Rattan L. Khosa SeedCon

Michael Palmer is partner at Great Wave Ventures with a strong background in construction, real estate, and the built environment. He joined the team after serving as head of strategy and real estate at Volumetric Building Companies (’VBC”) where he oversaw the acquisition of Katerra’s assets in a bankruptcy transaction. Prior to VBC, Michael held several commercial roles within the building products divisions of Dow Chemical and DuPont followed by a role in corporate development at Sidewalk Labs. Michael holds a bachelor of architectural engineering from Penn State University and an MBA from Chicago Booth. Outside work, Michael enjoys camping, backpacking, and the outdoors.

Stefano is a Vice President of Energy Capital Ventures where he is responsible for the development of investment theses and executing deal-flow.

Stefano has over 10 years of experience in the energy and utility industry, working on data analytics consulting engagements as well as energy efficiency program implementation for utilities, large energy users, state entities and federal agencies. Prior to Energy Capital Ventures, Stefano was the deal flow lead at New Stack Ventures and an Associate at the G.Schultz Innovation Fund of the University of Chicago.

Before that, Stefano was a Principal at the Energy Resources Center, where he launched and grew the energy efficiency group from a niche consulting shop to a tier-1 supplier for electric and natural gas utilities in the Midwest. Stefano was a member of the Board of Directors of the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance.

Stefano has both a master of science in Mechanical Engineering with honors and a bachelor of science-Automotive Engineering from the Politecnico di Torino in Italy, and an MBA from the Chicago Booth, and

Brian Coe began his entrepreneurial career in 1995 as co-founder and CEO of Litholink Corporation, a CLIA laboratory with integrated clinical decision support software that grew to serve approximately 25% of the US urology market and 10% of the nephrology market with national payer coverage before its acquisition by LabCorp in 2006. At LabCorp (NYSE: LH), Brian was promoted to Senior Vice President and led the expansion of the programs to other diseases that eventually included chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, bone disease, coagulation disorders, and diabetes as the platform fully integrated into the broader organization. Litholink’s programs currently serve ~9MM pts/yr.

Brian left LabCorp to serve as co-founder and CEO of Talis Biomedical (NASDAQ:TLIS) (FKA SlipChip), a point-of-care molecular diagnostics platform for infectious disease. He led the company from conception through its IPO, led by JPM and BAML, raising approximately $500MM in equity capital over 9 years, with an additional $50MM in non-dilutive grant funding. Brian currently serves as an adjunct professor at Chicago Booth, where he previously co-created and taught Entrepreneurial Discovery course with Prof Mark Tebbe, instructs the I-Corps course at the Polsky Center, and serves as an active advisor in multiple life science start-up companies.

Brad Schnitzer is the managing director for Northwestern Medicine and Techstars Healthcare Accelerator and also serves as Techstars investment director for North America. He has made over 100 investments and driven strategy for the company’s central sourcing team, all in support of Techstars’ commitment to increasing access to entrepreneurship and creating opportunities for founders to scale their companies. Brad founded Chicago Startup Week and 77 Coffees and has seen firsthand how the right support at the right time can make the difference. In parallel, he is a local angel investor and limited partner at LongJump, and a mentor at 1871, the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center and various non-profits.

Adi is the CEO and co-founder of Cofactor AI™. Before Cofactor, Adi was a research specialist at Princeton University, where he leveraged artificial intelligence and machine learning in his political science and economics research.

Allison is a partner at Hyde Park Venture Partners and has been with the firm since 2019.

Prior to HPVP, Allison ran business operations for Civis Analytics, a Chicago-based data science software startup. She also co-founded Flag Analytics, a predictive analytics company focused on public safety, and spent her early career in healthcare consulting at Accenture. Allison has led and manages HPVP’s investments in Certiverse, CoPilot, and FactoryFix, among others.

Jack Piunti leads GTM for strategic accounts at ElevenLabs, where he focuses on enterprise AI adoption and has helped scale the voice AI research, product, and deployment company from under $70M to over $300M ARR. Prior to ElevenLabs, he spent six years at Twilio managing strategic ISV partnerships during a period of significant growth from $650M to $4.4B ARR. A Bay Area native, Jack graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor of arts in history from Centre College in Kentucky, and is now based in Indianapolis with his wife, 3 cats, 6 chickens, and countless fish.

Rick Desai is a Managing Partner at Listen, a brand-focused venture capital firm in Chicago. At Listen, Rick leads investment strategy, sourcing, and diligence and works closely with portfolio companies on marketing and technology initiatives. Rick previously co-founded Dashfire, a startup studo that launched 40+ companies and is currently an adjunct entrepreneurship lecturer at Kellogg.

Aaditi Tamhankar is an associate with Bluestein Ventures, where her responsibilities including engaging with startups, due diligence analysis, and supporting portfolio companies.

Prior to Bluestein, Aaditi was at Emerton, a global consulting firm, where she honed her analytical skills, working with food, energy, and infrastructure companies on applying a strategy-led approach to operating and business models. During undergrad, Aaditi held internships at Plant-Based Solutions and Ocean Hugger Foods, where she identified new market opportunities and delved into industry trends to inform growth strategy.

Aaditi graduated from Wharton with a BS in Economics, magna cum laude.

Emanuele Colonnelli is a professor of finance and entrepreneurship at Chicago Booth. He serves as board member and cochair of the Finance Sector at the Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), and leads the Finance and Entrepreneurship Theme at the CEPR-FCDO’s PEDL initiative. He is the codirector of Becker Friedman Institute (BFI) LATAM, a research associate at the NBER, and a research affiliate at CEPR, BREAD, and J-PAL. He is the recipient of a number of grants and awards, such as the 2023 Carlo Alberto Medal, a biennial prize given to the best Italian economist under 40.

Colonnelli’s research focuses on the intersection between finance, development, and political economy, with a special interest in high-growth entrepreneurship and the interaction between governments, firms, and investors. Specific interests include a range of topics such as venture capital and private equity, corporate governance, corruption, ESG and impact investing, public procurement, and corporate bankruptcy. He has research and work experience in several emerging economies, including Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Mexico, Myanmar, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, and Vietnam and regularly conducts world-wide surveys and field experiments with entrepreneurs, firms, and investors. His research has been published in various top academic journals, such as the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, the Review of Economic Studies, the Journal of Finance, and the Journal of Financial Economics.

Colonnelli joined Booth in 2018 as an assistant professor of finance, and from 2022 he was associate professor of finance and MV advisors faculty fellow. He was also a visiting associate professor of business administration in the entrepreneurial management unit at Harvard Business School, where he taught the MBA elective on entrepreneurial finance. At Booth, he developed and teaches the first MBA class focused on venture capital and private equity in emerging markets.

Colonnelli holds a PhD in economics from Stanford University, an MSc in economics from Bocconi University, a BSc in economics from the University of Siena, and he spent an academic year visiting Pembroke College, Oxford University.

Yosuke Suzuki is the head of strategic investment at Japan Airlines Ventures, the corporate venture capital (CVC) arm of Japan Airlines. Since March 2022, he has led the investment strategy and operations of the Japan Airlines Innovation Fund, a $70 million fund launched in 2019 in partnership with TransLink Capital.

He began his career with Japan Airlines in 2007. For over a decade, he led the financial planning & analysis (FP&A) team in the revenue management division, where he oversaw medium-to long-term revenue planning, monitored financial performance, and optimized the pricing and revenue strategies for the airline’s core business.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Chuo University in Tokyo, Japan.

Karthee Madasamy is the founding managing partner at MFV Partners, a Silicon Valley based, early-stage deep tech venture fund targeting technology startups disrupting traditional industries like logistics, automotive, manufacturing, and others. Karthee invests in frontier-tech startups in robotics, artificial intelligence, energy, quantum computing, and data platforms. He represents MFV Partners’ investments in PsiQuantum (Quantum Computing Hardware), Agility Robotics (Humanoid Robotics for Manufacturing), and Sun Mobility (EV Tech platform), among others.

Before MFV, Karthee spent 11 years as a corporate vice president and managing director at Qualcomm Ventures, where he invested across the US, Israel, and India. He started Qualcomm Ventures’ investment activities in both Israel and India. Some of his notable investments include Waze (acquired by Google), MapMyIndia (NSE: MAPMYINDIA), Validity Sensors (acquired by Synaptics), and BORQS (NASDAQ IPO), among others. He continues as an independent director at MapMyIndia.

Before Qualcomm Ventures, Karthee led technical and product marketing roles in three semiconductor and wireless startups in Silicon Valley, specializing in 3G, WiFi, and bluetooth.

Karthee has a bachelor’s in electronics and communication engineering from the College of Engineering, Guindy in Chennai, India, and a master’s in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan. Karthee also holds an MBA from Chicago Booth. Karthee is also a Kauffman Fellow.

Nii is a tech investor at OUP and is passionate about investing in physical sciences and deep tech sectors. He has a wealth of experience in the semiconductor industry, having worked with Intel, Samsung, and TSMC among others. He also spent several years investing in startups in emerging markets. He holds a PhD in condensed matter physics from the University of Leeds and an MBA from The Wharton School and the Rotterdam School of Management. Nii is a former academic and was a post-doctoral fellow in Physics at the University of Cambridge.