Venture Fund Team

Overview | Fund Portfolio | Venture Fund Team | Student Participation | Submit Your Plan

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

Joseph Dertouzos (team leader and WVF student managing director)
Joe is an evening MBA student at the Ross School of Business focusing on entrepreneurship and strategy. He is a scientist and manager at General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, specializing in the design of optical systems for holography, 3D imaging, and remote sensing. Previously, he designed diffractive optics and 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, and as a consultant for an intellectual property law firm. Joe holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, with concentrations in Optics and Signal Processing.

Shane Kelly
Shane is a full-time MBA student at the Ross School of Business focusing on Strategy and Entrepreneurship. Prior to attending Ross, he was Vice President of Finance for media company GreeneStreet Films in New York City where he constructed financial systems for several startup companies and joint ventures, including a digital media startup. He also designed the operational restructure for an early stage film sales and acquisition company which he saw through to exit. Shane holds a Bachelor of Science from Morehouse College where he studied Mathematics and Physics.

Justin Montibello
Justin is a first year MBA student at the Ross School of Business focusing on Strategy and General Management. Prior to attending Ross, Justin was an Associate with Egon Zehnder International, a retained executive search firm. During his tenure he executed approximately 100 assignments across industries at the Board and C-Level. His work focused on technology, venture capital and professional services clients. Justin earned a B.A. in Political Science from the George Washington University.

Jigar Shah
Jigar is a first year MBA student at the Ross School of Business focusing on Finance and Strategy. Prior to Ross, he worked as a Software Engineer at Symantec in the San Francisco Bay Area. At Symantec, he was responsible for designing and developing products that protected and managed digital information for multi-billion dollar businesses. Before joining Symantec, he interned at Sun Microsystems where he helped design tools to test the compiler for the Java programming language. Jigar graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Computer Engineering from Mumbai University and a Master of Science degree in Software Engineering from Santa Clara University, where he received the Dean’s award for academic excellence.

Vineeth Vijaykumar
Vineeth is a first-year MBA student at the Ross School of Business, focusing on Strategy and International Business. Before coming to Ross, Vineeth was the Architect and Team Lead – “Call center and IVR solutions” for Client Network Services Inc. (CNSI) in Rockville MD. At CNSI Vineeth was involved in designing and implementing call center solutions and cloud computing solutions for Health IT projects in collaboration with major enterprise telecommunication vendors. Vineeth was also involved with the business development team in pursuing new government contracts and designing innovative solutions. Before joining CNSI, Vineeth was the team lead for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions at Hexaware Technologies Inc. where he worked on projects in the U.S., Europe and India. Vineeth completed his Bachelors of Computer Engineering from University of Mumbai, India with distinction.

Maize Clean Tech Team

Ryan Stenson (team co-leader and WVF student managing director)
Ryan is a second-year MBA student, the 2012 William G. McGowan Fellow, and a Zell Scholar at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, where he is studying Entrepreneurship and Marketing. While at Ross, Ryan interned for the cloud provider Amazon Web Services and consulted on sustainability strategy for the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Ryan is the Student Managing Director of Ross's $5.5M student-run Wolverine Venture Fund, a Core Team member of Ross's Entrepreneur & Venture Club, and the Vice President of Special Events for the Ross Gourmet Club. Prior to attending Ross, Ryan was a Senior Associate at PRTM Management Consultants in Washington DC, where he specialized in designing and implementing strategies for innovation, technology management, and supply chain innovation. Before joining PRTM, Ryan worked as a project manager for SPAWAR, a U.S. Navy research and development center in San Diego, where he launched an innovation incubator and led several patented and patent-pending projects from conception through prototype. Ryan earned his Master of Engineering in engineering management and a Bachelor of Science in electrical and computer engineering from Cornell University. He held top leadership positions in three prominent student organizations at Cornell and was named the 2004 Cornell Distinguished Student Volunteer of the Year.

Darius Banasik (team co-leader)
Darius is a second-year MBA student at the Ross School of Business focusing on strategy and entrepreneurship. Prior to business school, he led a team in development of LEED Platinum Long Term Acute Care hospitals, with a key role of project oversight and integration of green energy technologies such as: daylight harvesting, digitally addressable lighting, rainwater harvesting, micro-turbines and fuel cells. He also managed construction development of the first indoor ski slope in the U.S. and pursued entrepreneurial goals of opening up a hair salon and catering business. Darius graduated with Honors from Stevens Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Engineering, focusing on Engineering Management.

Bryan Chen
Bryan is a first-year MBA student at the Ross School of Business focusing on Finance, Strategy and Entrepreneurship. Prior to attending business school, Bryan worked as a research analyst for Halcyon Asset Management, a multi-strategy hedge fund, where he analyzed portfolios of equity, credit and private equity investments. Prior to Halcyon, Bryan worked at GE Capital in the Commercial Lending Leadership Development Program, performing on-site due diligence and risk mitigation on a wide range of middle market companies seeking asset-based loans. Bryan holds a B.S. degree in Business Administration from Bucknell University.

Woo Lee
Woo is a first-year MBA student at the Ross School of Business focusing on Entrepreneurship and Strategy. Prior to attending Ross, Woo spent six years working in Tokyo as a software developer and project manager for financial software - most recently a risk management system for Credit Suisse. A New York City native, Woo earned his Bachelor of Science in computer science from Binghamton University.

Emma (QianQian) Mu
Emma is a first-year MBA student at the Ross School of Business focusing on Strategy and Marketing. Prior to attending Ross, Emma was a Product Marketing Manager for Dell in Shanghai, China. She spent all five years at Dell after college graduation, and took various roles for different product lines as a marketer. She specialized in developing and implementing market-entry strategy, go-to-market strategy, market analysis and customer willingness survey, etc. She also worked on product feature tradeoffs and developing value propositions, where she led mapping of technical benefits, fulfillment model innovations and financial objectives into customer-centric advantages in real products. Emma holds Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Omair Rana
Omair is a first-year MBA student at the Ross School of Business focusing on Strategy, Finance and Marketing. Prior to attending Ross, Omair was the Business Manager of the EMEA territory at ConceptWave Software (order automation solution provider) based in London UK. While at ConceptWave Omair established the headquarters for their European territory and managed several large profile sales accounts which included Turk Telekom, Belgacom, and BSkyB. Before joining ConceptWave, Omair worked as a Project/Design engineer for the Enbridge Gas Distribution group. He earned his Electrical Engineering degree from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada.

Victors Health Team

Yih-Wei Chien (team co-leader)
Yih-Wei is a third-year MBA/MS candidate at the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise, a joint-degree between the Ross School of Business and the School of Natural Resources. He is focusing his education on marketing and corporate environmental strategy, specifically within the healthcare industry. Yih-Wei has six years of experience in the biopharmaceutical sector. He began his career as a quality scientist with Johnson and Johnson, where he ensured the safety and efficacy of a wide range of pharmaceutical drugs. Yih-Wei later transitioned into a role as an analytical chemist with Genentech, Inc., focusing on developing new and improved manufacturing processes for two protein therapeutics. This past summer Yih-Wei interned with Abbott Vascular in Singapore, conducting an in-depth market assessment of Abbott’s endovascular portfolio across six countries within the Southeast Asia region. Yih-Wei earned his Bachelor of Science degrees in Biology and Economics from the University of Michigan.

Sudeep Eldo K. Cherian (team co-leader)
Sudeep is a second-year MBA, focusing on strategy and entrepreneurship, at the Ross School of Business. Prior to attending Ross, he worked at Microsoft for almost 5 years in roles ranging from technical program management to partner marketing and channel strategy. Sudeep left Microsoft in 2010 to help the development of an early stage social enterprise in coastal Kenya (KOMAZA -www.KOMAZA.org), aimed at creating sustainable economic opportunities for farmers living in Africa’s semi-arid regions. This past summer, he interned at Groupon, where he focused on establishing their competitive intelligence practices. He is currently working on a financial advisory related startup company. Sudeep holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from The McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin.

Dan Bickley
Dan is an MD/MBA student at the University of Michigan Medical School and the Ross School of Business. His interests include diagnostic and therapeutic innovation and entrepreneurship in healthcare and the life sciences. Prior to his graduate studies, he was involved in clinical research in the Bone Marrow Transplant Program at the University of Michigan Cancer Center, focused on elucidating cellular populations and serum biomarkers predictive of graft-versus-host disease. Dan holds a BA in linguistics from Cornell University.

Derek Osborne
Derek is a fourth year PhD student in the biophysics department at the University of Michigan. Currently, Derek is studying biological macro molecules (ie. proteins and lipid membranes) with ultra fast nonlinear optic techniques. Two dimensional infrared spectroscopy is used to study solvation dynamics of infrared active probes inserted into biological macro molecules. Understanding these solvation dynamics reveal both structural and dynamical information of the macro molecule. Derek is also developing novel optical techniques to stream line the data acquisition process. Derek earned a Bachelors of Science from Brigham Young University - Idaho, majoring in physics while minoring in Chemistry.

Michael Sherman
Michael is an Evening MBA student at the Ross School of Business, with interests in entrepreneurship, and the interaction between venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. He is currently working at Sentio, LLC, a start-up medical device company based in Southfield, MI. Prior to Sentio, Michael worked as a Chief Engineer at Terumo Cardiovascular Systems. Prior to working in the med device space, Michael spent nine years working in the Automotive Industry. Michael holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Kettering University, and a MS in Biomedical Engineering from Wayne State University.

Yu (Willie) Wan
Willie is a first-year MBA student at the Ross School of Business, focusing on Finance and Strategy.  Before attending Ross, Willie worked as an Associate Consultant at the management consulting firm, ZS Associates. At ZS, he acted as the client lead for numerous quantitative and qualitative market research projects in the healthcare industry. Prior to consulting, Willie also interned at research and development programs in Bayer, Roche, and Nektar Therapeutics. Willie earned his Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

Valiant Health Team

Sally Last (team co-leader)
Sally is a second year MBA student at the Ross School of Business focusing in Finance. Prior to Ross, she worked as the Controller at the Atlanta Silverbacks and then as the Controller at Vocalocity, a ventured-funded VoIP telephony provider based in Atlanta. Shortly after joining Vocalocity, she managed the Series B due diligence and worked with management to create and analyze key performance metrics for the company. This past spring, as part of the Michigan MAP program, she worked on developing a business plan for a new service offering for Amazon Merchant Services. She spent her summer at American Express in New York as a Finance Manager Intern in Technologies Finance. Sally holds a B.A. in Economics and Mathematics from Emory University.

Pratheep Madasamy (team co-leader)
Pratheep is a second year MBA student at the Ross School of Business focusing on Strategy and Entrepreneurship. His interests include high tech and life sciences industries. Prior to business school, he worked at Lockheed Martin as a Project Manager in the development of fiber lasers for defense and medical applications. He has been involved in two start-up companies and also consulted for a Venture Capital firm. Pratheep holds a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Anna University, India and a PhD in Optical Sciences from University of Arizona.

Nicholas Douville
Nick is currently beginning his 7th year in the joint MD/PhD (MSTP) program at the University of Michigan. He completed two years of medical education before beginning research in in micro- and nano-fluidic systems under the mentorship of Dr. Shuichi Takayama. He completed his PhD in the Biomedical Engineering Department in August of 2011 and has returned to Medical School to complete clinical training. His research interests lie in using microfluidic systems to model neurovascular and pulmonary physiology, as well nanofluidic systems for single-molecule DNA manipulations and imaging. Prior to beginning in the Takayama Lab, Nick worked in the Neural Engineering Laboratory, also at the University of Michigan.

Jeff Dorsheimer
Jeff is a first year MBA student at the Ross School of Business focusing on finance and venture capital. Prior to Ross, he worked for Canaccord Genuity, a middle market investment bank headquartered in Boston, MA. After joining the firm as a Financial Analyst in 2006, he transitioned into an Associate in the medical technology investment banking group, focusing on the execution of public / private equity financings and M&A / advisory assignments. He is interested in working in the venture capital or life sciences industry. Jeff graduated from the Whittemore School of Business & Economics at the University of New Hampshire with a BA in Economics.

Ashish Kumar
Ashish is an evening MBA student at the Ross School of Business focusing on entrepreneurship and corporate strategy in the healthcare industry. He currently works at Illumina, a leading life sciences tools company, where he provides training and support to medical and research labs utilizing the company’s genomic technologies. Before Illumina, Ashish worked as a healthcare equity research analyst at California Equity Research, where he conducted due diligence and authored research reports on companies in diagnostics, biopharmaceutical and medical devices sectors. Previously, Ashish worked at Amgen and performed pre-clinical research towards the development of novel type 2 diabetes therapeutics. He also worked at a startup called Scientist Solutions as a moderator of online discussion forums on molecular diagnostics, drug discovery and pharmacology. Ashish holds a Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a B.Tech. in Engineering Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai.   

Wen Kuo
Wen is a first-year MBA candidate at the Ross School of Business, focusing on strategy and general management in the healthcare industry. He brings significant technical and commercial healthcare experience to the fund. Prior to Ross, Wen was a consultant at The Amundsen Group, working with leading pharmaceutical companies on their brand access strategies. He started his business career at Lux Research, providing strategic advice on emerging solar technologies to industrial and financial service clients. He has publications in respected scientific journals including Journal of the American Chemical Society and Journal of Organic Chemistry. Wen holds a B.A. in Chemistry from Williams College (with highest honors) and a A.M. in Chemistry from Harvard University.

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

Timothy B. Petersen
Managing Director, Arboretum Ventures
Alumni Investment Manager, WVF
Tim Petersen leverages his broad business experience creating, growing, and financing entrepreneurial firms to target promising capital-efficient investment opportunities. In recent years he has particularly focused on investments in companies that are changing the way healthcare is delivered. Tim led Arboretum’s investment in HealthMedia (acquired by Johnson & Johnson) and Accuri Cytometers (acquired by Becton, Dickinson and Company) and served on the Board of Directors of each company prior to exit. He also led Arboretum’s investments in Advanced ICU Care, CerviLenz, Inogen, MyHealthDIRECT, and PathCentral, and presently serves as a director of these companies. Tim is responsible for Arboretum’s financial and fund management activities and is a member of the Investment Committee. He has been a venture capital investor for the past twelve years. Prior to joining Arboretum in 2002, Tim was the Managing Director of the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan, leading the creation and rapid growth of the Institute's programs. He also directed the Wolverine Venture Fund (WVF), the Institute's venture capital fund focusing on early-stage life science and technology investments. Previously, Tim spent nine years at the economic consulting firm Industrial Economics, Inc., becoming a member of the firm's senior staff in 1991. Earlier in his career, Tim was also a manager in the investment banking practice at Plante & Moran. Tim is involved in a number of community efforts focused on entrepreneurship and frequently lectures at local universities on venture capital. He is currently the Alumni Fund Manager for the Wolverine Venture Fund and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Michigan Venture Capital Association, where he is slated to become chairman in late 2011. Tim earned a BA in Economics from Williams College, where he was captain of the men’s tennis team. He also holds an MS in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Peter Adriaens, Ph.D., P.E.
Global CleanTech LLC
Dr. Adriaens is Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Professor of Entrepreneurship and Strategy in the Ross School of Business, where he serves as CleanTech Director to the Wolverine Venture Fund of the University of Michigan. He is past-President of the Association of Environmental Science and Engineering Professors, 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.  He is co-developer of the KeyStone Method™, a business analytical and strategic positioning tool that has been applied on nearly 250 global CleanTech companies in North America, Asia, and Europe.  He founded Global CleanTech LLC, and is Director of Asian Operations at LimnoTech, an environmental services firm focused on energy-water nexus issues in the US and China. He is Director at CleanTech Acceleration Partners, a business services firm, and became Head Judge 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. 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, Rocket Fuel, Inc.
Peter Bardwick is currently the CFO of Rocket Fuel, Inc. Rocket Fuel is a real-time targeting company that transforms digital media buys into optimization engines, driving campaign results from awareness to sales. Their technology combines all data-driven targeting techniques, from behavioral to contextual, into one comprehensive solution that automatically adapts decision-making in real time to achieve both brand and performance goals. Over 400 of the world's leading brands run on Rocket Fuel across display, mobile, video and social media. Peter began his career in investment banking, working with Salomon Brothers and Citicorp Investment Bank in New York. He 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. 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.

Mary Lincoln Campbell
Managing Director, EDF Ventures
Mary L. Campbell is a Managing Director and founder of EDF Ventures. She has been an active investor both in healthcare and information technology companies for over twenty years. Currently, Mary is a board member or board observer for the following companies: Cerenis Therapeutics and Lycera (pharmaceuticals); IntelePeer (telecommunications); ValenTx (medical devices); Arxan (software); and Accio Energy (a wind-energy company). Mary led several of the firm's most successful transactions including: Pixelworks, a leader of system-on-a-chip integrated circuits for the advanced display market which became a public company; HandyLab, a developer of molecular diagnostic assays and automation platforms, sold to Becton Dickinson & Company; Sircon, a provider of automation solutions for the insurance industry, sold to Vertafore, the nation’s number one insurance software provider; and Greenplum, a database clustering software for business intelligence and data warehousing, sold to EMC Corporation, the world’s leading provider of information infrastructure solutions. Mary is active with The Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and currently serves as an advisor to the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies as well as its student-run venture activity, the Wolverine Venture Fund. She is an advisor to the University of Michigan's Life Science Institute and serves on the advisory board of The Charles F. Dolan School of Business at Fairfield University. Mary also served as past President and board member of the Michigan Venture Capital Association, the State's premier public policy advocate for the venture capital industry. Mary received her MBA and BA in English from the University of Michigan and a Master of Special Education from Fairfield University.

Timothy M. Mayleben
President & CEO, Aastrom Biosciences
Tim Mayleben is president, CEO and a director of Aastrom Biosciences. Previously he was an advisor to life science and healthcare companies through his advisory and investment firm, ElMa Advisors. He has also been president, chief operating officer and a director of NightHawk Radiology Holdings and served as chief operating officer of Esperion Therapeutics, where he led the raising of more than $200 million in venture capital and institutional equity funding and later negotiated the acquisition of Esperion by Pfizer in February 2004. Tim serves as a director for several private life science companies. He holds an MBA with distinction from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a BBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

Jonathan P. Murray
Managing Director, Early Stage Partners
Mr. Murray has followed a bumblebee’s path through American business. After graduating 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. Following his tenure at Volk Mr. Murray was President of Incubation Services, where besides serving multiple early stage companies, Mr. Murray authored a report recommending significant additional investment in Ohio's early stage ecosystem. In 2001, he co-founded Early Stage Partners, a Cleveland-based early stage venture capital firm, where he leads the technology practice. He serves on the boards of Imalux, Unitask, TOA Technologies, Ayalogic, uRefer, ICN, and is President Emeritus of the Ohio Venture Association. 

Mina Patel Sooch
Founder & General Partner, Apjohn Ventures Fund
Mina Sooch co-founded Apjohn Ventures Fund, a $15M early stage life sciences venture capital fund located in Kalamazoo Michigan with a focus on investments in the Midwest. Mina brings with her over twenty years of pharmaceutical and healthcare experiences as an entrepreneur, strategy & finance advisor, and venture capitalist. She has served on nine portfolio company boards including ProNAi, CytoPherx, Svelte as well as acquired or public portfolio companies ZyStor, Afmedica, Ikano, and Asterand. Mina was a founding partner of Apjohn Group and entrepreneur in residence at North Coast Technology Investors ($100 million venture fund in Ann Arbor) where she helped launch several biotech start-ups. She serves on the Michigan Venture Capital Association (MVCA) Board has served as Chairman and has been a longtime board member of the Midwest Healthcare Investment Network. 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 & 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
Donald J. Walker was a founding partner of Arbor Partners in 1996. Arbor Partners is a Michigan-based venture capital firm committed to helping entrepreneurs build successful growth companies in enterprise software, communications and internet applications. Prior to founding Arbor Partners Mr. Walker served as Vice President and Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Comshare, Inc. from 1974 to 1996. During that time, he successfully directed the company through the well-publicized transitions from timesharing to mainframe software and then from mainframe to client/server software. Mr. Walker was a key player in the introduction of executive information systems (EIS), a new software category that grew to a significant market leadership position. He was also instrumental in moving Comshare into vertical specialization by leading its thrust into decision support and supply chain management software for the retail industry. His successful integration of two acquisitions and his proven track record of partnering with other software companies enabled Comshare to increase market share while creating new barriers for the competition. Mr. Walker was a private investor in several start-up companies and a seed investor in Network Express, which went public in 1994. He has served on the Boards of Directors for CMS Technologies, Bluespring Software, Bulbs.com, Cohesia, Sircon Corporation, and Knowlagent. Mr. Walker is a Board member of the Michigan Venture Capital Association and a former Board member of the New Enterprise Forum. He attended Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he studied business. He received a BA in Philosophy and Religion from St. Paul’s College in Washington, DC.

Steven D. Weinstein
Managing Director, Novartis Venture Fund
Steve is a Managing Director in Novartis Venture Fund’s Cambridge, MA office. Steve focuses on both medical device and bio/pharma investments for the Fund. He brings significant operating and venture capital experience to Novartis' investing efforts. Steve joined the Fund in 2006 as a Managing Director. He has led the investments and serves/d on the board of the following companies: Autonomic Technologies Inc., Ablation Frontiers (acquired by Medtronic), Portaero, Sonitus Medical, and Visiogen (acquired by Abbott). Prior to Novartis, Steve spent five years at Prism Venture Partners, where he focused on medical devices and served on the boards of iScience Interventional, ROX Medical, and Sensitech (acquired by Carrier/UTX). Prior to Prism, Steve was a Kauffman Fellow with Mid-Atlantic Venture Funds. He started his career as an entrepreneur and CEO, raising angel funds to buy the assets of a defunct distribution business out of bankruptcy, and then rebuilt the business over the next five years. 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 University of Michigan Wolverine Venture Fund Advisory Board and on the board of the Family to Family Project.

Marc Weiser
Managing Director, RPM Ventures
Marc Weiser is a Founder and Managing Director of RPM Ventures, a seed and early stage IT and Physical Sciences venture fund. RPM focuses on investing in spinouts from Midwest Universities and companies supplying services and solutions to the Midwest industrial base. For RPM, he is currently involved with the boards of BountyJobs, Kabongo, Mojo Motors, RiverGlass, TetraVitae, and Xtime. Prior to forming RPM, Mr. Weiser was an internet and software entrepreneur. He co-founded QuantumShift, a provider of web-based business-to-business technology and services focused on corporate telecommunications needs. He was also an early employee at MessageMedia (sold to DoubleClick) where he pioneered some of the original methods for e-commerce and assisted in the launching of the first Internet merchants. In addition to his board roles for RPM, Mr. Weiser serves on the boards of McKinley (a $2.5B real estate company) and the Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Michigan, where he is an adjunct professor. He graduated cum laude from the University of Michigan with a BSE in aerospace engineering and a MBA with high honors.