Faculty mentor directory

Alicia Amaral
Managing Director

Alicia Amaral is the Managing Director of the Cambridge, MA office of
Scalar Analytics. Alicia is a CPA and she teaches entrepreneurial finance at
Tufts University and accounting and finance courses in the Graduate
School of Management at Clark University. Prior to joining Scalar, Alicia
held CFO positions for The Institute for Healthcare Improvement and
Sentinel Benefits and Financial Group. Prior to that, she was a senior
auditor for the public accounting firm Arthur Andersen. Alicia received her
Bachelors in Business from Furman University and her Masters in
Accounting from Bentley University.

Scalar Analytics

Michelle L. Basil is a partner in the Business Department and chair of
Nutter’s Life Sciences practice group and is actively involved with the
firm’s Emerging Companies practice group. Michelle focuses her practice
on corporate and securities law, including public and private equity and
debt financing, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic partnerships and
collaborations. She represents clients in a broad range of industries,
including life sciences, technology and financial services.
Michelle Basil
Partner
Nutter McClennen & Fish
@MLBasil

Will Bernat
Associate
@NutterLaw

Michelle advises private companies regarding formation, ongoing
business issues, equity compensation and angel and venture financing.
She also counsels clients regarding ongoing reporting requirements of
publicly-traded companies, securities compliance, corporate governance,
equity compensation, and various other matters affecting publicly-traded
companies and their officers and directors.
William J. Bernat is an associate in the Business Department and a member
of the firm's Emerging Companies and Commercial Finance practice
groups. His practice is focused on private equity, venture capital and
angel financing transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate
governance issues. Will represents clients in a broad range of industries,
including life sciences, technology, social media and consumer products.
His representation of emerging and entrepreneurial companies spans the
companies’ entire lifespan, from initial planning and formation to
operations and exit. Will also has significant experience representing
major lending institutions and companies in complex multi-party
financings and asset-based/commercial lending transactions. Will is a
frequent lecturer for Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education.

1

Jerry Bird
President
MassVentures
@JBird14

Jerry is the president of MassVentures, a firm he joined in 2005. He has
over 25 years experience advising and financing entrepreneurial-driven
companies, the past 15 in venture capital. Prior to joining MassVentures in
2005, Jerry was president of Boston-based Claflin Capital Management
which he joined in 1996, becoming president in 2001. At Claflin, he led
over a dozen investments in early-stage technology companies focused
on software and Internet-enabled businesses. While at Claflin, he
frequently co-invested with MassVentures becoming familiar with its team
and its investment approach. From 1986 to 1996 he worked at Bank of
Boston in their energy financing group, operations group and was a vice
president of the international investment banking division. He is a
frequent speaker on venture capital and entrepreneurship. Jerry earned his
undergraduate degree in geology from Dartmouth college and his MBA
from Dartmouth’s Amos Tuck School of Business.
Throughout his professional career, Jerry has operated both as an investor
and an active partner to entrepreneurs building their companies. His
direct investment experience covers dozens of companies and in many
cases as the lead or co-lead investor. Several of these companies were
acquired by significant publicly-traded companies. Among the companies
Jerry has been on the board of are e-Travel (acquired by Oracle),
Andover.net (Nasdaq: ANDV, purchased by VA Linux), LinkSoft
technologies (purchased by QuadraMed), NexCen Technologies
(purchased by UCMS), and Bitpipe Inc. (purchased by TechTarget).
He currently is a board member or board observer at MassVentures’
portfolio companies Forerun, lifeIMAGE and uTest. He also serves on the
advisory board of MassDevelopment’s Emerging Technology Fund, and
the Board of the Mass Technology Transfer Center. He serves on the
boards of Massachusetts Audubon, Crossroads for Kids, and the
Massachusetts chapter of the Trust for Public Land. In his free time, Jerry
loves to ski and bike.

Justin is Co-Founder and CEO of Hadapt. Prior to Hadapt, Justin led
product development for COVECTRA, an anti-counterfeit technology firm.
Before that, Justin founded an online social media company and spent the
first six years of his career as a software developer at MIT Lincoln
Laboratory and Raytheon.
Justin Borgman
CEO & Co-Founder

Justin has a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts
at Amherst, where he was a Commonwealth Scholar, and attended
graduate school at the Yale School of Management.

Hadapt
@JustinBorgman

2

Joe Butt has examined the convergence of media and high technology for
his entire career. Prior to founding Blackfriars Communications with fellow
Seeking Alpha contributor Carl Howe, Joe led entertainment and consumer
research teams at Forrester Research and explored the relationship
between user experience and system infrastructures as a senior analyst.
Joe Butt
Launchpad Venture Group
@LaunchpadVG

Prior to Forrester, Joe helped lead the creative department at the Strategic
Interactive Group, creating and executing Internet strategies for
companies such as Mobil, IBM, and Lever. Joe had previously spent 15
years in the New York creative community, where he was active as both
director and producer.
Joe is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the Harvard Business School,
and he is a member of the Directors Guild of America.
For the last 20 years Joe has served as mentor, coach, and personal advisor to
CEO’s and entrepreneurs. In recent years, he has served as investor, advisor and
active director with dozens of companies, public and private.

Joe Caruso
Founder
BREW Boston
@joecaruso2020

Joe is currently a director and active investor in Boston MicroMachines and
i2Chem. He is a member of CommonAngels and eCoast Angels, and was
previously a principal in Walnut Ventures and a Managing Partner of Brookwood
Partners, all investment groups for early stage companies. He also maintains an
active consulting practice dealing with structuring and negotiation of acquisitions,
strategic partnerships and financings, and issues related to dispute resolution.
He has served on dozens of boards over the years and is recipient of the
Leadership in Private Corporate Governance award from the National Association
of Corporate Directors New England Chapter. He is a graduate of Northeastern
University (BSEE with honors) and the Harvard Business School (MBA) He is an
advisor to Northeastern’s School of Technological Entrepreneurship, and serves as
a mentor for Boston University's entrepreneurship program and for the Boston
TechStars program.
Previously, Joe served as interim CEO for companies in need of strategic change running businesses ranging from 5 to 1,000 employees. Early in his career, he
worked at Teradyne and Autex, Inc., and was CEO at Cyborg Corporation, a
venture-funded company that was a pioneer in the use of PC’s in laboratory and
factory automation. He also has served as an arbitrator for the American
Arbitration Association.
Former board memberships include: ACT Medical, Acumenta, Adhesive
Technologies, American Fantasy Sports, Audiofile, Boston Restaurant Associates,
Boston University's Photonics Center (advisory director), Coffee Connection,
Colonial Mills, Common Angels, Corion, Cyborg Corporation, General Analysis,
Haymarket Bank, Iconics, Laser Science, Metrisa, MicroE, Nimbit, Qiave
Technologies, QD Vision, Quant Funds (trustee); Tytronics, Wwwhoosh, Zentox,
the Turnaround Management Association (founding director, New England
Chapter), the National Association of Corporate Directors (New England Chapter),
the Association for Corporate Growth (New England Chapter) and WEST (Women
Entrepreneurs in Science and Technology). Joe has also served as an arbitrator for
the American Arbitration Association.

3

Glenn is an active angel investor and serves on the board of directors of
Launchpad Venture Group. Over the last 8 years Launchpad has made 30
investments, investing nearly $9M in companies that in turn, have gone on to raise
nearly $150MM.

Glenn Champagne
@glennchampagne

Glenn brings more than 20 years of experience in the software industry focusing
in sales and consulting at the likes of then pre-IPO companies Oracle and Business
Objects. He was also Director of Technical Services for Eprise Corporation, and a
Principal with IBM/Tivoli. Glenn was Vice President of sales at Inboxer, which was
acquired by SafeCore in May 2009. In 2010 Glenn was a 2nd round judge at the
MassChallenge.
For seven years, Glenn volunteered weekly at Children's Hospital Boston playing
games with children battling cancer. He is an avid skier and enjoys Porsche Club of
America autocross racing. Glenn holds a B.S. in Business Administration from
Northeastern University.

Yumin is currently a Director of Vets First Choice and is a board observer
at Institute for Health Metrics (IHM), Nordic Consulting, and TYRX. Yumin
is a director to The Capital Network, a non-profit focused on educating
entrepreneurs around topics of fundraising and finance. He previously was
chair of the New England Venture Network (NEVN), the largest young
Venture Capital organization in New England. Yumin is co-chair of the
Boston Symphony Orchestra Venture Capital and Private Equity committee
and is on Boston University’s Coulter Foundation Oversight Committee.
Yumin Choi
Vice President
HLM Venture Partners
@YuminVC

Prior to HLM, Yumin was with Angel Healthcare Investors, a health care
focused early stage investment group, ZweigWhite’s Financial Advisory
Services and Mergers & Acquisitions Group and was co-founder and CEO
of CY Digital. He is also a mentor in health care focused startup
accelerators, Blueprint Health and Healthbox, and is an active angel
investor.
Yumin received a BS from Babson College.
Paul J. Cronin is a partner in the Litigation and Intellectual Property
Departments of Nutter McClennen & Fish, and a member of the Intellectual
Property Litigation practice group. His practice focuses on trial work in
cases involving patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and copyright
disputes. He also counsels clients with respect to the licensing and
procurement of intellectual property rights, due diligence studies, and
product clearances.

Paul Cronin
Partner
@paulcronin

4

Charles de Gaspe
Beaubien
President & CEO
Groupize
@charlesdgb

Ken Deckinger
Co-Founder
Jess, Meet Ken
@KenDeckinger

Charles de Gaspe Beaubien is a Group Travel Guru. His 25 year career in
the travel industry has included experience in every aspect of group travel.
Whether guiding group tours, welcoming thousands of guests to the
rafting company he co-founded, helping planners select Montreal as their
destination while at Tourisme Montreal or serving in executive positions
for major group tour operators including Yankee Holidays and Group
Voyagers Inc. (Globus, Cosmos, Monograms and more); Charles
understands the complications of planning and booking group travel. His
hands on planning experience, combined with his extensive experience in
travel technology fuels his passion to bring efficiencies to the difficult
processes involved in booking and managing a group.
“I want Groupize to be the leader in the Group Travel Technology and
provide the solutions to facilitate online transactions for groups. My
dream is that more people will share unique experiences and travel
together because we ultimately make it easier to organize. We are the
Booking Engine for Groups”. Charles has held various board seats such as
the Canadian Tourism Commission Leisure Advisory Board, the Starwood
Advisory Board, and the Gloucester DMO. He credits his education in
Entrepreneurship from Bishop’s University in Quebec and l’E.S.S.C.A.
(Ecole Superieur des Science Commerciales d’Anger) in France for his ‘we
can fix this problem’ attitude. Best Group Travel Experience: Annual
Friends and Family Rafting Trip in Maine, which combines two passions,
Rafting and Sharing Experiences as a Group.
Co-Founder - Jess, Meet Ken - Ken Deckinger is a serial entrepreneur with
close to ten years experience in the online dating space. He previously cofounded, and was CEO of HurryDate pioneering the global speed dating
concept in 45 cities throughout the US, UK, and Canada. Eventually
expanding the idea to include an online dating site, HurryDate was
acquired by Spark Networks (parent company of JDate.com &
ChristianMingle.com). He spent three years at Spark Networks managing
HurryDate and overseeing JDate’s travel & events business.
Ken has appeared in media around the world including Time Magazine,
The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, USA
Today, CNN, BBC, and Dateline NBC. He is a graduate of the University of
Florida, where he was honored with the University’s Alumni Entrepreneur
of the Year Under 40 award and sits on the Board of Directors for the
Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and has an MBA from Boston
College. He’s a Mentor at TechStars Boston, actively advises entrepreneurs
nationwide and is the subject of a Harvard Business School case study.

5

Thomas “Mac” Dougherty is the CEO and a co-founder of Cognitive
Electronics. Cognitive is building the next generation of Big Data
hardware. Cognitive’s proprietary co-processors inspired by neuroscience
research done at Dartmouth accelerate MapReduce applications and other
parallel software by 100x compared to commodity hardware.

Mac Dougherty

Mac also founded and was CEO of AskOnline (askonline.net) a SaaS
business serving the higher education market. Mac holds a BA from
Harvard and an MBA, with distinction, from the Tuck School of Business at
Dartmouth, where he was a Tuck Scholar.

CEO
Cognitive Electrics
@TMcKD
Martin has been a technology entrepreneur and executive for more than
30 years, with the past 20 focused on energy and clean tech. He currently
is the CEO of Powerhouse Dynamics, a pioneering, CommonAngelsfunded company in the energy management space.

Martin Flusberg
CEO
PowerHouse Dynamics
@eMonitorSystem

Prior to that, he was co-founder and President of Nexus Energy Software,
a global provider of enterprise software solutions for the utility industry,
addressing smart grid and energy efficiency. Nexus was successfully sold
in 2005 and integrated with its sister companies into Aclara Technologies.
Martin previously served as Director of Commercial Systems for TASC,
with responsibility for the firm's Lodestar® product line for the utility
industry (later spun out as LODESTAR Corporation and sold to Oracle in
2007). He was also founder and CEO of REALink Systems, a software
company serving the real estate industry, and CEO of Multisystems, a
software and management consulting firm focused on transportation.
Martin has a Masters of Civil and Environmental Engineering from MIT and
a Bachelors of Electrical Engineering from CUNY.

Ed Friedman
Boston Harbor Angels

Ed Friedman is the Co-founder and president of TeleType Co, a
software/hardware development company based in Boston, MA. Building
on over 30 years of experience, TeleType specializes in software/hardware
system integration and has produced cutting edge products in a variety of
industries. Today TeleType is incorporating its innovative global
positioning solutions into the mobile devices of the future. Previously, Ed
was the co-developer of software PostScript interpreter, and Co-Founded
BooksOnDisk. Developer of popular series of Digital Gourmet and other
reference books in digital format. As a member of Boston Harbor Angels
and Investors Collaborative Ed has invested in numerous start-ups in
Boston area. Currently, you can find Ed working and holding office hours
at the Cambridge Innovation Center to help start-up companies to achieve
their financial goals.

6

William C. Geary III is co-managing partner and a member of the
Intellectual Property Department and Life Sciences and Emerging
Companies practice groups. He is also a member of the firm's Executive
Committee. His practice concentrates in all aspects of patent and
trademark law.

Bill Geary
Partner
@billgeary

Bill counsels clients in strategies for the development, protection, and
exploitation of patent and trademark rights in the United States and
abroad. He has extensive experience in preparing and prosecuting patent
applications in a variety of technologies, with emphasis in the fields of
medical devices, polymers and advanced materials, and chemicals. He
represents start-up as well as established companies, including Johnson &
Johnson, various medical device manufacturers, and medical and research
institutions, including Massachusetts General Hospital.
Active in the patent bar, Bill is a member of the Boston Patent Law
Association and the American Intellectual Property Law Association. He is
one of the firm's representatives to the Massachusetts Medical Device
Industry Council (MassMEDIC), and serves as MassMEDIC's legal counsel
on a pro bono basis. He is also a member of the American, Massachusetts,
and Boston Bar Associations. In his community, Bill is actively involved
with the Merrimack Valley Venture Forum, serving on its Board of
Directors, and he is on the Advisory Board of The Massachusetts Medical
Device Development Center (M2D2).
Bob is an active Angel Investor through Launchpad Venture Group, a
Boston-area-based group that provides funding and mentorship to earlystage companies.

Robert Gervis
@LaunchpadVG

He also serves on the board and advisory board of several companies.
Current Boards and Board Commitments include: Axiall Corporation
(NYSE: AXLL), Aspen Aerogels, EnergySage, and Crowdly. His previous
board appointments include: Tronox (NYSE: TROX), Incentive Targeting,
ProBuild, Production Control Services, Avtek, Boston Coach, Pembroke
Real Estate, FIML Natural Resources and Veritude.
Bob is the Founder and Managing Member of Epilogue, LLC, a private
consulting and financial advisory firm.
Previously Bob was with Fidelity Investments and also Weil, Gotshal &
Manges, New York, NY.
Bob received a J.D. from George Washington University Law School, a B.S.
in Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University and a CFA 2000 from the
CFA Institute.

7

Adam Ghander
Partner

Adam B. Ghander focuses his corporate finance and securities practice on
private equity, venture capital, and emerging companies representation;
mergers and acquisitions; and securities regulations. He represents clients
in a wide variety of industries, including banking and financial services,
telecommunications, social networking, manufacturing and professional
sports. Adam previously served as in-house counsel for a publicly-traded
manufacturing and technology company. Prior to his in-house experience,
he spent many years as a corporate attorney at the Boston office of an
international law firm. Adam lectures frequently on corporate finance and
teaches at the Boston University School of Management.

@NutterLaw

Alex Glovsky
Partner
@AlexGlovsky

Alex Glovsky is the Chair of the Firm’s Emerging Companies Group and a
member of the firm's Executive Committee. His practice is focused on
mergers and acquisitions, capital finance and complex corporate
governance issues. Alex has broad experience handling mergers and
acquisitions for both strategic and financial buyers as well as public and
private companies selling their businesses. He has served as lead counsel
advising clients through auction processes, aggressive roll-up strategies,
and complex deal negotiations, specializing in middle-market
transactions ranging in size from $25 million to $500 million.
Alex has also guided clients at each stage of private finance, from initial
angel round investments through late stage venture-backed financings.
As Chair of Nutter’s Emerging Companies Group, Alex assists early-stage
clients in formulating the strategy to realize their business goals and in
building the foundation necessary to secure third party investment. Alex
has counseled clients in angel financings representing an aggregate of
over $40 million in investment in early stage companies.

Scott serves as an engagement leader in our Commercial Audit group
where he is responsible for providing audit and advisory services
including assisting rapidly growing, entrepreneurial-driven technology
companies and consulting on complex accounting matters including
revenue recognition, equity instruments and business combinations,
internal controls and corporate governance. Scott also has significant
expertise with employee benefit plan audits, ERISA and the Department of
Labor regulations related to such plans.
Scott Goodwin
Member of the Firm

Scott joined Wolf in 2002 and has over twenty years of experience as a
Certified Public Accountant. His technology sector experience includes
software, medical devices, life sciences, biotech, cleantech, web service
and mobile. Scott serves on Wolf’s Accounting & Auditing Committee.

Wolf and Company
@BostonTechCPA

8

Jeremy Halpern
Partner

Jeremy Halpern, is a Partner, and the Director of Business Development,
Emerging Companies Group, at Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP. As a former
entrepreneur in mobile and entertainment, Jeremy concentrates on
connecting with and supporting the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in New
England, working with current entrepreneurs, angel investors, venture
capitalists and corporate strategic partners. In addition to his work with
TCN, Jeremy is an angel investor, and serves on the Boards of
MassVentures, a MicroVC firm and Pintley, a next generation marketing
company for the brewing industry. Jeremy is a member of or participates
at Launchpad Venture Group, Boston Harbor Angels, Golden Seeds, TiEAngels, MassChallenge, Web Innovators Group, MassTLC, Mobile Mondays
and other area industry groups. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley and the
UCLA School of Law.

@startupboston
Richard C. Harris is a consultant to companies and professional service
firms, helping them raise performance by aligning around a core mission
and strategy.
A consultant for more than 25 years, clients have recently used his
services to…
•
Rick Harris
@rchphd

Build strategic alignment within senior leadership teams

•
Coach executives on how to achieve higher levels of individual
performance
•
Provide high-stakes facilitation for functional teams (sales,
engineering, etc.)
Dr. Harris is also active in the greater Boston start up community. As a
member of Launchpad Venture Group, he is an active angel investor.
Launchpad, the largest angel investment group in the Northeast, is
focused on investments in technology and life sciences. In addition to
investing he acts as a mentor to start up teams and provides advice on
how to communicate with potential investors. Ina this latter capacity he
co-chairs a joint venture with The Capital Network that brings together
Launchpad mentors with TCN members.

Josh works at Google having sold his retail marketing startup, Incentive
Targeting, to them in 2012. He received his MBA from Babson College;
prior to that he worked in product management and account management
in the healthcare and financial services.
Josh Herzig-Marx
Google
@herzigma

9

Mr. Littauer is a business and technology management consultant with
expertise in Internet and communications technologies, as well as
healthcare IT. In addition he is an active angel investor, member of Boston
Harbor Angels.

Ben Littauer
Boston Harbor Angels and
Walnut Ventures
@littweb

Mr. Littauer was Technology Strategist for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
Center in Boston, where he defined the architecture for PatientSite, a
system that allows patients to communicate securely with their healthcare
team and view their own medical records. He also was a consultant to the
Massachusetts Health Data Consortium on healthcare data security
projects.
Mr. Littauer was co-founder, President, and CTO of Baranof Software, the
leading vendor of service-level management software for messaging and
Internet applications. Baranof was sold to Tally Systems in 1997.
He has worked for Cisco Systems, Tumbleweed Communications, On
Technology, Sun Microsystems, Symantec, Lotus, and BBN. In addition he
has worked with a number of startup ventures including LocaModa.com,
Zion.com, and CafeAbroad.com. He has spoken at the Open Group, The
New England HIPAA Workgroup, ISSA, and numerous other conferences
and events. Mr. Littauer was also an analyst with Ferris Research and
Baroudi Bloor International.

Bill McCullen
Director
LaunchCapital

Bill is an experienced private investor, with over 7 years backing
companies in the networking, semiconductor, clean energy and online
markets. Bill has been in/around the Boston startup scene for close to 15
years, previously holding senior level roles at companies such as
Sycamore Networks. Bill received his BS and MS degrees in Electrical
Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from the MIT
Sloan School of Management. Bill is a lifelong Bostonian who currently
lives in the suburbs with his wife and 3 children. When he has time he
enjoys playing basketball and cycling.

@launchcapital

Jess McLear

Jess is an angel investor and member of Launchpad Venture Group. Her
family has been investing in and mentoring start up companies for over
20 years in both Canada and the US. Her portfolio companies fall into
many sectors including manufacturing, IT, medical devices and consumer
goods. She is an observer or serves on the board for various non-profits
as well as portfolio companies. She has served as an investor and mentor
for several companies throughout the New England area. Jess earned a BA
from Williams College and MEd from Harvard University.

@LaunchpadVG

10

Christopher Mirabile is the co-Managing Director of LaunchPad Venture
Group. Christopher is a full-time angel and an active member of the
Boston-area angel investing community with investment more than 25
start-up companies. He was named one of XConomy's "Top Angel
Investors in New England" for 2012.
Christopher Mirabile
Managing Director
@cmirabile

Christopher is an adjunct lecturer in the MBA program at Babson College,
a regular advisor and mentor to start-ups, and a frequent panelist and
speaker. He is a member of the Board of Directors or Board of Advisors of
numerous start-up companies as well as several non-profits, and he is an
Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Babson's Olin School of Business.
Christopher has served as a public company CFO with IONA Technologies
PLC, a corporate and securities lawyer with Testa Hurwitz & Thibeault and
as a management consultant with Price Waterhouse's Strategic Consulting
Group.
Christopher earned his J.D. from Boston College Law School and his B.A.,
with honors, from Colgate University.

Heather Onstott
Venture Partner

With over 15 years of credit and small business experience, Heather joined
LaunchCapital in 2009 to help create the Small Business division. She
looks for startups with smooth growth expectations as well as established
small businesses needing to restore traditional financing relationships.
Heather earned her BA at Wofford College and her MBA at Dartmouth’s
Tuck School of Business. An avid Red Sox fan and enthusiastic pilot,
Heather lives in Cambridge with her cute mutt and brilliant husband.

LaunchCapital
@seedcapitalchiq

11

Panos Panay
CEO
Sonicbids
@sonicbidspanos

Panos is the founder and CEO of Sonicbids, the leading platform for bands
to book gigs and market themselves online.
Sonicbids connects more than 450,000 bands with 32,000 promoters
from over 100 different countries and counts major events like SXSW,
Bonnaroo and CMJ as exclusive partners. The company’s Social Music
Marketing product suite enables brand marketers to reach and engage
music fans and consumers using rich music-oriented content. Customers
include Diesel Industry, Red Bull, Bud Light and Renaissance Hotels.
In 2013 Sonicbids was acquired by Backstage LLC, in a deal financially
backed by Guggenheim Partners.
Panos is widely credited for spotting and capitalizing early on three
distinct emerging trends in the music business over the last decade: the
shift to a primarily online means of marketing; the emergence of an
"artistic middle class”; and the shift from a record-label funded industry
to a consumer brand-funded music business.
Panos lectures regularly about entrepreneurship and the new business of
music at universities including MIT, Tufts, Babson, NYU, and Northeastern
as well as at industry events like SXSW, and MIDEM. He is the co-founder
of Boston Young Entrepreneurs, a City Hall-backed group that mentors
local start-ups; a founding director of Boston World Partnerships, which
facilitates collaboration between innovators in the community; and the
Chair of his alma mater Berklee College of Music’s Presidential Advisory
Council.

Enrico is a pioneer in the life sciences with a history of recognizing and
developing new technologies that change markets. He is currently a
director of SensAble Technologies and Board Observer of Aventura and
Tandem Diabetes.

Enrico Picozza
Venture Partner
HLM Venture Partners
@hlmvp

Prior to joining HLM as a Venture Partner, Enrico co-founded HTS
Biosystems, Inc., an early developer of platforms for drug discovery and
point of care diagnostics, where he served as Chief Operating Officer and
Chief Technology Officer. Prior to HTS, Enrico held leadership positions
with PerkinElmer, Inc. and Applied Biosystems, Inc. At Applied Biosystems,
Enrico was one of the major forces behind the development and
commercialization of PCR, the revolutionary DNA-replicating technology
that enabled the development of some of the most significant
advancements in molecular biology.
Enrico is the holder of nine patents and has been recognized by the
Smithsonian Institute for his achievements in PCR. He is the author of
numerous scientific papers and has been a frequent international speaker.
In addition he is an advisor to several companies in the field of
regenerative medicine and molecular diagnostics and is a board observer
for Interlace Medical.
Enrico earned his master’s degree in molecular and cell biology from the
University of Connecticut.

12

Ramji Raghavan
CEO
Pragya Systems
@RaghavanRamji

Ramji Raghavan is the Founder/CEO of Pragya Systems, which is
developing solutions to fuel the disruption of higher education. Ramji was
most recently at Movik Networks, where as Founder/CEO he led the
company to raise over $40M in venture capital and deliver groundbreaking solutions to help mobile operators deal with radio network
congestion caused by the rapidly increasing Over-the-Top rich media
internet content in their networks. Prior to founding Movik, Ramji was the
General Manager of the Networking Business Unit of Telsima (acquired by
Aviat), where he ran a multi-national organization building market leading
WiMax and backhaul products for emerging markets. Prior to Telsima,
Ramji was the Founder and CTO of Coriolis Networks before which he held
senior leadership roles at Digital/Cabletron and Motorola. Ramji has an
MS from UMass, Amherst and a BTech from IIT, Madras.
Heather is an associate in the Litigation Department of Nutter McClennen
& Fish, and a member of the firm's Intellectual Property Litigation group.
She focuses her practice on civil litigation, with an emphasis on patent,
copyright, trademark, and trade secret disputes. She represents clients in
all stages of the litigation lifecycle—pre-trial, trial, and appeal—in both
state and federal courts. Heather also currently co-edits the Patent &
Trademark Bulletin for the District of Massachusetts, which Nutter
publishes on a bi-monthly basis.

Heather Repicky
Associate
@NutterLaw
Arnie currently serves as Vice Chairman and a Director of First Commons
Bank, NA, a national bank which he co-founded in 2008. He also serves
as on the Board of Directors of Hub Management Co., Pneuron Corp. and
Sevo Nutraceuticals, Inc. He is a member of the Advisory Boards of AIResource, LLC, Successimo and Vestmark.
Arnie Scott
Director

Prior to 2001 he was a senior officer and a Director of MFS Investment
Management. He also has been a lecturer at Boston University Law
School’s Morin School of Banking and Finance.

Sevo Nutraceuticals

13

Heather is a senior marketing executive with 20 years of experience
building marketing and customer engagement programs that drive
business growth. As Vice President of Marketing, Heather is responsible
for developing and executing Sense Networks’ strategic marketing vision
and driving exposure of their location-based mobile advertising solution.
Heather Sears
VP Marketing
Sense Networks Inc.
@HeatherSears

An eight year Digitas veteran, she was one of founding team chosen to
start-up a new agency marketing capability which grew to over $20
million revenue in four years. She was founder and president of Mobile
Synergies, a company which provided strategic consulting to mobile
companies focused on market expansion.
Over the course of her career, she worked with over 20 early-stage
company CEOs and brand clients including AT&T Wireless, Coors, Dunkin’
Donuts, GM, Kimberly Clark, PayPal, Sam’s Club and XM Radio.
Heather has an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate
School of Management, and received her BA, with high honors, from the
University of Michigan.

James Stuart
Walnut Ventures

Principal with Lion Rock Capital, focused on venture capital/private equity,
fund investments and special situations.
Previously, he was a Managing Director, based in Europe, of SOFTBANK
Europe Ventures. Prior to SOFTBANK, he was based in the U.S. and Europe,
at Insight Capital (now, Venture) Partners. Sectors in which he has invested
include Information Technology: software and services, Telecom, Security,
Financial Services, Consumer Products, Information Services, Retail and
Energy.
Before moving to venture capital, James was an investment banker with
Goldman, Sachs & Co. & Deutsche Bank Securities. James is a graduate of
Brown University and has an MBA from the Graduate School of Business of
the University of Chicago. He speaks English and basic French.

Praveen Tailam
Managing Director
TiE Angels Boston
@tieboston

As a managing director Praveen overseas the operation of the TiE Angels
functions and partnerships. Praveen is an active investor, mentor, start-up
advisor, entrepreneur and business plan competition judge. Prior
experience includes Information Technology and Consulting. Praveen
incorporated Redtail Consulting, a Boston area consulting firm and
managed the business from 2006 thru 2012. Praveen was associated with
companies in retail, banking and insurance sectors and catering to their IT
infrastructure needs. Prior to being an entrepreneur his direct
engagements were in managing and deploying enterprise messaging
solutions at IBM, Putnam Investments, Wellpoint, Blue Cross Blue Shield
etc,. Additionally Praveen works closely with his dentist wife in managing
multiple dental practices in New Hampshire area.
Praveen has Masters in Information Systems from Northeastern University
and Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering. Praveen is an avid golfer and has
interests in cricket and squash. Praveen is active charter member of TiEBoston.

14

Chuck Toye
VP Business Development
Cognitive Electrics
@ChuckToye

Chuck is the VP of Business Development for Cognitive Electronics. His
primary responsibilities include fundraising, strategy & customer
development. Initially part of the team that performed Cognitive’s early
market research, Chuck re-joined the company after spending four years
at J.P. Morgan. He also worked for AlixPartners and Tigris Consulting
where he focused on data—driven solutions to improve business decision
making.
Chuck holds and SB from MIT in Aeronautics & Astronautics with a minor
in Economics, and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at
Dartmouth, where he was a Tuck Scholar.

15

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