Meet Your Investment Team
These are your classmates who wake up every day on your behalf to assemble a great venture portfolio
Greg Baker
Managing Partner
Greg is a highly accomplished executive with experience in corporate leadership, business development, startups, M&A, strategic planning, and more. He has spent much of his career growing business in the electrical products, packaging, and chemical industries. Throughout, he has been buying, selling, and combining companies to fit strategic goals. Previously, Greg served as President and CEO of 2D2C, developing safer energy-saving products. Greg was also VP Corporate Development and Acting Division President for a high-tech subsidiary at Woodhead Industries and Director Corporate Development for Tenneco. Greg has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin (’86) and an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University.
Jason Jacobsohn
Principal
Jason has over ten years of experience supporting and educating small business owners and entrepreneurs, providing them with capital formation, strategic direction, mentorship, and resource development. Most recently, he was a Business Advisor at City Colleges of Chicago, a business management education program funded by Goldman Sachs. He was also the Director of The Founder Institute and the Managing Director of Reliable Venture Partners, providing entrepreneurs with mentoring and a variety of services. Jason has a BBA in Real Estate and Finance from the University of Wisconsin (’96) and an MBA from DePaul.
Investment Committee
Classmates and fellow investors who help create your venture portfolio
Gretchen Gilbertson
For the last 15 years, Gretchen has held the title and responsibilities of CEO at Séura, a company recognized by the world’s largest hotel brands and leading custom integration specialists as the premier provider of design-centric technology products. She also serves as an advisor, mentor, and ambassador on the International Board of Directors for the Network of Executive Women in Hospitality (NEWH). Prior to starting her company, Gretchen was employed by Kimberly-Clark Corporation in various market research and product development roles.
She graduated with a BA from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and participated on the UW Spirit Squad as a cheerleader for the Badger football and basketball teams. During her time at the UW she met and married her college sweetheart – Bucky Badger.
Joseph Coyne
Bryan Jurewicz
Bryan has 16+ years of executive leadership experience in early and growth stage tech businesses. As CEO, he led GradeBeam.com to industry leader in B2B Construction Communication Network—and then a successful exit (acq. by Textura), followed by an IPO and acquisition by Oracle of the integrated company. Bryan now aids companies in developing growth strategies in C-level, consulting, board member, and advisor roles. He is Chief Operations & Revenue Officer at Arrow Payments and CEO of ROI Magnet Strategic Advisors. He graduated from UW (’97)—starting four years for the Badgers, as well as playing in the NFL for the Carolina Panthers and Indianapolis Colts.
Sara Tirner
Sara has been a private investor for over twenty years. As a former Vice President and Director of Toronto Dominion Bank and TD Securities in New York, she specialized in Real Estate Construction Finance, Health Care Finance, Debt Restructuring, and Institutional Equity Sales. Balancing out the intensity of finance and investing, Sara has been a student and practitioner of yoga for over 20 years, taught for 13 years, and in 2003 became certified to apply yogic tools and technology to working with those living with life-threatening diseases. Sara graduated with a BBA in Finance from UW Madison.
Carrianne Basler
Carrianne has 20+ years of business advisory and financial consulting, with management in contingency planning, contract negotiations, litigation management, business planning, and risk management. She is a Managing Director with global consultant AlixPartners, a pioneer in corporate turnaround and restructuring. She served on the management team for Motors Liquidation Co. (fka General Motors), plus helped clients such as Eastman Kodak, Dana Corp., and Lyondell Chemical. Carrianne started her career at Arthur Andersen, then became a consultant for accountant C.W. Amos. She earned her Bachelor of Business Administration in accounting from Wisconsin.
Andrew Alexander
Andrew has 25+ years’ experience in pharmaceutical, biotech, veterinary, and medical device development. He also has experience in business startups, investor relations, and fundraising. He operates a private consulting firm, Scientific Business Advisors, that serves clients from startups to Fortune 100 companies. Previously, he was an Associate Director and Senior Commercial Scientist at Covance. Andrew also serves on advisory boards and mentors teams, including at The Madison Entrepreneur Resource, Learning and Innovation Network. Andrew holds an MBA, a degree in Veterinary Medicine and Surgery, and a PhD in Biomolecular Science from Wisconsin.
Jaal Ghandhi
Jaal is currently the Grainger Professor of Sustainable Energy and the Chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin. He has been recognized as a Fellow of both the Society of Automotive Engineers and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for his contributions. Jaal has published widely in this field. He has served as Director of the Wisconsin Small Engine Consortium and is currently the Director of the Direct-injection Research Consortium. Jaal received a PhD from Princeton.
Scott Richter
Scott is a partner at the law firm of Williams Mullen on their Corporate and Securities team and serves as a strategic advisor to boards and C-suite executives. He also represents issuers and underwriters in initial and secondary public securities offerings, as well as private placements of debt and equity securities. Previously, Scott was a partner at LeClair Ryan in a similar role. In 2015, he was named Richmond’s Lawyer of the Year for Securities Regulation by Best Lawyers. Scott earned his JD degree from Wisconsin and a BBA degree in Management from the College of William & Mary.
Steve Weinswig
Steve has deep experience growing cross-functional teams to deliver world-class design and digital transformation services for some of world’s most successful companies. As the Managing Director of North American Strategic Accounts for Fjord, Accenture’s Design & Innovation studio, Steve is driving key growth initiatives with major clients. Previously, Steve was the Managing Director of R/GA San Francisco and opened their Los Angeles office. He previously led the SF Studio and global headquarters for Frog Design and held several key digital leadership roles with the Publicis Groupe/Leo Burnett in Chicago. Steve has an MBA from Michigan and a BBA from Wisconsin.
Stephen Unger
Stephen has over 20 years of financial and health care industry experience gained through various roles in investment banking and public accounting industry. He is the former CFO of Quotient Ltd., a commercial-stage diagnostics company developing a next-generation technology platform for the global blood transfusion market. Previously, Stephen was an equity research analyst at Lazard Capital Markets and Bear Stearns following the medical diagnostics, life science tools, pharmaceutical services, and healthcare information technology industries. Stephen received a BBA from the UW-Madison (’92) and an MBA from The University of Chicago.
Chris Kozina
Chris is Managing Director of ORD Advisors, providing advisory, consulting, and quality assurance services. He also serves as a Director of the University of Wisconsin Foundation & Alumni Association Board, and was a founding member and Director of the University of Wisconsin Accenture Undergraduate Leadership Center Advisory Board. Previously, Chris served as President, Chief Executive, and Chairman of Coors Distributing. Chris holds a Master’s in Education, Globalization, and Educational Policy from the University of Illinois and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance, Investments & Banking, Real Estate & Urban Land Economics from Wisconsin.
Ryan Kipp
Ryan is an entrepreneur, team-builder, and business advisor. He is Managing Partner at Blue Sky Partners, a boutique advisory firm offering sales and strategy expertise in the banking, investment, and financial technology space. Previously, Ryan spent ten years at BAML in the Global Corporate and Investment Banking division in a variety of roles in Chicago, Hong Kong, Denver, and New York. Ryan received his Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance, Investments, and Banking from the University of Wisconsin.
Chris Fameree
Chris Fameree is the founding partner of Assure with 10+ years of public accounting and industry experience. He has led and participated in SSAE 16 engagements, due diligence engagements, financial statement audits, and other advisory projects. Previously, Chris was a Senior Manager in the Transaction Advisory Services Group and Audit Group of a large regional CPA firm. He also worked at a national CPA firm, where he served lead roles on engagements from Fortune 500 companies to closely held private manufacturers. Chris received his Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from the University of Wisconsin.
Nidhi Aggarwal
Nidhi is an entrepreneur who co-founded cloud configuration management startup qwikLABS. The company was acquired by Google and remains the exclusive platform used by AWS customers and partners worldwide to create and deploy on-demand lab environments in the cloud. Nidhi most recently led Product, Strategy, Marketing and Finance at data integration company Tamr. Previously, she worked at McKinsey & Company, focusing on Big Data and Cloud Strategy. She is also a recipient of an early career achievement award from UW-Madison. Nidhi holds a PhD in Computer Science from Wisconsin and holds six US patents.
Venture Fellows
Select group of young Wisconsin alums participating in our Venture Fellow Program
Christian Kaczmarczyk
Venture Fellow
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Christian (UW ’16) works on the Account Management team at VTS, the leading Leasing and Asset Management platform in commercial real estate. Previously, while in school, he worked at 100state, helping it become Wisconsin’s largest co-working community, and cofounded Madventures Coworking, a student co-working space. He received a B.A. degree in Economics from the University of Wisconsin.
David Mun
Venture Fellow
University of Wisconsin - Madison
David (UW’06) is currently a Senior Manager of Due Diligence with Mallinckrodt, a specialty pharmaceutical company, where he is responsible for assessing business development and licensing opportunities. Prior to Mallinckrodt, David provided consulting services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and has managed clinical trials at various academic medical centers. David holds an M.S. in Clinical Nutrition from Columbia University and a B.S. in Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Alexandra Suprise
Alex (UW’12) serves as in-house legal counsel at Markable, an AI company identifying fashion products in photos and videos via computer vision. Previously, she worked at a Midwest law firm, helping clients identify strategic opportunities to grow their business. She was also a campaign finance attorney for a political consultant, assisting with one presidential and three successful Congressional campaigns. Alex has a BA from Wisconsin and JD from Marquette.
Prakash Rao
Prakash (UW’06) is a Senior Global Product Manager in Patient Care and Monitoring Solutions at Philips, driving product strategy and global commercialization of clinical analytics and decision support solutions for critical care. Earlier, he held marketing and R&D positions at Neuronetics, Boston Scientific, GE Healthcare, and St. Jude Medical. He received an MBA from Michigan’s Ross School of Business and BS in Biomedical Engineering from Wisconsin.
Keaton Nankivil
Keaton (UW ‘17) recently returned to Wisconsin after a five-year career playing professional basketball around Europe. He has international experience after spending years living in Germany, Spain, Latvia, and Italy. He originally attended Wisconsin from 2007-11 and returned in 2017 to complete his degree in Kinesiology.
Alumni Ventures Group Support Staff
The team behind The Farm Investment team - freeing them to build you a great venture portfolio
Josh Levine
VP of Marketing
Josh has been a Senior Product Marketer at Google and Brand Manager at Procter & Gamble on brands like Gillette, Tide, and Pampers. He has led B2B and B2C marketing teams in tech, CPG, and consumer electronics. Josh previously served six years as an Officer in the US Army, and continues to advise veteran entrepreneurs through Veteran Brands, which he founded. He has a BSE from Princeton and MBA from HBS.
Dom Perri
Director of Marketing Communications
Previously, Dom was a Media Program Manager at Dell EMC, where he worked in the advertising department implementing campaigns across digital, search, and social. He is the Founder and Director of the Hollihock Writers Conference and was a founding member of BandsinTown. He also held positions at Sony BMG in publicity, promotions, and A&R. Dom has a BS from Northeastern University and an MFA from Goddard College.
Josh Leavitt
VP of Finance
Previously, Josh was a Senior Financial Analyst at Performance Sports Group and Auditor, Tax Accountant, Business Advisor for Rowley and Associates. Josh has also been an entrepreneur, serving as Co-founder & CFO of Right Office Cleaners and CFO of Granite State Artists. Earlier he was Finance Manager at Direct Capital Corp. and Market Specialist at Franklin Templeton Investments. Josh has a Bachelor’s in Finance-Economics from Bentley University.
Chris Sacharuk
Investor Relations Manager
Prior to joining AVG, Chris was a Customer Advocate at Graphic Packaging and in Sales & Marketing at Putnam Investments, where he created materials for reps and investors. He’s a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Manning School of Business, where he studied Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Studies.
Anne Miller
Investor Relations Manager
Previously, Anne was an Applied Behavioral Analysis Counselor for Melmark and a medical biller for Physicians Resources. She is also a certified Certifiied Personal Trainer and Group Fitness Instructor, with her own clientele. Anne has a Bachelor’s in Psychology from the University of New Hampshire.
Hilary Ncala
Director of Investor Relations
Prior to joining AVG, Hilary was a Staffing Executive and Program Manager at Robert Half. Previous positions include Retirement Planning & Guidance Consultant for Fidelity and an Investor Assistant for an independent investor. She has a Bachelor of Science, Business Management & Marketing from Fisher College.
Jamie Eitel
Investor Relations Manager
Jamie was the Clinical Secretary Sr for Pediatric Gastroenterology at Dartmouth-Hitchcock. Earlier, he served as a Claims Processor Associate and then a Senior Associate at Cigna Health. He has also served in multiple church youth ministries for over 15 years throughout Ontario, Canada, in many different cultural contexts. He was part of the adjunct faculty in the youth ministry department at Tyndale University College. He has a BA in Psychology from York University, a Masters of Divinity from Tyndale Seminary, and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Theological Seminary.
Wes Moyer
Director of the Venture Fellow Program
Wes runs the Venture Fellow Program. He has focused his career on launching and scaling companies and products in new markets. Prior to AVG, he took a digital marketing startup, Hooch, from zero to one in the San Francisco Bay Area. Before Hooch, he led the B2B marketing strategy and execution for EDC Consulting, a $50M management consulting firm in DC. Wes graduated Academic All-Ivy with a BS in Psychology from Yale.