Nassau Street Ventures Team

Bio: Tom Meyer is an experienced CEO and strategic consultant. Prior to becoming Managing Partner of Nassau Street Ventures and Senior Partner at Alumni Ventures Group, Tom was the Chief Operating Officer of OnePak, the leading reverse logistics software company and consultant to over 30 companies, advising on corporate development, sales and marketing, financing, strategic planning, and business transformation. Mr. Meyer has been CEO of three different tech companies, which he successfully turned around. As general manager, he launched Iron Mountain’s award-winning Digital Record Center. He brings a global perspective to business, having lived in Europe and Asia and worked in 40 countries around the globe. Mr. Meyer has an engineering degree from Princeton University and an MBA from the Yale School of Management. He is the former chair of the Princeton Entrepreneurs’ Network of Boston.
Notable Deals: Mapquest, Connotate

Bio: Josh is Executive Vice President at Alumni Ventures Group and Senior Partner at Nassau Street Ventures. He has had a long career in consumer goods and tech, including Google and Procter & Gamble, and Bose. He is deeply experienced in product innovation, go-to-market strategies, communications and advertising, CPG, traditional retail and e-commerce. Josh is also a former military officer, having served six years on active duty in the U.S. Army. Josh also founded Veterans Brands, a marketing strategy consultancy specializing in veteran-run SMBs, brands targeting veterans and active military, and authentic American brands. He holds a B.S.E in Aerospace Engineering from Princeton and a MBA from Harvard Business School.

Bio: Tim is a Principal at AVG. Prior to working at AVG, Tim worked in a variety of roles around the startup ecosystem, including time at two venture capital funds and a public company doing corporate development. Tim has a BSBA from the University of Richmond and an MBA from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business.

Bio: Stephanie spent more than 15 years in higher education advancement as a fundraiser and alumni relations professional, getting her start at Tufts University. She also worked at Northeastern University, where she led the programming and engagement for 200,000+ alumni worldwide. Earlier in her career, she had her own consulting practice, which focused on fundraising, board development, and communications strategies in the non-profit sector. A strong advocate for mentorship and networking, she brings those passions to investor engagement at AVG. She holds a BA from the University of New Hampshire, where she was a member of the women’s soccer team, and a MA from Emerson College.

Bio: Prior to joining AVG, Jenna was an Investor Service Representative at Putnam Investments, where she provided customer support to both clients and brokers. Jenna is a graduate of Merrimack College, Girard School of Business, where she studied Business Administration with a dual major in Management and Marketing.

Bio: Ray is an experienced healthcare executive with a strong track record of value creation. He is skilled in leading commercial organizations, building teams, developing/executing strategic plans, and sourcing, negotiating and closing corporate development transactions. He currently provides consulting and advisory services for private equity organizations, while pursuing direct investment opportunities within the broader healthcare sector. Ray most recently served as Chief Commercial Officer for Revision Skincare, a physician-dispensed provider of premium over the counter skincare solutions. Prior to that Ray served as Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Commercial Operations for Renaissance Pharma, a private equity backed organization that was sold in 2016 for $1.0 billion. Earlier in his career, Ray spent 10 years in progressive management roles at the Perrigo Company. Ray has an undergraduate degree in Economics from Princeton and an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Bio: Greg Cullison is Director of Innovative Solutions at Intelligent Shift, where he is responsible for sourcing cutting-edge technology for public sector clients. Greg is an Advisory Board Member and investor at InfoSci, an encryption technology company. He previously founded ProVerity, Inc., an advisory and risk analysis firm which was acquired in 2015. He has experience in cybersecurity, management and technology consulting, and in the public sector as a naval officer and Foreign Service Officer. Greg is certified by Carnegie Mellon University as an Insider Threat Program Manager. He holds degrees from Claremont McKenna College and Princeton University. Mr. Cullison resides outside Washington, D.C.

Bio: Zeynep Dereli, the Founder and CEO of Tink is an educational innovator who has been nominated for numerous awards just one year after the launch. She and her team have developed an educational ecosystem that embeds e-learning with the classroom allowing for entrepreneurial minded teaching and peer learning. Partnerships with the largest corporations in Turkey add another layer to this ecosystem proving much needed real life experience to Tink teachers and students. Tink, Technology and Human Colleges, is the first and leading chain of applied technology mid to high schools in Turkey. Based on its uniquely designed curriculum and e-learning platform Tink has converted 21st century skills training to students’ academic curricula. Tink students are future ready with a special focus on digital competencies and personal skills.

Bio: Lee Einbinder is a Vice Chairman at Barclays, responsible for senior client relationships in the Financial Institutions Group. Mr. Einbinder has been at Barclays since the acquisition of Lehman Brother in 2008, and during this time has also been Co-Head of the Financial Institutions Group and a member of the Investment Banking Operating Committee from 2013-2018. He has long standing relationships and coverage responsibility for banks, specialty finance companies, financial technology and markets related businesses, asset managers and financial sponsors. Prior to joining Barclays, Mr. Einbinder worked at Lehman Brothers from 1996-2008, and previously worked in similar capacities at CS First Boston and Salomon Brothers. Mr. Einbinder received his MBA with Distinction from the Wharton School in 1987 and his BSE cum laude from Princeton University in 1982.

Bio: Curtis A. Glovier is the Chairman, CEO, & President of PENSCO Trust Company, a specialty custodian of alternative investments held in retirement accounts. He also serves as Opus Bank’s Senior Executive Vice President, Head of Wealth Services, and as Managing Principal of Opus Equity Partners, a growth equity investment fund. Previously, he was Managing Director at Fortress Investment Group, LLC, where he led private equity and junior capital investments in a number of industries with a focus on financial services. He orchestrated Fortress’ investment in Opus Bank in September 2010 and was a founding board member of the bank. Curtis has over 20 years of leadership experience as an investor and operator, which has included tenures in private equity and venture capital investing at Perseus LLC and Nassau Capital, and in investment banking at Goldman Sachs. He led Perseus’ middle market buyout and recapitalization activities, with a focus on business services and branded consumer products. He has served as a board member for numerous companies spanning financial services, business services, technology, manufacturing, communications , and consumer products. Curtis received a B.A., cum laude, from Princeton University, and an M.B.A. as a Palmer Scholar from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Bio: Jon Huberman is the CEO of Ooyala, a leading software provider in the video production, distribution and monetization markets. With 30 years of high-tech business leadership, he is an accomplished executive with a demonstrated track record of driving high customer satisfaction, technology innovation and greater market value for technology companies. Previously, he served as CEO of Syncplicity, Tiburon, HyperParallel and Iomega. In addition, Jon spent over a decade investing in technology companies for the Bass family and the Gores Group. Jon received an A.B. in Computer Science from Princeton University and his MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Bio: John James is an active global investor with experience leading international institutional and family office investment organizations, most recently serving as Global Head of Alternative Investments for Arch Capital Group Ltd., a Bermuda-based insurance/reinsurance company. Today, while seeking out new business models and investing in promising entrepreneurs, he serves as a mentor and advisor to both first-time and experienced founders. His investment interests center on fintech, consumer marketplaces, and software, and also include transportation, telecom, and gaming. John holds an A.B. degree from Princeton University, an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School, and an executive certificate in Entrepreneurship from Stanford.

Bio: Denise is the Head of Credit Global Expansion and Strategy for PayPal, responsible for driving growth of the consumer and merchant lending businesses. Denise joined PayPal in 2015 when it became an independent company from eBay and led the PayPal North America Corporate Strategy team as PayPal defined its new identity and path. Previously, Denise was Vice President of Business Development and Strategy at American Express where she led initiatives and teams in the Enterprise Growth division. Earlier in her career, Denise was a management consultant at Oliver Wyman and had experience at several startups. Passionate about ecology and conservation, she currently sits on the Board of NY/ NJ Baykeeper. She holds an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania and an AB in English from Princeton University.

Bio: Barry Margerum, CEO of Heartrise, is an active investor and has sat on numerous boards. He started his career at IBM, then worked with Steve Jobs at Apple in the 1970s. He left to help build the groundbreaking company, GRiD Systems Corp. He went on to be CEO of MITEM and Euphonix. As chief strategy officer at Plantronix, he helped grow it from a $100 million to almost $1 billion company. Barry has a BSE from Princeton University and MBA from Stanford. He was captain of the Princeton wrestling team and has continued to coach youth wrestling and junior golfers in the Bay Area.

Bio: Dora is the Vice President of Operations at Carisma Therapeutics Inc. and enjoys wearing many hats at a young biopharmaceutical company with responsibilities ranging from fundraising and intellectual property to partnerships and leading all daily operations of the business. Prior to joining Carisma, Dora managed the therapeutics and diagnostics company portfolio at PCI Ventures at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), where she also directed the UPstart Company Incubator. In that role, she led the launch, funding, incubation and growth of Penn intellectual property-based businesses such as CytoVas LLC, LignaMed LLC, Quantitative Radiology Solutions LLC and Linnaeus Therapeutics Inc., and the successful exit of a diagnostics company. Prior to joining PCI Ventures, Dora was a member of the Health and Life Sciences team at Battelle Ventures, LP, an early-stage technology company investor. Dora holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from Princeton University.

Bio: Harald is head of business and strategy, Business Artificial Intelligence, at Microsoft. He’s an accomplished software executive who can effectively bridge strategy and execution. With 20 years of business leadership experience, he has a track record of identifying new market opportunities, incubating disruptive products and technologies, and creating sizable new businesses. In his current role, he focuses on the productization and business incubation of innovative AI technology; acquired both in-house and externally, with an emphasis on enterprise and industrial applications and autonomous systems. Harald is passionate about working with startups as a strategic advisor. Earlier in his career, Harald was a strategy consultant at The Boston Consulting Group. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with an A.B. in Public & International Affairs from Princeton University and received an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.

Bio: Marilyn Agbeko is an experienced technologist, with expertise in Product Management and Product Marketing, focused on the digital health space. She is currently with 98point6, helping pioneer a new, virtual, artificial intelligence-enabled primary care delivery model. Previously, Marilyn spent the majority of her career building software that helped hospitals and physicians practice work more efficiently. Marilyn is an angel investor, serves as the chair of the Communications Committee on the Board of the Association of Black Princeton Alumni, and is a mentor with Techstars Seattle. She holds an AB from Princeton University and an MBA from Washington University in St Louis.

Bio: Kathryn Bowsher is a highly accomplished commercial strategist with deep expertise in launching and scaling innovative solutions throughout healthcare. Today, as head of Act One Healthcare, she focuses on creating winning strategies for the multi-modal era of health and leveraging digital tools to transform care. She also serves on the Board of Pocket Naloxone, where she is a co-founder. Prior to Act One Kathryn was CEO of PurThread Technologies. During her career as both an operating executive and consultant, Kathryn has driven the success of more than 40 products and initiatives spanning a wide range of therapeutic areas, sites of care, and business models, the world over. Kathryn’s extensive experience includes global leaders and start-ups such as Health Evolution, Johnson & Johnson, Stanford Health, Pelesend, and Raptor Pharmaceuticals. She began her work in new products at Goldman Sachs. She holds an AB from Princeton University and an MBA from Stanford University.

Bio: Mr. Heinecke is an experienced business and legal advisor to growing life sciences companies.  He most recently served as Chief Business Officer and General Counsel at BioElectron Technology Corporation, which was purchased acquired by PTC Therapeutics.  Prior to that he led the product development team at Aimmune Therapeutics and served as General Counsel during and after the company’s highly successful initial public offering.  He has been a founder and executive at several venture backed life sciences companies and currently serves on the board of a private medical imaging company.  Earlier in his career, he was an associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and a financial analyst at Morgan Stanley & Company.  He holds an AB from Princeton University and a JDA and MBA from the University of Chicago.

Bio: Rika is an entrepreneur, investor, keynote speaker, and international consultant. She is currently the Principal of Eurika Global, where she works with clients – from Frotune 1000 to startups – to apply innovation in a way that is at once practical and transformative. She is also the CEO and Founder of BoardSeatMeet, Inc. an NPO focusing on gender-balancing corporate board rooms by empowering women to build and leverage social capital with modern technology – essentially delivering the “High-Performance Board Room of Tomorrow”. Trilingual in Japanese, German and English, Rika immigrated from Japan to attend Princeton University. Rika has since worked internationally over two decades in senior executive roles in strategy, business development, and marketing with Fortune 500 companies – NVIDIA, Sony, Accenture, American Express- and Silicon Valley startups. She is a technology industry veteran and serves on Advisory Boards to ventures in Next-gen Computing (VR/AR/MR) and Artificial Intelligence ecosystems. Throughout her career, Rika has been an avid advocate for advancing women’s leadership in technology and business across industry verticals and global lines. Rika is also the only woman on the Dean’s Council for Embry-Riddle Aeronautics University, where she addresses the matter of gender parity in STEM Higher Education. Rika is passionate about deepening intersection of the human, the digital, and the physical through the challenge of value-driven innovation and the reward of purpose-driven collaboration.

Bio: Misako has been an investment professional with exposure to equity and credit investments across various industries. Previously, she worked at Goldman Sachs, Eagle Asset Management, and Rogers Investment Advisors in Tokyo, and also participated in the Girls Who Invest program. She looks forward to meeting a diverse group of people and gaining experience in the industry. Misako holds a BA in economics from Princeton and is fluent in Japanese with proficiency in Mandarin.

Bio: Daniel Bernstein is the co-founder and COO of We Are the New Farmers, a next-gen indoor farm growing microalgae in urban environments as the first carbon neutral food source. Prior to founding the New Farmers, Daniel was an investment associate on the Distressed & Corporate Special Situations team at Angelo Gordon, as well as an analyst in the Restructuring group at Greenhill & Co. Daniel graduated from Princeton University in 2014 with a degree in Economics.

Bio: Karlos Bledsoe (P’15) is a class of 2021 Wharton student in the JD/MBA program. Prior to Wharton, he worked as a consultant at Trinity Partners in Boston where he focused on strategic projects for pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients across corporate stages and therapeutic areas. At Wharton, Karlos is in the Health Care Management program and works with two startup companies in the med device and digital therapeutics spaces. In his free time, Karlos enjoys all things outdoors, playing piano, and playing tennis.

Bio: Corey Bourbonais is a second-year MBA student at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. Prior to Ross, she built and managed the sales and service team at Berxi, an insurtech startup within Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance. Corey has also worked at Liberty Mutual conducting cross-functional customer experience strategy projects. At Ross, she is an Investment Manager for the International Investment Fund, which focuses on investing in small and medium enterprises in emerging economies. She is also on the board of the Ross Fintech and Consulting Clubs. Corey holds an AB in sociology from Princeton University, where she played on the varsity ice hockey team.

Bio: Catherine recently completed an academic master’s in economics at the University of Chicago, where her studies focused on structural estimation of consumer demand. Prior to graduate studies, she worked for 6 years in finance, including stints in the Securities Division of Goldman Sachs and in the trading department of Bridgewater Associates. Catherine graduated from Princeton University in 2011 with a bachelor’s in economics.

Bio: Jitendra Kanodia is an engineer/scientist who is passionate about utilizing quantitative methods for accelerating drug development.  Jitendra is a Chemical and Biological Engineer by training with an undergraduate degree from IIT Madras and a PhD from Princeton University. He currently works as a Director of Translational Medicine and a Project Team Leader for a late stage research program at Theravance Biopharma Inc., a mid-size pharmaceutical company based in San Francisco, CA. His goal for the AVG fellow program is to bolster his ability to convert his technical expertise into viable business proposals and learn how to identify high impact problems that can be solved using contemporary knowledge and present a favorable commercial opportunity.