Global New Venture Challenge (GNVC)

Susan is a business and community leader who is passionate about guiding companies and not-for-profits to transformative growth and innovation. She serves as Managing Director of Golden Seeds, a venture and angel investing firm, and as Board Director at Chicago Public Media. Previously, as CEO of Illinois Holocaust Museum, Susan led the Museum’s application of cutting-edge technology in interactive Survivor holograms, featured on CBS’s 60 Minutes, and in VR products, which enabled global scaling and transformed IHMEC from regional player to international leader. She also led the 700% growth in customers and financial turnaround, that enabled paying off all debt 30 years early and more than doubling net assets and other metrics. Previously, Susan served as COO of JCC Chicago, President of JCA Properties, Consultant at McKinsey & Company, and Analyst at Goldman Sachs. She is the author of The New Success Rules for Women: 10 Surefire Strategies for Reaching Your Career Goals (Random House), and speaks regularly on leadership, women’s business success, and leveraging technology. Susan has served on the boards of Illinois Finance Authority, IHMEC, Chicago Children’s Museum, and Leadership Illinois. She earned her MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, and a BSE and BA from the University of Pennsylvania.

Troy Henikoff is Managing Director of MATH Venture Partners. Additionally, Troy is an active mentor with Techstars.

Troy was a Co-founder of Excelerate Labs in 2010, which became Techstars Chicago in 2013. He also helps manage the FireStarter Fund, teaches Entrepreneurship at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business and is on the board of the Chicago-land Entrepreneurial Center.

Prior to Techstars Chicago, Troy was the CEO of OneWed.com, the President of Amacai, and co-founder and CEO of SurePayroll.com. Troy built the technology for Jellyvision (creators of “You Don’t Know Jack!”) and was the President of Systemetrics. His first company was Specialized Systems and Software. Troy has an undergraduate degree in Engineering from Brown University and a Masters Degree in Project Management from Northwestern.

Victoria Leon is an investor with entrepreneurship and operator experience. Named 2007 Global Young Social Entrepreneur and built and operated companies in several industries including coding bootcamp Codesmith and co-founding adtech company Prizeout. She interned with HPVP during her MBA program.

She holds a MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BS in Chemical Engineering with a concentration in Biomolecular Engineering from UCLA.

Dipa is a cofounder and managing partner at Valeo Ventures. Valeo is the exclusive investment manager for Cobalt Ventures, the strategic venture capital arm of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City. She sits on the boards of Bicycle Health, Handspring Health, MedArrive, OncoHealth, and Spectrum.AI. Valeo is building a new venture capital fund partnering with hospital systems and health plans to create bespoke corporate venturing vehicles.

Dipa formerly led Corporate Development and Ventures group at Advocate Health Enterprises (AAE), an Advocate Health subsidiary that aims further the AH mission to help people live well by advancing innovative solutions that go beyond traditional clinical care. She led investments into Foodsmart, Xealth, and acquisitions into companies helping seniors to age in their home for longer. Dipa was also previously a managing director at Sandbox Industries, a venture capital firm which is the investment manager to the Blue Venture Fund. During her time at Sandbox, Dipa served on the boards of Contessa Health, Upward Health, Oncology Analytics, AbleTo, and Lumiata. Prior to Sandbox, Dipa was at Amgen Ventures, the corporate venture fund of Amgen. Dipa started her career in the Global Healthcare Group at UBS and the Healthcare Fund at Paul Capital Partners, which invested in late-stage pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Dipa holds a BS from the New York University Stern School of Business and an MBA from Chicago Booth where she received the Chicago Booth Leadership Award of Distinction. She has also completed the Kauffman Fellowship, a prestigious two-year program for venture capitalists. Dipa is currently an investor in residence with the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship at Booth where she advises students and teaches workshops.

Dipa lives in Chicago with her husband and twin boys.

Sonia worked for Amazon 15+ years ago as part of the team that launched the clothing category. She then co-founded a venture-backed mobile shopping startup that was acquired by RetailMeNot, at the time the largest digital coupon marketplace in the U.S.. She led the mobile team at RetailMeNot for 2 years before joining Pritzker Group Venture Capital where she was a General Partner. At PGVC her marketplace investments included Backlot Cars, Cameo, Coinbase, ShopThing, Machinery Partner, Maisonette, Yay Lunch, Batch and FuelMe. Sonia started her career as an engineer at General Motors in their advanced engineering group.

Kathleen focuses her practice on venture capital, private equity, and institutional private placements. She represents clients within the health care, retail, technology, insurance, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, and utilities operations industries. Kathleen represents venture capitalists, angel investors, angel groups, institutional investors, startups, emerging growth companies, corporate venture funds, investment bankers, and equity sponsors in equity and debt transactions.