainability in Business from The Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UC Santa Barbara.  Kim has a Bachelors of Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in Industrial and Environmental Engineering.

Sonali Vijayavargiya, Founder and Managing Director, Augment Ventures
Sonali Vijayavargiya is the Founder and Managing Director of Augment Ventures, an early stage cleantech, industrial technologies and IT focused venture fund based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Fund invests in early-stage companies with high caliber teams and transformational technologies and solutions geared to increase efficiency and productivity in global markets. Sonali has over 16 years of experience in both project finance and investment banking. She has worked closely with early stage companies in several industries, nurturing them and developing them from proof of concept to final IPO or strategic sale. Her strong insight into understanding technologies and business models for early stage companies has helped her shape commercial success for clients. Sonali’s global work experience has helped her developed a keen sense of leveraging economic and regional efficiencies to develop profitable cross border alliances for companies operating in different sectors. In 2005, prior to launching Augment Ventures, Sonali founded Augment Capital, LLC, a venture advisory practice.  She provided strategic advice to many seed and early stage companies in CleanTech and IT, successfully positioning her clients to secure over $60 Million in institutional funding. Prior to forming Augment Capital, Sonali worked in Mumbai with organizations such as PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) and Edelweiss Capital where she raised over $100 million for her clients and advised start-up companies from incorporation to fund raising to exits. She holds an MBA from the Symbiosis Institute of Business Management and a Bachelor of Science in Statistics from Fergusson College both from Pune, India. She is a recipient of the Leaders and Innovators award by Grant Thornton and the Corp! Entrepreneur of Distinction Award.

Ryan Waddington, Mangaging Director, Huron River Ventures
Ryan Waddington is co-founder and Managing Director of Huron River Ventures, a seed and early stage venture fund focused on cleantech opportunities in Michigan.  Mr. Waddington has over 14 years of experience in investing, operating and consulting roles in the alternative energy and environmental sectors, and is widely respected as an experienced cleantech investment professional. Ryan has invested in and managed more than 15 energy technology companies at seed, venture and growth stages, totaling approximately $100 million of invested and committed capital.  Prior to co-founding Huron River Ventures, Ryan helped establish an energy-focused private equity group within New York-based Ziff Brothers Investments, one of the largest and most successful family office investment firms in the country.  There he became part of the core team of investment managers and worked on multiple transactions in renewables, biofuels, power transmission and advanced materials sectors.  Ryan began his career in venture capital working inside DTE Energy’s corporate venture group and also established and executed a seed funding program at Detroit-based alternative energy incubator NextEnergy.  While in business school at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, he co-founded a "dot com" for outdoor enthusiasts, and worked as a consulting environmental engineer early in his career.

Consumer Advisors

Frank Legacki, Director, Fletcher Spaght Ventures
Frank Legacki is a Director of Fletcher Spaght Ventures, the venture capital division of Fletcher Spaght, Inc. He joined FSV in December, 2008 to establish the firm’s Michigan office. Frank Legacki was Senior Vice President of Rosebud Solutions, a healthcare specialty software firm in Ann Arbor, MI, which was acquired in 2008 by McKesson, Inc. Mr. Legacki joined Rosebud Solutions in December 1997 and is one of the founding investors. Prior to Rosebud Mr. Legacki was President and CEO of Kaepa, Inc., a high performance athletic footwear company that focused on niche athletic footwear markets. Mr. Legacki led the LBO of Kaepa from Wolverine World Wide, Inc., and sold the company to Umbro in 1996. Mr. Legacki was also President of the Andover Consulting Group,Vice President of Marketing at Converse, Inc. and Managing Director of The Strategic Consulting Group of Marketing Corporation of America. Mr. Legacki received his BA and MBA from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1962 and 1964, respectively. As a former varsity swimmer at the University of Michigan, Mr. Legacki was a five time national champion and captained the 1961 U of M National Championship team. He was inducted into the U of M Athletic Hall of Honor in 1995.

David McCann, National Small Business Development Team, Google
Dave McCann heads the National Small Business Development Team at Google in the Ann Arbor office. The team focuses on understanding and providing customer support for the thousands of small and medium businesses that use Google AdWords. Dave previously served as a manager providing support to key business-to-business advertisers in Google’s Business and Industrial Markets Vertical. Prior to Google, Dave was a Treasury Analyst at Ford Motor Company. In this role, he developed funding plans for the Canadian, Australian, Mexican and Brazilian markets. Dave received his MBA from Harvard Business School and his BA in Finance from Michigan State.

Joshua Pokempner
Joshua Pokempner is a recovering Architect and a founder of Architects Four where he worked until launching a series of award winning consumer product companies. With a dedication to products that are clever, innovate and fun, Giddy Up!, Color Loco, Flying Colors Toys and Colorbok Paper Products, where founded and eventually successfully sold. The companies continue to thrive and serve the mass and specialty stationery, children’s toys and publishing markets. Currently Josh is dividing his time between product design at Giddy Up!, which is now part of Elmer’s Products, Inc. and involvements with several nonprofit organizations.

Phil Roos, CEO, Rooster Works LLC
Phil is an expert on innovation and branding, a successful entrepreneur, and a consultant to a wide range of for-profit and non-profit organizations.  Currently, he is CEO of Rooster Works LLC, an organization focused on promoting economic revitalization, environmental sustainability, and health and wellness for Michigan and the Great Lakes region. Formerly, he was the Managing Director of GfK Strategic Innovation, the practice area formed by the acquisition of Arbor Strategy Group (ASG) by GfK Group, a leading global marketing research and consulting firm. Phil founded ASG in 1998, creating a consultancy with recognized expertise in strategic brand innovation and a model for predicting and developing tomorrow’s successful innovation.  Prior to ASG, Phil was Chief Marketing Officer for Frank’s Nursery & Crafts (a leading lawn and garden retailer), Senior VP Marketing for Little Caesars Pizza, President of Delicious/Frookie snack company, and Managing Director of Marketing Corporation of America’s consumer industry consulting practice.  Phil started his career in brand management with the Quaker Oats Company. Phil currently serves on a variety of boards, including the Michigan Environmental Council, Arbor Research Collaborative for Health, and CTI Industries (a publicly-traded company) – as well as in advisory capacities for a variety of other organizations.  He is on the advisory board of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters and the Conservation Voters of Michigan Political Action Committee. Phil earned a BBA from the University of Michigan and a MBA from Harvard. He is also a Certified Public Accountant.

Nathan Stoll
Nathan was formerly the co-founder and Keeper of Insectivores at Aardvark, a startup acquired by Google in February 2010.  An early and long-time Googler, Nathan briefly returned to Google to help with the company’s transition during the spring and summer of 2010.  Aardvark is a social search tool that taps the knowledge of people in your network (you can still sign up and read more at http://vark.com).  Before leaving to start Aardvark, Nathan headed Google News, overseeing its rapid expansion to more than 40 countries and growth into one of the top global news sites.  Earlier in his product management career at Google, Nathan launched Google Suggest, a search suggestion service now used in most Google seaches.  He worked extensively on the early Google Adwords system and with Google’s internal analytics teams, and developed a number of patented pricing adjustment and forecasting models.  Nathan holds a BS in Computer Science and a BA in Political Science from Stanford University. He grew up in White Lake, Michigan, about an hour outside of Detroit and Ann Arbor.

Robert Wolfe, Founder, Crowdrise
Robert graduated from the University of Michigan in 1992 and didn’t feel like going to law school so he founded Moosejaw, a high-end outdoor apparel and equipment retailer. Robert grew Moosejaw from an 800 square foot retail store in Keego Harbor, Michigan to one of the world’s leading outdoor, multi-channel retailers with $40 million a year in sales through its seven retail shops, five websites, and mail order catalogs.  Moosejaw was named an Internet Retailer Top 100 Website (2008 and 2007) and an Ad Age Top 50 Marketer (2008).  Robert has been recognized by Forrester Research, IBM, Bizrate, Ad Age, Internet Retailer, New York Times, New York Times Magazine, and Entrepreneur Magazine as an innovator in social commerce, crowdsourcing, creative marketing, emerging technologies and other nice sounding things. More recently, Robert was the architect of Edward Norton’s Maasai Marathon fundraiser. The campaign, which raised $1.2 million in eight weeks for the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust, was notable for driving small donations through compelling promotions and authentic communication. In March, 2010 Robert launched Crowdrise. Crowdrise is a social networking and crowdsourcing site for Volunteers. The goal at Crowdrise is to make volunteering and fundraising fun.

Advisors-at-Large

Terry Cross
After graduating from Wayne State University with an MBA in Finance, Mr. Cross entered the machine tool business in Detroit, Michigan, with The Cross Company, (publicly traded) the world’s leader in Automated Machine Tools. Mr. Cross worked in many departments of The Cross Company, learning the business from the ground up. Mr. Cross co-founded, CP Systems Company specializing in high-speed, small parts, automated assembly machinery and built it up to an annual revenue base of $ 10.0 million. Mr. Cross sold CP Systems Company to Chicago Pneumatic Tool Company, a NYSE listed company. Mr. Cross entered the securities business through a training program with Eastman Dillon Union Securities in 1972.  In 1974, Mr. Cross joined Kidder, Peabody & Company in their Detroit, Michigan office and remained there until 1985 when he was transferred to Kidder’s flagship Park Avenue office in New York City.  In 1985, Mr. Cross was elected a Senior Vice President and shareholder of Kidder, Peabody & Company.  In 1988, Mr. Cross was transferred to Kidder’s San Francisco office and remained there until 1998.  During his years in San Francisco from 1989 until 1998, he focused almost entirely on the technology companies and venture capital firms in Silicon Valley.   In 1995, Kidder was acquired by PaineWebber.  Mr. Cross left PaineWebber in July of 1998 to pursue private investments.  In February 2000, Mr. Cross co-founded Sonoma Photonics, Inc. in Santa Rosa, CA where he served as CEO and Chairman until he resigned to return to Michigan in August 2002.  During his tenure, Mr. Cross spearheaded the development of the business plan and raised $ 10.7 million in venture funding from domestic and European investors.  Sonoma Photonics was sold to Lockheed-Martin in 2008 for a significant return.  In August 2002, Mr. Cross returned to Michigan and founded Windward Associates, a private investment partnership, where he focuses on capital formation advisory. Mr. Cross’ past board memberships include: G2 Networks, Inc. of Los Gatos, CA, Safari Technology Inc. of Lawton, Michigan, GCB Technologies of San Jose, CA, InGenius Technologies of Kalamazoo, MI., Wordenglass Inc. of Kalamazoo, MI., Machine Vision International of Ann Arbor, MI, Inivest of Detroit, MI, and Triumph Resources of New York City, and Pure Entropy Solutions of Lake Orion, MI [as Chairman]. Mr. Cross was a founding investor of three companies resulting from MIT’s Technology Transfer Department:  Intellitec, Axiomatics, and LNL Technologies.  He served as a board member for Axiomatics and Intellitec. He was also a member of MIT’s Laboratory for Manufacturing and Productivity. He has served as a financial advisor to Triscend Semiconductor of Mountain View, CA, Macropore Corporation of San Diego, CA. and All-American Semiconductor of San Jose, CA. He currently serves as a Director of Monarch Antenna, a Delphi Corp. spinout, as Chairman of MIST Innovations, Inc. of Detroit, MI., and as an advisor to ArdentCause L3C., eCyren LLC,  NextCAT of Detroit, MI, as Interim CFO and advisor to InfoReady Corp. and NextGen Metabolomics of Ann Arbor, and AutoHarvest as Senior Director, among others.  Since 2002, he has mentored over 50 company founders in Southeast Michigan and has been instrumental in helping entrepreneurs raise in excess of $ 100 million of capital funding. Mr. Cross was named The Distinguished Alumni in 2005 by The School of Business Administration at Wayne State University where he is also their first Executive in Residence-Entrepreneurship.  He also served on the Business School’s Board of Visitors and on The Critiquing Committee for their Entrepreneur Course relating to business plan development.  He also administers the prestigious Adams Family Fellowship for Entrepreneurship for The Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan.  He currently serves as business plan evaluator for the SEIC Michigan 21st. Century Jobs’ Fund Pre Seed Fund, the SEIC Michigan 21st.Century Jobs Fund Accelerator Fund, The Great Lakes Entrepreneurs’ Quest and The First Step Fund in Detroit, MI.  He is a member of The Rochester Hills Mayor’s Business Committee.  He was deeply involved in many aspects of TechTown, a Detroit based incubator from 2003-2009.  He currently serves as a Mentor for The Entrepreneurial Consultants Program for The Entrepreneur & Venture Club and as a Frankel Fund Advisor at The Ross School of Business at The University of Michigan where he was named Outstanding Adviser for 2010-2011. In September of 2007, Terry was named to the Task Force for a World Financial Center by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, one of Korea’s most prestigious educational institutions. In 2010 Terry was elected to the Board of the Detroit Chapter of The American Technion Society associated with The Technion in Haifa, Israel. He is a past Board member of Great Lakes Angels, a founding member of Michigan Venture Capital Association, a Board member of Automation Alley’s Entrepreneurial Initiative of Southeast Michigan,  a Board Member of Ann Arbor Angels as well as an Arch Angel,  a former Trustee of Mariners’ Church of Detroit, and a former trustee of The Professional Children’s School of New York City and Chairman of The Executive Board of Michigan-Emerging an event focusing on the emerging sectors in Michigan’s economic recovery. Terry resides in Oakland County, Michigan.