Meet the Team

Samir is an accomplished leader with a track record of driving innovation and impact across the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. Most recently, he was deputy mayor for the city of Chicago, where he focused on economic and neighborhood development. He was a driving force behind initiatives such as INVEST South/West, the city’s signature community development initiative that marshaled resources from across city departments, community organizations, and corporate and philanthropic partners to support commercial corridors across several South and West Side neighborhoods. Before that, he served in the U.S. government during the Obama Administration, where he was part of the White House’s national security team and on the executive staff at the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.

Samir also co-founded and served as CEO of NanoGraf Corporation, a global manufacturer of advanced materials for the lithium-ion battery industry that has raised over $100 million in funding and was spun out of Argonne National Laboratory and Northwestern University. He holds a B.A. and M.B.A. from Northwestern, where he served as a trustee, and he is active in the Chicago civic community, serving on the boards of the Metropolitan Pier and Exhibition Authority, Lyric Opera, and other organizations. He is also a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and is an alumnus of the Marshall Memorial Fellowship and the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans.

As head of the Polsky Center, Samir plays a pivotal role in advancing the University’s innovation, technology commercialization, entrepreneurship, and partnership priorities. He fosters connections across the University, our city, region, and world that enable the Polsky Center to accelerate the commercialization of critical technologies to help solve some of society’s most urgent challenges. He also elevates efforts to help drive economic development on the South Side and strengthen partnerships that bolster the university’s and Chicago’s upward trajectory as hubs of world-class innovation.

Nicole Bell serves as Chief of Staff at the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. In this role, she leads strategic initiatives and operations, including HR, finance, corporate partnerships, and the UChicago Science Incubator.

Nicole brings 15 years of experience in strategy and operations most recently as the First Deputy for Economic and Neighborhood Development for the City of Chicago, where she drove equitable economic recovery through large-scale initiatives such as the Chicago Recovery Plan’s $1.2 billion in new investments. Prior to her work with the City, Nicole was a Project Leader at the Boston Consulting Group, where she worked with a diverse set of clients including universities on strategy, innovation, and operations.

A lifelong science enthusiast, Nicole has also taught high school chemistry and coached robotics at a DC Public School, and she supported the success of small businesses and job seekers at the NYC Department of Small Business Services. Nicole holds a BA with honors and an MBA with high honors from the University of Chicago and is a Leadership Greater Chicago fellow.

Abigail Ingram is executive director of the Polsky Exchange, a 34,000-square-foot incubator space that leads the Polsky Center’s engagement with the South Side community through programs and initiatives that support local business owners and entrepreneurs. Abigail is passionate about the role of entrepreneurship as a pathway to opportunity and the importance of measuring impact.

Prior to joining the Polsky Center, Abigail launched the Women in Entrepreneurship Institute (WEI) at DePaul University’s Driehaus College of Business, and served as its inaugural director for three years. While at WEI, the nation’s first comprehensive institute for women founders, Abigail designed and proved a model that measurably increases economic empowerment for entrepreneurs. An entrepreneur herself, Abigail also taught courses at Driehaus in Entrepreneurship Law, Entrepreneurship Strategy, and Women Entrepreneurs.

She launched her first venture, a music studio in Denver, Colorado, in 2009, and spent four years exploring sustainable business models for creative entrepreneurs. Abigail is a practicing attorney who founded and runs a boutique law firm that provides legal counsel to entrepreneurs.

Abigail  earned her J.D. and an M.A. in English from DePaul University. She went to undergrad at Eastern Illinois University, where she also studied English.

Steven Gould, MD, serves as the Consulting Director for Polsky Technology Ventures and is responsible for leading the formation and launch of new science-based ventures from University of Chicago faculty research. In this role, he advises faculty founders, engages the investor community, and works closely with leadership.

Steve is the Founder and Principal of The Gould Consulting Group, which provides advisory services to companies, universities and venture investors seeking to develop and capitalize on healthcare innovations in biotechnology and life sciences, devices, diagnostics, and healthcare IT. He is deeply engaged in the Chicago healthcare and entrepreneurial ecosystem. He is a founding member of the Board of Directors for MATTER; chair of the Advisory Board for Point B, a mentoring program formerly called Chicago Innovation Mentors (CIM); and a member of the Bioscience committee of WBC’s ChicagoNEXT. He has also previously served as a judge in the New Venture Challenge and has been an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Polsky Center.

He has in-depth experience raising capital for and investing in early stage companies in both clinical and scientific research in an academic environment, and as an executive for a publicly traded biotechnology company. As the scientific founder and former CEO of Northfield Laboratories, he led the company’s IPO and raised nearly $300 million in both public and private financings. Prior to Northfield, Steve was Chief of Surgery at Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center and a professor of surgery at the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Steve received his BA from Williams College and his MD degree from Boston University School of Medicine. He completed his residency training in surgery at Yale and the University of Vermont, and a research fellowship at Michael Reese and the University of Chicago.

Steven Neil Kaplan is the Neubauer Family Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Kessenich E.P. Faculty Director of the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Steve cofounded the Polsky Center and the entrepreneurship program at Chicago Booth. He also started the New Venture Challenge (NVC), which is recognized as one of the top accelerator programs in the nation.

He teaches advanced MBA and executive courses in entrepreneurial finance and private equity, corporate finance, corporate governance, and wealth management. BusinessWeek named him one of the top 12 business school teachers in the country. Steve conducts research on issues in private equity, venture capital, entrepreneurial finance, corporate governance and corporate finance. He has published papers in a number of academic and business journals. Kaplan is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and an associate editor of the Journal of Financial Economics.

He is the co-creator of the Kaplan-Schoar PME (Public Market Equivalent) private equity benchmarking approach. A Fortune Magazine article referred to him as “probably the foremost private equity scholar in the galaxy.”

Full Bio

Erika Mercer serves as the executive director of Booth Entrepreneurship at the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. In this role, she oversees all entrepreneurship programming within Chicago Booth, leading a team of staff in developing co-curricular programs and experiential learning opportunities for MBA students, alumni, and other related constituents. This includes managing the startup, private equity, venture capital, entrepreneurship through acquisition, and small business programs that serve the professional interests of students and alumni. She has been with the Polsky Center since 2010 and, over that time, has led the development and growth of numerous Polsky Center offerings.

Erika brings close to 20 years of experience in higher education, having previously held roles in the international programming offices at the University of Chicago, Harvard University, and Brown University, where she managed, developed, and promoted study abroad programs worldwide, acted as the primary contact for students, faculty, and staff on site, and provided international training and advising to undergraduates. She served as a member of several international education organizations, including The Forum on Education Abroad and NAFSA: Association of International Educators; was published in Abroad View Magazine and the Bulletin of the American Research Center in Egypt; and presented at national conferences on the topic of cultural and citizen diplomacy. She also interned in the Academic Editorial Department at Oxford University Press, where she assisted editors with the review and preparation of manuscripts for production.

Erika earned a BA, magna cum laude, from Middlebury College and an EdM from Harvard University. She has studied in Spain, Germany, and Egypt.

Abigail Prescott serves as the Executive Director of Marketing & Communications for the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. In this role, she leads the Polsky Center’s internal and external messaging strategies to amplify the brand of the center and advance awareness of the broad suite of entrepreneurship programs available to students, alumni, faculty, and research partners, as well as the University of Chicago’s technology commercialization efforts and bolstering community engagement at through the Polsky Exchange.

Abigail holds over a decade of experience in external communications strategies and implementation. She brings experience in creative storytelling, targeted messaging, and brand identity to this role. Most recently, she held the position of Chief Communications Officer at Urban Gateways where she managed and launched an organizational visual identity rebrand; oversaw the development of a multi-platform mobile app technology solution with a heavy focus on end-user experience; and led a special task force to establish, adopt, and implement organizational core values. In her time with Urban Gateways she built a robust communications team focused on creative storytelling in order to demonstrate organizational impact to supporters and constituents. Abigail believes in the power of stories to help people connect more deeply with their passions and interests.

Abigail earned a master’s degree in arts management from Columbia College of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Illinois Wesleyan University. She believes in the power of the arts and all variety of creative practices as catalysts for change and growth – both personally and professionally.

Abigail lives in Oak Park with her husband, Hayden, and their two children, Beatrix and Isaac. In her spare time she is a vinyasa yoga teacher, is a budding gardener, and makes extravagant cakes for her children’s birthdays.