Alumni New Venture Challenge (ANVC)

Jon moved to Chicago from the UK in 1998 to establish and lead the North American presence of Mintel, a global market intelligence agency. Today, with more than 350 employees across the Americas, Mintel provides consumer and market insights to hundreds of brands, agencies and academic institutions.

Jon also serves as president of the British American Business Council in Chicago (BABC). The BABC is a dynamic member-driven non-profit organization that fosters business relationships between the UK and the United States. Through its network, programs and events, the BABC helps entrepreneurs, companies, and organizations connect and succeed in the United States.

A keen biker and runner, Jon is also a passionate musician. He frequents the classes at the great Chicago music institution, Old Town School.  Two teenage sons keep Jon abreast of video game culture.

Carlos is an Associate at Hyde Park Venture Partners and has been with the firm since 2021. Prior to Hyde Park Venture Partners, Carlos was an associate at Mesirow Financial in the Private Equity Real Estate team where he focused on acquisitions and asset management. Additionally, Carlos was a Co-founder and Director at Angeles Investors and received his BBA at the University of Notre Dame.

Chris is the founder of Lofty Ventures, which builds long-term relationships with Chicago’s next generation of passionate and brilliant founders. Investments range from five to six-figures in pre-seed to seed stage startups. Lofty’s portfolio includes Turbo Appeal (acquired), teaBOT (Y Combinator), Popular Pays (Y Combinator), Tovala (Y Combinator), Cubii (acquired, #180 on Inc500), L Street Collaborative, Blitsy (acquired), 4Degrees (Techstars), Paladin (Techstars), Gather Voices and (LAUNCH). Over two-thirds of Lofty’s 50+ portfolio companies are led by at least one female and/or underrepresented founder. Chris spent four years as VP of business development with Loft Development Corporation, his family’s Chicago-based commercial real estate business, which brought the concept of lofts from New York to Chicago in the 1960s. Loft sold its portfolio of six office buildings and two self/wine storage facilities in 2016.

In addition, Chris is the founder of the nonprofit-focused home-sharing platform WeCasa, an LP in social venture fund Impact Engine (IV), and a member or board director of the following civic and/or nonprofit organizations: the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Emerge curatorial group, Chicago Ideas’ Radical Creators, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s MakeWork council, Social Venture Partners Chicago, and Outreach With Lacrosse & Schools. He has been a mentor, judge or speaker at Kellogg School of Management, Pritzker Law School, University of Chicago, Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University, Impact Engine, Techstars, Women Tech Founders, National Association of Realtors, U.S.-Japan Council, Cradles To Crayons, Embarc Chicago, Future Founders, DePaul University, Loyola University Chicago, and NASA iTech.

Chris earned his BA in economics from Vassar College, where he played varsity lacrosse, basketball, and rugby. He previously coached Chaparral High School’s lacrosse team (Scottsdale, AZ) for six years and helped lead them to five championship appearances and three state titles in 1999, 2002, and 2004.

Kevin joined Medical Excellence Capital (MEC) in 2021 and serves as Senior Associate. Previously, he was an Associate on the Global Health team at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations. Kevin was a private equity MBA associate at Beecken Petty O’Keefe & Company and Tyree & D’Angelo Partners. Kevin began his career as a pharmacy manager at CVS. Kevin holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a Pharm.D. from the University of Oklahoma.

Ellen recently joined the Catalytic Impact Foundation, a mission driven healthcare venture capital company. She has followed the healthcare industry as an analyst and institutional investor, as well as working as a consultant within the industry. She initially worked as an analyst and investor with Lord Abbett where she was a partner (investing in retail and consumer-based companies), and UBS Asset Management. Most recently she served as an executive director at Morgan Stanley Investment Management.   

Prior to that Ellen had worked in banking, at ING Barings, Chase and the French Merchant Bank, Worms et Cie.  At Worms, she developed an understanding of the unique considerations of smaller organizations and companies, investing in, structuring and negotiating bespoke private transactions.  

Ellen earned her MBA from the Chicago Booth, with a specialization in finance. At the Booth, she was a recipient of the Rockwell International Fellowship. Her BA is in economics and public policy from Duke University. She is a CFA charterholder. 

She currently serves on the advisory board of the Hot Bread Kitchen incubator, a New York city not for profit. She also is advising Carehaus, a unique senior co-housing venture led by two MIT faculty members, on healthcare and financial issues. 

Mr. Lefever joined Silver Capital Advisors as a partner in 2017 to focus on the industrials, consumer, and retail industries. Previously, Mr. Lefever was the managing partner and cofounder in 2001 of Axiom Financial Advisors, LLC, an investment banking firm specializing in mergers and acquisitions, strategic reviews, and corporate finance advisory. From 1998 to 2001, Mr. Lefever was a managing director at CIBC World Markets (formerly Oppenheimer) in New York, where he headed the Transportation Equipment & Services Investment Banking Group. His principal responsibilities included M&A and corporate finance. Prior to joining CIBC, Mr. Lefever was a managing director in corporate finance at UBS Securities in New York, where he worked as an investment banker for ten years serving companies in a broad range of industries. 

Mr. Lefever has represented numerous domestic and international clients in a variety of advisory and financing transactions with deal values totaling over $10 billion. He has completed deals on four continents. These M&A and strategic review assignments were exclusive mandates on which Mr. Lefever was the senior banker. Clients include Fortune 200 companies, smaller corporations, private equity firms, hedge funds, and not-for-profit entities. 

Before joining UBS, Mr. Lefever was an attorney with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in New York, where he specialized in negotiated acquisitions. Prior to graduate school, he worked in the Banking Section of the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, DC. Mr. Lefever has published in the Federal Reserve Bulletin, American Economist and University of Chicago Literary Review. Mr. Lefever earned an honors degree in economics from Bucknell University and a MBA and JD from the University of Chicago, where he was the student government representative for both the law and business schools, as well as the recipient of a merit fellowship awarded by accounting firm Peat, Marwick & Mitchell. Mr. Lefever is married with three children. He is an avid SCUBA diver and a KCBS certified BBQ judge. Mr. Lefever is a director of the Art Deco Society of Washington and a member of the New York Bar.

Kevin serves as Executive Chairman of IntegriChain, leading the Board of Directors’ oversight of the company. Previously, he served as Chief Executive Officer for 16 years since co-founding the company in 2006. Under his leadership, IntegriChain grew to be a leading multinational enterprise that helps pharmaceutical manufacturers commercialize products, from strategy to operational execution. Prior to IntegriChain, Kevin spent 20 years building and launching software and services companies in the financial services, petroleum and pharmaceutical industries, including initial public offerings (IPOs). He has authored six books on Unix, the Internet and Java and has spoken at conferences and seminars around the world. Kevin serves as an Advisory Board Member of Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania and as a Mentor with Dreamit Ventures. He is also a member of the Iowa State University Physics Advisory Council. Kevin earned a Bachelor of Science in physics from Iowa State University and a Master of Business Administration in international business and finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Amelia Morris serves as director of investments, analyst, and team leader on the consumer products research team. She is also a member of the international large-cap investment committee. Amelia joined Brandes Investment Partners in 1998, and is a limited partner of the firm’s parent company. She has served as a member of the Brandes Institute advisory board, the investment oversight committee, and the emerging markets investment committee with Brandes Investment Partners. She has vast investment experience. Amelia is a CFA charter holder. She received a bachelor’s in economics from the University of California, Davis, and her MBA from Chicago Booth.

Christophe joined Aperam Ventures in 2022. He brings 17 years of professional experience in Leadership, Strategy and Corporate Finance.  Prior to Aperam Ventures, he was a CEO of several French SMEs through Prospheres Dirigeants. In addition, he spent many years working as Head of Corporate Development for a private equity owned life insurance business. He co-founded Pioneer Equity Partners, a London-based advisory boutique, specialised in Capital Raising for emerging tech companies and also co-founded PwC’s Accelerator. Christophe started his professional career as an M&A advisor (PwC Luxembourg, Deloitte London). He holds an Executive MBA from Chicago Booth,  a Master in Strategy and Corporate Finance from EM Lyon and a Master in International Trade from INSEEC Paris. He is a chartered global management accountant (CGMA). Christophe is French and speaks English and Italian.

Ellen Rudnick is a senior advisor and adjunct professor for entrepreneurship at Chicago Booth and previously served as the initial executive director of the Polsky Center. She 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 also has an MBA from Chicago Booth.

Michael Small is the cofounder and CEO at K4 Mobility, a digital technology and internet services provider for the maritime industry. He previously served as the CEO and president at Gogo Inc. from 2010 to 2018. Michael also served as the CEO of Centennial Communications Corp from 1999-2009, and previously held many other leading roles at telecommunications companies, most of which were publicly traded. Michael also serves since 2010 as the director of First Midwest BanCorp Inc., a Chicago-based regional bank with $15+ billion in assets. Michael has a bachelor’s degree in history from Colgate University, and an MBA from Chicago Booth.

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.

Kevin is a Partner and member of the Investment Committee at Chicago Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital fund where he is overseeing all aspects of Chicago Ventures including fund management, deal sourcing and investments, and working directly with portfolio companies.  He joined the fund in June 2013.

From 2011 to 2013, Kevin was the Founding CEO of 1871, one of the top ranked incubators in the world serving hundreds of startups building their early-stage businesses located at Chicago’s famed Merchandise Mart.  Since Kevin helped launch 1871 in May 2012, the center has welcomed thousands of visitors to events and curated hundreds of workshops and office hours with mentors for entrepreneurs.  During Kevin’s time as CEO, high-profile visitors included former British Prime Minister David Cameron, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, AOL Founder Steve Case, Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy, and YouTube co-founder Steve Chen – shining a spotlight on Chicago’s growing startup community nationally and globally.  During this time, Kevin was also a Venture Partner at Pritzker Group Venture Capital, overseeing their early-stage Seed Investments.

Previously, Kevin co-founded the Google Chicago office in late 2000.  In his over 10 years with Google, Kevin helped grow this office to more than 400 professionals and led relationships with some of Google’s largest marketing partners based in the Midwest.  Before Google, Kevin held business development positions at CMGI, an early internet incubator, and USRobotics, the pioneer in modem technology.

Kevin is actively involved in several civic and charitable organizations.  He was named to Crain’s 2011 “40 Under 40” list as well as Crain’s 2012 Tech 50 list.  He is on the Board of Trustees of the Illinois Institute of Technology and of Loyola University Chicago.  He is a member of The Commercial Club of Chicago and Vice Chairman of the Technology Membership Committee of The Economic Club of Chicago.  He currently serves on the boards of NorthShore University HealthSystem, the BigShoulders Fund, ChooseChicago, mHub, The Resurrection Project, the Future Founders Foundation, the CEC, the Chicago Fire Foundation, and the inaugural Development Council for USA Soccer.  In 2011, he served on the steering committee for Mayor Emanuel’s Plan for Economic Growth and Jobs and currently is a member of the Mayor’s technology council, ChicagoNEXT.  Previously, he was a Director of The Economic Club of Chicago and a Trustee of his alma mater, Loyola Academy.

Kevin earned his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business (’10) where he previously served on the Executive Advisory Board for the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship.  He earned a Bachelor’s degree from Boston College (’96) and studied at the London School of Economics.  Kevin, his wife Victoria, and their children, Jacqueline, Max and Lizzie, reside in Winnetka.

Quan Zhang is managing director at Pin Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm. Prior to founding Pin Capital, Quan was an investor at Guild Capital. As the head of e-commerce investments at Guild, he led a series of early-stage deals, such as Home Chef (acquired by Kroger) and MessageControl (acquired by Mimecast). Prior to venture capital, Quan was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company, focusing on M&A and private equity projects in technology, retail, and healthcare sectors. Quan earned Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago and B.S. from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC).