Women Startup Challenge

Grants Program

Adrianna Samaniego is an Investor at Female Founders Fund, an early-stage fund investing in female-founded technology companies across B2B, Consumer, Healthcare, and Fintech. Female Founders Fund has invested in some of the fastest-growing female-led start-ups including Zola, Billie, Co–Star, Eloquii, Maven Clinic, Rent the Runway, Peanut, Tala, WinkyLux, and more. In her role, she sources, invests, and supports portfolio companies who are building category defining technology businesses.

Prior to joining Female Founders Fund, she worked as a Summer Investment Associate at JetBlue Ventures, Harlem Capital Partners, & New Media Ventures. Adrianna spent eight years in tech, formerly as Co-founder & Co-CEO at Area 120 Google’s Startup Incubator. In this role, she led a team to rapidly build and launch a B2B marketplace for Fortune 500 companies to procure from diverse-owned companies. Adrianna also formerly led and created Google's Global Supplier Diversity Program that created over $1B in opportunities for diverse-owned businesses.

Adrianna is passionate about removing inequities and increasing diversity in VC and Tech ecosystems. Adrianna Samaniego is of Mexican descent and was born and raised in the small border town of Douglas, Arizona. She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA from University of Georgia.

Samina is passionate about empowering women through health and wealth. In an effort to close the gender funding gap, she leads a boutique advisory for women-led startups, primarily in femtech and consumer, helping founders get fundraising-ready. Samina has experience investing across venture, growth, and buyout. Most recently she was on the Investment Team at American Securities (AS), an operationally-focused private equity firm in New York with $23 billion of assets. At AS, she focused on evaluating new investment opportunities and helped management teams at her portfolio companies, Learning Care Group and Mortgage Contracting Services. She also initiated and led diligence of the global fertility market, becoming the first Associate in the firm’s history to successfully pitch and lead a subvertical. Prior to joining AS, Samina co-founded SLK Venture Capital in Austin, TX, serving as interim-COO. In addition to closing 10 investments, she established the fund's Advisory Board, infrastructure, and systems of sourcing. Previously, Samina was an early employee at ICONIQ Capital, a San Francisco-based private equity firm and multi-family office serving the founders of Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, among others. At ICONIQ, she performed diligence on potential investments and helped develop the firm's investment strategy. Samina graduated from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. in Finance and Behavioral Economics. While there, she co-founded the Penn chapter of Smart Woman Securities, a women's investing club, and served as the elected Wharton Class Chair for four years.  

Sandra Campos is a CEO, entrepreneur, and operating partner within the retail and consumer products sector. She has been building consumer-led global fashion lifestyle brands for more than twenty years. She is the founder of Fashion Launchpad, the only digital masterclass edtech platform specifically for the fashion industry. 

Sandra advises startup or small businesses specializing in tech, fashion/beauty, and consumer products such as Katie Kime-home and sleepwear brand, Bubble-clean beauty startup for GenZ, Saavitude-fashion tech startup helping brands through AI, Project Verte-digital platform for ecommerce, and Purple Dot-providing consumers with a smarter way to shop online. In addition, she’s an investor, mentor, and board member.

As the former CEO of Diane Von Furstenberg, Sandra is known as an innovator and evolved a traditional business into one focused on global digital acceleration and the implementation of Omni channel strategies to enhance the consumer experience. Under her leadership, the business turnaround was under way with profitable KPI improvements within each channel, created a Weekly Wrap newsletter with The Newsette, established collaborations with female founded brands such as Lingua Franca and Ashley Longshore, and promoted the “In Charge” mission throughout every consumer touchpoint. The company substantially reduced its losses through improvements in operational efficiencies, product margins, inventory management, and store rationalization. 

Prior to DVF, Sandra was instrumental in restructuring Iconic brands such as Juicy Couture, Bebe, and BCBG. An executive with broad skills and experience, Sandra focuses on driving digital innovation, fueling international expansion, and leading youth culture marketing. Her international experience has included brand building focused on the Chinese consumer with hundreds of stores in China and SE Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. 

Her entrepreneurial ventures include Mobi and Cynosure Holdings-ACH, a celebrity brand management co responsible for launching Selena Gomez’s lifestyle collection. 

Ms. Campos is a frequent keynote speaker, panelist, and invited guest on MSNBC and Bloomberg on topics ranging from innovation at retail, leadership, and diversity in the workplace. She has been named one of the top 100 Latina Leaders by Latino Leaders Magazine, was one of 2019 Top Líderes in Business by Hispanic Executive Magazine, named a 2020 Top Woman in Retail. 

Sandra lives in NYC and spends her time with her three kids and partner in the Hudson Valley on her rescue horse farm.

Stas is a Principal in the Venture Capital team at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, where he focuses on impact investments primarily in the education and healthcare sectors. His focus is on leading and co-investing in innovative companies globally that are developing transformative solutions to the issues at the heart of CZI’s mission.

Prior to joining CZI, Stas was a Principal at Health2047, where he focused on healthcare venture capital investing, as well as helping co-found mission-driven healthcare companies. Prior to Health2047, Stas spent 7 years as an investor in private equity and growth equity.

In addition to his work at CZI, Stas is an active advisor and mentor to several early stage startups, as well as global technology companies. He graduated New York University with degrees in both Economics and History.

Damilola Thompson is Vice President and Associate General Counsel at EchoVC Partners and has over a decade of experience investing and supporting entrepreneurs improving quality of life and solving frictions in emerging markets.

Dami has core competencies leading Venture Capital and Private Equity transactions and leads the corporate development arm at EchoVC as a director. In her years of experience, she drove seed and early-stage financing transactions in startups across geographies and sectors – TMT sectors, Financial services sector, Healthcare sector, etc.

Ms. Thompson is passionate about startups and venture financing and providing early-stage companies with much needed mentorship required for scaling. She has graduate degrees from the University of Lagos, Nigeria and University of California, Berkeley. She has also completed various post-graduate courses including the Kauffman Fellows Academy course on Venture Capital. She is a co-founder of Ventures Dialogue, a non-profit platform that connects entrepreneurs with investors alongside other resources to help them build sustainable businesses; the Sponsorship and Partnership Lead for Rising Tide Africa; and a part of the leadership team of the SingularityU Lagos Chapter.

Tunde Oshinowo is an Associate at the Blue Venture Fund. He helps manage the Fund’s investments in Verata, Picwell, Patientco, ID Experts, and Payfone. Prior to BVF, Tunde was an associate at Abundant Venture Partners, where he focused on digital health and senior care. Tunde started his career in digital product design at Next College Student Athlete, the largest athletic recruiting network in the US.

Tunde holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. An NFL alumni, Tunde also played professional football for four years following his time at Stanford University, where he received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering.

Rebecca is a Vice President at DRI Capital, a leading life sciences investment firm based in Toronto, where she focuses on sourcing and supporting investments in pharmaceutical royalties.  Prior to DRI Capital, Rebecca worked for several biotechnology companies in business development roles and at BMO Capital Markets in biotechnology equity research.  She graduated with a B.Sc. in Pharmacology and Toxicology from Western University and an MBA from The Richard Ivey School of Business.  

René Azeez is the Director of Engagement at the Toronto based MaRS Discovery District, North America’s largest urban innovation hub. As the head of venture engagement, he is responsible for the development and execution of the MaRS Growth Services venture engagement strategy, including establishing the mission, objectives, venture assessment metrics, and operating plans to enable the support of over 1400 technology ventures in the Enterprise, FinTech, Health, CleanTech, Advanced Manufacturing & Materials, and Transportation & Mobility sectors. He leverages a deep understanding of technology venture needs to develop and deliver effective portfolio engagement methodologies that maximize MaRS’ influence on venture progression and valuation across all sectors.

Prior to joining MaRS, René started his career as a medical device industry analyst and was ultimately promoted to lead a global data driven medical device market intelligence team based in Toronto, India and China, with the Millennium Research Group (MRG), a division of the Decision Resources Group (DRG). From there, René utilized his depth of research expertise to secure a position as a Senior Strategist with Insync, a division of Publicis Health, focusing on driving strategies for companies in the pharmaceutical space. René focused deliverables on insight generation through the lens of behavioral economics, providing a unique approach to healthcare market research.

Rene attended Woodsworth College at the University of Toronto, where he achieved a Honours BSc. in Developmental Biology. He is currently participating in the Executive MBA program at HEC Paris, pursuing a major in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from Babson College, Boston.

Jonah Cool is a cell biologist and geneticist by training, and is currently a Science Program Officer at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, where he leads the organization's efforts to support the international Human Cell Atlas consortium. He was an American Heart Association fellow while completing his PhD at Duke Medical Center, with a focus on the role of vascularization during cell differentiation and organ morphogenesis, and was subsequently a Ruth Kirchstein Fellow at the Salk Institute studying nuclear organization during stem cell differentiation.

Dr. Cool previously worked in intellectual property litigation, as well as ran an industry research group working toward therapeutic application of 3D bioprinted human tissue. He has a deep love of cell biology and, in particular, the origins of cellular heterogeneity and how diverse cells assemble into complex tissues.

Jenny is an Associate at Flourish, a venture firm investing in entrepreneurs whose innovations help people achieve financial health and prosperity. She works across the global portfolio but it most focused on their investing strategy in Latin America. Perviously, Jenny was an Associate on the Financial Inclusion team at Omidyar Network. Before that, she began her career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs. Jenny graduated magna cum laude from Middlebury College, where she received a B.A. in economics.

For over 30 years, Robert Garber has invested in, advised and led early-stage healthcare and technology companies, co-managing three venture funds and holding leadership positions with three high-growth companies.  Robert is currently a Partner at 7Wire Ventures, a preeminent venture capital firm that invests in early-stage digital health companies supporting an “Informed Connected Health Consumer” - the epicenter of a consumer-first, tech-enabled convergence of the health and wellness markets. Fund successes, such as Livongo Health, are due in large part to the team’s experience as both seasoned operators and investors with extensive industry experience. As highly selective investors, the firm works side-by-side with founders to build companies at scale that change the status quo and empower consumers to be better stewards of their health.

Currently, Nicole is 22 and an investor at Compound - an pre-seed and seed stage thesis focused frontier tech venture capital firm. She likes all areas of frontier tech but is focused on ML/AI - federated learning especially, game engines, women’s health and biotech at the moment.  

Prior to working at Compound, Nicole comes from a startup running experimental educational initiatives to create greater hands on experience for under-represented groups to cutting edge STEM domains with organizations like NASA, DARPA, ARPA-E, NIH, and the Qatar Foundation (and researching cognitive architectures). Previously, she studied data science, and was accepted into INOVA’s personalized health accelerator to work on a machine learning tool that would diagnose renal cell carcinoma based on miRNA concentration and at Capterra, a Gartner company, studying the space of software & how to market it. She doesn’t have an undergraduate degree for financial reasons and is passionate about helping young people with atypical career paths. You can find her on twitter @nwilliams030

Sherman helps launch and invest in healthcare companies at AlleyCorp, a VC studio and early-stage investment firm based in NYC. Sherman was an enterprise technology investor at Underscore VC and an early product manager at PatientPing where he was named to MedTech Boston’s 40 under 40 Healthcare Innovators in 2018.

Sherman was previously a Kleiner Perkins Fellow and early product manager at Mango Health and a Greylock X Fellow and mobile engineer at Khan Academy. He holds degrees in Computer Science and Management Science & Engineering from Stanford University, where he conducted machine learning and social gamification research under Dr. Fei-Fei Li and Michael Bernstein. He is also a medical student at Icahn School of Medicine at Mt Sinai where he is supported by the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship.

Brooke is an Associate at F-Prime Capital and focuses on the healthcare IT and services sector. Prior to joining F-Prime in 2018, Brooke was a Director of Corporate Development at Evolent Health, where she worked on acquisitions and strategic partnerships. She began her career at MTS Health Partners where she advised healthcare companies in M&A transactions and equity financings. Brooke received her BS in Policy Analysis & Management and Master’s of Health Administration from Cornell University.

Matthew Cohen helps mission-driven organizations establish meaningful partnerships & make strategic choices with the commitment necessary for action.  Specifically, he serves as an advisor to leading education technology providers, national non-profits, major grant makers and social impact investors who prioritize transforming education systems while focusing on closing the achievement and access gap for minority and low-income learners. 

Before starting Cohen Strategy Group in 2011, he served as founding member of the executive leadership team at ConnectEDU—at the time, the nation’s leading education-technology company focused on college access.  Under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Cohen served as the Special Advisor for Strategic Initiatives for the NYC Economic Development Corporation, the primary business development arm of the City of New York; and, he began his public service career as Director of Field Operations for US Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro for whom he also served a tour on Capitol Hill.

Dr. Enke Bashllari is a neuroscientist and venture investor. She is the Founder and Managing Director of Arkitekt Ventures, a healthcare venture fund based in New York City with focus on applications of frontier technologies including artificial intelligence, neurotechnology, digital therapeutics, genomics and the future of computing to medicine. She serves on the Board of Directors and/or Advisory Board of portfolio companies Parsley Health Inc, Paradromics Inc, Medivis Inc, Darmiyan Inc, and the non-profit foundations Tisch MS Research Center of New York and the Digital Medicine Society. Dr. Bashllari was named by the Wall Street Journal as a Top Ten Women to Watch in Venture Capital. She earned her PhD at Columbia University and her MBA at Harvard Business School.

Peter is partner at Accelerace – one of Europe’s leading accelerators and early stage investors. He is a senior leader in biotech with 20 years of experience in drug discovery and development. Peter has a passion for innovation and dedicates his time to help life science startups, build supporting infrastructure in the life science ecosystems, provide advice, and invest in promising startups.

Susan is a Venture Investor at Learn Capital, an early stage EdTech VC fund based in the Bay Area, where she is responsible for sourcing, researching, evaluating, and supporting early stage companies changing the ways we learn and work. 

Prior to joining Learn, Susan spent three years at the Strategy & Ventures group of Sesame Workshop, the media and education non-profit creator of Sesame Street. There, she worked on growth and strategic planning projects, and helped manage Sesame Ventures, the VC arm of the company that invests in mission-aligned early stage kids-oriented startups.

Susan began her career in investment banking at Credit Suisse after earning her BCOM and BA in Math at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada. She has since worked in Toronto, Shanghai, New York City, and San Francisco. 

In her spare time, Susan enjoys reading, learning, running, singing, and good journalism. 

Michael is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and advisor in the Future of Work and Education space. 

He is currently the COO at AlwaysHired Sales Bootcamp and General Partner at Cabot Global Investments, a global seed fund focused on the Future of Work and Education sector. He previously was the Founder/CEO of WorkAmerica (acquired) and then Chief Strategy Officer at Edvo. He currently also advises startups of all stages across multiple areas; Proptech, Subscription Tech, EdTech and HRTech. 

Gwen Cheni is currently a Venture Partner at Fusion Fund, an early stage venture fund in Palo Alto, and an Entrepreneur in Residence at Singularity University Ventures. Prior to venture, Gwen was the Assistant Portfolio Manager at a technology focused hedge fund in San Francisco. Gwen spent eighteen years as a public equities analyst and portfolio manager, and started her career as an Analyst at Goldman Sachs and an Associate at JPMorgan. She has been angel investing since 2012, a frequent speaker and judge at startup pitch contests.

Priscilla Sugianto MD MBA is an Investor at CBC Group, a healthcare dedicated private equity fund with $2.3B of AUM in New York where she sources, evaluates, and executes growth and late stage biopharma deals. She is also experienced in company formation, royalty/debt financing, cross-border investing and licensing/partnership. 

Prior to CBC, Priscilla has experience in digital health venture capital with Flare Capital Partner in Boston. She also had prior operational experiences in multiple Silicon Valley digital heath startups , including Virta Health and Doctor on Demands. 

Priscilla received her MD and MBA from Stanford University. She also graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BS in Biochemistry from UCLA where she also received scholarship from the Alumni Association and award for excellence in research. 

Dr. Chardae Rodgers is the owner and CEO of CR Clinical with a demonstrated history of working in the clinical research and pharmaceutical industry in various positions as a Clinical Research Associate, Clinical Project Manager, and Recruiter.

Dr. Rodgers has worked on many clinical trials in different indications such as cardiology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, hepatic, infectious diseases, neurology, pulmonary, ophthalmology, gynecology, dermatology, oncology, and pain management.  Dr. Rodgers is skilled in Clinical Research, Monitoring (On-site Monitoring and Remote Monitoring), Good Clinical Practice (GCP), Clinical Operations, and Management.  She has earned three degrees including a Doctorate of Business Administration (D.B.A.) from California Southern University.  Dr. Rodgers is also a keynote speaker who have presented at various clinical research conferences.  

Dr. Chardae Rodgers has worked with various clinical research and pharmaceutical companies such as Covance, Parexel International, Syneos Health, ICON, CROMSOURCE, Pharm-Olam, Quintiles, Novella, Synteract, Respivant, Contego Medical, and Biotrial. 

Gail is currently wearing two hats in the State of Delaware entrepreneurial ecosystem.  As Associate Director of the Horn Entrepreneurship program at the University of Delaware, she is leading the creation of a new Women's Entrepreneurship Initiative.  She is also an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Delaware Innovation Space, where she brings her operating and investing experience to assist the hard sciences startups in residence.

As employee #23 of venture capital industry disruptor, Alumni Ventures Group, she was the Founding Managing Partner of Chestnut Street Ventures and the AVG Women's Fund and AVG Social Impact Fund for which she raised nearly $20MM and invested in over 75 companies across all sectors and stages. 

In industry, she served as COO of The Bancorp Bank, the innovative banking solution provider for the most recognizable names in digital banking. She also filled executive roles at PNC, Chase, Capital One, and NCO Financial Systems. In addition, Gail headed the Payments Studies Group at the Richmond Fed and served as Board Member and Risk Committee Chair at Kompanion, Inc., one of Central Asia’s largest microfinance institutions.

Gail earned her BS in Economics, Finance and Statistics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Chaarvi is currently investing in social enterprises in early-stages in the US, with the AmFam Institute.

Chaarvi has woven her professional journey extensively around social entrepreneurship, impact investing and ecosystem building. Prior to AmFam, she mentored women entrepreneurs in South-East Asia, curated a podcast for social entrepreneurs in emerging markets, invested in startups in India and Vietnam, created social impact measurement frameworks, and founded a handicrafts social enterprise. Chaarvi graduated from Columbia University with a Masters in Public Administration.

Gaurav works with Advanced Innovation at Philips Healthcare. He is interested in building intelligent systems (Human+AI) in medicine and healthcare. He works on solving problems and challenges during design and development of intelligent HealthTech for patients, provides, and payers.

Gaurav has a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from University of Pittsburgh, where his dissertation was on designing interactive methods for Natural Language Processing on Clinical records. He has served a reviewer for several Biomedical Informatics conferences and journals. He is also the founder of the meditation club at Pitt and continues to teach workshops for university students.

Namrata is an early stage investor and advisor, passionate about supporting founders, especially women and underrepresented minorities. She is the Director of VentureBridge Accelerator, Carnegie Mellon, and a Venture Partner with Republic.

In previous roles, Namrata worked at an early stage industry-agnostic VC fund and an incubator in Zimbabwe supporting entrepreneurs in Southern Africa. Prior to that, she worked in product development in startups and large organizations in B2B, B2B2C, and B2C. She co-founded 3 startups, two of which she took from idea to revenue. In her spare time, she serves as an independent consultant.

She holds a BS in Biology and a diploma in Software Engineering from India, MA in Professional Writing from Carnegie Mellon, and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley.

She is a coffee aficionado and loves to wake up to a good cup of coffee.

Dr. Onyema Osuagwu is a scientist, engineer, investor, founder, and advisor in entrepreneurial, science/engineering, financial, and technological ecosystems. He is the CEO and co-founder of BioNanoTech, a biotech startup with revolutionary biological testing and protein/antibody purification technology. Additionally, He leads, invests, and advises a portfolio of companies across multiple sectors.

He is a startup mentor with First Round Capital and a TechStars startup mentor/coach. Dr. Osuagwu is an expert in Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML), Physics, and Cybersecurity. He is also a Wall Street veteran who has served in senior leadership roles throughout his career. He is the former Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Thrust Lead for Advanced Health Technologies at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and an Associate Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering with Morgan State University.

Some of Dr. Osuagwu’s AI/Robotics research is in the National Geographic documentary “Robots 3D”. Dr. Osuagwu earned his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering with an additional Neuroengineering concentration and an MS in Applied Mathematics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He also has an MA and a BA in Physics with a Mathematics concentration and a BA in Psychology with concentrations in Computer Science, Physics, and Business from the City University of New York.

Michael Fenn, Ph.D. is the Director of Healthcare & Life Sciences at Harvard Innovation Labs. He is tasked with advising all healthcare and life science ventures with a focus on supporting Harvard founders, which include students, research fellows, faculty & alumni. Dr. Fenn also leads the planning of the Life Lab Longwood, a new translational biotech incubator at Harvard Medical School, and a foundational component of the $200M Blavatnik Therapeutics Initiative. Dr. Fenn serves as a leader of entrepreneurship & innovation within the Harvard life science community, as well as acting as liaison to the surrounding Boston-area life science ecosystem. He is particularly passionate about bridging the gap between academic research and startup ventures, having worked extensively in both, and currently supporting several Harvard initiatives to expand the translation of science from bench-to-beside. Having served as cofounder & advisor for multiple startups, his efforts have resulted in $30M in venture funding, graduation from Y-Combinator, FDA clearance, strategic partnerships, intellectual property creation, and successful acquisition.

Dr. Fenn was formerly an NIH-funded Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Director of the Center for Medical Materials & Biophotonics at Florida Institute of Technology. Dr. Fenn has a diverse research background, which includes biomaterials, nanomaterials, tissue engineering & regenerative medicine, drug delivery, advanced spectroscopy, and machine learning, with applications in biotech, medical devices, and diagnostics. Dr. Fenn received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering, M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering, and B.S. in Chemistry/Biochemistry, all from the University of Florida.

Sarah is a former education startup founder with 16+ years of experience scaling innovative education programs/schools, coaching founding teams of EdTech Startups globally, and investing in future-of-learning/future-of-work companies (seed-Series C). 

Previously, Sarah was a member of the startup operations teams within organizations dedicated to educational equity such as The KIPP Foundation, GreatSchools.org, and The Fulbright Teaching Fellowship. In 2006, she founded an education company in Shanghai, China and grew that business over four years, eventually exiting. She has since leveraged my experiences in US and East Asian education markets to launch international preK-12 programs, coached Stanford MBA students, and helped grow a network of Montessori schools around the world. 

Today, Sarah invests in education/edtech and future-of-work companies with Peak State Ventures and advises early stage startups with EdVentures International Group. She completed her Bachelors of Economics at Mills College and her Masters of International Education Policy at Harvard University and currently resides in Oakland, CA.

Nawal Roy is Founder and CEO of Holmusk – a global digital health and data analytic company. Nawal is a Steering Committee member for Value-based Health Care at World Economic Forum. He is also co-founder of Galen Growth Asia and Board of director of HearX Group – a leading healthcare startup in South Africa. He has deep operating experience in North America, Asia, Middle East, Europe and South Africa in the financial and healthcare sector. He has significant P&L and operations experience, coupled with 10 plus in top-tier consulting with C- suite globally.

Nawal has been actively supporting and mentoring social entrepreneurs in USA, Singapore and India. He is an Advisor and Mentor for Singapore International Foundation's Young Social Entrepreneur (YSE) program. Nawal is one of the Founders of PRMIA, an international global association with members in more than 100 countries. He has Masters degrees from both the USA (M.A in Economics and M.S in Quantitative Finance) and India (M.A in Economics).

Laurie Lumenti Garty leads the venture capital relationship efforts along with the seed stage practice of Pacific Western Bank. Laurie and her team are responsible for building the Pacific Western Bank brand, visibility and mindshare with the venture community, and supporting business development and banking relationships with seed and venture-backed startups nationally.

She has over 25 years of experience working with startup and venture backed companies, venture funds, micro-VCs and angel investors. Before Pacific Western Bank, Laurie launched and led a startup initiative for Wells Fargo’s Wholesale Bank and was instrumental in the creation of the Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator. She previously held positions at Silicon Valley Bank as managing director and head of the Emerging Technology practice and Comerica Bank (formerly Imperial Bank) as director for the Venture Capital Group.

Laurie has authored several white papers on startup issues, and was responsible for helping to create and launch the Halo Report on Angel Investing in conjunction with the Angel Capital Association and CB Insights.

She received her Certificate of Management and Administration from the Harvard University Extension School and her BA in Economics from Framingham State University. Laurie was recognized as one of Silicon Valley’s Women of Influence in 2013 and joined Pacific Western Bank in 2014.

Alex Manick is an Associate Principal focused on venture and growth stage investments for Schooner Capital, a Boston-based multi-strategy firm. She currently serves as a Director at Remedy Plan Therapeutics and a Board Observer at Censinet and eXIthera. Prior to Schooner, she worked as a process engineer for MIT spin-out start-up 1366 Technologies, analyzed automobile manufacturing practices for the CTO at Tesla Motors, and consulted for various early stage tech companies. Alex holds an MBA from Stanford and a BS in Materials Science from MIT. She remains involved with the MIT community as a mentor for the Sandbox Innovation Fund. 

Jane is an investor at DaVita Venture Group (an independent investment vehicle of DaVita) and leads investments in health care technology, therapeutics and technology-enabled services companies. Prior to joining DaVita Venture Group, she founded a startup in the maternal health space with Children’s Hospital LA and has worked with several other early-stage health tech startups. Before that, she was a management consultant at Bain & Company’s New York office. During her time at Bain, she did an externship at Massachusetts General Hospital leading strategy, operational redesign and digital health projects. Jane has an MPH from Harvard and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the Ivey Business School in Western University.

Yen-Po (Harvey) Chin, MD is one of the inaugural Harvard HealthTech Fellow, and the Cofounder of two MedTech companies, AESOP Technology and DermAI Co. AESOP Technology has developed a machine learning-based prescription error prevention system and has been selected to join the venture incubation program at Harvard Innovation Labs, additionally backed by Berkeley Skydeck (UC Berkeley). DermAI Co. is an AI-50-campaign-selected company that creates smartphone-compatible AI applications for melanoma screening and personalized skincare advice.

Harvey is a former physician at Taipei Medical University Hospital, an awardee of a National Innovation Award in Clinical Medicine, a McKinsey Scholar (McKinsey and Company), and a mentor of MIT Hacking Medicine. He is on the 2020 Forbes 30 under 30 Asia list (Healthcare & Science) and holds patents related to an AI application and a blockchain-based trading platform.

Harvey received his doctor of medicine degree from National Yang-Ming University, Taiwan, and his postdoctoral masters’ of biomedical informatics degree from Harvard Medical School. Outside of work, he enjoys watching NBA games (a die-hard Boston Celtics fan) and spending time with friends and family.

Alyssa Jaffee serves as Vice President of 7wireVentures where she focuses on investments in digital healthcare and technology-enabled services that empower consumers to be better stewards of their health in today’s changing healthcare ecosystem. Alyssa sits on the board of Ayogo Health and is a board observer with Clarify Medical, NOCD, and Higi.

Alyssa's prior experience in venture capital includes her time as an investor at Pritzker Group Venture Capital where she led investments in Bright.md and Tovala as well as worked closely with Apervita, SilverVue, and AiCure. Additionally, she worked at Hyde Park Angels (HPA), one of the Midwest's largest angel organizations and Healthbox, an early stage healthcare innovation firm, supporting their accelerator program called the Studio. Alyssa is also a Co-Founder of TransparentCareer, a 2016 NVC winning company focused on helping people make more data-driven career decisions.

Prior to business school, Alyssa worked as the Senior Director of Performance Technologies for the Advisory Board Company. There, Alyssa was charged with expanding new business through the sales of technology platforms. With an extensive travel regimen, Alyssa met with hundreds of hospital executive teams to understand their strategic needs and recommend various solutions. She has copious amounts of experience in launching new products and thinking about go-to-market strategies.

Alyssa holds a bachelor degree in Marketing and Spanish from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago – Booth School of Business.

Lily is a Principal at Collaborative Fund – a seed-stage venture capital firm focused on consumer technologies that sit at the intersection of for-profit and for-good. At Collaborative Fund, she spends most of her time on opportunities related to healthcare and climate tech. Prior to her current role, she worked in management consulting and an accelerator based in Washington, DC.

Vic Lanio is a Principal at Flare Capital Partners.

Prior to joining Flare Capital, Vic was a Product Strategy Manager at naviHealth, responsible for enterprise product strategy during the integration of legacy naviHealth, Curaspan and RightCare businesses. Vic joined naviHealth by way of Curaspan, where he worked on their successful strategic sale to naviHealth, a Cardinal Health company.

Previously, Vic was a manager at McKinsey & Company serving healthcare providers. He focused primarily on health system strategy within the context of the Affordable Care Act and the transition to value-based care models. He helped build the Objective Health new venture, a tech-enabled consulting model for small to mid-sized health systems that is now a part of McKinsey’s Healthcare practice.  Out of college, he worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers in their Health Industries Advisory Practice, focusing on operational improvement, revenue cycle, and personalized medicine.  He also helped launch and served as the President and Executive Board Chair of Boston Young Healthcare Professionals, a 501(c)(3) organization aimed at providing educational, networking and community service opportunities for young healthcare professionals in Boston.

​Vic obtained his B.S. from Boston College, with majors in Physics and Finance. He also obtained his M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management. While completing his M.B.A., he worked concurrently with Curaspan, Wellframe and was a Flare Capital Scholar. He also co-Directed the inaugural MIT Healthcare Innovations Prize, a pitch competition for health tech entrepreneurs in Boston.

Jessica Patterson works with a team of data scientists and analysts at Roche using data to accelerate and improve clinical trials. Roche is a global pioneer in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics focused on advancing science to improve people’s lives.

Prior to joining Roche, Jessica built her investing experience at DRI Capital, culminating in a role leading commercial diligence on healthcare royalty investments. She also has prior operational experience with in the pharmaceutical industry.

Jessica received her BS in Biochemistry from the University of Waterloo and a Master of Biotechnology from the University of Toronto.