Fireside: Chicago

 Alyssa Jaffee is a Partner at 7wireVentures, a digital health-focused venture capital firm, where she invests in technology and technology-enabled services that empower consumers to become better stewards of their health. She currently sits on the board of Ayogo Health and Higi and is a board observer with Zerigo Health, NOCD, Jasper Health, RecoveryOne, Brightline, and MedArrive.  Alyssa's prior experience in venture capital includes as an investor at Pritzker Group Venture Capital, Hyde Park Angels, and Healthbox. She was also the co-founder of TransparentCareer, a company focused on helping people make more data-driven career decisions. Alyssa also served as Senior Director at the Advisory Board Company, where she was responsible for expanding new business through the sales of technology platforms.

Dustin is the Founder and CEO of BriteCo, an innovative insurance technology company that is transforming the jewelry insurance experience for the digital age. Launched in March 2019, BriteCo currently holds insurance licenses in all 50 states plus Washington DC. When not working or spending time with his family, Dustin likes to research and collect vintage watches.

Vincent leads HomeX's business and development strategy to support the company mission, helping to activate entirely new end-to-end solutions for both consumers and providers by leveraging technology alongside industry expertise. Before HomeX, Vincent spent over 10 years at eBay. As a user-obsessed product leader, Vincent led the large-scale transformation of some of eBay's most fundamental experiences, including eBay's North American consumer business and their structured data platform product organization.

Brad is the founding CEO of P33 where he is leading the nonprofit organization to drive global technology leadership for Chicago and inclusive economic growth for all. He brings twenty-plus years of professional experience and brings a deep understanding of how to unlock economic opportunities that benefit businesses and individuals to P33's efforts.

Daniel Estrada is the co-founder and CEO of 86 Repairs, a subscription service that automates the entire repair and maintenance process for restaurant groups. Daniel started his career as a web developer, working in a variety of technical roles in both startups and Fortune 500 companies. He worked as a consultant for several years, before serving as the CTO at Scavado, a recruiting software company.  Daniel also ran digital transformation initiatives for a major health system in the Midwest. Prior to starting 86 Repairs, Daniel led the European healthcare practice at EPAM Systems, a global digital consultancy, and was based in London.

Scott is a Chicago-based entrepreneur focused on building and investing in early-stage growth companies that leverage media as a core competency. As CEO of Technori, he's played a small role in shaping Chicago into one of the largest and most inclusive tech ecosystems in the world by creating the first-ever radio show and event series that enabled startups to fundraise directly from a live audience of both accredited and retail investors; resulting in more than $350 million invested via equity crowdfunding, angel groups, and traditional venture capital. As an operator, Scott has successfully acquired and sold two companies while investing in nearly a dozen other startups (including 4 with exits).

Pete Wilkins is a purpose-driven leader committed to creating a positive impact in the world. As a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, board member, and advisor, he has worked with some of the world's best entrepreneurs and top venture capital firms to help purposefully grow their companies from seed investment into industry leaders. Before he was thirty, he was a critical part of two technology startups that sold and IPO'd for more than $2.8 billion. He later went on to lead the turnaround of a medical education company from record losses to record profits and built one of the premier online physician education communities, which was followed by starting a double-bottom line company focused on college attainment for Latino families. Not every step was successful, but they were all purposeful. Today, Pete leads HPA, one of the most active and successful early-stage venture investor groups in the country. He and his firm take a people-first approach—they purposefully invest in human and financial capital in entrepreneurs—to help them build successful businesses and ultimately realize their dreams. Pete is also the soon to be author of Purpose First Entrepreneur, which takes key principles to help others live more purposefully, capitalize on their purpose, and turn it into a thriving business to create measurable outcomes in everyday life. Pete is also involved in the World Business Chicago ChicagoNext Leadership Council, Future Founders, and P33, a bold initiative to make Chicago a global technology leader. In recognition of his contributions, Pete has been named one of the Top 100 Chicago Innovators by Chicago Tribune, 50 on Fire by ChicagoInno, the winner of Illinois Technology Association CityLIGHTS Industry Champion Award and the Chicago Innovation Award. He also frequently speaks and writes about investing in people and organizations for Forbes, VentureBeat, and Thrive Global. 

Jay Rudman joined the TopstepTrader team as Chief Growth Officer and quickly advanced to Chief Executive Officer in March 2017 due to his extensive experience scaling high-growth firms. Jay has been a crucial contributor to TopstepTrader's growth and success, while remaining true to the company's mission and vision. Prior to TopstepTrader, Jay grew OpinionLab, Inc. from an idea to an eventual sale to a publicly traded company. He then founded Paperly, where as the CEO, he grew it to be the leading direct seller of personalized products, before selling it to another publicly traded company. Most recently, Jay helped Champion Healthcare Technologies expand its presence into the nation's leading hospital systems. Jay currently sits on various advisory boards as well as guides multiple startups as a CEO mentor.

Matt is a leader with a contagious passion for great customer engagement, and the economic and business impacts created when customers are engaged in exactly the right way. Prior to founding XSELL, Matt had the opportunity to work with many quintessential brands including Disney, Apple, Carnival, AT&T, GE, Walgreens helping them to bring their customer experience to life. His experience in these environments led to his observation of a power law in sales, regardless of the brand, wherein top performing agents were not marginally better than their peers - they were multiples better and they delivered disproportionately successful results.  This observation drove Matt's curiosity around the ability to scale the actions, tactics, and strategies of top performers to an entire enterprise.  Matt founded XSELL Technologies on the premise that this was not only possible, but when done exceedingly well it would radically transform the digital customer experience.  Matt has since grown XSELL to deliver on this premise, leading XSELL's clients to experience transformative business results.  Matt has a bachelor's degree in biology from Illinois State University.  He is married to his college sweetheart Kerri; they have three kids - Emma (21), Charlie (18) and Henry (16), all of whom are top performers.

Elizabeth “Betsy” Ziegler is the first female CEO of 1871, now the Number 1 ranked university affiliated -tech incubator in the world.   Previous to 1871, Betsy was the Chief Innovation Officer at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, responsible for portfolio innovation as well as integrating technology into the Kellogg educational experience. From 2011 through September 2015, she served as associate dean of degree programs and dean of students. Prior to Kellogg, she served as a principal in McKinsey & Company's Chicago office where she led the firm's Life Insurance Operations and Technology practice and co-led its Financial Institutions Operations and Technology practice. Ziegler holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and received a B.A. in economics from The Ohio State University, where she graduated with distinction. She is a member of Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, and the Museum of Science and Industry Boards of Directors and an advisor and investor in many young technology companies. 

Jonathan Ellis is the Founder and Managing Director of Sandalphon Capital. Sandalphon is a Pre-Seed and Seed stage venture capital fund focused primarily on the Midwest and invests in B2B SaaS, Marketplaces, Consumer Tech and Consumer Brands. The Sandalphon team is also behind midwest.tech/connect, a massive bi-annual virtual summit connecting Midwest startups with VCs, angels and other resources, at scale.   Prior to founding Sandalphon, Jonathan spent 10 years in investment banking, private equity and debt investing roles at Macquarie. Originally from the UK, he has lived in Chicago since 2007 and has been investing in Chicago startups as an angel investor since 2014. He holds a BSc (Hons) International Management from the University of Manchester and a Masters in Finance from INSEAD.

Kyle is the co-founder and CEO of Clearcover, the smarter car insurance company. Under Kyle's leadership, Clearcover has raised more than $104 million to date and has launched in multiple markets - California, Illinois, Arizona, Ohio, Utah, Texas, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Missouri, Indiana, Pennsylvania with more on the way. Before founding Clearcover, Kyle was a founding member of American Family Ventures where he was responsible for sourcing, evaluating and structuring over 50 equity and debt venture capital investments in nationally-based tech startups. Prior to this role, Kyle was a corporate attorney focused on emerging company business matters at AlphaTech Counsel. Kyle has a law degree and an MBA from the University of Wisconsin.

Kaben Clauson is the CEO and Co-Founder of TruePublic. From growing up in Alaska, to living in South Africa, his curiosity for understanding the world's opinions led him to start TruePublic in 2018. With a revolutionary approach, the company is crowdsourcing millions of opinions Americans both inside and outside of companies. Their insights are being used by Fortune 500 companies, research institutions, and in major publications around the world.

Seth Armstrong leads Market Development growth for Deloitte's Emerging Growth Company practice in the Central region. He has more than 15 years of experience serving global investors and venture-backed companies from numerous sectors including technology, media, telecommunications, energy, real estate, retail, manufacturing, transportation, insurance, and health care. In his role, Seth cultivates relationships across a broad network of investors and entrepreneurs and identifies opportunities to connect leaders to the businesses, resources, and tools they need to meet their objectives.  Throughout his career, Seth has remained actively involved in various facets of the investor community with a deep understanding of the opportunities and challenges that face both venture capital and private equity firms as well as their portfolio companies. He is a founding member of Forerunner Associates and an active mentor at Capital Factory in Austin and VentureSCALE in Chicago. He has invested and sourced over $120 million into early to late-stage companies. In addition, Seth has held board positions and been an executive leader at nearly 30 companies. Seth takes pride in the leadership and entrepreneurial opportunities he's been afforded, having built teams across six countries and co-founded a fintech startup. Much of his career prior to joining Deloitte was spent establishing high-growth business strategies, optimizing operations, developing talent, and launching new products to market. Seth has a passion for community service with a keen focus on empowering youth to develop the skills they will one day use in the workforce. Since 2019, he has been a board member of T4Youth (Tech4Youth), which focuses on providing support to under-resourced schools to ensure all students have access to STEAM. T4Youth has raised over $500k for Chicago Tech Academy and recently partnered with Code Nation to launch its very first virtual trickshot competition to support the kids that need it most – https://t4youth.org/

Jason VandeBoom is the Founder and CEO of ActiveCampaign. ActiveCampaign's category-defining Customer Experience Automation Platform helps over 100,000 businesses in 170 countries meaningfully engage with their customers. The platform gives businesses of all sizes access to hundreds of pre-built automations that combine email marketing, marketing automation, CRM, and machine learning for powerful segmentation and personalization across social, email, messaging, chat, and text. Jason has been named to Crain's Chicago Business 40 Under 40 list and was a 2019 Midwest finalist for EY's Entrepreneur of the Year program. He is a member of Young Presidents' Organization (YPO), the Economic Club of Chicago, and serves on the board of the Future Founders Foundation.

Jon Morris is the founder and CEO of Ramsay Innovations, a management consulting firm focused on helping small to medium-sized businesses grow faster. Previous to starting Ramsay Innovations, Morris was the founder and CEO of Rise Interactive. Under Morris' leadership, Rise received recognition for excellence in client service, innovative marketing campaigns, and commitment to culture, including acknowledgment from Inc. 500|5000 Fastest Growing Companies (nine-time winner), Ad Age (Best Places to Work in Advertising), Fortune Magazine, and more. Morris has been personally recognized as a leader in technology and innovation on the Techweek100 list and the Crain's Chicago Tech 50 list. As a leader in the digital marketing community, Morris has mentored several entrepreneurs, with a significant focus on the University of Chicago's New Venture Challenge, a renowned business plan competition where Rise itself got its start. Morris has shared his expertise as a guest speaker, presenting on main stages and at workshops and webinars for organizations such as Search Marketing Expo, Search Engine Strategies, American Marketing Association, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, Forrester Research, Online Marketing Summit, iStrategy, and Vistage.  Morris earned an MBA with high honors, graduating first in his class from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and a bachelor's degree from Kenyon College.

Rasheed Hammouda started his career in Financial Services covering investment and economic topics as a freelance journalist, contributing to trade publications including ETF Strategy and writing a standing column for Egypt's largest English newspaper. In 2015, he co-founded Bridge Financial Technology where he leads the company as CEO today.  Bridge's vision is to build a better financial advisor by transforming financial data into actionable insights, elevating the work of advisors and the technology companies that serve them. Bridge works with over 200 wealth management firms, a dozen FinTechs, and partners with financial institutions including Fidelity, Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade. They are backed by FINTOP, MissionOG, and UMB Corporate Capital amongst other leading angels and FinTech funds.

Howard Tullman is the General Managing Partner of two early-stage venture capital funds, Chicago High-Tech Investment Partners, LLC and G2T3V, LLC which focus on identifying and funding disruptive innovators. He was most recently the founding Executive Director of the Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship as well as the first University Professor appointed at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. He was previously the CEO of 1871 (a Chicago-based tech incubator which was the home of 500 digital startups) and which, under his guidance and leadership, tripled in size and was named the Number 1 private business technology incubator in the world. Prior to his role at 1871, Tullman was the Chairman and CEO of Tribeca Flashpoint College and the President of Kendall College.  Tullman is a graduate with honors of Northwestern University and of its School of Law where he served as Chairman of the Editors of the Law Review and he is admitted to the Illinois Bar and to the Bar of the United States Supreme Court. Tullman is a world-class serial entrepreneur and has successfully founded more than a dozen high-tech startups in his 50-year career and created more than $1 billion in investor value as well as over 10,000 new jobs. He is a tireless supporter of entrepreneurs and a mentor to many startups, growing businesses of all sizes, political leaders and government agencies as well as a board member of several of Chicago's fastest-growing tech companies. He has written over 30 books and writes a regular weekly column on The Perspiration Principles for INC. Magazine which reaches over 2 million website visitors a week. He lectures on technology trends, innovation, entrepreneurship and change management all across the world as well as at the Kellogg School of Management and the Law School at Northwestern University where he is an Adjunct Professor.

William “Bill” Himmelstein graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a BSBA in marketing and management and a minor in psychology. He started the Tenant Advisory Group, LLC, in July 2008 after gaining experience at several of the major commercial real estate firms in Chicago. Bill has been a tenant representative broker for over 20 years, focusing his efforts on working with professional service firms, technology based companies, manufacturers and private practice physicians. He is a designated Certified Commercial Investment Manager (CCIM) and a Managing Broker. Bill is often described as being extremely honest. He acts with a high level of integrity, accountability, responsiveness and determination in achieving the best possible deal terms for all of his clients. He has completed well in excess of 300 transactions in his career with a value of over $1 billion. He has been guest professors at UIC, DePaul and Columbia Colleges. He has spoken in front of crowds as large as 5,000 people. He's spoken on behalf of the City of Chicago. He's spoken to the American Bar Association. He's hosted a digital real estate show through Advisor TV and was a founding member of both the Coleman Circle for Entrepreneurs and the Chicago Leadership Alliance. He is part of a team developing over $150M of hotels across the country. He has invested in and served on the advisory board of over a dozen early stage technology based companies. Fun facts: The smartest thing he has ever done, according to Bill, was to marry his wife, Diana who was a neuroscientist when they met. They welcomed their first son in January 2013 and their second in February 2016!

Jace Mouse is the CEO and Vice Chairman at PerkSpot, an employee discount and recognition program offered to over thirteen million employees at some of America's top companies. Jace grew up on a cattle ranch in Oklahoma and has brought his work ethic and resourcefulness with him to Chicago. Jace has had stints in Fortune 500 at State Farm Insurance and Orbitz, as well as online businesses at Cars.com, iExplore, and Cappex.com. Since joining PerkSpot in 2013, Jace has been instrumental in more than doubling PerkSpot's workforce and growing the business and its partnerships, leading to consistent year-over-year growth and a substantial increase in total users.

Shelton Banks is CEO of re:work training, a Chicago-based non-profit that is reshaping hiring trends by training and supporting individuals from underrepresented, underserved, and non-traditional backgrounds; empowering them to start and keep careers in sales & technology.  Shelton joined re:work in July of 2018 to drive the organization's vision of solving three major problems: the growing wealth gap between Chicago's South and West Sides and the rest of the city, the tech industry's staggering lack of Black and Latinx professionals, as well as the way companies have historically thought about hiring candidates who may not check all the typical boxes. Under his direction, re:work candidates on average jump from making around $19,000 to $55,000/year base salary with full benefits - not including commission and bonuses - and the nonprofit has helped create $3M and counting in earned income that empowers not only alumni, but their families and neighborhoods as well.    His efforts have been recognized by major local news outlets, like Fox News Chicago, WGN News Radio, Money Matters with Adam Torres, and tastytrade's Bootstrapping in America.

Since its founding in 2011, Orazio Buzza has been the Founder & CEO of Fooda. Headquartered in Chicago, Fooda manages food service programs for 2000+ employers across 24 metro areas. Before Fooda, Orazio was a C-Level executive on the founding teams of two Chicago companies that IPO'd: President at Echo Global Logistics (2005-2010) and CFO/COO at InnerWorkings (2003-2005). Orazio is a CPA and has degrees in Accounting and Supply Chain Management from the University of Illinois.

As a motivated business leader, Casey is a passionate entrepreneur who got his start owning a home service franchise. After nearly a decade, he successfully exited his role with 90+ franchise owners and over 600+ employees. Casey went on to co-found Cultivate Advisors, one of the largest small business advising firms in North America. As the CEO of Cultivate, his team has helped thousands of business owners reach their growth objectives through core business skill development and scalable systemization.  In both 2019 & 2020, Cultivate ranked within the top 800 fastest growing businesses in the United States on the Inc 5000 list. The mission of Cultivate Advisors is to partner with committed entrepreneurs to propel their business beyond expectations. In 2019, the average business within the Cultivate portfolio grew by 68% in year over year revenue and 108% in profit, proving that when you prioritize the growth of your clients, the business grows as well.

Desmond Clark has built a strong professional reputation as a Former NFL player for the Denver Broncos, Miami Dolphins and Chicago Bears. His leadership on the field and now, off the field, is shown in his keynote addresses and seminars. Desmond is now leading his own companies as CEO of Desmond Clark Investment Group, The Insurance People along with Des Clark Speaks. He is the author of Principles of Winning: 5 Keys to Create a Standard of Excellence. With “Standards over Feelings” as the mantra for Desmond, he leads his audiences through real-life personal and professional experiences to help shine a light on effective leadership. Desmond's 5 keys to Why Others Will Follow will undoubtedly unlock even more leadership potential.

J'ai Brown serves as an HR Director for HUB International, leading the HR function for the Midwest-West division. Additionally, she is the Executive Sponsor for the Midwest-West Diversity & Inclusion Council and a member of the organizing team for the HUB Women Network ERG. Prior to joining HUB, J'ai worked in roles of increasing responsibility in claims administration and human resources at Allstate Insurance Company before continuing her career in human resources at BMO Financial Group. J'ai received an MBA and B.S. degrees in HR Management and General Management from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and has her PHR and SHRM-CP designations. J'ai resides in Bronzeville with her husband, Frank, and daughter, Kylee. Lauryn grew up in the Southern United States and in high school had a confrontation with race in America that changed her life and directed her future. In 2003, Lauryn graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor in Psychology with a focus on race and multicultural studies. She was committed to racial equality through educational transformation and began individual work to become anti-racist. In 2007, as a part of Teach for America, Lauryn began facilitating sessions for other teachers on Diversity and Achievement, Instruction as well as Classroom Culture, that would continue for the duration of her career. For thirteen years, Lauryn worked for KIPP Chicago, the highest performing school district in Chicago and a national network of charter schools focused on college completion. During her time there, she served as the School Leader of KIPP Ascend Middle School in North Lawndale and, before that, as the Assistant Principal and an ELA teacher.  Lauryn is also an inspiring public speaker who has been asked to speak at the National Charter School Conference in Minneapolis, as a keynote speaker for Teach for America's Induction Ceremony, as well as at North Park University, Columbia College and Indiana University-Purdue on Leadership, Consciousness, and Education. Lauryn has a Masters in Curriculum Planning and Design from National Louis University, a National Board Certification in Literacy, and completed the KIPP School Leadership Training Institute at New York University. In 2009, Lauryn was awarded Teacher of the Year for Chicago Charter Schools and in 2011 was a finalist for the Teach for America Distinguished Leader Award. Last June, she was certified as a 15 Commitments Conscious Leadership Coach and left her16-year education career to work as a leader; speaker, consultant, and coach who partners with individuals and organizations to support the emergence of more conscious cultures. Corey Haynes is a thought leader, passionate about people, and a lover of tech. He is the new District Manager at SHI - the leading minority and women-owned tech VAR partner in North America - where he is focused on total tech solutions, business optimization, client strategy, and more.  Corey has since moved to downtown Detroit where he has started to rediscover the city, continues to engage in volunteer activities (virtual of course), and continues his work to foster diverse, collaborative communities and partnerships.

Bobby founded Accelerated Growth (AG) in 2009 to help entrepreneurial organizations drive sustainable growth. He and his 60+ person team have built and executed financial, operational, and technology infrastructure within 300+ companies in multiple industries over the past 10 years. Bobby also serves as a Director on 4 corporate boards of companies ranging in size from $5MM-$50MM in revenue. In addition, Bobby is an Adjunct Faculty Member at Northwestern University and Co-Chair of Northwestern's University's Field Studies Employer Advisory Board.

Ablorde is the CEO of 4Degrees, a Chicago-based technology company, applying machine intelligence to help teams in relationship-driven industries manage their most important source of opportunity - their professional networks. When he's not doing that, you can usually find him lifting weights, reading books, or eating BBQ.

Elliot grew up in a family of recruiters and started working in the industry when he was 16 years old. His entire career has been spent in tech recruiting. In addition to running his own tech recruiting business for many years, Elliot has also lead tech recruiting at Groupon as well as co-founding Dev Bootcamp in Chicago, which was acquired by Kaplan. Elliot's take on tech in the recruiting industry: computers can never replace people in a human-centric business, but they can help when used to solve the right problems.

Kenny is a serial entrepreneur...and more importantly a serial boutique investment fund manager.  With his new platform, Diffuse, he is incubating and running select venture funds.  They help new GP's get to market quickly, without making costly mistakes, and all funds on the platform share their infrastructure, deal flow, and resources...freeing the managers to focus on helping entrepreneurs build great businesses.

Ed is a fifteen-year serial technology entrepreneur. Founding his first company, Total Attorneys, at the age of 25 in 2002.  Ed is currently the Founder & CEO of Bridge Legal and a Mentor at Techstars. He was inducted into the Chicagoland Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame in 2009, the Inc 500, was listed in Crain's Chicago Business 40 under 40, named Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization's Young CEO of the Year and was a Midwest Finalist for the Ernest and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

David Loiselle: Founder of LOHIGH Talent Consulting  Randi Jakubowitz: VP of People at Paro Elles Skony: VP of Talent at Centro

Tim Schumm talks with John Bertand of IDx Technologies. IDx Technologies is a cutting edge technology-based startup that is the first FDA approved AI based diagnostic platform that can identify a range of common diseases and is changing the way Dr.'s work with patients.  We're speaking with their CEO, John Bertrand, about a range of topics affecting our healthcare system and how IDx is looking to be a part of the future of healthcare.

Michael is a serial entrepreneur who has co-founded five high growth businesses over his twenty-year career. Currently, Michael is the CEO, co-founder, board director of UrbanBound, and is a co-founder and board director at Hireology. Michael's first business, Versity.com, grew rapidly over a 3 year period and was successfully sold in 2000. During his time with Versity, Michael held several roles which included CFO, VP of Product Development and Board Member. Prior to these ventures, Michael was a financial analyst at the investment bank Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette in New York (acquired by Credit Suisse). He graduated with High Honors from the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business with a Bachelor of Business Administration. Michael is an active member and past President of the Entrepreneurs Organization of Chicago, a global organization with over 14,000 members worldwide. In his spare time, Michael enjoys listening to music, playing piano, cooking, watching Michigan football, and spending quality time with his family and friends. He lives in Chicago with his wife, two children, and their dog, Brandy. 

Rahul Khare, MD, is the CEO and founder of Innovative Care, a group of medical practices that are changing the way healthcare is delivered in Chicago. Khare completed his Master of Science in Clinical Investigation from Northwestern University and did his emergency medicine residency at the University of Michigan before taking a position at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. Khare spent twelve years as an emergency medicine physician and associate professor at Northwestern. During his tenure, he received several federally funded grants and published more than 20 peer-reviewed articles on how to improve healthcare. Khare's research inspired his vision for Innovative Care.

Samara is Founding Partner of a pre-seed/seed-stage fund, Chingona Ventures, focusing on investing in technology and technology-enabled companies all over the U.S.

With over 20 years of executive and financial leadership experience, Mike has operated, advised and invested in companies across a broad range of industries and stages from startups to mature enterprises. Prior to co-founding Jump Capital, he was a senior partner for Excelar Group LLC, a provider of strategic execution and advisory services. He also served as President of SIRVA, a Clayton, Dubilier & Rice portfolio company. Mike spent sixteen years with GE and GE Capital in a breadth of financial, operating and global assignments and is an honors graduate from GE's Financial Management and Leadership Development programs.

Joe is the Founder & CEO of Holberg Financial (holbergfinancial.com), a financial wellness benefit for employees. Holberg Financial helps employees reduce financial stress and helps companies recruit and retain top talent while saving them money through increased employee productivity. He is the author of both "Rogue Finances: The "Un-system" Designed to Help You Become Financially Healthy, Successful, and Awesome" and most recently, "A Brief Discourse on the Definition and Tenets of Financial Justice". His perspective is drawn from a variety of experiences including working at Google, teaching middle school math on the West Side of Chicago, and has created a loan underwriting system for the Capital Good Fund, one of the country's largest microfinance organizations. He is an avid coffee drinker, a reader, and a wanna-be-bibliophile.

Amanda Lannert is the CEO of Jellyvision, the maker of interactive benefits communication software ALEX. Since taking over Jellyvision's helm in 2011, Amanda has played a key role in the company's success: she spearheaded Jellyvision's pivot from a services agency to a profitable software-as-a-service company, growing the company's customer count by 250% in the last three years.   Amanda was named CEO of the Year at the Moxie Awards in 2014 and 2015, Woman in Tech in 2016, Woman of the Year for the Chicago Rotary Club of 2018, and was recognized as 2016's Industry Champion and 2018's CEO of the Year by the Illinois Technology Association.

Julie is the CEO and Co-Founder of PartySlate, a Houzz-like website where leading event professionals share their work, build their brand, and drive leads. Before founding PartySlate, Julie held executive positions at top-tier digital agencies such as Razorfish, Vibes Mobile, and Agency.com. With over 20 years of digital marketing experience with some of the biggest brands in the world, Julie is excited to bring this expertise to the events industry. Julie received an MBA in marketing and finance from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan.

Jon Repka: VP of Sales at Paro Adam Johnson: VP of Sales at ActiveCampaign Emma Galler: VP of Sales at Builtin

Jimmy is responsible for working with portfolio companies on talent strategy focusing on organizational design and development as well as communication both within each company and across the portfolio. Prior to joining ParkerGale, Jimmy worked on talent strategy at Home Chef, a venture-backed meal kit company, and Bain & Company working with clients on a variety of engagements including growth strategy and organizational re-design. Earlier in his career, Jimmy worked in sales at Nortel Networks and as a teacher with Teach For America. Jimmy holds a BA in Philosophy from Northwestern University, an MEd from University of Missouri-St. Louis, and an MBA from Yale School of Management.  Paul is responsible for working with the leaders of ParkerGale's portfolio companies to improve their talent and performance management programs. Prior to joining ParkerGale, Paul worked in the Leadership and Talent practice at Bain & Company. At Bain, he also led private equity, merger integration, and performance improvement client engagements across a variety of industries. Earlier in his career, Paul worked for a boutique financial research firm and an international retailer. He was also a professional lacrosse player for Major League Lacrosse. Paul holds a BSBA in Management from Bucknell University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Aaron Levy sees a future where work doesn't suck – where work is both challenging and fulfilling, where your manager is your coach – where she is the person who helps develop your skills and unlocks your full potential. Aaron founded, Raise The Bar and wrote the best-selling book Open, Honest, and Direct to create this future by empowering managers with the tools, skills, and training to be better leaders of people.    Aaron is also the host of The Open, Honest, and Direct Podcast, the Co-Director of Startup Grind Chicago, a Thrive Global contributor, an 1871 mentor, an ICF Certified Coach, and a member of the Forbes Coaches Council.

Colleen Werner attended the University of Michigan where she earned Bachelor's Degrees in Dance and Kinesiology with a focus on movement science. After spending ten years as a professional dancer, she started LulaFit in 2014. While dancing professionally and studying the science of the human body, Colleen realized that our bodies are the most sophisticated piece of technology we will ever own. Unfortunately, when she looked around her, she saw people she cared about unable to take the time to care for their well-being. She started LulaFit to build community and conversation about our physical, mental, and social wellness in the places we spend the most time: home and work.

Tim Schumm and Jeff Rosset discuss the impact of COVID-19 on Chicago Tech, pivoting process & strategy, and building communities.

Tim Schumm and Nick Moran discuss the impact of COVID-19 on the VC community plus building a community and audience, and 2020/2021 predictions

Tim Schumm and David Loiselle discuss the role of HR in a crisis, Bull market vs. Bear market Talent Strategies, and shifts in employee/candidate mindset. 

Tim Schumm and Matt Kunkel discuss the impact of COVID-19, leading during uncertain times, and the role of GRC before/during a crisis.

Tim Schumm and Reid Lappin discuss the impact of COVID-19, data analytics in Marketing and 2020/2021 predictions. 

Tim Schumm and Troy Henikoff discuss the impact of COVID-19 on tech companies, advice for Founders, and leading through recessionary cycles