Alumni New Venture Challenge (ANVC)

Plato is the Secretary General and CEO of the Treelion Foundation. Together with partners around the world, the Foundation is building a digital platform powered by blockchain technology to facilitate capital flows globally for green assets. He also serves as the Vice Chairman of Elion International Investment under the Elion Resources Group which is a leading company in China focusing on ecological restoration, clean and renewable energy, healthcare, equity investment, security services and asset management. He is a seasoned investment professional with more than 20 years of investment, strategic consulting and corporate management experience in private equity fund investment, mergers and acquisitions and business development.

Plato has been appointed as members of various investment and funding committees of the HKSAR Government related to environment and conservation, quality education, planning vision and strategy, built heritage conservation, and sustainable fisheries development. He is also the Chairman of Friends of the Earth (Hong Kong).

Kartikeya is the Founder of Desai & Associates, an innovative finance focused research, advisory and advocacy firm. He teaches Impact Investment at Ashoka University and Climate Finance at Anant University, and has played an active role in the development of the social finance industry over two decades through his leadership at pioneering impact investment firms and the Impact Investors Council industry association. Previously Mr. Desai led Asha Impact, a multi-family office and foundation for Indian UHNIs and business leaders, was a Partner at Kois, a global development finance consulting firm, and a venture capitalist with pioneering impact funds Lok Capital and Aavishkaar. He started his career in investment banking with Merrill Lynch in 2005, after completing his education at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and SIPA, Columbia University.

As an impact investor, Mr. Desai has served on the boards of several high successful VC investments such as Vastu, Nepra, Gramophone, Adda and Varthana. He was one of the 200 young CEOs selected as the Prime Minister’s Champions of Change in 2017 and a member of the Parliamentarians and Innovators for India Covid-19 response group formed in 2020.

Monica is the founder and CEO of Duunokid and a winner of several entrepreneurial prizes in the US, India and China. Monica has worked in regions including Africa, Europe and Asia with organizations such as top investment banks and top US universities in senior leadership roles. Monica’s academic background is in linguistics and has presented her research in conferences in US, Greece, Israel, Qatar and Hong Kong. Monica is an alumna of the University of Chicago (BA), INSEAD (MBA), and the USC (EdD). She is fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese, English, French, and Spanish.

Jie has over a decade of experience in entrepreneurship, venture investing, product management and engineering. She is currently the cofounder of Venturous Group, a CityTech company focused on technology for real urban economy. Previously, Jie was the COO and Co-Founder of online insurance start-up Xiaobao Technology. She has also held roles as a product manager at big data company App Annie and was a software engineer at UBS Investment Bank in the US. Jie holds an MBA from University of Chicago Booth School of Business, MEng in Computer Science from Cornell University and BEng in Computer Science from Zhejiang University.

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.

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. 

Rohit is the Managing Partner at NYTCP, which is an early-stage venture capital firm and advisory firm that offers CFO/COO services for venture capital and private equity backed growth companies.  

Bob is an Entrepreneurial CFO focused on high-potential middle-market companies undergoing rapid growth & change. He has provided financial leadership for companies experiencing hyper-growth and liquidity/exit events as well as private equity owned portfolio companies. Industries served include consumer products, health & wellness, manufacturing, information services, and eLearning.  Following a 22-year corporate career that included Paramount Pictures Corporation, Dun & Bradstreet and the Nielsen Corporation, Bob transitioned to early-stage/entrepreneurial companies as co-founder of a health & wellness business that was acquired by Whole Foods Market. Bob then served as CFO for middle market companies, including the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN), YumEarth and the Clean Air Group. Bob is active in the Angel Investor Forum (AIF), the Angel Capital Association (ACA) and the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) and has expertise in digital transformation and business intelligence technologies that are instrumental in driving business performance and rapid change. Bob earned his MBA from of University of Chicago Booth School of Business and BSBA from Washington University in St. Louis.

Youssef is a Startup Mentor at Amazon Web Services and Investor at AlleyCorp, a pre-seed and seed venture capital fund that founds and funds transformative companies. At AlleyCorp, he helped launch and currently supports AlleyCorp Impact, a dedicated portfolio deploying non-dilutive and venture capital to seed, empower, and grow compelling ideas with meaningful social impact. Prior to AlleyCorp, Youssef served as a Director in the Executive Chamber of the Governor’s Office of New York, leading statewide infrastructure projects helping cities use technology to improve government operations, advising senior executives and authoring legislation on key technology policy issues, supporting execution and operations across a $2B+ agency portfolio, and tackling COVID-19 response. Youssef also served in the New York City Mayor’s Office as Founding Program Director of NYCx, the city’s emerging technology & innovation program. Youssef began his career at Treacy & Company, advising Fortune 500 companies on building and launching new ventures, and Uber, launching dozens of new markets, products, and verticals pre-IPO. He holds an A.B. in Public Policy from the University of Chicago where he was an Odyssey Scholar and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania where he was a Shils-Zeidman Entrepreneurship Fellow.

Chris is currently the chief information officer at Empirian Health, which he joined in 2020. Additionally, as cofounder and CEO of Goby, Chris was responsible for sales, product, and executive leadership. He grew the business from a concept built initially on energy in the real estate vertical to a disrupter in the ESG and fintech industries. The cloud based Goby platform currently processes billions in annual invoice and utility bill spend in over 100 countries, streamlining business processes through RPA, AI, all while capturing invoice data to create actionable insights. Chris earned a BS in economics from Miami University. 

Spencer Gordon-Sand is a co-founder of the Elemints NFT project and a partner at Lofty Ventures, an early stage venture group that supports underrepresented founders through a family of funds including a traditional venture fund, a venture syndicate, and a crypto/NFT token fund. Prior to his role at Lofty, Spencer was an executive at 4 startups, two of which were venture backed, one exited and another raised at a 125$m valuation a year and a half after it’s funding. Outside of the word of tech, Spencer was a photographer for Nike and Redbull and also competed as a World Cup fencer for Team USA. Spencer has a degree in economics and creative writing from the University of Chicago.   

Mia Saini Duchnowski is a journalist, engineer, investor, and a successful entrepreneur who sold her first VC-backed company, Oars + Alps, to SC Johnson. Currently, she serves as the cofounder and Board Member of Oars + Alps, a digitally native skin care brand for people who lead an active, on-the-go lifestyle. The products are made with naturally-derived, premium ingredients and are sold on Target and Amazon to name a few. The company launched in 2015 after Mia quit her high-profile job as a TV reporter/anchor with Bloomberg TV, one of the largest financial TV networks in the world.

Mia spent over three years with Bloomberg TV in Hong Kong and in New York City where she was responsible for global economic, political and business coverage. She was the first person at the network to interview the chairman of Microsoft, John Thompson, after he became chairman. She’s interviewed hundreds of CEOs and heads of states including the former CEO of Burberry, Angela Ahrendts, and Virgin founder, Sir Richard Branson. She’s routinely covered breaking news stories, such as the disappearance of MH 370, Nelson Mandela’s death, and Steve Job’s passing.

Prior to joining Bloomberg in June 2011, Mia served as an anchor and reporter for Forbes TV. She reported from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland as well as interviewed prominent business leaders including Warren Buffett, former FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair, Blackstone co-founder Pete Peterson, former Bear Stearns CEO Ace Greenberg, SAP CEO Bill McDermott and more. Earlier in her career, Mia was a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs, working in hedge fund sales and marketing. There, she helped establish strategic relationships with hedge funds representing over $1.2 billion in portfolio value.

Mia earned an MBA from the Harvard Business School. She earned a double major from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in neuroscience and media studies, and a double minor in civil engineering and management science. While at MIT, she interned at NASA Ames Research Center doing artificial intelligence research. She was featured in Glamour Magazine as one of their Top Ten College Women in 2004.

Mia was named as one of Crain’s Magazine 40 Under 40 in 2020 and was the emcee for the 2020 TedX Wrigleyville event. Currently, she sits on the Auxiliary Board of the Chicago Lincoln Park Zoo. Mia actively interviews high school seniors looking to study STEM subjects at MIT. She is also active in the Chicago startup ecosystem and enjoys mentoring students. She loves cycling and watching film noir movies and lives in Chicago with her husband and their five kids: Tabytha, Thiesson, Kempson, Aubrienna and Sienna.

Tim is a Co-Founder & the Managing Partner at LongJump. LongJump is a first-check venture fund, run by active founders, designed invest in overlooked companies at or near day 1. We believe that by backing founders at the beginning of their journey, we’ll reduce survivorship bias that results in fewer diverse founders and non-consensus ideas raising institutional capital. Tim previously co-founded Draftbit, a no-code, collaborative product development tool focused on mobile apps, backed by YC. I also held early-team roles in product leadership at Trunk Club, Signal, Apartments.com and Cars.com. Sometimes he runs marathons.

As the founder and Partner at Rok10 Ventures, Ten is dedicated to driving land and water conservation through the power of technology. With a background in location-based services, e-commerce, and education technology, he brings a unique perspective to sustainability-driven startups and SMBs, helping them develop effective business and technology strategies that leverage their digital assets. Ten holds an MBA from the The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and an MA in Marine Geology from The National Taiwan University.

Shubha Chakravarthy has spent over 20 years in increasingly senior roles in financial services, insurance and banking, most recently with HSBC, where she was responsible for managing credit strategy & risk for a $100 billion+ subprime mortgage portfolio to liquidation in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis. Prior to HSBC, she held multiple strategy roles in leading insurance and management consulting companies, including Allstate Financial and McKinsey & Company. She is the founder of Achiiv, focused on improving access to generative capital for women founders in climate tech, sustainability, and other STEM fields. She also hosts the Invisible Ink podcast, dedicated to helping ambitious women start, fund and scale STEM ventures. Shubha is active in advancing financial access and enablement for women founders, to help them build strong and strategically viable startups though mentoring and speaking. She also serves on the boards of two K-12 institutions.

She has an MBA (High Honors) in Finance & Strategy from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and an MS (Honors) in Financial Markets from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Tim Trampedach is an angel investor and founder of Chicago Booth Angel Network (CBAN) Silicon Valley.  Through a long career in product management at various startups, Tim has incubated, built and run various products and businesses, including gaming platforms, logistics systems and financial services infrastructure at companies like Zynga, Chariot and LendUp. He is now founder and CEO of motorsports e-commerce startup Torqued. As an active angel investor and diligence lead for CBAN Silicon Valley, he sees companies across a variety of industries and stages, choosing to invest in companies where he feels he and his network can add substantive value. Tim holds a BS in Computer Science from Columbia and an MBA from Chicago Booth.

Steph is the founder of PIN (Power in Numbers), a VC-backed company that enables communities of people (including people from Stanford, YC, Coinbase, and more) to invest in startups together. She’s passionate about enabling more people to become founders and startup investors by increasing access and education with PIN.

She was formerly on the venture capital investing team at NEA and helped invest over $150M. She received her MBA from Stanford GSB and her BA in Economics from the University of Chicago.

Yelena is a Rice University professor of management with a focus in entrepreneurship. She is an early stage VC investor, start-up mentor and an entrepreneur at heart. With over 10+ years of experience in the investments industry, she has been featured as one of the Top Women Investing in Latin American Tech by LAVCA.

Prior to joining Rice, Yelena was a partner at Cantera Capital and a fund manager at Soldiers Field Angels (SFA), where she led seed and follow-on investments in early stage startups across Latin America. She started her career in venture capital after co-founding Zapatito Blanco, a marketplace for children’s products in Mexico. Her work experience also includes Laudex in Mexico City, J.P. Morgan & Chase in New York and Morningstar Inc. in Chicago.

Yelena holds an MBA degree from Kellogg School of Management and a BA degree in economics from Northwestern University. Originally from Kazakhstan, Yelena has lived in the United States, France, Brazil, and Mexico and is fluent in multiple languages.

Prashant is a Partner at Monta Vista Capital. He has been an early stage venture investor since 2001 when he was with Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, an early stage VC focused on enterprise and infrastructure software. Prior to Hummer Winblad, Prashant spent many years defining and launching high tech products. His background spans all seven layers of the OSI stack, with product management roles at enCommerce (acquired by Entrust), Cypress Semiconductor and AT&T. He is also an active Charter Member of TiE Silicon Valley, where he formerly was a member of its Board of Directors, Chair of TiE Angels, and Managing Director of TiE LaunchPad. Prashant received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Nilesh is a Principal Investor at J-Ventures Fund.

Sharlene Guiriba is an Associate at Lerer Hippeau, an early-stage venture capital firm founded and operated in New York City. Sharlene began her career as a Deloitte tax consultant advising major corporations and ex-pats on international assignments. She then built out a software operations department at NextCapital(acq’d by Goldman Sachs), a late-stage fintech startup democratizing quality retirement advice. Sharlene completed the joint MBA and MPP program at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and Harris School of Public Policy. She also has her CPA and graduated with Double Majors in Accountancy and Chinese from the University of Notre Dame.

Sabin Ray is an Associate at the Ecosystem Integrity Fund, a sustainability VC with $450M AUM that invests in early stage startups. Prior to joining EIF, Sabin was an Associate at the World Resources Institute, a global environmental thinktank, leading work on restoration and improved forest management. She received her MBA from UC Berkley Haas and her BA in International Relations from Brown University.