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.
Carolyn M. Maguire, Administrative Assistant
Ms. Maguire has more than 20 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
several courses completed 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
*Justin Adams (MBA ’09)
Jamil Ali (MBA ’09)
Katie Austin (MBA ’10)
Marc Berkowitz (MBA ’09)
Gregory Boggy, (PhD)
Luis Calderon (MBA ’10)
*Julie Choi (MBA ’09)
*Meghan Cuddihy (PhD)
*Anne Delaney (MBA ’09)
Tony Ehrbar (MBA ’10)
Michael Godwin (MBA ’10)
Arie Jongejan (MBA/MS ’10)
*Himayat Khan (MBA ’09)
Thomas Leahy (MBA/MS '10)
*Adam Litle (MBA/JD ’08)
*Joseph Malcoun (MBA/MS '09)
*Josh Mandel-Brehm (MBA ’09)
Carlos Matos (MBA ’10)
Alex Melynk (MBA ’10)
James Mertz (MBA ’10)
Sheel Mohnot (MBA ’09)
*Aaron Nelson (MBA/MA ’08)
*Seema Prasad (MBA ’09)
*Nate Schmid (MBA ’09)
Eric Satler (MBA ’09)
Jeremy Sullivan (MBA ’09)
Luca Testa (MBA ’10)
Jason Townsend (MBA ’10)
*Nathaniel Troup (MBA ’09)
Aniebiet Udofia (MBA ’10)
*Christopher Whitehead (MBA ’09)
Michael Zarrilli (MBA ’09)
*Returning Wolverine Venture Fund Members
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
Alumni Investment Manager
Mary Lincoln Campbell is a founder and General Partner of the Ann Arbor venture capital firm EDF
Ventures®. 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. She earned her BA and MBA (1979) with distinction at the University of
Michigan.
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
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.