Michael Alter was CEO of The Tie Bar—the No. 1 e‐commerce destination for stylish men’s accessories. Prior to The Tie Bar, Michael was a cofounder and CEO of SurePayroll, a SaaS technology company that is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Paychex®.   Michael co-founded SurePayroll in 2000 after six years with McKinsey and Company, where he was a cofounder and leader of its service operations practice.

Jim Gray founded optionsXpress Holdings, Inc., an online options, futures and stock brokerage, which fundamentally changed how retail investors use exchange-traded derivatives for investing and strategic portfolio management. Charles Schwab acquired optionsXpress in 2011. Currently, Jim is CEO of G-Bar LP, one of the nation’s largest independent options, and futures trading firms.

As an Executive in Residence at the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Ms. Harris advises startups on all aspects of marketing and communications. In addition she teaches seminars on the press, content, social media and television. Prior to joining Polsky, she was vice president of marketing at real estate private equity firm Origin Investments, where she helped the firm raise more than $70 million and launch its online investing platform. Prior to that she capped her 15-year journalism career as a Pulitzer Prize-nominated business columnist at the Chicago Tribune.

Alex Hodgkin, MBA ’14, has spent the bulk of his career in investment banking and entrepreneurship. He has worked at Salomon Smith Barney and Headwaters MB. He is the co-founder and managing partner of Intrinsic, a financial services firm providing valuation opinions and transaction advisory services to venture- and private equity-backed companies and high net worth individuals.

Chris is the general partner of CJM Ventures, a private equity firm focused on buyouts and growth equity investments in companies located near Chicago.  In 2011, Chris retired as a managing director from Madison Dearborn Partners (MDP), where he co-headed their basic industries practice for the last five years of his 12-year career there.

Mark Tebbe is the founder of several start-ups, including two NASDAQ-listed companies: Lante and Answers Corp. He was also the former operating executive at Lake Capital. In addition to being an EIR at the Polsky Center, Mark teaches the Entrepreneurial Discovery and New Venture Challenge classes at Chicago Booth as well as serves as the Chairman of ChicagoNEXT, the City’s economic development organization for technology, innovation and entrepreneurship.