MIT Sandbox Funding Board

Jinane Abounadi SM ‘90, PhD ‘98

Jinane Abounadi is Executive Director of the MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund Program. She brings a unique combination of experiences, from academic research to senior operational and strategic roles in start-up companies and large businesses. After completing her graduate work, she worked as a research scientist at BBN and as a postdoctoral lecturer at MIT, and advised undergraduate and graduate students.

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She held leadership roles in two of the most successful local Boston area start-ups, ITA Software and Kayak, where she gained deep knowledge about the travel technology sector. Most recently, she ran a global portfolio of 3rd party products for Travelport, giving her the opportunity to establish partnerships with companies across the globe and to advise and evaluate a number of start-ups in the travel sector.

Abounadi earned her PhD in electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, a BS in electrical engineering from Caltech, and a BA from Bryn Mawr College. She has several publications in the fields of machine learning and communication networks and is passionate about teaching and working with college students. As a long-time housemaster at MIT, she has gained extensive experience in student life.  She lives in Cambridge with her husband and three children. Outside of her professional life, she volunteers at her children’s schools. She served on the Board of trustees of Shady Hill School for six years, served on the founding school committee of the Center of Arabic Culture, and spends her free time cheering and supporting her children’s sports team.

Bill Aulet

Bill Aulet is the Managing Director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and Professor of the Practice at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

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Bill is changing the way entrepreneurship is understood, taught, and practiced around the world. He is an award-winning educator and author whose current work is built off the foundation of his 25-year successful business career, first at IBM, and then as a three-time serial entrepreneur. During this time, he directly raised over a hundred million dollars and, more importantly, created hundreds of millions of dollars of shareholder value through his companies.

Since 2009, Bill has been responsible for leading the development of entrepreneurship education across MIT at the Trust Center. His first book, “Disciplined Entrepreneurship,” was released in August 2013 and has been converted (as of July 2017) to versions in Arabic, audio (via Audible), Chinese Orthodox, Chinese Simplified, Croatian, Danish, German, Farsi, Japanese, Korean (where it was named one of the top Economics & Business books of 2014 by the prestigious Kyobo Book Store), Mongolian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, and Vietnamese. It has been a best seller in many countries including Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam. It has also been the basis of a series of highly successful MIT edX online classes Entrepreneurship 101, Entrepreneurship 102 and Entrepreneurship 103 as well as the MIT Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamps, which have been held at different locations including MIT, Seoul, and Brisbane (Australia).The accompanying follow on book, “Disciplined Entrepreneurship Workbook,” was released in April 2017.

He has widely published in in places such as the Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, the Boston Globe, the Sloan Management Review, the Kauffman Foundation, Entrepreneur Magazine, MIT Sloan Experts, and more. He has been a featured speaker on shows such as CNBC’s Squawk Box, BBC News, Bloomberg News, as well as at events and conferences around the world. He has degrees from Harvard and MIT and is a board member of MITEK Systems (NASDAQ: MITK) and XL Hybrids Inc. as well as a visiting professor at University of Strathclyde (Scotland).

On July 1, 2017, Bill was named a Professor of the Practice at MIT Sloan, the first at the school in the area of entrepreneurship since Alex d’Arbeloff received the designation in 2003. Bill has earned external recognition as well for his efforts, which include Boston 50 on Fire, 2017 Favorite MBA Professors from Poets and Quants, and 2018 Nannerl Keohane Distinguished Visiting Professorship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University.

Dean Anantha Chandrakasan

Anantha P. Chandrakasan is the dean of the MIT School of Engineering and the Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He is devoted to sustaining and enhancing the School’s position of leadership in the world with policies and practices that accelerate scientific discovery and the application of knowledge for the betterment of humankind.

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Born in Chennai, India, Chandrakasan moved to the United States while in high school. His mother was a biochemist and Fulbright scholar. Spending time in her labs inspired his love of research and open-ended problem-solving. He earned his bachelor’s (1989), master’s (1990), and doctoral (1994) degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley. After joining the MIT faculty, he was the director of the Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) from 2006 until he became the head the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 2011, a position that concluded with his appointment as dean in July 2017.

Chandrakasan is passionate about facilitating exciting opportunities. During his six-year tenure as head of MIT’s largest academic department, he spearheaded a number of initiatives that enabled students, postdocs, and faculty to conduct research, explore entrepreneurial projects, and engage with EECS. For students, one of these included the Advanced Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, known as “SuperUROP,” a year-long independent research program that provides tools for students to do publication-quality research. It was launched in EECS in 2012 and expanded to the whole School of Engineering in 2015.

In addition, Chandrakasan is committed to advancing diversity and the enhancement of the student experience. While at the helm of EECS, he created the Rising Stars program, an annual event that convenes graduate and postdoc women for the purpose of sharing advice about the early stages of an academic career. He initiated Postdoc6, which aims to foster a sense of community for postdocs and help them develop skills that will serve their careers. And he created Start6, which expanded to StartMIT, an independent activities period (IAP) class, provides students and postdocs the opportunity to learn from and interact with industrial innovation leaders.

To advance the frontiers of STEM education, Chandrakasan is exploring how to best use different kinds of novel teaching methods. In 2014, EECS developed one of the first certificate-granting courses for MITx, the Institute’s massive open online course (MOOC) effort, in support of XSeries, which provides integrated offerings that help reimagine the building blocks that structure learning in the digital environment. Last fall, EECS and the Office of Digital Learning piloted a full-credit online course for a small cohort of students on campus, who gave the experience strong marks for providing flexibility and reducing stress.

Like MIT as a whole, Chandrakasan is committed to supporting the conversion of discoveries and inventions into practical technologies, products, and services in the world. As such, he has a long-standing interest in creating opportunities for innovation outside the lab. He is a board member and chair of the MIT advisory committee dealing with MIT policies for The Engine, a new accelerator launched by MIT to support startup companies working on scientific and technological innovation with the potential for transformative societal impact.

Apart from his administrative roles, Chandrakasan has produced a significant body of research since joining the MIT faculty in 1994. It has focused largely on making electronic circuits more energy efficient. His early work on low-power chips for portable computers helped make possible the development of today’s smartphones and other mobile devices. More recently, his research has addressed the challenge of powering even more energy-constrained technologies, such as the “internet of things” that would allow many everyday devices to send and receive data via networked servers while being powered from a tiny energy source.

From 2010–2018, he served as Conference Chair of the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), the foremost global forum for the presentation of advances in solid-state circuits and systems-on-a-chip. He is a recipient of awards including the 2009 Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) University Researcher Award, the 2013 IEEE Donald O. Pederson Award in Solid-State Circuits, an honorary doctorate from KU Leuven in 2016, and the UC Berkeley EE Distinguished Alumni Award in 2017. He was also recognized as the author with the highest number of publications in the 60-year history of the IEEE ISSCC. A fellow of IEEE, in 2015 he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, and in 2019 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Chandrakasan also leads the MIT Energy-Efficient Circuits and Systems Group, whose research projects have addressed security hardware, energy harvesting, and wireless charging for the internet of things; energy-efficient circuits and systems for multimedia processing; and platforms for ultra-low-power biomedical electronics.

As dean, Chandrakasan aims to build a culture that emphasizes meritocratic openness to talent and ideas from all over the world, vibrant intellectual exchange, and interdisciplinary collaborations around complex societal problems, such as energy, water, food, transportation, security, health, environmental quality, and economic development. His leadership style emphasizes listening to and integrating the views of faculty and students into a shared vision.

Chandrakasan will rely on these established values as he guides a school that educates almost three-quarters of MIT’s undergraduates and half of the graduate students across eight departments, two campus-wide institutes, and dozens of laboratories and research centers that operate under the broad umbrella of the school or within individual departments. Affiliated academic programs include MIT Professional Education, the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology program, among others. Just over a third of MIT’s faculty members are in the school and they account for more than half of the sponsored research at the Institute.

Chandrakasan lives in Belmont, Massachusetts, with his wife and three children, the oldest of whom graduated from MIT in 2017.

Prof. Fiona Murray

Fiona Murray is the William Porter (1967) Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship, the Associate Dean for Innovation, Co-Director of the Innovation Initiative, Faculty Director of the Legatum Center, and recently appointed as a Member of the UK Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology (CST).

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She is an international expert on the transformation of investments in scientific and technical innovation into innovation-based entrepreneurship that drives jobs, wealth creation, and regional prosperity.  Murray has a special interest in how policies, programs, and relationships between academia and industry can be designed to accelerate the productive role of universities in their local entrepreneurial ecosystem.  These include intellectual property issues as well as broader programs that enable technology transfer and commercialization.

A former scientist trained at Harvard University and the University of Oxford, Murray has taught and published extensively on fostering cultures that bridge scientific innovation and entrepreneurship, building effective entrepreneurial strategies for science-based businesses (in biotech and biomedical companies and recently, clean energy), and evaluating the commercial potential of novel scientific ideas.  Closely tied to real world problems, Fiona works with science-based startups on their commercialization strategy as well as a range of firms designing global organizations that are both commercially successful and at the forefront of science.  These firms seek to leverage the ideas of a wide range of internal scientists, external innovators accessed through traditional research contracts, as well as “Open Innovation” mechanisms including innovation prizes.  Her recent engagements have focused on relationships that span the public and private sectors.  She is particularly interested in new emerging organizational arrangements for the effective commercialization of science, including public-private partnerships, not-for-profits, venture philanthropy, and university-initiated seed funding and innovation-focused competitions and prizes.

The courses Murray teaches at the MIT Sloan School of Management – Innovation Teams (15.371), and New Enterprises (15.390) – encourage cross-campus collaborations that move scientific discoveries closer towards marketable products.  She also has a particular interest in the entrepreneurial education of scientists and engineers, and in the role of women in entrepreneurship and commercialization of science.

In the same spirit of science and business collaboration, in 2001 Murray was one of the cofounders of the Biomedical Enterprise Program (MBS-MS), a joint program between the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) and the MIT Sloan School of Management.  She served on the Curriculum Development Committee for the program, has been on its Faculty Committee since 2002, and is now an Affiliated Professor in HST.  She also works closely with the School of Engineering’s Deshpande Center which provides Proof of Concept funding and advice for early-stage research with commercial potential.

Fiona has spoken at events worldwide about building entrepreneurial capacity based upon the engine of scientific research.  She also speaks in academic and policy settings on innovation and intellectual property in the scientific community.  She has been published in a wide range of journals, including Science, Nature, New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Biotechnology, Research Policy, Organization Science, and the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.

Murray has served on the faculty at MIT Sloan since 1999.  In 2006 she was promoted to Associate Professor in the Technological Innovation & Entrepreneurship Strategic Management Group.  Previously, Murray held positions at Harvard University, the University of Oxford, the Asian Development Bank, and United Nations Environment Program in Kenya.

Murray received her BA ’89 and MA ‘90 from the University of Oxford in Chemistry. She subsequently moved to the United States and earned an AM ’92 and PhD ’96 from Harvard University in Applied Sciences.

Leon Sandler

As Executive Director of the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation, Leon Sandler wears many hats: He is responsible for guiding the center’s strategic direction, ensuring successful execution of its mission, and managing day-today operations.

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With a strong background in the assessment of technologies for commercialization, Mr. Sandler leads a process the center calls “select, direct and connect”. Through this process, faculty research projects are chosen to receive Deshpande Center grants, based on a project’s potential commercial and social impact. Research teams then receive intensive guidance in how to bring their inventions to the marketplace and form new spinout companies.

Among his related duties Mr. Sandler mentors faculty and student researchers, coaches and lectures on technology innovation and entrepreneurship at the MIT Trust Entrepreneurship Center and the MIT Sloan executive education program, advises organizations around the world on how to move technologies from the lab to the marketplace, and serves as the Deshpande Center’s fundraiser-in-chief, responsible for keeping the center on a sound financial footing. 

To ensure the success of all these activities, Mr. Sandler builds and continually renews a broad network of relationships. These include connections within MIT’s well-developed entrepreneurial ecosystem and external ties with venture capitalists, corporate supporters, government agencies, and educational institutions.

Before joining the Deshpande Center in 2006, Leon Sandler held senior positions in general management, marketing, finance and business development at companies such as Boston Consulting Group, Eastman Kodak, Texas Instruments and Digital Equipment Corporation. He founded the consulting firm Monmouth Group, where he provided management, marketing and business development assistance to over twenty early-stage companies. This included co-founding and serving as the CEO of Nuvonyx, a maker of industrial laser systems; serving as CEO of several start-ups; and assisting many ventures as an interim executive or advisor.

Mr. Sandler received his B.S. degree in 1971 and his M.S. in Chemical Engineering in 1973 from Natal University in South Africa, and his M.B.A. in 1977 from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Alan G. Spoon SB & SM ’73

Alan G. Spoon serves as Chairman of the Board of Fortive Corporation since 2016. Mr. Spoon served as a General Partner and Partner Emeritus at Polaris Partners, a company that invests in private technology and life science firms, from 2011 to 2018, including as Managing General Partner from 2000 to 2010.

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Prior to joining Polaris, Mr. Spoon served as President and Board member of The Washington Post Company, a multimedia and education corporation.  Earlier he served as Post Company CFO, President of Newsweek, and held top marketing and finance positions at The Washington Post.  He began his career and later became a partner of The Boston Consulting Group, an international consulting firm specializing in corporate strategy.  Mr. Spoon is also a member of the board of directors of each of IAC/InterActiveCorp., Match Group, Inc., Cable One, Inc and Danaher Corporation.  In his not-for-profit activities, Alan is a member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Corporation Risk and Audit Committee, and serves on the board of edX.org (Harvard/MIT joint online education platform).  Alan is Regent Emeritus (former Vice Chairman) of the Smithsonian Institution Board of Regents. Mr. Spoon received his Bachelor’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Master’s degree from the Sloan School of Management, MIT; and his J.D.; from Harvard Law School.

Vice Chancellor Ian Waitz

Ian A. Waitz is the Vice Chancellor and Jerome C. Hunsaker Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been on the faculty at MIT since 1991, serving as the department head of Aeronautics and Astronautics from 2008 to early 2011, and as dean of the School of Engineering from 2011 until June 2017.

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Waitz has made advances in gas turbine engines, fluid mechanics, combustion, and acoustics. The principal focus of his current work is on the modeling and evaluation of climate, the air-quality and noise impacts of aviation, and the assessment of technological, operational, and policy options for mitigating these impacts. He is the director of the Partnership for AiR Transportation Noise and Emissions Reduction (PARTNER), an FAA, NASA, DOD, EPA and Transport Canada-sponsored Center of Excellence with participants from a dozen universities and 50 industry and government organizations. In addition to scholarly publications, Waitz has contributed to several influential policy documents and scientific assessments including a report to the US Congress on aviation and the environment. He holds three patents, and has consulted for many organizations. In 2003, Waitz received a NASA Turning Goals Into Reality Award for Noise Reduction, and in 2007 he was awarded the FAA Excellence in Aviation Research Award. He is a fellow of the AIAA, and an ASME and ASEE member.

Waitz teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in the fields of thermodynamics and energy conversion, propulsion, and experimental projects. He was honored with the 2002 MIT Class of 1960 Innovation in Education Award and an appointment as an MIT MacVicar Faculty Fellow in 2003.

Waitz received his BS in 1986 from the Pennsylvania State University, his MS in 1988 from George Washington University and his PhD in 1991 from the California Institute of Technology.

Maria Yang

Maria Yang is the Gail E. Kendall (1978) Professor of mechanical engineering, faculty director for academics in the MIT D-Lab, and founder and director of MIT’s Ideation Lab. In her role as associate dean of engineering, she is focused on bolstering undergraduate and graduate academic programming and contributing to strategic initiatives at the school and Institute levels such as design, improving student experiences, and advancing opportunities for faculty support and mentoring, work that she has already begun through past and present department and Institute appointments.

Mark Bye

Mark Bye is a recognized global business leader with deep experience across the industrials and energy sectors. During his 40-year career, he has successfully led a diverse set of public and private enterprises, increasing value and delivering profitable growth by leveraging strategies spanning the gamut from targeted organic growth, new product development, M&A, and geographic expansion to extensive operational restructurings. He currently serves as an Executive Advisor to Morgan Stanley Private Equity, having previously served for 13 years as a Managing Director and partner in both the Mid-market Private Equity and Energy Capital Funds.

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He joined Morgan Stanley in 2008 in London, assuming leadership responsibilities for the European private equity team and globally for the industrials, basic materials, and energy sectors. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Mr. Bye was the CEO of DyStar, GmbH, a private equity owned Frankfurt based specialty chemicals company. Before DyStar, he spent 23 years at Air Products and Chemicals (NYSE: APD) where he held numerous senior leadership positions including VP of Performance Chemicals, President of Air Products Asia, and ultimately, Group Executive of the $8B global Gases & Equipment Group. Prior to Air Products, Mr. Bye held management positions at Union Carbide Corporation and Energy Investment, a Boston based energy-consulting firm. He is also active in numerous technology driven start-ups through his company the Bye Group, LLC. His professional and personal passion focuses on developing value creation strategies for technology and innovation-based businesses and working with early-stage company CEOs in creating a successful enterprise. Mr. Bye has spent much of his career working outside the USA, has lived and worked in six countries, and possesses a deep understanding of international business dynamics, cultures, and practices. In addition to serving on multiple private equity portfolio company boards, Mr. Bye serves on the board of directors of Carus Corporation, LifeAire Systems LLC, the Phi Delta Theta Foundation, and was a member of the Schweitzer-Mauduit International (NYSE:SWM) board prior to its merger with Neenah, Inc. Mr. Bye holds Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is a graduate of INSEAD’s Advanced Management Program. He is active in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, MIT’s Sandbox Innovation Fund and Energy Initiative, and also serves on the MIT Corporation’s Visiting Committee for Chemical Engineering. Mr. Bye is married with three children and resides in Hilton Head, SC.

Roberto Engels ‘85

Roberto has had a career in the corporate, entrepreneurship, and financial worlds, having initially worked as a consultant for Booz.Allen & Hamilton, then acted in various functions in Bunge Corporation in Brazil, and later as CEO of YPF’s Peruvian subsidiary.  After leaving Bunge, he worked as Managing Partner for Bank of America, responsible for private equity in LatAm. 

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After leaving BofA, Roberto became an entrepreneur investing in renewable energy in Brazil, and was the founder, among other companies, of Brasil Bio Fuels, a company that generates electricity in the Amazon Basin, using renewable biodiesel produced from animal fat and palm oil.  Roberto currently acts as a serial VC/growth capital investor, focusing in renewable energy, health care and AgTechs.  He lives in Uruguay, manages his family farms in Argentina and is Chairman of Techo Uruguay, a non-profit organization present in Latam and the Caribbean, that operates in 19 countries seeking to reduce poverty in the region’s slums by setting up provisional housing through the collaborative work of families living in extreme poverty with youth volunteers. Roberto graduated from MIT in course 2 in 1985, and from the Harvard Business School with an MBA degree in 1989.  Roberto has also been actively involved with MIT as an Educational Counselor.

Emily Fairbairn

Emily Wang Fairbairn is Director of IN8bio, and has served on the board of directors since July 2021. From 2018, she has also served as the Chair of the Board at Movano. Ms. Fairbairn has spent the majority of her career in executive leadership and management positions and as a seasoned investor and mentor to early-stage companies. In 1999, Ms. Fairbairn was Co-Founder and CEO of Ascend Capital, a multi-billion-dollar hedge fund, which she ran until 2018. The firm focused on managing assets for institutional clients such as pensions, endowments, and public companies. Prior to Ascend Capital, she spent a decade building a successful practice of equity portfolio construction and financial planning for high net worth clients for Merrill Lynch. 

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Today, Ms. Fairbairn is an active investor, and since 2017 serving on the funding board of the MIT Sandbox Fund to mentor aspiring entrepreneurs. She is also a dedicated advocate of funding research for a realizable diagnostic and cure for Lyme+, which effects around 500,000 people annually in the U.S.  Emily holds a Bachelor of Science degree from California State Polytechnic University in Chemical Engineering.

Brian Byun

Brian is an Operating Partner at Khosla Ventures with a focus on B2B software including developer, data, security, cloud infrastructure and AI-driven applications.

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Prior to joining KV in 2014, Brian was an executive at VMware where he led product, marketing and partnership functions as it scaled more than 50X in employees and revenue. He led the diversification of VMware from a single server and workstation product to an enterprise portfolio of datacenter, availability, management, desktop suites. In addition, he built out the technology and OEM ecosystem and led corporate strategy, M&A and new product incubation that formed many of VMware’s post-datacenter business lines.

Earlier, Brian held engineering, consulting, and product management leadership roles in security, e-commerce, consumer web, servers, and databases at startups and industry incumbents, including Rhapsody Networks Brocade, AOL, and Netscape.

Brian holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT.

Sameer Gandhi '87,SM '88

Sameer Gandhi joined Accel in 2008 and focuses on consumer, software and services companies. Sameer led Accel's early investments in Birchbox, Bonobos, Crowdstrike, Diapers.com (acquired by Amazon), DJI, Dropbox, Dropcam (acquired by Google), Jet (acquired by Walmart), Pearl Automation, Plex, Raise, Spotify, Venmo (acquired by Braintree), Grovo and Yapstone.

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Sameer works closely with Accel’s India team, and is involved in investments such as Flipkart, BookMyShow, Myntra, Freshdesk and Taxi4Sure (acquired by OLA) – some of India’s most prominent technology companies today. Prior to Accel, Sameer was a partner at Sequoia and led investments in companies like Barracuda Networks, Dropbox (initial seed), Gracenote, Trulia (acquired by Zillow) and Sourcefire.

Sameer is from Maryland and graduated from MIT and the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Eugenio Garza-Herrera

Eugenio Garza-Herrera is a business leader who has devoted his professional career to growing companies, building start­-ups and promoting the private sector’s interest through his involvement in national and state business organizations. During Mexico’s economic transformation, Mr. Garza-Herrera led one of Mexico’s largest industrial conglomerates, Xignux S.A. de C.V. for more than two decades, serving as both Chairman and CEO. Under his direction, Xignux expanded its markets through export operations, successfully undertook cost reduction and efficiency initiatives, and forged profitable joint ventures with General Electric, Sara Lee, and Yazaki Corporation.

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Today, Mr. Garza-Herrera serves as Chairman of the Board of Xignux. As chairman of the Mexican Council of Business (2010­‐2013), which brings together the CEOs of Mexico’s 40 largest companies, Mr. Garza-Herrera helped strategize and advocate for the business sector during a period of economic reform and the opening of new opportunities in the country. He continues to be a strong advocate for business in Mexico and, in particular, for the business community of Monterrey.

Mr. Garza-Herrera is a sought­-after expert for a range of companies and entities. He currently serves as a board member of: Banamex, Monterrey Tec (ITESM), Pak2Go, Arcelor Mittal México, Nemak, Cydsa, Endeavor, Corporación EG, the Regional Council of Mexico’s Central Bank, the Center of Art, Architecture and Design of the University of Monterrey, and Mexico Evalúa of the Center for Analysis of Public Policies. He currently chairs the Committee on Government Efficacy and Transparency for the State of Nuevo Leon’s Council on Strategic Planning.

In addition to serving as chairman of the Mexican Council of Business, Mr. Garza-Herrera has presided: the Council of Industry of Nuevo León (CAINTRA); the Mexico-Japan Council of the Mexican Business Council for Foreign Trade, Investment and Technology; and, the Center for International Business of Monterrey (CINTERMEX).

Mr. Garza-Herrera has also served as a board member for these entities: the Monterrey Center for Productivity; NAFINSA (Mexico’s national development bank for industry), Grupo IMSA, Grupo Lamosa, Proeza, the Autlán Mining Company, Grupo Aeroméxico, Mitsui de México, and the Business Coordinating Council. He has served in a volunteer capacity for Hospicio Ortigosa and the City of Children of Monterrey.

Mr. Garza-­Herrera holds a Degree in Business Administration from Monterrey Tec (ITESM) and an MBA from the A.B. Freeman School of Business of Tulane University.

Daniel A. Gilbert ’91

Dan is the Board Director of HALO Precision Diagnostics and an Advisor at Motus Ventures.

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After graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dan began his career in management consulting with McKinsey & Company and A.T. Kearney, later holding executive positions at leading technology companies including Webvan, Palm, and Cisco Systems. Before joining Brava, Dan served as the Executive Vice President of Operations and Customer Service at Barnes & Noble, helping to drive the company’s expansion into digital reading. Dan led the supply chain for the NOOK® product line, spanning new product introduction, sourcing, manufacturing, distribution, and customer service.

Dan also serves as an Advisory Member of Motus Ventures, an accelerator focused on autonomous vehicles and the Internet of Things, and has been an active member of the Band of Angels, Silicon Valley’s longest-standing angel investment group, since 2009. Dan’s philanthropic roles include serving as a Founding Contributor on the Funding Board of MIT’s Sandbox Innovation Fund, sitting on the MIT Corporation’s Visiting Committee for the Social Sciences and on the Corporation Development Committee, serving on the board of Kepler’s Literary Foundation, and supporting QuakeFinder’s search for electromagnetic patterns that will provide advance warning of earthquakes. He lives in Portola Valley, California with his wife, son, and daughter.

Erik Glover ‘02

Erik Glover is a Partner at Freedom 3 Capital and has more than 15 years of experience investing in levered buyouts, highly structured preferred equity and debt investments in middle market companies. Mr. Glover has facilitated over $800 million of equity and debt investment in 17 companies. He has been an active member of the board of directors of nine companies, where he has worked closely with management teams to drive growth, improve profitability, develop executive leadership and execute long-term strategic initiatives.

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Most recently, Mr. Glover was a Vice President based in New York for TPG Growth. He focused on investments in the software, healthcare, consumer and cleantech sectors.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Glover was a Principal at Fox Paine & Co. He focused on investments in the industrials, consumer products, agriculture and healthcare sectors. Prior to Fox Paine & Co., Mr. Glover was an Analyst at Goldman, Sachs & Co. focusing on mergers, leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations and restructurings. Mr. Glover received his BS in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Jeffrey S. Halis ‘76, SM ‘76

Jeffrey S. Halis is the founder, president, and CEO of Tyndall Management. Halis earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1976. He is founder, president, and CEO of Tyndall Management, an investment firm specializing in publicly traded securities. After graduating from MIT Sloan, he joined Citibank, where he spent five years on liability management. He then became an investment banker at Merrill Lynch, specializing in mergers and acquisitions.

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He then operated an investment fund on behalf of GTO Inc. until founding Tyndall. Halis has served on the Corporation’s Investment Management Company Board since 2014, and served on the Development Committee from 2003 to 2006. He has also served on the visiting committee for Brain and Cognitive Sciences since 2005.

Brian Hinman ‘84

Brian L. Hinman is the President, Chief Executive Officer and Co- Founder at Mimosa. For Brian, Mimosa is the culmination of a lifetime dedication to creating cutting-edge telecommunications products. Starting with video conferencing pioneer, PictureTel Corporation (formerly NASD: PCTL), and audio conferencing giant, Polycom (NASD: PLCM), Brian also led the way in the DSL industry as a founder of 2Wire (later acquired by Pace). Mimosa is the latest iteration of his vision to connect people through technology. In addition to his entrepreneurial efforts, Brian was also a Venture Partner at Oak Investment Partners where he focused primarily on investments in information technology and clean energy.

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An engineer by training, Brian is a specialist in digital signal processing and holds 30 patents in the telecommunications space. Brian has also served on the National Board of the American Electronics Association and was Director and Co-Founder of the International Multimedia T eleconferencing Consortium. In recognition of his entrepreneurial spirit, Brian has received multiple awards including the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Brian holds a BSEE degree, summa cum laude, from the University of Maryland and created the Hinman CEOs Program at his undergraduate alma mater. He also holds an S.M.E.E. degree from M.I.T. and an honorary Sc.D. from R.I.T. 

Tabetha Hinman

As General Counsel, Chief Administrative Officer and Co-Founder at Mimosa, Tabetha touches all legal and human capital matters at the rapidly growing provider of cloud-managed, fiber-fast wireless solutions. Tabetha co-founded Mimosa in 2012 and believes strongly that Mimosa’s mission of expanding the reach of the internet is something that could ultimately benefit millions of people around the world, in both developed and developing countries.

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Prior to Mimosa, Tabetha served as a corporate and technology licensing attorney for various Silicon Valley companies, and held COO and General Counsel roles at 2Wire and PopSugar Inc. She also served as the Co-Chair of the MIT Public Service Center Leadership Council for over five years, where she advised on strategy and fundraising efforts.  

Tabetha started her career at Gunderson Dettmer where she worked on a wide spectrum of complex corporate transactions, focused on venture capital financings and start-up representation. She graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication from UC San Diego and a J.D. from UCLA. 

Zubin Irani ‘99

Zubin Irani is a Partner/ MD with TPG Capital and leads the Asia Operations Team based out of the Singapore office. He brings over 20 years' experience in building strong teams, driving performance and managing change within global businesses. Over the last 3.5 years at TPG, Zubin has been extensively involved in TPG’s investments in Vishal Megamart (India), Myanmar Distillery Company, Property Guru (SE Asia), WTT Telecommunications (HK), United Family Healthcare (China), Vietnam Australian School, Dodla Dairy (India), Novotech (Australia) and Nox Corporation (Korea). He has been actively involved in the management and board meetings across all these businesses. In his current role, Zubin is responsible for the operating performance of TPG’s portfolio in the Asia Pacific region which comprises of over 40 companies and an AUM exceeding USD 5B.

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Zubin joins TPG from United Technologies Corporation (UTC) where he most recently was the India Region President. While at UTC, Zubin was responsible for developing and executing strategies which resulted in an accelerated growth of UTC’s businesses in the region. These businesses included Carrier Air-conditioning and Refrigeration, Otis Elevators and UTC Fire & Security. Zubin joined UTC in 2005 as the Director for Strategy and Marketing at Carrier Asia Pacific. In this role he worked on growth strategies across various markets in Asia. Zubin started his career at McKinsey & Company, where he spent six years in the Cleveland, Detroit, Copenhagen and Mumbai offices, serving several multi-national clients in the automotive and industrial sector.

Zubin received his Masters in Materials Science and Engineering  from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his BTech in Materials and Metallurgical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.

Zubin currently serves on the executive committees (Excos) or boards of Property Guru, WTT, Pan Asia Towers/ Apollo Towers,  Fourth Partner Energy and NOX Corporation. He is a member of the YPO Delhi and Singapore Chapters.

Brian Miller

Mr. Brian P. Miller, CFA, is Chief Investment Officer at North Sound Management, Inc. Prior to founding the North Sound group of companies, he spent 21 years at Elliott Associates, a $22 Billion AUM hedge fund based in New York. When he retired from Elliott in July 2012 he was one of four equity partners and held the title of Chief Trading Officer.

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He was a member of Elliott’s Management Committee and also served on the Valuation Committee and Risk Committee. His responsibilities encompassed all of global trading, including structured products, commodities, fixed-income arbitrage and portfolio protection strategies. Prior to starting with Elliott in August 1991, he was a Vice President at Yamaichi International where he specialized in arbitrage strategies. He has a BS in Economics from the University at Albany.

Kimberly Ritrievi

Kimberly Ritrievi currently serves as Board Director at Tetra Tech and SWM International, as well as President of the Retrievi Group, LLC. As a public company board director and private investor, she has built a career around identifying investment value and leveraging a career with iconic firms, such as Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse First Boston, Lehman Brothers, and PaineWebber.

For thirty-plus years, Kimberly has brought a blend of financial analysis, business planning and strategy, and leadership development to her work. She advises pre-IPO to Fortune 500 boards and executive management teams on strategic global maneuvers. Specializations include capital-intensive companies with cyclical profitability in industries spanning chemicals, basic materials, manufacturing, industrials and energy, as well as people-intensive professional and financial services organizations.

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Kimberly is an Audit Committee Financial Expert (ACFE) and presently serves on the audit and chairs the strategic planning / enterprise risk committees for the Tetra Tech (NASDAQ: TTEK) board of directors, as well as the chairs the audit committee for SWM International (NYSE SWM). Additional board, trustee, and advisory appointments have included Princeton University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard University.

Before retiring from Goldman Sachs, Kimberly was regularly quoted by the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. She was also recognized by Institutional Investor for being “intense and forthright” and “truthful and fair”—named twelve times as part of the publication’s All-America Research Team, including three citations as the nation’s #1 Analyst in Specialty Chemicals.

She holds a Sc.D. in chemical engineering from MIT, an M.S. in management from MIT Sloan School of Management, a B.S.E. in chemical engineering, cum laude, from Princeton University, and a U.S. patent for the production of non-woven fibrous articles.

Chirag Shah, ‘03

President, Performance Trust Capital Partners

Chirag serves as CEO and President of Performance Trust. He started at the firm in 2008 trading Structured Products, and over the last 12 years has assumed several roles with increasing responsibility, including overseeing the Financial Institutions Group, Trading, Capital Markets and Investment Banking.

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Chirag was one of the firm's leaders who understood early on the need for Performance Trust to evolve alongside our clients in order to meet clients' changing needs and has been among the primary architects of that ongoing evolution. Prior to joining Performance Trust, Chirag's professional experience spanned both large and small companies across various industries. He spent four years with Banc of America Securities, LLC in New York, trading Structured Credit Products. He then moved to San Francisco to lead business intelligence at Kiva, a non-profit organization that provides financing to the working poor in 80 countries. Chirag graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics.

Emilie “Mimi” I. Slaughter ’87, SM ’88

Mimi has worked in areas covering a wide range of interests including Open Blue, a sustainable offshore ocean aquaculture farm in Panama, Mountain Roots, a local food company startup in Jackson Hole, Global Healthcare, a non-profit startup providing healthcare to remote areas in Nepal and Bali, and Teton Science Schools, an independent school connecting academics and learning through place-based education.

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In 2014, after investing in MotiveMetrics, Mimi joined the company full-time and moved to Palo Alto as Head of Product. MotiveMetrics is a startup SaaS product company that melds marketers' insight and creativity with the highly complex systems of digital marketing. Mimi is MIT class of ’88 SB,MS VI-1, and is a member of the MIT School of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Council, MIT Nuclear Science and Engineering Visiting Committee, and MIT Sandbox.

Frank Slaughter ’84

Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer of MotiveMetrics

Frank has over 25 years of success as an entrepreneur and investor in the technology industry. In 1985 Frank co-founded Shiva Corporation in Cambridge, MA. Shiva pioneered remote access networking, and partnered with Kleiner Perkins and Greylock to became a global computer networking equipment manufacturer that grew to sales of $150M and 500 employees, leading to a successful IPO in 1994.

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After leaving Shiva, Frank became an investor and board member for many successful startups including Arris Networks, Aptis, Altiga, eDial, and Teton Gravity Research. In 2014, after being a founding investor in MotiveMetrics, Frank joined the company full-time and moved to Palo Alto as CTO. MotiveMetrics is a startup SaaS product company that melds marketers' insight and creativity with the highly complex systems of digital marketing. Frank is MIT class of ’84 SB XVI, and is a founding board member of the MIT Sandbox.

Michael Ullmann 

(Retired) Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Executive Committee Member, Johnson & Johnson  

Michael Ullmann served as the Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Executive Committee Member of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) for 11 years from 2011 until his retirement in January 2023.  As General Counsel of the world’s largest Life Sciences company, he successfully guided JNJ through high-profile and high-risk situations, while helping to grow the business, increase shareholder value and maintain its reputation as one of the most admired companies in the world (currently #17 on Fortune’s Most Admired list).  During his tenure as EVP, market cap increased from $177 to $450 billion and sales grew to $94 billion. 

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Ullmann led a global organization of over 2,000 employees in 60 countries encompassing Legal, Government Relations & Policy, ESG Strategy, Intellectual Property, Corporate Governance and the Risk Management areas of Data Privacy, Compliance and Security.   

He has extensive experience in government affairs and public policy issues in Washington, D.C. focused on Congress and regulatory agencies (DOJ, FDA and SEC), as well as global experience in markets, including, China, the EU, Asia and Latin America.  In his Executive Committee role, he traveled to over 30 countries to meet with government officials, business partners and employees. 

In support of Innovation, Ullmann played a critical role in over 100 M&A transactions (totaling over $100 billion) encompassing a wide range from multi-billion-dollar public company acquisitions and divestitures to venture capital investments.   During the COVID pandemic, he was intimately involved in all aspects of JNJ’s COVID vaccine, including its decision to sell at non-profit pricing, clinical trial and regulatory approval processes and supply chain and regulatory challenges.   

Over his 11 years in role, Ullmann reported directly to three JNJ Chairman/CEO’s and worked closely with the JNJ Board of Directors, attending all Board meetings and providing strategic advice and driving successful results on Board matters, including ESG issues, investor activism, M&A, CEO transitions and geopolitical situations with significant financial and reputational risk.  

Ullmann is recognized for and has spoken frequently within J&J and externally on ethical and values-based leadership.  He is known as a leader and advocate of DEI in the recruitment, development and promotion of diverse talent within JNJ and in the legal industry.  He served as the global Executive Sponsor of the Hispanic/Latino resource group at JNJ and was an active member of the national Leadership Council on Legal Diversity 

In the non-profit world, Ullmann serves as a Director and Audit Committee Chairman of Americares, the global healthcare and relief organization with over $1.2 billion provided in program services annually.  He also served as a Board member and Chairman of the Human Resources/Comp Committee of, and continues to be involved with, the Princeton Area Community Foundation. 

Ullmann graduated from Columbia University Law School and received his undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, from Cornell University College of Arts & Sciences.

Jeremy M. Wertheimer, SM ’89, PhD ’96

Jeremy Wertheimer founded and served as the CEO of ITA Software, a 400-person software company based in Cambridge, MA, that powers the airfare searches on the websites of American Airlines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Orbitz, Kayak et al. Google acquired ITA Software in 2011.

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Jeremy is now VP Engineering at Google. He is a trustee of Cooper Union, Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council and Maimonides school.

He received a BE in Electrical Engineering from Cooper Union, an SM from MIT in Computer Science, and a PhD from MIT in Artificial Intelligence, with a minor in Neuroscience.

Tom Wylonis SM ‘68

Tom has had four careers and several avocations, so far, obtaining a rich learning experience as an angel investor/mentor, educator, top-management consultant and engineer/mathematician.

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Angel Investor/Mentor: Tom is an angel investor in 10 high-tech companies in Denmark and the USA. Among these companies, he is currently board chairman & mentor to the founders of Evaxion Biotech, a bioinformatics, vaccine company headquartered in Denmark. And he is a board member and coach to the founders of Vertic, a digital marketing company, with offices in Copenhagen, New York City, Seattle and Singapore. He was was also the founding chairman of Connect Denmark, a foundation that supports a majority of high-tech startups in Denmark.

Management Consultant: Tom has had extensive experience in high-tech business during his 22-year, international career as a top management consultant with McKinsey & Co. He led teams that improved the performance of large, international companies through strengthened strategy, organization and operations. These clients covered a wide range of industries including aerospace, automobiles, consumer products, energy, forest products, industrial products, media, medical & pharmaceutical products, etc. in Canada, Europe, India, the USA and Venezuela. He is a retired senior partner and an active member, still, of the McKinsey network of alumni.

Engineer/Mathematician: In 1967, Tom joined The Bell Telephone Laboratories as a Member of Technical Staff. During his eight years at Bell Labs, Tom worked on network optimization algorithms, development of Picturephone®, and economic evaluation of new products. It was here that he learned about the differences between high-tech invention, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Tom received a BSc in Electrical Engineering in 1967 from Penn State. He obtained a MSc from MIT in Electrical Engineering/Operations Research in 1968. Tom was advised during his thesis work by Professor Franco Modigliani, a Nobel Prize winner in economics. He earned his PhD in Operations Research in 1972 from the New York University.

Jon Xu ’01

Jon Xu co-founded and was the Chief Technology Officer of FutureAdvisor, an online service that makes quality investment management available to everyone. FutureAdvisor was acquired by BlackRock in 2015 where Jon continued to lead Product Design and Engineering as Managing Director in the Digital Wealth Group. 

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Prior to starting FutureAdvisor, Jon worked on mobile data synchronization protocols and Windows Mobile products at Microsoft. Jon is an active investor and advisor to startups and focuses his time giving back to the entrepreneurial community. Jon holds a degree in Computer Science from MIT.  

Helen Zhu

Helen Zhu oversees Nan Fung Trinity, the financial investments arm of  Nan Fung Group, as its Managing Director/CIO. Nan Fung Trinity manages  a multi billion dollar portfolio of public (equities and FICC direct  investments) and private (funds, direct) investments, across multiple  geographies and sectors. Helen is also a member of the Finance &  Investment Committee of Nan Fung Group.  

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Before joining Nan Fung Trinity in 2019, Helen was Head of China Equities  for Blackrock’s Fundamental Equities group. Her responsibilities include  managing various China equities investment portfolios, overseeing  research idea generation for China related investments for Asia/GEM  investment portfolios, and developing the China equities active investing  business platform in cooperation with other parts of the firm. In addition,  she helps to formulate China-related investment views and  communicates such views to external clients and the media, being a  frequent contributor to various print and TV media. Helen served on the  BlackRock Investment Council, the Emerging Markets Investment Council,  the firmwide Geopolitical Risk Committee, among others. Helen was also  a board member of the BlackRock onshore China WFOEs.  

Before joining BlackRock in 2014, Helen spent eight years at Goldman  Sachs in Hong Kong. In her most recent role as Chief China Strategist, she  focused on setting Goldman Sachs’ market views for China equities,  identifying key China investment themes, and presenting both macro and  sector views in a variety of mediums to the firm’s institutional clients.  Prior to this role, Helen was Goldman Sachs’ Business Unit leader for the  Asia Telecom/Internet sector research team and Head of Asia telecom  research. Helen joined Goldman Sachs from ABN AMRO, where she spent  five years and was sector head of the Asian telecom research team.  

Helen had previously also worked in private investing for a corporation  and in investment banking at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette in Hong Kong  and New York. She was educated at the Massachusetts Institute of  Technology.

Vanessa Almendro, Danaher

Vanessa is the Vice President of Science and Technology Innovation Ecosystems at Danaher Corporation, leading multiple initiatives to position Danaher at the forefront of innovation in science, technology, and medicine. Vanessa is also the Managing Director for the Brain Cancer Investment Fund, a philanthropic fund aiming at catalyzing the development of cures for brain cancer.

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Prior to Danaher, Vanessa was the Head of External Strategy and Innovation at the Eisai Center for Genetics Guided Dementia Discovery (G2D2). In this role, Vanessa led the creation of the Eisai Innovation Center Biolabs, the first incubator space specialized in neurology. She also led the development of academic affairs and external innovation strategies in concert with academic investigators, consortiums, biotech, and large pharmaceutical companies. Prior to this role, Vanessa worked as Head of Strategy and Operations for Cogen Immune Medicines, and she held multiple leadership roles at Vertex Pharmaceuticals both in the R&D and Commercial organizations. Prior to industry Vanessa was a Research fellow at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School and prior to that served as a Group Leader in the Department of Medical Oncology at IDIBAPS in Barcelona, Spain. Vanessa is a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from University of Barcelona, a Post-doc in Translational Medicine from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, and an Executive MBA from MIT-Sloan. 

Robert Bond, Lincoln Labs

Robert A. Bond is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. He is responsible for the development of the Laboratory's long-term technology strategy and the coordination of collaborative research with MIT campus.

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Prior to his appointment as CTO, Mr. Bond served as the Associate Head of the Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance and Tactical Systems Division. In his career, he has focused on the research and development of high-performance embedded signal and image processors and algorithms. He has led research initiatives in a wide range of ISR computing technologies spanning custom very-large-scale integration (VLSI) circuits, parallel processors, nonlinear signal processing, graph detection theory, and parallel processing middleware. Prior to coming to Lincoln Laboratory, he worked at CAE Ltd. on flight simulators and then at Sperry, where he developed naval command and control applications.

Mr. Bond joined Lincoln Laboratory in 1987. In his first assignment, he was responsible for the development of the software architecture and later the radar system integration of the Mountaintop radar, a follow-on to the Radar Surveillance Technology Experimental Radar (RSTER). In the early 1990s, he conducted seminal studies to evaluate the use of massively parallel processors (MPP) for real-time signal and image processing. Later, he led the development of a 1000-processor MPP for radar space-time adaptive processing and a custom VLSI processor for high-throughput radar signal processing. In 2001, he led a team in the development of the Parallel Vector Library, a novel middleware technology for portable and scalable high-performance parallel signal processors. In 2003, he was one of two researchers to receive the MIT Lincoln Laboratory Technical Excellence Award for his "technical vision and leadership in the application of high-performance embedded processing architectures to real-time digital signal processing systems."

Recently, Mr. Bond has been involved in research into complex systems, open systems architectures, cloud and grid computing, graph and network-based algorithms, and advanced computing technologies.

He earned a BS degree (honors) in physics from Queen's University, Ontario, Canada in 1978.

Aniq Kassam, Managing Director, GETTYLAB

GETTYLAB, via its FAST early-stage investment arm, backs engineers across the U.S./U.K./E.U. building awe, wonder, speed.

Jamie Goldstein ’89, Pillar VC

Jamie Goldstein is an experienced founder and investor in early stage companies. His interests are diverse and include data center infrastructure, wired and wireless communications technologies, and enterprise software. As an investor, Jamie believes that the best way to build successful companies is to be an active contributor from the beginning—at inception.

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Jamie has been an investing partner for 18 years at North Bridge Venture Partners headquartered in Waltham, MA and has been instrumental in the formation and successful growth of many companies. Active investments include, Actifio (copy data virtualization), Plexxi (simplified data networking), Layer3 TV (next-generation cable), QD Vision (quantum dot display materials), and O3b Networks (international satellite company providing internet and mobile capability to billions of people in more than 180 countries). Jamie is also an active individual investor. His most recent notable investments include DipJar and Desktop Metal.

As part of his professional entrepreneurial success story, Jamie co-founded PureSpeech, a venture-backed speech recognition software and applications company targeting service providers and enterprise call centers. Jamie served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing, driving revenue through OEM relationships with leading PC manufacturers and voice services platform providers. PureSpeech was acquired by Voice Control Systems [NASDAQ: VCSI] and subsequently sold to Nuance [NASDAQ: NUAN]. During business school, he co-founded WattsUp?, a company selling consumer electricity meters that remains in business today.

Jamie grew up in the Boston area and is a graduate of MIT in Electrical Engineering and the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. He served as both Chairman and President of the New England Venture Capital Association (NEVCA) and served as Chairman and is currently Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Match Education, a leading charter school and innovative education reform organization. Jamie is also actively involved in the MIT Deshpande Center for Innovation and he serves as a member of the Verizon 5G forum. He is the co-founder and featured speaker of StartMIT, the boot camp for MIT student entrepreneurs.

Jamie is an avid skier, snow boarder, and mountain biker and spends his weekends chasing his three boys around various athletic fields.

Rick Grinnell, Glasswing Ventures

Rick Grinnell is Founder and Managing Partner of Glasswing Ventures, focusing on investments in AI-enabled security and enterprise infrastructure. Rick has led investments and serves on the Board of Directors of Allure Security, Lambent Spaces (formerly Armored Things), Black Kite, and Terbium Labs (acquired by Deloitte).

Ross Leav, Presidio Ventures (Sumitomo)

Ross Leav is Vice President at Presidio-Ventures, Inc. the Silicon Valley/Boston based corporate VC arm of the Sumitomo Corporation of Japan.  As a strategic investor, Ross aims to identify unique startups with whom collaboration in any of the many global and diversified business fields of the parent company might offer win/win advantages for both.  With nearly 20 years’ experience at Presidio, Ross’ specific investment interests include IT, media and robotics, especially targeting startups whose ideas can contribute to the digital transformation strategy of Sumitomo. 

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Ross graduated Tufts University with honors and a BA in International Relations/Economics and concentration on Japanese.    After graduation, Ross moved to Wakayama Japan for two years, to serve as a Coordinator for International Relations under the Japanese National Ministry of Education (Monbusho).  Upon returning to the States, Ross joined the Center for Business Intelligence, a global research firm serving the international power generation and distribution industry.  In 1997 Ross entered the Sumitomo group, as head of the Boston office of Sumitronics, Inc., a Sumitomo subsidiary at the time, in charge of discovering and developing strategic business opportunities with US high-tech startups.  One year later, Sumitomo’s CVC was established and merged with Sumitronics to create what is known today as Presidio-Ventures, Inc.   Ross has a passion for discovering new technology to solve real world problems and for fostering understanding among people of differing cultures and views.  In his spare time, Ross enjoys practicing karate, skiing, disc golf and following current affairs.

Lily Lyman, Partner, Underscore VC

Lily has a background as a founder, investor, and operator in mobile technology. She came to Underscore VC from Facebook, where she worked in product strategy focused on the international growth of core products including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. Prior to Facebook, Lily held a variety of strategy, operational, and entrepreneurial roles. A founder herself, Lily co-founded an Agtech & CPG startup while at Stanford. Lily drives our investments in the areas of Future of Work, Digital Transformation, particularly Vertical SaaS, Customer Experience, and Commerce. She loves building off her experience at Facebook to dig in alongside founders on go-to-market strategy, product positioning, and how to drive growth. Lily earned her undergraduate degree from Harvard University and her MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. She also holds a Certificate in Entrepreneurship from Columbia Business School and a Certificate in Public Management from Stanford GSB.

Joaquin Morixe, Globant

Joaquin previously served as Managing Director at Endeavor Uruguay, and CESPE Committee member at ANII (Uruguay). Other accomplishments include serving as Advisory Board member of Infocorp (acquired by Constellation Software), Search and Acceleration Manager at Endeavor Uruguay, Liaison Analyst and Functional Analyst at Tenaris, Financial Advisor at Royal Bank of Canada and Financial Planner at La Tahona Emprendimientos, a major real estate promoter in Uruguay. He also worked as a General Manager in La Tahona Golf Club.

Amir Nashat SCD '03, Polaris

Amir Nashat is a Managing Partner in the Polaris Partners, LLC Boston office. He joined Polaris in 2002 and focuses on investments in healthcare.

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Amir also serves on the Partners Innovation Fund, the Investment Advisory Committee for The Engine at MIT, and helped launch the MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund, where he serves as its active president.

He previously served on the Board of the New England Venture Capital Association. He has been named to the Forbes Midas List of “Top 100 Venture Capitalists.”

Prior to joining Polaris, Amir completed his PhD as a Hertz Fellow in Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a minor in Biology under the guidance of Dr. Robert Langer. Amir also earned both his MS and BS in Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.

Daniel Raskas, Danaher

Mr. Raskas is the Senior Vice President, Corporate Development for Danaher Corporation and has been with Danaher since 2004. He manages a corporate team of M&A professionals.

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His team is responsible for all aspects of M&A and investment activity, including identification, valuation, due diligence, contract strategy and negotiations.

Prior to coming to Danaher, Mr. Raskas was a partner at Thayer Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in Washington DC focused on buyout and growth equity investments in the middle market. Preceding his time at Thayer Capital Partners, Mr. Raskas was an M&A attorney at Arnold and Porter.

Mr. Raskas has a JD from Harvard Law School and a Masters of International Affairs from Columbia University.

Thorsten Thormann, LEO Pharma

Thorsten Thormann is Vice President of Research & Early Development in LEO Pharma, a function that builds and maintains a strong R&D project pipeline. Thorsten has a PhD in protein biology and holds over 20 years’ experience within biomedicine spanning discovery and early clinical development of both small molecules and biotherapeutics. Thorsten’s key expertise sits in immune disorders and inflammatory diseases, especially skin diseases and dermatology. Thorsten and his and his team have over the past years brought several molecules from research and into clinical testing. This has resulted in two marketed products and several programs currently in clinical development.

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Prior to being Vice President of Research & Early Development, Thorsten has held several leadership positions within LEO Pharma including early business development, patents, early formulation/CMC as well as the rare skin diseases franchise.

Mostafa Terrab MS ’82, PhD ’90, OCP Group

Mostafa Terrab serves as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of S.A OCP and served as its President. Mr. Terrab serves as the President and Director General/General Manager of OCP Group. He served as the Chief Executive Officer of Prayon S.A. Mr. Terrab held positions with Bechtel Civil and Minerals Inc. from 1983 to 1985 in San Fransisco, California, as an Analyst in transportation systems, responsible for planning studies concerning the project to build the Damman international airport (Saudi Arabia) and as a Member of the team in charge of economic studies connected with the fixed link project across the Strait of Gibraltar.

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From September 1989 to July 1993, he was a Consultant of Draper Laboratory, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1992, Mr. Terrab served Chargé de Mission in the Royal Cabinet. In 1995, he was Secretary General of the Executive Secretariat of the Middle East/North Africa Economic Summit. Since February 9, 1998, he served as Director General of National Telecommunication Regulatory Agency (ANRT), before leading World Bank’s Information for Development (infoDev) program and served as Lead Regulatory Specialist from April 2002 to February 2006. He serves as a Director of Banque Centrale Populaire SA.

He serves as a Director of Institut français des relations internationales. He served as a Director of Prayon S.A. From September 1986 to August 1989, he was an Assistant Professor in MIT and at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, in the Department of Decision Sciences and Engineering Systems and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering from 1990 to 1992.

From April 1996 to July 1999, he was a Member of ‘Think Tank’ set up by the late king H.M. Hassan II. In 1988, Mr. Terrab received the Frederick C. Hennie III Award for his outstanding contribution to the teaching programme of the MIT Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.

Mr. Terrab received an M.S. in 1982 and a Ph.D. in Operations Research in 1990 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA. He received an Engineering Diploma from the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, Paris, France in 1979.