CNVC Finals Livestream

David Appel serves as chairman and CEO of Wag Hotels, the West Coast’s leading pet care company. Prior to Wag Hotels, David served as chairman of Orange Glo International (the creator of Oxi Clean and 3 other category-leading household cleaning products). Prior to OGI, he helped to develop Accenture’s retail practice, serving as a partner in the San Francisco, Paris and Tokyo offices. David has been a director of Petco Animal Supplies and Chicago-based Fitness Cubed, marketer of Cubii fitness products. David is an active philanthropist and a mentor/investor in early-stage consumer-focused companies.

Sid Bala leads KOIOS, a place where technology leaders gather to become better leaders and generate better business outcomes.

It is his second company. He started his first, Alligatortek, in a spare bedroom in his parents’ home and grew it into one of the Top 25 Microsoft Partners worldwide.

Under his leadership, Alligatortek earned national recognition, including Microsoft’s Citizenship Partner of the Year, two Chicago Innovation Awards, and five consecutive “101 Best & Brightest Companies to Work For” honors.

In 2020, HealthChampion Partners acquired his company. Following the acquisition, Sid served as President of Calcium. On this digital-health platform, he led the organization’s growth to approximately $75 million in revenue and strengthened its data-driven care model.

Sid serves on the boards of several private companies and organizations across sectors, including Silver Cross Hospital, M. Harris & Co., DACRA Tech, Relivable, and Lightspeed.

In addition, he contributes to Chicago’s civic and innovation ecosystem as a board member of Chicago Innovation and the Lincoln Presidential Foundation, and as an active member of the Economic Club of Chicago, the Commercial Club of Chicago, the Chicago Club, and the Executives’ Club of Chicago.

He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago and graduate degrees from MIT and the State University of New York. He and his wife live in Chicago.

Larry Berlin, AB ’89, MBA ’94, is a founder of Blue Point Advisory Services, a financial strategy consulting firm for younger businesses. He is also an angel investor in about 10 businesses. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Booth School of Business. He is in his 10th year as a coach for the New Venture Challenge at Booth. Previously, he was CFO at Freedom Fries, a search engine and news aggregator. He was a senior vice president and general partner at First Analysis until April 2019, where he led venture investment efforts and provided research coverage of leading private and publicly-traded companies in the financial technology and digital marketing sectors. He serves on or has served on multiple boards including Movero, Freeosk, RiseKit and Incapital where he served on the compensation and audit committees. His work was cited for excellence in the StarMine analyst awards. Prior to joining First Analysis in 1999, he was acting CFO at Doculabs, a Chicago-based information technology consulting firm. Earlier, he was a consultant for Ganymede Corp., an associate in corporate finance at UBS, and a member of the Chicago Board Options Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade. He earned a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Outside of work he curls, bikes, kayaks, and is a photographer. He serves on multiple non-profit boards and committees.

John “JG” Chirapurath is President of DataPelago, a data processing acceleration company. He also serves on the Advisory Council for the University of Chicago Booth School’s Center for Applied AI. Prior to DataPelago, JG was Executive Vice President at SAP responsible for Data Analytics, AI and other product initiatives, and before that served as SAP’s Chief Marketing & Solutions Officer. JG held senior roles across Fortune 50 companies: Vice President at Microsoft responsible for Azure’s worldwide commercial strategy, marketing and GTM, Chief Strategy & Product Officer at ProQuest, and Vice President & General Manager at Hewlett Packard. He also co-founded Sarvega leading it to acquisition by Intel; and now a case study at Harvard Business School. He holds a Masters in Computer Science from the University of Maryland and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Arnav is the founder of Tovie and former CEO and co-founder of Cubii, a startup that is passionate about making wellness approaching for all ages, abilities, and lifestyles. Named as one of Crain’s Chicago Business 40 Under Forty Class of 2020, and EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2020, he is a successful entrepreneur who has taken the time to listen to customers, using their direct feedback and personal stories to continue improving the products and experience for users of all fitness levels.  

Cubii was included in Inc. 500’s Fastest Growing Companies of 2020 for the second year in a row with a team that has now doubled in size and continues to grow. Even with expanding numbers, in sales and employees, Arnav and the leadership team have held close the importance of being a company that feels like a close-knit community. They strive to maintain a safe environment where people can be vulnerable, be heard and listened to, and can collaborate as a true member of a team.   

Arnav lives in Chicago with his wife, Shivani, who is also a co-founder of Cubii. 

Jennifer is the CEO and co-founder of Flow Medical, developer of a novel thrombolysis catheter to treat pulmonary embolism. Previously, Jennifer was the GM of Explorer Surgical, a GHX Company, after leading the company as CEO and Co-Founder from inception to exit. Both companies were founded with leading physicians at The University of Chicago Medical Center. Within the university, Jennifer also serves on the faculty at Booth as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship.

Jennifer’s passion is building innovative businesses in the healthcare industry, especially those that use technology to solve inefficiencies and improve patient care. She started her career as a consultant at Bain & Company in Chicago and prior to Explorer Surgical, Jennifer pursued a career as a healthcare venture capitalist. She currently invests part-time for two venture funds and is an active angel investor, LP and advisor to early-stage healthcare companies.

Jennifer holds bachelor’s degrees in applied mathematics and economics from Northwestern University and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She lives in Highland Park with her husband Eric, son Gabriel and daughter Zoe.

Robert Gertner is the Frank P. and Marianne R. Diassi Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Strategy at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business where he is also the John Edwardson Faculty Director of the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation. Gertner has been on the Chicago Booth faculty since 1986. He was a Deputy Dean at Chicago Booth from 2012 to 2017. His research interests include social innovation, strategic decision-making, organization economics, and social enterprises. He has published papers in numerous scholarly journals and is a co-author of the book Game Theory and the Law. Gertner teaches a course entitled Perspectives on Capitalism as well as several social entrepreneurship courses, including the one that supports the John Edwardson Social New Venture, UChicago’s accelerator for student-led social ventures. He is the Chair of NORC at the University of Chicago’s Board of Trustees, a member of the Faculty Advisory Board for the University of Chicago Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression, and is a life trustee of Interfaith America.

Louis Goldman is the General Counsel of Bloq, Inc., a leading blockchain technology company. He is also the managing partner of Navigator Law Group, a boutique law firm focused on corporate projects including M&A, securities, and significant work with startups, blockchain technology and venture capital/angel investing groups. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in economics and then earned a law degree from the University of Chicago Law School (Order of the Coif and cum laude). In New York City, Goldman worked for Cleary Gottlieb and also established a merchant bank, Abacus & Associates LP, where he was a managing director. In Chicago, he was the cochairman of Altheimer & Gray where he opened 10 offices outside of the US and managed a team of 450 people. He also was on the management and investment committees of 4 private investment funds of A&G Investors. He was a cofounder of JustWrite EMR, an electronic medical records startup.

Andy Hirschberg has spent the past forty years advising clients on mergers, acquisitions and licensing transactions in the specialty pharma and consumer products sectors. During that time he has completed over 150 transactions in multiple specialties (dermatology, gastroenterology, pediatrics, nephrology, OTC Healthcare) with an aggregate value exceeding $5 billion. He has also been an investor in, and advisor to, numerous start up and early stage companies. Andy graduated from Colgate University in 1982, has a Masters in Accounting from NYU Stern and an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Neelima is an investor, advisor, and community leader who currently operates her family’s office, Supercott Holdings.  A cross section of investments includes the Minnesota Timberwolves (NBA), Minnesota Lynx (WNBA), Denver Summit (NWSL), and the Snow League.  Neelima has also dedicated her time and expertise to high-impact boards and philanthropy though her family foundation, and serves on the Boards of Directors of the Food Bank of the Rockies and the Biennial of the Americas.  Neelima earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and lives with her family in Denver, Colorado. 

Rishi Khosla is an entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist, best known as the co-founder and CEO of OakNorth, the digital bank focused on serving and empowering proven entrepreneur-led businesses in the lower-mid market, who are too often overlooked by traditional banks.

To date, OakNorth has lent over $21bn to businesses across the UK and US, directly supporting the creation of 61,000 new jobs and more than 38,000 new homes.

He previously co-founded Copal Partners, scaling it to 3,000 employees before its acquisition by Moody’s in 2014, returning over 200x for seed investors.

Rishi champions entrepreneurship as a force for innovation and economic growth, supporting initiatives like Founders4Schools and the LSE ‘Mentorpreneurship’ programme.

Through The Rishi and Milan Khosla Foundation, he advances early childhood development, rare disease research, and female empowerment.

He is also an early-stage investor in a number of companies including PayPal, About Energy, Spiracheck, and Xometry.

Allison Lechnir is a Partner at Hyde Park Venture Partners, investing in early stage companies building in the midwest and Toronto ecosystem since 2019. Prior to that, she ran business operations at Civis Analytics, and was a founder in the police analytics space. She started her career as a consultant in the health insurance space. She has an MBA/MPP from the University of Chicago.

As Sphera’s founding CEO and president, Paul Marushka is responsible for providing overall strategic leadership for the company in developing, directing and implementing go-to-market, service, product and operational plans.

Paul has grown businesses by bringing innovative solutions to market, leveraging software, analytics and technology services. Prior to joining Sphera, Paul served as president of Marsh ClearSight, a business unit of Marsh & McLennan, which is a leading provider of software, services and analytics for enterprise risk management, safety and compliance management and claims administration. Paul also has held executive positions at software and data companies such as Fair Isaac Corp. (FICO) and CCC Information Services.

During his career, Paul has developed and launched a variety of software and analytics products recognized by the Gartner Group for their impact on the industry. He has authored numerous articles in publications, including the United Nations Global Yearbook, on the use of analytics and technology in decision-making. He has spoken in a variety of forums including the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, the Gartner Technology Summit, the Environmental Leader Conference and the Risk and Insurance Management Society.

At the Environmental Leader & Energy Manager Conference (ELEMCON), Paul was recognized as an environmental leader for breaking new ground in creating solutions, programs, platforms and products to help companies achieve greater success in environmental management. He was also awarded an EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2021 Midwest Award for his dedication and leadership.

Paul has an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and an A.B. from the College at the University of Chicago. He also has a J.D. from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.

Paul is a board member of the Hyde Park Institute at the University of Chicago, which sponsors research and programs that advance the study and teaching of moral philosophical thinking with a focus on integrating intellectual, professional and moral development. In his free time, Paul enjoys traveling with his family and especially finding locations at which to race ATVs.

Carl Meyer is the chief executive officer and chief investment officer of Silver Rock Financial LP (“Silver Rock”), an investment management firm with offices in Los Angeles and New York.  Mr. Meyer founded Silver Rock in 2016, focusing on opportunistic investments within credit markets, including performing bonds and loans, and distressed debt. Prior to launching Silver Rock to raise outside capital, Mr. Meyer served as chief investment officer of Silver Rock’s predecessor firm, an ultra-high net worth family office based in Los Angeles, from 2010 to 2016.  Previously, Mr. Meyer worked for approximately 18 years at Citigroup or its predecessors where he ran the High Yield Syndicate business, the public side of the US High Yield business, and the Global Distressed Debt and Equity businesses.  Mr. Meyer earned a BA and MBA from the University of Chicago.

Doug Monieson, MBA ’89, is a veteran entrepreneur and Midwest investor. He is currently CEO and Chairman of the Board of UICO, a 2007 Booth founded company that manufactures rugged industrial touchscreens. He is chairman emeritus of Hyde Park Angels (HPA), the largest and most active angel group in the Midwest. Doug is also founder and head trader at Doug Monieson Trading, LLC. and on the Board of Directors of Fishidy, a mobile/social fishing app that was recently acquired by Ray Marine, a division of Flir Inc. He is also on the advisory board for the Kaplan Institute for Entrepreneurship at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He led the successful exit of Gradebeam, which was purchased by Textura (TXTR) in 2011.  Gradebeam.com was a SAAS business that connects general contractors and subcontractors in the construction industry. Doug has a bachelor’s degree in economics at the University of Michigan and an MBA in finance from Chicago Booth.

Jeb Ory, MBA ’11, is a startup founder, advisor, and investor. Jeb is currently the CEO and cofounder of a stealth AI startup. Previously, he cofounded Capitol Canary and led the company from startup, through multiple funding rounds, a private equity recap, two acquisitions, and ultimately to exit.

David Rabie is the Co-Founder and CEO of Tovala, a smart oven and chef-prepared meal service. Prior to Tovala, David spent time at Google, Foundation Capital and Abernathy MacGregor. He also worked for the Co-Founder of the Veggie Grill and ran a frozen yogurt company. David earned his MBA at Chicago Booth and graduated with high honors from the University of California at Santa Barbara with a B.A. in History. He speaks four languages, lived in China, London and Madrid, and has been passionate about clean eating since attending a health retreat at age 18. He currently lives in Chicago with his wife, Jessica, and daughters, Elizabeth, Penelope and Violet

Ellen Rudnick, MBA ’73, is a successful startup executive, having served as chairman of Pacific Biometrics and CEO of Health Care Knowledge Resources. She has held positions as corporate vice president at Baxter Healthcare and president of Baxter Management Services Division, which she founded. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Old National Bank (NASDAQ: ONB). She previously served as a director of Liberty Mutual Insurance, Patterson Companies (NASDAQ:PDCO), HMS (NASDAQ: HMSY) and Oxford Health. She serves on the MATTER board of directors and on the 1871 Advisory Board. She was formerly the inaugural executive director of the Polsky Center and a Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship.

RoseMary Safranek founded Ninepeaks Capital Management in 2002. The firm is a specialized investment advisor.  She chairs the investment committee for an international family office and works closely with an Asian-based family office. RoseMary has lived and worked in New York, Hong Kong, London, Tokyo, and Chicago since setting out from Fort Smith, Arkansas to attend the University of Chicago in the 1970s.  A four-year varsity tennis player and Illinois Small College Doubles Champion, RoseMary earned an AB in economics and an MBA in finance from the Chicago Booth.

David Segura is an accomplished entrepreneur and investor with experience in a wide variety of industry verticals including media, fintech, and consumer categories among others. David has developed a reputation for being a “founder friendly investor” who adds value to company operations. A cross selection of current investments include Liquid Death, Hawthorne, UsageAI, and many more. David has also previously founded Giant Media, where he served as the CEO from launch through acquisition. The company was an early video advertising exchange that included Toyota, American Express, L’Oreal, and Dollar Shave Club among others. Launched in 2009, Giant Media was successfully acquired in 2014 by Adknowledge, an AdTech platform funded by TPG Growth, JMI, and Nokia. David is currently the CEO of Glassbox Media, a podcast company and also serves as the Managing Partner of Dog Whisperer Productions, the owners of the iconic TV show “Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan”. He is a proud graduate of the University of Chicago.

After many years of judging and mentoring Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge (NVC), Tebbe brings a wealth of successful entrepreneurial experience into the classroom by leveraging his founding of two NASDAQ-listed corporations as well as direct involvement in numerous startup and high-growth companies over the past thirty-five years. For over ten years, as both an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship and an entrepreneur-in-residence at the Polsky Center, Tebbe aids students in their entrepreneurial efforts and helps other professors enhance their classes. Outside of the classroom, Tebbe serves as chairman of World Business Chicago’s Innovation and Venture Strategy Council, a dedicated public-private effort to improve Chicago’s economic development as well as national and world competitiveness in science, technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship.