Jay Amarasekera
Senior Technology Manager
SABIC

Dr. Jay Amarasekera is a Senior Technology Manager attached SABIC Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation which is one of the world’s top multinational diversified chemicals companies. Jay is looking to invest and/or partner in new and evolving technologies to support the growth of current and future businesses of the company. Prior to this role, he served as a Technology Manager for Performance Chemicals and Innovative Plastics business units. Before SABIC, Jay served in many managerial positions in General Electric’s former Plastics and Silicones businesses both in USA and China. Prior to joining GE, Jay worked as a Research Scientist in BASF Corporation's Colorant & Coatings and Performance Chemicals divisions. He was also a Research Associate in Michigan State University where his research was focused on clay composites for catalytic applications. Jay holds a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Master of Science in Chemistry from Bowling Green State University in Ohio and Bachelors in Science from University of Peradeniya Sri Lanka. Jay is a certified Six-Sigma Black Belt.

Ria P. Ancheta-Adrias
Director of Operations
NCET2

Ria is currently Director of Operations of NCET2. She is responsible for managing overall NCET2 operations and executing NCET2 programs and projects aimed at creating startups from university and federal lab IP. Prior to joining NCET2, Ria was a Program Officer at the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines for a European Commission-funded project to create corporate-university-government cooperation programs to increase the Philippines’ human resource capacity for the Business Process Outsourcing industry. She successfully created training programs to re-tool university faculty to update them on current BPO practices and formed partnerships with BPO companies and universities for manpower development. She was also an Industrial Ecology Project Officer for a United Nations Development Program-funded project under the Philippines' Board of Investments. She worked with global manufacturing corporations and Philippine industrial estate managers to coordinate a new pollution management system within industrial zones. Ria has an MS in Environmental Science and a BS in Environmental Planning.

Eric Breese
Investment Manager
Evonik Venture Capital

Eric Breese is an Investment Manager at Evonik Venture Capital. Eric joined Evonik in 2006 and has held positions in Germany and the U.S. within the Advanced Intermediates Business Unit and Corporate Finance. Most recently as Director Innovation Americas and leading the global external growth activities, he successfully led projects in Asia, Europe and the Americas that resulted in acquisitions, relationships with startups, growth stage companies and university research projects supporting external growth of the Business Unit.

Before joining Evonik, Eric worked held various positions including Chief Administrative Officer (legal), Vice President of Operations/Controller (high-tech & services) and consulting. His professional career began with 8 years in Public Accounting working in Certified Public Accounting and Consulting firms.

Eric’s Bachelor’s degree is in accounting he is a Certified Public Accountant and additionally earned an MBA. Eric has previously been a Registered Representative holding both Series 7 and Series 63 securities licenses.

Andrea Course
Venture Principal
Schlumberger Technology Investments

Andrea Course serves as Venture Principal at Schlumberger Technology Investments. She has 12 years of experience in the energy sector. During her career, Andrea has held the positions of Product Design Engineer, Engineering Manager and Senior Product Analyst. She most recently worked as Product Manager for Subsea Electric Systems, where she lead the company's worldwide Electric initiatives; supporting the innovation and development of new products and services within this field. Andrea currently serves on the board of directors for Jacobi Motors LLC. She holds a degree in Engineering Physics from the University of Central Oklahoma, a Master of Science from the University of Oklahoma in Aerospace Engineering and an executive MBA from the University of Houston.

Joel Creswell
Legislative Assistant
Congressman Dan Lipinski

Joel Creswell is a legislative assistant for Congressman Dan Lipinski, a Democrat representing the third district of Illinois. He is in charge of the Congressman’s science and technology portfolio, along with energy, environmental issues, cybersecurity, and foreign affairs. He staffs the Congressman on the Research and Technology Subcommittee of the House Science Committee, focusing on increased funding for STEM education, basic research, and technology transfer. Dr. Creswell worked on a number of bills that were introduced by Congressman Lipinski in the past year, including one that would expand the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps program and one that would create federal prize competitions for clean energy technologies and climate change solutions.

Dr. Creswell’s previous government experience includes service as a AAAS Fellow at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Before coming to Washington, DC, he was a research and development director and a scientific instrument company where much of his work was funded by Small Business Innovation Research grants. He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, a Master of Environmental Science from Yale University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from Macalester College.

Allen Dines
Executive Advisor
WISC Partners

Allen Dines has more than 30 years of experience at the executive level working at the interface of science and technology. He is currently an Executive Advisor at WISC Partners, a strategic operating capital fund founded by a group of Silicon Valley-based UW-Madison alumni. His passion is creation and growth of new ventures. He is also active as a mentor and advisor with MERLIN mentors, 100State, gener8tor, and Madworks Seed Accelerator.

Allen holds emeritus status for service as Assistant Director, New Ventures at the UW-Madison Office of Corporate Relations, a position he left in Fall 2014. During his tenure at UW-Madison he founded or provided original inspiration for many of the programs and events that today are mainstays of or forerunners to Madison’s technology and startup scene. Related to this, he is co-founder and remains co-chair of the Badger Startup Summit. The Summit is an annual conference bringing together entrepreneurs and those who facilitate and guide their growth. The Summit, now in its sixth year has become one of the flagship events in Madison’s Forward Festival.

In 2003 he founded the Midwest Research University Network (MRUN), an alliance of Midwest university commercialization managers and others focused on fostering startup ventures. He is currently not active in MRUN but remains President Emeritus of that organization.

Prior to joining UW- Madison, Allen was involved in three startup ventures, all in the biotechnology sector two of which he co-founded and all of which sold to leaders in their respective industries. Prior to these ventures, Allen was an Associate with Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Inc. in Bethesda, MD working with the Pharmaceuticals, Agrichemicals and Food practice.

Allen is a US Army veteran. He was the Honor Graduate in his Officer Candidate School class and served tours of duty as an information officer in Germany and Vietnam attaining the rank of Captain by the time he left Army service. Allen holds degrees from the University of Michigan including a B.S, a Masters in Natural Resources and an MBA. In 2004, Allen was named a Wisconsin Idea Fellow by the UW-System President. He is the 2017 winner of the Excellence in Entrepreneurial Education Award conferred by the Wisconsin Technology Council.

Richard M Goodman
President
Richard M Goodman Consulting, LLC

Consultant
A senior-level research and development professional recognized as an expert in the applications of surface chemical concepts. An expert witness and technical consultant who has developed global technological standards for the graphic technologies, training programs for major chemical and raw material suppliers and has provided technical due diligence support to major legal firms and angel investor groups.

President, Richard M Goodman Consulting, LLC
Expert Delegate to ISO TC 130 Graphic Technology Working Groups Strategic planning consultant to a major graphic communications company Technical consultant to an Intellectual Property Management Services company in support of their major IP acquisition project
Technical marketing consultant providing trend analysis and strategy for future business investments of a major raw material supplier
Technical consultant/ expert witness on a patent infringement litigation case
Senior Technical Consultant and technical sales agent for specialty chemical company
Member, technical due diligence/ intellectual property evaluator, Chemical Angels Network

Career Chronology Highlights
Kodak Polychrome Graphics, Carlstadt, NJ
Director, Scorpion Project and New Product Development

Polychrome Corporation, Carlstadt, NJ
Director, Analytical and Surface Sciences

Carbogel, Inc., Livingston, NJ
Director of Research Career Professional Recognitions
President of the Technical Association of the Graphics Arts and winner of its highest honorary award
Chairman, New York Section, American Chemical Society
President, Association of Consulting Chemists and Chemical Engineers Inventor or coinventor on fifteen US patents
Author of 35 technical articles in fundamental surface science, processing chemical technology, lithographic science, etc.

Education
Ph.D., Physical Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, CA, September 1969
BS, Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, May 1965

Tracy Van Grack
Senior Vice President of Communications and Public Policy
Revolution

Prior to joining Revolution, Tracy was a Director at Brunswick Group, a global communications consultancy, where she focused on corporate reputation, public affairs, and crisis management in the technology sector. Tracy also worked in the Office of Corporate Engagement at Goldman Sachs, where she led strategic relationships and partnerships with multilateral organizations, government entities, academic institutions, and advocacy groups. She helped design and implement “10,000 Women,” the bank’s five-year initiative to provide 10,000 underserved women in emerging markets with a business and management education. She began her career as a corporate attorney at O’Melveny & Myers LLP with a focus on media and technology.

Tracy received her B.S. from Cornell University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Robert D. Hisrich
Bridgestone Professorand Associate Dean
Kent State University

Dr. Robert D. Hisrich is the Bridgestone Professor of International Marketing and the Associate Dean of Graduate and International Programs at College of Business, Kent State University. He is also the president of H&B Associates, a marketing and management-consulting firm he founded and has been involved in the startup of numerous global companies.

Professor Hisrich received his BA from DePauw University, his MBA, and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Cincinnati, and honorary doctorate degrees from Chuvash State University (Russia) and the University of Miskolc (Hungary). Prior to joining Thunderbird, Dr. Hisrich held the A. Malachi Mixon, III Chaired Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Hisrich was a Fulbright Professor at the International Management Center in Budapest, Hungary in 1989. In 1990-91, he was again named a Fulbright Professor in Budapest at the Foundation for Small Enterprise Economic Development, where he also held the Alexander Hamilton Chair in Entrepreneurship. Dr. Hisrich has held visiting professorships at the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia); the Technical University of Vienna (Austria); the University of Limerick (Ireland); Donau University (Austria); Queensland University of Technology (Australia); the University of Puerto Rico; and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He has authored or co-authored 44 books including: Entrepreneurial Marketing (Forthcoming: 2018), Gender and Family Entrepreneurship (2017), Effective Entrepreneurial Management (2017), Advanced Introduction to Corporate Venturing (2016), Entrepreneurship: Starting, Developing, and Managing a New Enterprise, 10^th edition (2016 & translated into 13 languages), Entrepreneurial Finance: A Global Perspective (2015), International Entrepreneurship: Starting, Developing and Managing a Global Venture, 3^rd edition (2015), Technology Entrepreneurship: Value Creation, Protection, and Capture, 2^nd edition (2015), Advanced Introduction to Entrepreneurship (2014), Marketing for Entrepreneurs and SMEs: A Global Perspective (2014); Managing Innovation and Entrepreneurship (2014), Governpreneurship: Establishing a Thriving Entrepreneurial Spirit in Government (2013); Corporate Entrepreneurship (2012), The 13 Biggest Mistakes that Derail Small Businesses and How to Avoid Them, and The Woman Entrepreneur. Dr. Hisrich has written over 360 articles on entrepreneurship, international business management, and venture capital, which have appeared in such journals as The Academy of Management Review, California Management Review, Columbia Journal of World Business, Journal of Business Venturing, Sloan Management Review, and Small Business Economics. He has served on the editorial boards of The Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Small Business Management, and Journal of International Business and Entrepreneurship. Besides designing and delivering management and entrepreneurship programs to U.S. and foreign businesses and governments, particularly in transition economies, Dr. Hisrich has instituted academic and training programs such as the university/industry training program in Hungary, a high school teachers entrepreneurship training program in Russia, and an Institute of International Entrepreneurship and Management in Russia. He has also been involved in starting and growing numerous ventures in the U.S. and other countries.

David B. Horowitz
Founder & CEO
Touchdown Ventures

David is the Founder and CEO of Touchdown Ventures; a firm that partners with leading corporations to manage their corporate venture capital funds. Prior to starting Touchdown Ventures, David was a founding partner and Managing Director at Comcast Ventures for 14 years. David joined Comcast Ventures in 2000 as one of the first employees of the venture capital group. At Comcast Ventures, David focused on investments in digital media, advertising technology, digital home, education and financial technology. David managed investments in Entropic (NASDAQ: ENTR), Intellon (NASDAQ: ITLN), Invite Media (acquired by Google), LinkShare (acquired by Rakuten), Nuera Communications (acquired by Audicodes), Rubicon Project (NYSE: RUBI), and XOS Digital (acquired by JumpTV/Neulion.) David also led investments in several prominent privately-held companies including BlackArrow, Ninth Decimal, SnagFilms, UberMedia, Videology, Visible World, and Zero Fox. David also helped start and was a partner at Genacast Ventures, a seed stage venture capital fund affiliated with Comcast Ventures. Prior to Comcast Ventures, David worked in investment banking at Bear Stearns. David also started South Jersey Tech Collective, a networking group of entrepreneurs and investors in South Jersey. David graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration with highest honors from the University of Michigan.

Karen Kerr
Executive Managing Director
Equity Investing

Karen is Executive Managing Director, Equity Investing. Based in Chicago IL, she joined the business in 2014.

Karen leads a team which invests in advanced manufacturing technologies and enterprise software solutions that drive efficiency and productivity at GE.

Karen comes to GE with two decades of experience building technology-based companies as an investor, instigator, and advisor to intrepid entrepreneurs. She was previously a Managing Director at ARCH Venture Partners and started her career as a Sr. Associate and Kauffman Fellow at Patricof & Co. Karen helped to launch numerous startups as Senior Director of New Ventures and Alliances at the University of Southern California and developed an expertise in intellectual property while a Director at Intellectual Ventures.

Karen earned a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Chicago and a AB in Chemistry from Bryn Mawr College.

She is a member of the Charter Class Kauffman Fellows and is active on multiple boards including the Kauffman Fellows board, NSF SBIR/STTR AdComm, mHub board, University of Chicago Physical Sciences Division and Institute of Molecular Engineering Visiting Committees, and the Bryn Mawr College Board of Trustees Investment Sub-committee. She is also a board observer of Catalant, Sight Machine, and NYSHEX.

Karen has been recognized as a CVC Rising Star, one of LA’s Top Innovators, Crain’s Chicago Business 40 Under 40, and C200 Women Business Leaders.

Peter J. Lapp
Special Agent
FBI

Peter J. Lapp is a Special Agent with the FBI’s Washington Field Office, with recognized counterintelligence expertise in espionage, economic espionage and insider threat programs having served in the FBI in various positions as a Special Agent, Supervisory Special Agent and Unit Chief since 1998.

Pete was the co-case agent on the Ana Belen Montes espionage investigation. Montes, who was a senior Cuba analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency, was arrested on September 21, 2001 for being a penetration agent of the Cuban Intelligence Service for sixteen years. She is currently serving a 25 year prison sentence. While assigned to the FBI’s Baltimore Division in Wilmington, Delaware, Pete was the case agent in 2006 on the Gary Min theft of trade secrets case. Min was convicted of misappropriating thousands of trade secrets from DuPont and served an 18 month prison sentence.

In 2008, Pete was promoted to Supervisory Special Agent at FBIHQ as a program manager of economic espionage investigations. In 2010, Pete was promoted to Unit Chief of the Economic Espionage Unit where he managed ten employees and over 100 economic espionage investigations. In 2011, Pete was named Unit Chief of the PRC/East Asia Espionage Unit. From 2012 to 2015, Pete was selected for a detail assignment to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as a Senior Advisor for Homeland Security and Law Enforcement in Partner Engagement. Upon his return, Pete was the Unit Chief of the Active Shooter Unit in the FBI's Office of Partner Engagement.

Pete returned to the FBI's Washington Field Office in late 2015 where he is now a private sector coordinator and the field office's Domestic Security Alliance Council coordinator. It is in the role that Pete is able to leverage his extensive expertise on insider threat issues to help build relationships between the field office and the area’s private sector partners.

Prior to joining the FBI, Pete was a police office in Southeastern Pennsylvania for five years. He has a Bachelor’s Degree from West Chester University in Criminal Justice and a Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice from St. Joseph’s University.

Dan Loague
President
Washington DC ArchAngels

Dan Loague has an extensive background in venture capital and early stage investments. Over the past twenty years he has built, and now works with a national network of exceptionally active angels, professional investors, corporate, business development professionals, technology enterprise executives and government officials. He is currently President, Washington DC ArchAngels, and DC representative of Ventana Capital, Irvine CA, and formerly the Executive Director, National Association of Seed and Venture Funds.

In addition, he is Executive Director, Capital Formation Institute, Inc., a non-profit serving a national network of leading startup investors, licensees and commercialization professionals. In past positions, Mr. Loague has worked extensively as a state-level economic development professional, serving six consecutive governors of the state of Oklahoma. He is also a former university professor and instructor, and during 1963-67, served in the U.S. Air Force Systems Command as an Avionics Officer in RF-4C aircraft test program.

Anna Mason
Partner
Rise of the Rest Seed Fund

Anna Mason is a Partner at Rise of the Rest Seed Fund. Anna brings over 10 years of experience in finance, startup operations, and venture community programming to Rise of the Rest. Prior to joining Revolution, Anna served as the Co-Director of the Washington Chapter of The Vinetta Project, a North-American organization that helps early-stage female founders in tech access capital and network connections. Prior to that, she co-founded a fitness-community app that was acquired in 2015. Anna began her career on Wall Street, where she spent seven years as a bond trader, most recently as a Vice President at The Seaport Group.

Anna received her BA in Government from Harvard College and her MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business. Anna is also a certified health coach.

James Mawson
Founder and Editor-in-Chief
Global Corporate Venturing and Global University Venturing

James was editor of Private Equity News, part of Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal in London, for nearly four years until May, 2010 when he launched Global Corporate Venturing as an independent title from his own publishing company. This was followed by the launch of the second publication, Global University Venturing, in January 2012 to help students and faculty and academia more broadly launch or develop their entrepreneurial businesses and work with external peers.
As well as editing Private Equity News, James coordinated leveraged buyout and venture capital coverage for use by other titles in the Dow Jones and News Corporation group, acted as a spokesman on BBC radio and television and chaired awards and conferences for a host of media groups, including the BVCA awards and event for more than 1,000 people in October, 2009.
Previously, James had freelanced for a host of national and trade media titles, including the BBC, Financial Times, Economist, Independent on Sunday, Sunday Express and Dow Jones Newswires; provided research for Nick Davies's book, Flat Earth News; was a foreign correspondent in central and eastern Europe; and was international editor for FT Business.
After graduating from King's College, London, James's first job was working at technology publishing house ComputerWire.

Stephen Nappi
Director of Technology Transfer Operations
Temple

Stephen Nappi has over 17 years of experience in technology commercialization and currently serves as Temple University’s Associate Vice President of Technology Commercialization and Business Development within the Office of the Vice President for Research.

Mr. Nappi joined Temple in 2008 as its Director of Technology Transfer Operations and continues to lead the commercialization office through a period of rapid growth. Over the past 5 years, the university generated $15M in licensing revenue, 17 startups, 375 inventions, 120 patent filings and 44 license deals. At Temple, Mr. Nappi oversees a flex-path runway to enable technology advancement, including an early stage investment program and a recently launched venture fund. Prior to joining Temple, Mr. Nappi advanced through all levels of the technology transfer office at Florida Atlantic University.

Mr. Nappi holds a BBA in management and marketing from Florida Atlantic University, MBA coursework in finance, and is a member of AUTM and LES. He serves president of BioStrategy Partners, an academic-industry commercialization consortium for advancing technology in the life sciences, and is a member of the National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer’s Startup Officers Leadership Committee.

Luke Newgaard
Legislative Assistant
Congressman Daniel Webster

Luke Newgaard serves as a Legislative Assistant to Congressman Daniel Webster (R-FL). In this capacity, he represents a variety of legislative issues with a focus on science, space, and technology related matters. Luke received a Bachelor of Arts in both Hispanic studies and political science at Saint John’s University in his home state of Minnesota. Prior to joining Congressman Webster's office, he worked under Chairman Bill Flores (R-TX) of the Republican Study Committee and spent an additional two years working for Congressman Tom Emmer (R-MN).

Levi Patterson
Legislative Assistant
Representative Ben Ray Luján

Levi is currently serving Representative Ben Ray Luján as a Legislative Assistant and manages the energy, environment, and innovation portfolios. In this role, he has had the opportunity to work closely on entrepreneurship and innovation policy issues and recognizes their direct impact on U.S. security, competitiveness, and overall prosperity. Previously, Levi was able to contribute to these same issues on the U.S. Senate side as he served in Senator Chris Coons as a Legislative Fellow sponsored by the American Nuclear Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Before coming to Capitol Hill, Levi worked at General Electric Hitachi Nuclear Energy where he worked on nuclear energy and cyber security projects. He holds a B.S. in Engineering Physics and a M.S. in Nuclear Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines.

John Perkins
Senior Project Manager
DSM

John Perkins is a Senior Project Manager at the DSM Biotechnology Center (DBC) in Delft, The Netherlands. Located at the DSM Parsippany (NJ, USA) Innovation Center, Dr. Perkins is responsible for biotechnology scouting and strategy development for the DBC.

An expert in microbial genetics, Dr. Perkins received his PhD from The Ohio State University in Microbiology, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University. He has over 30 years of experience working in the biotechnology industry.

Randall Reade
Vice President
Washington DC Arch Acngels

Mr. Reade has led many delegations to China in the past five years, and has been visiting its tech parks since 2000. He has been a featured speaker on outsourcing to China and has served as a panelist and moderator for many conferences held in China., and has published several articles on China's technology sector. In addition, Mr. Reade has hosted many delegations from China and other countries to the Washington, DC, area, introducing them to local and national clients.

Mr. Reade has been President of Global Tech Exchange, LLC, since its inception and has also been President of Zipzone, Ltd, where he helped US tech firms find global solutions. While President of Zipzone, he was also the Chair of the International Committee of the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC), the largest tech council in the US.

As Chair of the International Committee, Mr. Reade expanded its membership to be hte largest committee within the NVTC and the most active.

Previously, Mr. Reade was an attorney with the US Department of Labor and received his law degree from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, and is a graduate of the State University of New York at Buffalo. He currently serves as an attorney on several non profits, including The Washington Music Teachers' Association, The International Order of the Sword and the Pen, and the Third Millenium Ensemble.

Victoria Scarborough
Senior Startup Development Officer
NCET2

Dr. Victoria Scarborough has worked in the coatings industry for over 35 years and recently retired from The Sherwin-Williams Co. Her many roles there included managing the global external technology team to identify transformative technologies by scouting outside normal vendor channels that included universities, the technical marketplace, search agencies, government & military technology sources, venture capital firms, & parallel consumer product industries. As director of new technology for the Consumer Brands group, Dr. Scarborough sought & developed new technologies for well-known brands including Minwax^®, Thompson's^®, Duraseal^®, Krylon^®, Duplicolor^® & Purdy^®. She holds multiple national and international patents, has published numerous articles on innovation, product development and commercialization and has been an invited speaker to many conferences. Her passion for driving technology forward now extends to the National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer (NCET2) where she helps align university startup technology companies to the needs of multinational corporations and venture capital groups. In addition, she formed Materia Prima Ventures, her own consultancy, which facilitates collaboration between technology startup companies and larger businesses/investors towards product development & commercialization.

Mark Shaw
Co-Founder, President and CEO
Ultratech International

Mark Shaw is Co-Founder and CEO of UltraTech International. Recently, UltraTech has created the Advanced Technology Group to be the bridge between smart people with great technologies and the markets that need those technologies and products. To date it has licensed, incubated and commercialized six disruptive and cutting-edge technologies in various fields, with particular emphasis on nanotechnologies. Mark, with an economics degree as the basis of his education, has started four companies, has over sixty-five patents and is credited with starting the spill containment market back in the early eighties.

Jennifer Shieh
Chief Scientist and Senior Technology Policy Advisor
U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Investment and Innovation

Dr. Jennifer Shieh advances technology commercialization through the Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) programs, building partnerships and coordinating policy across the 11 participating Federal agencies. Previously, she managed the Small Business Program for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and served as a Program Director at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) SBIR Development Center, having joined NCI as a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow. She was involved in product and customer development at Syapse, a precision medicine-focused startup, and mobile games startup Subversus Interactive. Dr. Shieh studied brain and cognitive sciences at MIT, then earned her PhD in neurosciences at Stanford University. She is co-author of the textbook Guide to Research Techniques in Neuroscience

Steve Socolof
Managing Partner
Tech Council Ventures

Steve Socolof is a Managing Partner of Tech Council Ventures (“TCV”). TCV is a Mid-Atlantic focused venture fund sponsored by the NJ Tech Council, one of the largest, most vibrant technology industry associations. Tech Council Ventures enjoys the opportunity to leverage its relationships with the universities, corporations, and entrepreneurial community in the region to invest in and grow exciting new businesses. Steve has also offered to act as a Startup Development Officer on select opportunities for NCET2. Prior to TCV, Steve was a managing partner with New Venture Partners, which was the leading global venture capital firm specializing in corporate spinout venturing. NVP itself was spun out of Lucent Technologies, where it had been an incubator for spinout opportunities from Bell Labs. Steve has lead deals in enterprise software, networking, storage, and wireless technologies. He is currently a director of EverSpin Technologies (NASDAQ: MRAM) and Vasona Networks. He was recently a director of Airclic (sold to Descartes), Gainspan (sold to Telit), Neohapsis (sold to Cisco), Silicon Hive (sold to Intel), Sychip (sold to Murata), and an observer of Flarion Technologies (sold to Qualcomm). Steve holds a BA in Economics and a BS in Mathematical Sciences from Stanford University and received his MBA from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College, where he was a Tuck Scholar. He currently serves on the board of the Center for the Study of Private Equity at the Tuck School.

Tony Stanco
Executive Director
NCET2

Tony Stanco, Esq. is the founder and executive director of the National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer and co-founder of National Angels USA. Previously he was the director of the Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer and Commercialization (CET2C) of The George Washington University. Mr. Stanco was a senior attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission. He also has worked on innovation policy, including start-up creation and funding by angel investors and VCs. At School of Engineering and Applied Science at The George Washington University, Mr. Stanco worked with universities and governments around the world on innovation policy, startup finance policy, software policy, Open Source, cyber-security, and e-Government issues. Mr. Stanco has appeared before the US Congress, various US defense and civilian agencies, the World Bank, the European Commission, United Nations, Inter-American Development Bank, and Organization of American States. Mr. Stanco teaches the Lab to IPO course dealing with start-up formation and funding. He has an LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center in securities regulation and is licensed as a lawyer in New York state.

Glenn Vonk
SDO
NCET2

Dr. Glenn Vonk is the Director of Business Development and Alliances of the National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer (NCET2). He has over 30 years’ experience leading technology developments in diagnostics, drug delivery, and medical devices including immunoassays, molecular diagnostics, detection systems, and new chemical entities. He established life sciences R&D at BD BioVenture Centre in Singapore leading to several commercialization programs in developing world diagnostics and biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Glenn is inventor of BD intellectual property used in drug delivery and diagnostics products. While in Singapore, he was responsible for infectious disease proof of concept clinical research in Thailand. While Director of Advanced Technology Glenn coordinated innovation resources at corporate R&D and sourced key technologies for BD’s strategic business needs. Glenn rapidly connects new technology options to significant business needs and processes to accelerate their progress to market.

Helena S. Wisniewski
Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies
University of Alaska, Anchorage

Dr. Helena S. Wisniewski, FNAI, is Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies at UAA, the Chief Research Officer, since August 2011. There she leads the research enterprise, and technology commercialization. She is President of Seawolf Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of UAA, and Founding Director of the Arctic Domain Awareness Center (ADAC) a DHS Center of Excellence.
Her executive experience includes academia, industry and government, and she is a technological entrepreneur who has launched and sold startup companies. As Vice President, Research and Enterprise Development at Stevens Institute of Technology, she tripled research revenues, launched nine startups and sold two. She was a Vice President at the Titan Corporation, and a Senior executive at Lockheed. As CEO of Aurora Biometrics a company that she founded she raised investment, built the business, and sold the company. At DARPA, she created and grew its first mathematics program that pioneered innovative technology that benefitted the government and society. Prior to DARPA she served at the CIA.
At UAA she created a commercialization infrastructure that includes Seawolf Holdings and Seawolf Venture Fund. She facilitated significant growth in intellectual property - since FY11 invention disclosures have increased from 2 to 39, patent applications filed from 1 to 42, and patents issued increased to 8, and together with the faculty she formed the first four UAA startup companies - Zensor, CFT Solutions, Cogniceutic Solutions and Rhizoform. Rhizoform was recently awarded “Best University Startup,” in a national competition. Also, external research funding has increased by 23% since 2013. To inspire research, creative works and innovation she established the Innovate Awards and the Patent Wall of Fame. The Innovate Awards have brought a three to one return on research investment through externally funded grants.
She serves on public and private boards of directors and advisory boards. She served on the Board of Directors, of Greatbatch Inc., (NYSE:GB), that provides implementable medical devices and on its Audit and Technology Committees. In 2007, the Secretary of the Navy appointed her to NRAC, its 15 members are prominent in science, engineering and medicine.
She holds patents and has received awards for outstanding leadership, entrepreneurship, and significant scientific contributions that include the 2001 Women in Technology Award for Entrepreneurship, and awards from DARPA, CIA, and Lockheed. In April 2016 she was inducted as a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (FNAI) – she was the first person in Alaska to be inducted.
She received her Ph.D. in mathematics from the Graduate school of the City University of New York, MS in Mathematics from Stevens Institute of Technology, and BA in mathematics from William Paterson University where she is a Distinguished Alumni.
She is a member of the International Rotary, Commonwealth North, and serves on the board of the Alaska Sled Dog Racing Association. Her winter sport is dogsledding - she does sprint racing. She enjoys playing the piano, oil painting and showing Samoyed dogs with her daughter Alexis.