Mary Auge
A business development leader with 15 years of life science technology commercialization experience and a passion for identifying and advancing innovative new product opportunities to improve patient care. Mary has extensive experience with the evaluation of life science technology, intellectual property, commercial viability, identifying target companies, marketing, and building relationships with external and internal stakeholders. This extensive experience come from being a Sr. Business Development Manager at Partners HealthCare Systems (Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Massachusetts General Hospital – teaching hospitals for Harvard Medical School) in Boston, MA. Recently, she was the Director of Research and Planning at Genesys Health System in Grand Blanc, MI in charge of vetting and planning the development of a regionally based Health Technology Innovation Institute and Science Park. Mary enjoys leading cross-functional teams to ensure a successful commercialization. [hr]
Sebastian Alvim
Sebastian is the COO of MyNurse, a European digital marketplace that enables patients and families to easily find and select in-home health care professionals in real time. As COO, he is leading the internationalization of the company to the US market running now operation in Kentucky, Indiana, and Michigan. Responsible for the brand recognition and effectiveness for better home healthcare services, in 2018, MyNurse was named the most innovative caregiving solution by Accelerate Michigan. In is own words: MyNurse is a digital tool to empower families and healthcare providers. Beginning his career at a British consultancy multinational, he became knowledgeable about all areas of human resources operations and strategic corporate advisory, including change management, restructuring, and organizational assessment. [hr]
Rebecca Brown Rice
Rebecca Rice is the Director of Operations at the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council (LHCC). Previously, Rebecca managed the NIH-REACH Hub and its associated healthcare technology development grant at the University of Louisville (called ExCITE) where she oversaw the investment of $3million into a portfolio of 19 promising early-stage healthcare technologies, including small molecule therapeutics, diagnostics, mHealth technologies, and direct-to-consumer products. Rebecca received her BS in Neuroscience from Brown University and is a PhD candidate in Neuroscience at Yale University. [hr]
Karen Handmaker
Karen is an engaging population health management expert with a passion for new models and technologies to improve health and healthcare with the “consumer at the center.” Over the course of her career, Karen has worked at major healthcare and benefits consulting firms as well as technology and service companies delivering disease management, wellness and population health programs to employers, health plans and health systems. Karen received a BA in American Studies at Trinity College in Hartford, CT (Phi Beta Kappa) and her Master in Public Policy from Harvard University. [hr]
Stephen Hanson
Stephen has over thirty years of C-suite experience in five health systems and four standalone hospitals serving seven states, including four years as CEO of Baptist Health KY/IN. Stephen is currently an executive in Residence at the University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences and a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. Mr Hanson was a former Chair of the American Hospital Association Council on Health Systems. Stephen’s recent local volunteer involvement include Chair (with his wife) of the Metro United Way campaign, Chair and Vice Chair of Greater Louisville Inc., and Chair of the Health Enterprise Network. Mr. Hanson holds a Master of Public Health degree in health administration from the University of Oklahoma and earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Iowa State University. [hr]
Niki Kennedy
Dr. Niki Kennedy is a vascular surgeon with a background in both engineering and business. She began her career as an electrical engineer, graduating from Lawrence Technological University in 1995 with her BS. She then went on to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor for graduate work where she obtain Masters degrees in both electrical and biomedical engineering. Dr. Kennedy then made the jump into the clinical world, completing her MD at Wayne State University in 2003. From there, she went on to complete her general surgery residency at St. John Hospital & Medical Center in Detroit as well as her vascular surgery fellowship at Henry Ford Hospital. She maintains active board certifications in both fields. [hr]
Lindsay E. Klee
Intent Venture Management & life science/healthcare consultant – Michigan SBDC, has significant experience in evaluation, development & commercialization of medical device, diagnostic, IT and pharma technologies. She began her career in drug discovery with Pfizer & has consulted with a variety of mid- to late- stage companies. Her consultation is often heavily concentrated on regulatory and reimbursement strategy/submissions/implementation. Lindsay has served as commercialization director for med innovation groups, worked in tech transfer in hospital/university environments & led an FDA commercialization/product development consortia. She studied public & private finance, holds a masters degree in healthcare management, has previously worked as part of the General Partnership of Belle Michigan LP and founded both Intent Capital & Intent Venture Management LLC, a healthcare and life science consultancy. [hr]
Eugene Krentsel
Prior to joining XLerateHealth, Dr. Krentsel served as Associate Vice President for Research and Innovation and Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Louisville. He was responsible for the full range of activities in the discovery-innovation-translation-commercialization spectrum at UofL, including working with external groups in the public and private sectors to promote commercialization of university technologies and advancing industry engagement and entrepreneurship. Prior to being recruited to UofL in 2013, he served as Assistant Vice President for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Partnerships at Binghamton University in New York, where he helped develop and protect faculty intellectual property, paired researchers’ expertise with pressing market needs, and offered guidance to faculty and students interested in starting their own business. Eugene is a member of the National Science Foundation’s Advisory Committee on SBIR.[hr]
Greg Langdon
Mr. Langdon’s background is in corporate and product strategy for technology businesses. He has experience in executive management, business development,marketing and public relations, acquisitions, product management, software architecture and development, project management and digital electronics design.[hr]
Jake Miller
Executive with over 18 years experience designing, developing, and implementing new products, services, and business models. Professional focus is on making entrepreneurial endeavors a reality for enterprises of all sizes. Recent professional highlights include introducing a first-of-its-kind retail-health clinical trial model and leading the cross-functional launch of 11 new products in less than 18 months in a highly-matrixed organization.[hr]
Salathiel Noronha
Salathiel Noronha (“Slate”) is an incoming first year MBA at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management. At MIT, Slate plans to pursue an Entrepreneurship and Innovation track. Prior to his MBA, Slate served as an Analyst and Associate at Auldbrass Partners, which is an eight-person investment management firm, for five years. As an Associate, Slate was primarily responsible for reviewing investment models and working with the senior team to determine the investment strategy for the second fund that Auldbrass raised. Slate was instrumental in fundraising as he helped the firm raise and close its second fund at $92.8 million, up from the first fund which closed at $16.9 million. Recently, Slate has volunteered with Social Impact Philanthropy & Investment (“SIPI”), a for-profit organization based in Flint, MI, as a Summer Hustle Manager where he is responsible for helping six local high school students run their own businesses. [hr]
Elizabeth Rounsavall
Elizabeth is an angel investor and startup coach and mentor. A partner at Rounsavall Investments, she also serves on the Sequel Fund investment committee where she has led several early-stage investments. She spent 10 years as a staff member at Chrysalis Ventures, Kentucky’s largest venture capital firm, and has also worked in management consulting at Booz Allen Hamilton (now PwC). In 2017 she was awarded “Mentor of the Year” by the Kentucky Entrepreneur Hall of Fame. Elizabeth is the president of the Actors Theatre board of trustees, serves on the boards of EnterpriseCorp and the Community Foundation of Louisville (where she is a member of its Impact Capital investment committee) and is a member of the Mayor’s Advisory Council on Innovation. A Louisville native, she has an MBA from MIT Sloan and a BA from Yale University.[hr]
Bob Saunders
Bob is a General Partner of OCA Ventures (Chicago), a Founding Partner of Saunders Murdoch and Associates (Louisville/Boston), and is an active investor in many healthcare startups. Bob was a Managing Director and General Partner at Chrysalis Ventures from 1997 to 2009. Bob was a founding board member of MetaCyte Business Lab, the University of Louisville’s life science incubator. Over the last 30 years, he has invested in several dozen startup companies and has mentored 100+ startups. Bob received a B.A. from Stanford University, an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, and an M.A. from Harvard University. He was both a Fulbright Scholar and a Marshall Scholar. [hr]
Kara Sedoris
Kara has over 18 years of experience conducting research, competitive intelligence, management consulting, and data analysis in the life science/health care industry. She holds a doctorate in Physiology and Biophysics and an MBA from the University of Louisville and BA from Ohio Wesleyan University and currently maintains an Adjunct Assistant Professorship of Physiology (Gratis) at the University of Louisville. Kara has served as Faculty of Medicine in the Department of Hematology/Oncology at the Brown Cancer Center for 6 years where she focuses on the preclinical development of cancer therapeutics. Kara is currently working in the payer environment and has managed key initiatives and educational programs at Humana to optimize provider clinical quality and performance in support of STARS (HEDIS, Patient Safety, Member Experience) and conducted pharmaceutical predictive forecasting. Currently in her role at Humana she is working to to help implement an Oncology Model of Care program. [hr]
Ashok Seetharam
Ashok is the Co-Founder and Product Lead of Toggle Health: a healthcare startup connecting surgeons to their digital case data in the operating room using a sterile wireless controller. Before Toggle Health he served as the Chief Technology Officer of Orthopedix, leading product development of custom orthopedic wrist implants using 3D-printing technology. He has experience in medical device design and product development process, UI/UX, CAD/CAM, 3D printing, regulatory, and product management. Ashok received his MS in Biomedical Engineering from Brown University. [hr]
Jackie Willmot
Jackie has 30+ years of experience in the healthcare industry including 13 years as a clinician and 15 years as an executive at Humana in the Innovation Center as well as 2+ years working for a Humana Startup in the United Kingdom. Since leaving Humana in 2009 Jackie has worked with 100+ startups. Jackie was trained by Steve Blank in his ‘Lean Launchpad Educators Class’ at Stanford University and serves as a business coach in a variety of capacities. She was a founding member and on the Board of Directors of the Network for Entrepreneurial Women and works with healthcare startups via the LaunchIT program where she works closely with Coulter, ExCITE, and iCorp funded companies. She is a Master’s prepared Perinatal Clinical Nurse Specialist and holds an MBA from the University of Louisville’s entrepreneurship program, a Master’s of Science from the University of Pittsburgh and a Baccalaureate Nursing degree from Villa Maria College.[hr]
