Venture Fund Team

The Wolverine Venture Fund is a collaborative activity involving Ross School of Business faculty, staff, students, and an advisory board with expertise in the venture arena.

Faculty/Staff

Thomas C. Kinnear, Ph.D., Managing Director
Professor Thomas Kinnear is the Executive Director of the Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies. For many years, Professor Kinnear has served as an advisor, investor, and board member in start-up companies such as BlueGill Technologies, Avail Networks, and Network Express. He distinguished himself as the University of Michigan's former Vice President of Development and the Business School's D. Maynard Phelps Professor of Marketing. In 1997, he was awarded the Eugene Applebaum Professorship of Entrepreneurial Studies. Professor Kinnear holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a bachelor's degree from Queens College.

Richard (Erik) Gordon, J.D., Managing Director
Erik Gordon's interests focus on entrepreneurship and technology commercialization, including strategy, marketing, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and venture finance. His expertise also includes alliances and joint ventures, intellectual-property strategy and licensing, and the roles and operations of boards of directors, particularly in the biomedical, energy and green-technology fields. Mr. Gordon is the managing director of the Wolverine Venture Fund and teaches a foundation course on how to prepare business plans for new ventures in the life sciences, biotechnology and other industries and another course on how to market start-up businesses to potential funders, customers and other key influencers. Previously, Mr. Gordon was the Shulman Family Chair in Technology and Business Innovation and associate dean at Stevens Institute of Technology. He also served on the faculty and as associate dean/director of the graduate division of business and management (Carey Business School) at Johns Hopkins University. During his career, Mr. Gordon has co-founded or advised numerous companies. Gordon holds a B.A. in economics from Bucknell University and a J.D. from The Albany Law School of Union University.

Carolyn M. Maguire, Administrative Assistant
Ms. Maguire has more than 22 years of experience providing administrative support to the Business School and coordinating MBA student teams and projects. Ms. Maguire has an Associates Degree from Washtenaw Community College and has taken several courses in business at Eastern Michigan University.

Students
Students participate in the business plan evaluation and investment decision-making process. They also track the activities of the Fund's portfolio companies. The Fund draws MBA students from a wide range of backgrounds, including finance, engineering, law, and medicine.

Student Advisory Board Members

Blue Tech Team

Michael Godwin (team co-leader and WVF student managing director, MBA ’10)
Michael has over twelve years of experience in the software, e-commerce and online media industries. He currently serves on the Wolverine Venture Fund as managing director of the student advisory board. Prior to his entrance into the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, Michael was a software engineer and consultant with Menlo Innovations where he helped develop the software for the first production release of Accuri's C6 Flow Cytometer. Before working with Menlo, he was the principal engineer who built the royalty allocation and reporting systems for IODA- the Independent Online Distribution Alliance. IODA was named a “Rising Star” in Deloitte's Technology Fast 50 for Silicon Valley and was acquired in June 2009 by Sony. Other notable firms Michael has worked for include: AT&T, Excite, WebCrawler and Zengine/MCSI. Michael holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Berklee College of Music, Boston, and has recorded and performed with hundreds of independent and major label acts.

Jason Townsend (team co-leader, MBA ‘10)
Jason is an Evening MBA student at the Ross School of Business focusing on Entrepreneurship. He is currently a team lead on the Wolverine Venture Fund and VP of the Entrepreneur and Venture Club. During the pursuit of his MBA, Jason founded and was the CEO of Ikanos Power, a clean energy startup selected to compete against other up-and-coming university start‑ups in 14 business plan competitions nationwide. For his entrepreneurial efforts, he was the recipient of a Mondry Scholarship, a Marcel Gani Grant, a Dare to Dream Grant, and the Williamson Award. Prior to his acceptance at Ross, Jason was the youngest business development manager at Intel and influenced $28M of sales in the Great Lakes District. In addition to his seven years of experience in the semiconductor industry, he founded and was the CEO of Townsend Investments, a real estate investing company. Jason is a Wolverine at heart and also holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan. 

Luis Calderon (MBA/MS ’10)
Luis is a second-year dual degree MBA/MS Erb student with concentrations in Finance, Entrepreneurship and Sustainability. Prior to Michigan, Luis worked for over 9 years with consulting and startup companies. He is currently a team leader for the Wolverine Venture Fund, co-president of the Entrepreneur & Venture Club and founder of the Ross School of Business Social Venture Fund. He is also a founding member of Audiallo, a semiconductor technology startup. Luis spent the past summer working as an analyst for Early Stage Partners, a premier venture capital firm in the Mid-West. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia with a focus in Electrical and Biomedical Engineering.

Venkata Srikanth Chakka (MBA ’10)
Chakka is a second year MBA at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, focusing on Corporate Strategy and Finance. Prior to business school, he spent four years as a management consultant with KPMG Consulting in India, where he assisted several clients across power, infrastructure and industrial sectors on strategy, corporate finance and due-diligence projects. Over the summer, Chakka interned at UBS Investment Banking in their Global Industrials Group based in New York. He enjoys adventure sports, traveling and food. Chakka holds a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (I.I.T) Madras, India.

Jacob Cohen (JD/MBA ’11)
Jacob is a JD/MBA candidate at the University of Michigan Law School and the Ross School of Business, with an interest in the legal representation of start-ups and venture funds in venture capital transactions. Prior to beginning this program, Jacob was co-founder and CEO of Ugrub.com for four years, a web-based advertising company focusing exclusively on college markets. He exited the business in 2006, selling to industry competitors. Jacob also spent two years at Deloitte Consulting, as a strategy and operations consultant. Jacob holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Michigan.

Joseph Dertouzos (Evening MBA)
Joe is an evening MBA student at the Ross School of Business focusing on entrepreneurship and finance. He is a scientist at General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, specializing in the design of optical systems for aerial and space-based remote sensing. Previously, he designed diffractive optics and fluorescence microscope systems as a student at the University of Michigan. He also worked as an engineer at Sensicore, a successful start-up for MEMS water quality sensors. Joe holds a Ph. D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, with concentrations in Optics and Signal Processing.

Chad Marchewka (MBA ’11)
Chad is a first year MBA student at the Ross School of Business concentrating on corporate strategy and finance within the hi-tech and clean energy sectors. Prior to business school, Chad worked at L-3 Communications in San Carlos, CA as a project engineer managing next generation RF amplifier developments for a variety of airborne and land-based communication systems. Chad holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an SM in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he completed his thesis research on high power microwave devices for fusion energy experiments.

Matt Turner (MBA ’10)
Matt is a second year MBA student at the Ross School of Business focusing on Entrepreneurship and Finance. Prior to coming to Michigan, he spent eight years in the high tech industry at Lockheed Martin in Washington, DC and Ball Aerospace in Boulder, CO. As a lead systems engineer and cross functional project manager, Matt assisted in the design of the Hubble Space Telescope and various defense satellites. In addition, he invented an antenna interference reduction technology that has been adopted by the U.S. Navy and submitted for patent. This past summer he worked at a start-up in Boulder, CO where he assisted in several new high tech product developments in the wireless communications arena. Matt earned a B.S. in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech.

Maize Clean Tech Team

Arie Jongejan (team co-leader, MBA/MS ’10)
Arie is in his third year of the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise, a dual master’s degree between the School of Natural Resources and Environment and the Ross School of Business. Arie is focused on entrepreneurship and early / growth stage clean tech companies. During his first two years, he interned for E+Co Energy Through Enterprise, an organization that invests services and capital in high impact small and growing clean energy businesses in developing countries, and DTE Energy, a public electric and gas utility in Michigan. Arie is in his second year with and now leads the Clean Tech team of the $3.5M student run Wolverine Venture Fund. Arie has a particular interest in the modernization of the electric grid and is completing an 18 month research project to develop dynamic electricity pricing pilots w/ smart grid enabling technology for DTE Energy. For his MAP, Arie analyzed solar PV markets to identify opportunities for new product applications for a thin film solar company. Prior to graduate school, Arie spent 4 + years working in the audit practice of Deloitte’s San Francisco and Boston offices. The year prior to starting at Michigan, Arie trained Karen refugees along the Thailand / Burma border in renewable energy technologies. Arie has lived in South America and Southeast Asia and speaks Spanish and Thai. He loves playing and watching soccer and finds solace and regeneration on remote backpacking trips.

Thomas Leahy (team co-leader, MBA/MS ’10)
Tom is interested in the renewable energy industry, and is particularly interested in the intersection between government policy and business strategy. Before coming to Michigan, Tom worked at NYSE Regulation, a securities industry regulator responsible for ensuring market integrity and investor protection. Tom earned his undergraduate degree in Political Economy at Georgetown University. Over the past two summers, Tom has worked in Pacific Gas & Electric Corporation's Emerging CleanTech Policy Group and in Waste Management Inc.'s Venture Capital Group.

Pingan He (Evening MBA)
Pingan is an evening MBA student started the Fall 2009. He is working at plug-in hybrid vehicle field and conducting advanced control strategies. In the past five year, his work has been focused on using control strategies to reduce emissions and improve fuel economy on marine, truck and automotive industries. He has 10+ publications on clean technology. He has a Master degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Missouri - Rolla and a Bachelor degree in Chemical Engineering from Zhengzhou University.

Joshua Mellinger (MBA ’11)
Josh is a first-year MBA student at the Ross School of Business, focusing on Corporate Strategy and Finance. He is a recipient of the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management Fellowship and the lead author for the Consortium Energy Network. Before attending Ross, Josh worked for Chevron as an IT Portfolio Analyst in Houston, specializing in IT strategy, portfolio allocation, and business case development. Prior to his work in the energy industry, Josh worked as an IT business consultant for General Informatics, an award winning IT startup focused on creating innovative technology solutions for small businesses. Josh graduated Summa Cum Laude from Louisiana State University in 2006, with a B.S. in Information Systems and Decision Sciences.”

William Pucillo (MBA ’11)
Will is a first year full-time MBA student at the Ross School of Business, focusing on Finance and Marketing. Prior to attending Ross, William was an investment banker at Oppenheimer & Co. in New York, working in the Media & Entertainment coverage group. At Oppenheimer, William worked on a variety of transactions including M&A Advisory, IPOs, Restructuring, and Private Placements, serving companies in the television and film production, broadcast, radio, publishing, and digital media industries. Prior to joining Oppenheimer, William was an investment banker at Barrington Associates, a Los Angeles-based M&A Advisory firm, serving middle market clients across industries. William earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Williams College in 2006.

Nirav Shah (MBA ’11)
Nirav is a first-year MBA student at the Ross School of Business focusing on Finance, Strategy, and Entrepreneurship. Prior to attending Ross, he worked as an Investment Strategy Analyst with Capital Asset Funding, a private equity firm in Atlanta, where he was responsible for an acquisition strategy that created synergies and $4MM in annual revenue. Prior to Capital Asset Funding, Nirav spent five years working as a Consultant with Accenture on several business development, strategic advisory, and process improvement assignments in several industries, including energy, financial services, consumer products & services, manufacturing, and telecommunications. Nirav completed a Pre-Medicine curriculum and earned a B.S. in Computer Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Luca Testa (MBA ’10)
Luca is a second year MBA student at Ross focusing on Finance and Corporate Strategy. Prior to coming to business school, Luca held different positions in product development and manufacturing at DaimlerChrysler. He focused on alternative powertrains and contributed to the development of the company’s first generation of hybrid vehicles. Last summer he interned at the Angel’s Forum in Silicon Valley where he analyzed investments in early stage ventures in the energy space. Luca holds a M.S. in Energy Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Milan and a M.S. in Automotive Engineering from the Technical University of Munich.

Elizabeth Uhlhorn (MBA/MS ’10)
Beth is a dual-degree student at the University of Michigan's Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise, earning an MBA from the Ross School of Business and an MS from the School of Natural Resources & Environment. She is interested in the intersection of environmental and economic sustainability. While in the Erb program, she has worked with the Dow Chemical Company's Strategic Planning and Business Development Group to better understand and model the financial implications of the company’s sustainability initiative, and she has also spent time in Dow's Building and Construction group, sizing and evaluating various green building and energy efficiency sales opportunities related to the government stimulus money. Beth co-founded and serves as VP of Finance for a start up dedicated to energy efficiency, Husk Insulation, which will manufacture high performance insulating panels using agricultural waste products. Prior to beginning the Erb program, Beth worked with the World Wildlife Fund on improving the environmental sustainability of international financial institutions through partnerships and environmental policies. Before this, she spent time in Cameroon, West Africa, as a Peace Corps Volunteer focused on enhancing soil fertility through natural methods in a small farming community. She earned her B.A. in Political Science and Environmental Science from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Victors Health Team

Katie Austin (team co-leader, MBA ’10)
Katie is a second year MBA student focusing on corporate strategy and entrepreneurial studies. This past summer, she interned at Opera Solutions as a Senior Associate Consultant. Prior to Ross, Katie worked at Arience Capital, a $1bl long/short value hedge fund, for 3 years as a Senior Trader and Junior Analyst and at Centurion Investment Group, an $800ml value fund, for 2 years as an Associate Analyst.  In addition to her studies, Katie is actively involved with the Monroe Street Journal, the Admissions Office, the Ross Consulting Club and the Entrepreneurial and Venture Club. Katie earned her BS in Economics from Brown University.

Aniebiet Udofia (team co-leader, MBA ’10)
Aniebiet is a second year MBA student at the Ross School of Business focusing on Marketing and Entrepreneurship. Prior to business school, Aniebiet attended the University of Southern California for medical school and will return to complete her MD degree following her graduation from Ross, where she developed a grant proposal to study the epidemiology of malaria in southeast Nigeria. Over the summer, Aniebiet worked at Genentech in their Commercial Training and Development department developing a plan for how the company can use long term data on the effect of its training programs to improve the quality of the programs offered. Aniebiet holds a B.S. from Stanford University.

Renata Gomide (MBA ’11)
Renata is a first-year MBA student at the Ross School of Business. Before the MBA focusing on Finance, Renata worked as a senior financial analyst for Oi – TNL PCS, the largest Brazilian Telecommunication Carrier, where she could develop her people and negotiation skills. At this position, she was in charge of financial relationship with national/international partners, as well as risk process control and internal department management. She also put forward and implemented successful strategies to promote cultural synergy in the merger process with Brazil Telecom. In her previous job as a project manager of a start-up that developed entertainment products for mobile devices, she could professionally perform as an administrator for the first time. In that company, she was responsible for establishing the project manager office and coordinating projects across internal departments and with external clients. Renata holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the Federal University of Viçosa, Brazil.

Michael Johnson (MD/MBA ’11)
Mike is an MD/MBA student at the Ross School of Business and University of Michigan Medical School. His interests are health care and biotechnology venture capital and entrepreneurship. Mike has focused on medical trends and the future of health care including advances in diagnostics and health information technology. Prior to medical school, Mike worked on a lung cancer clinical research study in New York. Before pursuing a career in science, Mike worked in book publishing. In his free time, Mike writes and edits a science, technology and culture blog at SuperCollide.com. Mike holds a B.A. from Duke University.

Ada Kong (MBA ’11)
Ada is a first year MBA student at Ross School of Business, focusing on corporate strategy and marketing in the biotechnology and medical device industries. Prior to attending Ross, she worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and specialized in the audits of biotechnology and medical device companies and venture capital firms. She has utilized her industry expertise to develop and teach venture capital trainings for 150+ participants in the Silicon Valley. Ada is the immediate past president of the American Society of Women Accountants, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. in Integrative Biology and is a licensed certified public accountant in California.

Paul (Zihao) Wang (MBA ’11)
Paul is a first year MBA student at the Ross School of Business. He is focusing on Finance and Corporate Strategy. Prior to Ross, he worked as a Vice President in Sanfeng Investment, a VC firm based in Shanghai, China, for one year. He led the firm’s investment in an organic foods retail chain in China. Before joining Sanfeng, he worked for Sanjiu Enterprise Group, China’s leading pharmaceutical company. Paul did different functions in Sanjiu including corporate venture capital, sales management, manufacturing management and general management. His last position was the general manager of a subsidiary company of Sanjiu Group. In Sanjiu, he successfully turned a dying business into a thriving business. Paul received his Bachelor Degree of Engineering and Master Degree of Science in Management from Tongji University in Shanghai, China.

Valiant Health Team

Alex Melnyk (team leader, MBA ’10)
Alex is a second year MBA student at the Ross School of Business focusing on Corporate Strategy and Entrepreneurship. Prior to attending Ross, Alex spent two years in working at a private equity fund in Europe. Upon returning to the United States, Alex was an Investment Banking Analyst with Houlihan Lokey in Chicago where he worked on mergers & acquisitions and financings of middle market healthcare companies. During his time at Houlihan, he performed as lead analyst on eight deals that closed with a total transaction value of over $600 million. This summer, Alex worked at Apjohn Ventures as an Associate focusing on deal screening, portfolio company management and fundraising. Alex graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2002 with a B.S. in Finance.

Gil Adato (MBA ’11)
Gil is a first year MBA student at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business focusing on Marketing and Strategy within the Healthcare industry. Prior to attending business school, Gil spent about a year as a Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs Reliability and Malfunction Manager for UltraShape, an ultrasound-based non-invasive fat reduction & body contouring Solution Company. Gil’s work involved managing quality control and leading cross-functional teams on $12M medical device, ensuring European CE mark compliance and FDA submission. Gil was also involved in formulating market entry and expansion strategies. Prior to that, Gil spent two years at UltraShape as a Project manager. He spearheaded characterization and evaluation of risks and prospects for new products and formulated and executed first in-house production line launch plan. Gil also worked as an R&D Hardware Design Engineer in Lumenis, a laser and light-based technology medical device company. Gil earned his Electrical Engineering undergraduate degree from the Technion, Israel Technological Institution. 

Carrie Frost (MACC ’10)
Carrie is in the Master of Accounting Program and graduated from Ross’ BBA program in 2009. She will be returning full-time to PricewaterhouseCoopers upon successful completion of the C.P.A. examination. During her summer internship at PricewaterhouseCoopers, she enhanced her understanding of financial statements through auditing retail, utility and financial services clients.  She is interested in tax law and venture capital finance. As a Ross undergrad, Carrie focused on finance and accounting, and was a captain of Michigan’s Varsity Water Polo team.      

Erica Kang (MBA ’11)
Erica is a first year MBA student at the Ross school of Business focusing on finance and corporate strategy. Prior to Michigan, she worked four years for Standard Chartered Bank, a London-based, international bank, with significant operations in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Erica worked in Singapore as an internal consultant, participating in projects on business strategy developments and corporate reform programs in several countries as well as corporate strategy developments. Before moving to Singapore she spent two years as a management trainee focusing on retail banking business based in South Korea. Erica earned a B.B.A from Sogang University in Seoul, South Korea. In addition, Erica is a big fan of vintage Lego sets. 

Jack Li (MD/MBA ’11)
Jack is a MD/MBA student at the University of Michigan Medical School and the Ross School of Business focusing on strategy and operations. His interests include biotechnology and medical devices. He has had summer experiences in management consulting working with small technology oriented start-ups and developing software applications for digital x-ray systems for GE Healthcare. He has also performed clinical research with the Radiology Department at the medical school studying a novel cardiac CT technique for identifying atrial fibrillation, as well as basic science research with the biological chemistry department studying cellular response to chemical stressors. Jack holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan.

Carlos Matos (MBA ’10)
Carlos is a second year MBA student at the Ross School of Business with concentrations in Finance and Strategy. Prior to business school, Carlos was a transactional attorney in private practice with several national law firms. While in private practice he negotiated and closed a wide variety of joint venture and finance transactions. In addition, he has acquired and repositioned various real estate assets. Carlos received a BS from San Diego State University and a JD from the University of Southern California.

Kanishka Thakur (MBA ’11)
Kanishka is a first year MBA student at the Ross School of focusing on Finance and Corporate Strategy. Prior to business school, Kanishka worked as a Healthcare consultant at Navigant Consulting identifying and rectifying inefficiencies in the Revenue Cycle of hospitals. He also worked at the Advisory Board Company conducting best practices research in healthcare. He is interested in biotech and hopes to start his own healthcare enterprise in the future. Kanishka holds a B.S degree in Biology from Washington and Lee University and a M.S. in Evaluative Clinical Sciences from Dartmouth College.

Advisory Board
Accomplished professionals volunteer their extensive experience, initiating venture capital investments and launching high performing start-up companies, to benefit the Fund.

Mary L. Campbell
General Partner, EDF Ventures
Mary Lincoln Campbell is a founder and managing director of the Ann Arbor venture capital firm EDF Ventures®. She has been an active investor both in healthcare and technology companies for over twenty years. She led the firm's most successful transaction, Pixelworks, a leader of system-on-a-chip integrated circuits for the advanced display market. Currently, Mary is a board member or board observer for the following EDF companies: HandyLab and Quadraspec (clinical diagnostics); Cerenis Therapeutics and Lycera (pharmaceuticals); IntelePeer, RockeTalk and Vontoo (telecommunications); ValenTx (medical devices); and Greenplum (software). Previously, she joined the large venture capital firm Michigan Capital and Service, Inc., where she became President in 1987. Earlier positions at the National Bank of Detroit and two Chicago-based mortgage and investment banking firms provided the foundation for Ms. Campbell to pursue her later career in venture capital. She has served as a founding member of the Institute's Wolverine Venture Fund, on the Ross School of Business National Campaign Committee, and as an adjunct professor in the entrepreneurship program. Mary is currently an advisor to the University of Michigan's Life Science Institute and is a member of the Steering Committee for the Michigan Strategic Economic Investment and Commercialization Board, a statewide initiative to foster research and commercialization. Mary is also past president of the Michigan Venture Capital Association, the State's premier public policy advocate for the venture capital industry and continues to serve on its board of directors. She earned her BA and MBA (1979) with distinction at the University of Michigan and a Master of Special Education from Fairfield University.

Peter Adriaens, Ph.D., P.E.
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan
Professor Peter Adriaens holds a primary appointment in Civil Engineering, with joint appointments in the School for Natural Resources and Environment, and the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies. He has 20 years of research and field validation experience in the CleanTech space involving industrial partners, and multiple academic institutions with over $22 M of funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), the U.S. Navy, the U.S. DOD/DOE/EPA-Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP), and industry. His consulting experience with multi-national industries (Dow, Alcoa, Holcim, G.E.) emphasizes industrial sustainability issues, including site remediation pollution prevention, and new business development, and he is currently a strategic consultant for LimnoTech (Ann Arbor). He serves on Science Advisory Boards of Environmental Science and Technology Research Centers in the U.S., Germany, Taiwan, and China and on advisory panels of a number of Environmental Technology Development companies. Recently, he started Global CleanTech, LLC, focused on technology application in pollution control, microbial detection and bioenergy. Professor Adriaens holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, did postdoctoral work at Stanford University, and has an M.S. and a bachelor's degree from the University of Gent, Belgium.

Peter Bardwick
CFO, Zecco Holdings Inc.
Mr. Bardwick began his career in investment banking, working with Salomon Brothers and Citicorp Investment Bank in New York. Peter transitioned to corporate management when he became VP Finance for WestWood One, a Solomon Brother’s client and the world’s largest radio network company. Since then, he has held CEO, COO, and CFO positions for both public and private companies including Zecco Holdings, Reactrix Systems, Inc., Digital Path Networks, infoUSA.com, CBS MarketWatch, and the Beasley Broadcast Group. As CFO, Peter was responsible for CBS MarketWatch’s highly successful IPO. Peter’s experience includes board and advisory board positions—he was the founding investor and is a member of the board of Healthcare Data Solutions, a successful healthcare direct marketing company. He holds Advisory Board positions on the Wolverine Venture Fund, Glam.com, and Personiva.com. In total, he has raised $10.4 billion for companies where he was an executive or which were investment-banking clients. Peter holds an MBA in Finance and BA in Political Science (cum laude), from the University of Michigan. More information is available at www.jpbardwick.com.

Timothy M. Mayleben
President, ElMa Advisors
Timothy Mayleben has nearly 20 years of experience with entrepreneurial companies. Most recently he was President and Chief Operating Officer and a Director of NightHawk Radiology Services. Previously, he was Chief Operating Officer of Esperion Therapeutics, now a division of Pfizer Global Research & Development, a company founded in July 1998 and located in Ann Arbor, MI. Esperion was acquired by Pfizer in December 2003 for $1.3 billion. Mr. Mayleben joined Esperion in late 1998 as Chief Financial Officer and was responsible for raising more than $200 million in venture capital and institutional equity funding. Prior to joining Esperion, Mr. Mayleben was an executive with Transom Technologies, Inc., a simulation software company acquired by what is now EDS in July 1998. Mr. Mayleben raised capital for the Company and co-led the negotiations for the sale of Transom to EDS. Earlier, he held various financial and operating management positions with Applied Intelligent Systems, Inc., a machine vision company acquired by Electro-Scientific Industries, Inc. in 1997. He started his started his professional career with an international public accounting firm in 1984. Mr. Mayleben is a director with several companies including Aastrom Biosciences, Intelliject, and Lycera and has helped found, consult with, and invest in a number of companies in the life science industry since 2003. Mr. Mayleben has a BBA from the University of Michigan Business School and an MBA, with distinction, from the Northwestern University Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Jonathan P. Murray
Managing Director, Early Stage Partners
Mr. Murray has followed a bumblebee’s path through American business. After graduating in 1980 from George Washington University, where he double-majored in Biology and English Literature, he worked in medical journalism in Washington, D.C. for a subsidiary of Capital Cities/ABC. An interest in business led him away from the Nation’s Capital and its concerns to New York, where he worked in pharmaceutical marketing for J. Walter Thompson. This job exposed him to corporate strategy, which became an enduring fascination that spurred him to return to school for an MBA, which he received from the University of Michigan in 1988. Venturing to Silicon Valley upon graduation, Mr. Murray worked in consulting before taking a job with Spectra Laboratories, a provider of clinical testing services to kidney dialysis clinics. During his tenure there, he simultaneously built and managed the marketing and software development departments, as well as directing the telecommunications department. This experience imbued him with a love of entrepreneurial endeavors that helped to solidify his continued move away from the corporate world. When Spectra was acquired in 1997 by the large, multinational corporation Fresenius AG, Mr. Murray accepted a position as President of Volk Optical, a Mentor, Ohio manufacturer of lenses used by ophthalmologists and optometrists to examine eyes for disease. Following his tenure at Volk Mr. Murray was President of Incubation Services, a consulting firm that provided strategy development, business planning, and financial consulting to early stage companies in life sciences and information technology. Among his clients were Athersys Inc., Aelita Software, ConnectSpace, IdeaStar, and the Edison BioTechnology Center (EBTC). As an advisor to EBTC, Mr. Murray authored a report recommending significant additional investment in Ohio's life sciences industry. Mr. Murray has been Managing Director of Early Stage Partners since the autumn of 2000. The fund focuses on investing in early stage technology-based companies in industries in which Northeast Ohio has distinctive competence. He sits on the boards of Ayalogic, Unitask, Imalux, TOA Technologies, Intelligent Clearing Network, and the Ohio Venture Association and is a past Board Member of Ohio’s Singing Angels.

Timothy B. Petersen
Managing Partner, Arboretum Ventures
Alumni Investment Manager
In 2002, Tim joined partner Jan Garfinkle in launching Arboretum Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on the medical device and healthcare sectors that has $85 million under management.. Tim serves on Board of Directors of Arboretum portfolio companies Accord Biomaterials, Accuri Cytometers, Advanced ICU Care, HealthMedia, and KFx Medical. Immediately prior to Arboretum, Tim was the Managing Director of the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan. He also directed the activities of the Wolverine Venture Fund, an evergreen fund that includes the active participation of Michigan’s MBA students. Previously, Tim spent nine years at Industrial Economics, Inc., becoming a member of the firm’s senior management team in 1991. Industrial Economics, founded in the early 1980’s in Cambridge, MA, is a leader in the fields of natural resource economics and environmental science. Tim holds a BA in Economics from Williams College (with highest honors), an MS in Economics from the University of Wisconsin, and an MBA from the University of Michigan (with high distinction). Tim serves on a number of advisory boards, including the Michigan Universities Commercialization Initiative and Rocket Ventures.

Mina Patel Sooch
Founder & General Partner, Apjohn Ventures Fund
Mina Sooch is general partner at Apjohn Ventures Fund, a new early stage life sciences venture capital fund located in Kalamazoo Michigan with a focus on investments in the Midwest. Mina brings with her over a decade of pharmaceutical and healthcare experiences as an entrepreneur, strategy & finance advisor, and venture capitalist. Prior to launching the Fund, Mina was a founding partner of Apjohn Group and entrepreneur in residence at North Coast Technology Investors ($100 million venture fund in Ann Arbor). In those roles, she served as founding CFO of Afmedica and CEO of SenseGene/ProNAi Therapeutics and led several investments including Nephros Therapeutics. She is also a board member of the Midwest Healthcare Investment Network and Michigan Venture Capital Association. Prior to local biotech entrepreneurial and venture capital activities, Mina spent eight years as a global account manager at Monitor Group, a top tier global strategy consulting firm based in Boston, with her client base consisting of mid-cap and large-cap healthcare companies and multi-billion dollar private equity companies. With a focus on M&A, she has worked on over 30 deals including $7B Pharmacia & Upjohn merger in 1995 and $1B merger of PharMerica in 1997. Mina was also a founding leader of Monitor’s Corporate Finance practice in 1998 with Tom Copeland. Mina began her career spending several years in research and product development at Ford Motor Company, Dow Chemical Company, and Proctor and Gamble. Mina received a MBA from Harvard in 1993. She graduated summa cum laude and commencement speaker from Wayne State University in 1989 with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering.

Donald Walker
Managing Director, Arbor Partners
Don Walker is co-founder and Managing Director of Ann Arbor-based Arbor Partners. He has over 25 years of experience in high-tech sales and marketing. From 1974 to 1996, as the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Comshare, he directed the company through the successful integration of two acquisitions. That coupled with Mr. Walker's proven track record of partnering with other software companies, helped Comshare to increase market share while creating barriers for the competition. He is a private investor in several early-stage companies and serves on the Board of the New Enterprise Forum. He also serves as a board member at Bulbs.com, CMS Technologies, and Innovative IT Solutions. Mr. Walker attended Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he studied business. He also holds a BA in philosophy from St. Paul's College in Washington, D.C.

Steven D. Weinstein
Managing Director, Novartis Venture Fund
Steve joined the Novartis Venture Fund in 2006 as a Managing Director. From 2001, Steve was a Principal at Prism Venture Partners, where he focused on investments in medical devices and life sciences. He led the investments and/or served on the boards of iScience Surgical, ROX Medical, Sensitech (acquired by Carrier/UTX), and MedManage Systems. With over 15 years of operating, entrepreneurial, and venture experience he started his career in the turnaround of a $26 million electrical distribution business. He subsequently bought the assets of the defunct business out of bankruptcy and for the next five years, re-built the business to 30 employees and $8 million in annual revenue. Prior to Prism, Steve was a Principal and Kauffman Fellow with Mid-Atlantic Venture Funds. There he invested in and served as a board observer for several early stage communications and software companies. Steve holds an MBA with distinction from the University of Michigan Business School and a BS in mechanical engineering from Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science. He serves on the board of the Family to Family Project.

Marc Weiser
Managing Director, RPM Ventures
Marc is founder and managing director of RPM Ventures, a seed and early stage venture capital firm based in Ann Arbor, Mich. At RPM, Marc is involved with the boards of AutoTradeCenter, Oxlo Systems, and Xtime, all serving clients in the automotive industry. Additionally, he is on the board of RiverGlass, a software spinout from the University of Illinois. Prior to forming RPM Ventures, Marc co-founded QuantumShift, a provider of web-based business-to-business telecommunications technology and services. Marc was also one of the first employees at MessageMedia, where he was a member of the road show team for the company’s Initial Public Offering and pioneered some of the original methods for e-commerce transactions. Marc has also worked in business development for Dell, and as an associate at Arbor Partners, an early-stage venture fund. In addition to his role at RPM, he serves on the board of McKinley, a $1.5 billion real estate company, and as an advisor to several startup businesses. He is also an active member on the board of two public non-profit foundations, the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation, and The McKinley Foundation. Marc graduated cum laude from the University of Michigan with a BSE in aerospace engineering and a Master of Business Administration with highest honors.