The purpose of the Research and Innovation Council (RIC) is to help UT Dallas succeed in three ways:

  • Invention – validate inventions and innovations proposed by faculty and students as technically and commercially feasible, and advise the Office of Research and Innovation as we facilitate the commercialization of University technologies.
  • Activation – participate in key programming by supporting and mentoring students, alumni, and faculty entrepreneurs pursuing startup ventures.
  • Investment – provide counsel to the university’s leadership on producing the best and highest number of investor-ready ventures.

Team

John Adler

Entrepreneur, Advisor, Board Member

John Adler worked in large and startup companies in the telecom corridor for 17 years, followed by a career in Venture Capital. He is currently working with technology companies as an entrepreneur, advisor, and board member. Most recently, he joined UTD as an Adjunct Professor teaching entrepreneurship. John has his Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering and an MBA from Southern Methodist University and is the author/co-author of ten granted U.S. patents in optical communications.

Laura Baldwin

Managing Director, Golden Seeds

Laura Baldwin is the chapter lead for the Dallas chapter of Golden Seeds. She currently serves as President of Waco Bend Asset Management Ltd.; she previously served as Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations at Triad Hospitals, Inc., a Fortune 500 company, and also worked in equity research and investment banking. She received her BA from the University of Texas at Austin, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, and her MBA from Southern Methodist University.

George Brody

Founder and Managing Partner, InfoNet of Things

George Brody is the Founder and Managing Partner of InfoNet of Things LLC, an IoT solutions company. His professional interests include entrepreneurship, angel investment, and the creation of new ventures at the intersection of wireless technology with medical and enterprise applications, involving IoT, 5G, AI, and Augmented/Virtual Reality. Brody serves as a member of the advisory council for the Naveen Jindal School of Management at The University of Texas at Dallas and as a Charter Member and Board Member of TiE Dallas, heading up its flagship Angel Network called TiE Dallas Angels. Brody earned his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, and he earned two Master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, respectively, from the University of New Brunswick, Canada.

Samantha Colletti

Managing Director, Silicon Valley Bank

Samantha has nearly a decade of experience in the financial services and banking industry covering venture capital, private equity, leveraged buy outs, technology and innovation. She holds a Master of Science in Accounting, a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance, and a Bachelor of Science in Economics for Southern Methodist University where she graduated Summa Cum Laude.

John Dupree

Partner, Opus Faveo Innovation Development

John Dupree is a Partner at Opus Faveo Innovation Development, a boutique venture development studio with offices in Austin and Dallas, where he helps lead the firm’s activities supporting very early-stage start-ups as well as angels, small venture investors, family offices and tech transfer offices. Opus Faveo deploys organized, focused, executive management resources within a start-up acting as a co-founder along with the venture’s entrepreneurs. The company focuses on first-time founders during the difficult pre-seed and seed phases using its skills in market analysis, business planning, recruitment, funding, operational support, and oversight. He is currently an active advisor to several startup companies including Ares Materials, First>Then, Parabeac, and Emobilus. John is also an active member of Social Venture Partners – Dallas.

David Evans

Managing Partner, Sentiero Ventures

David Evans is the Managing Partner of Sentiero Ventures, an early-stage venture fund that invests in artificial intelligence-enabled software businesses. He is a serial entrepreneur and technologist who started coding at 14, launched his first company at 19, and has exited multiple times as a founder and investor, including a national digital signage network that was sold to CBS and an Inc 500 eCommerce company that was sold to a strategic buyer. Additionally, David is the facilitator of the CometX Accelerator for student entrepreneurs at The University of Texas at Dallas and works as an advisor to multiple startups and accelerators.

Helena Krusec

Deputy Engagements Lead, AFVentures

Helena Krusec is the Deputy Engagements Lead for AFVentures within AFWERX. She serves as a generalist expert in all things venture capital, with a specific interest in defense and national security technologies, and supporting female founders in those fields. She is an experienced manager and strategic communications leader with a history of working with high-profile companies at the intersection of venture capital and national security. Leveraging her background in public policy, business, and data analytics, Helena has helped companies to develop successful digital and traditional media campaigns, execute aggressive sales and growth initiatives, created holistic brand and reputational profiles, and crafted strategies to help targets to flourish in highly competitive environments.

Florence Lowe

CEO, Alpha Genesis Labs LLC

Florence Lowe is passionate about technology and is on a mission to spread awareness and access to clean data and good software that is simple and easy to use. To help drive this mission, she founded Alpha Genesis Labs and works with large to mid-size organizations to improve data accuracy. She also teaches graduate students about Digital Product Management at The University of Texas at Dallas’ Naveen Jindal School of Management. Prior to that, she sat on an executive team that ran an agile software development company. As COO of Synerzip, Florence worked to digitally transform existing technologies to reach goals and deliver software solutions that end users could appreciate while ensuring that teams across the globe worked more efficiently. Florence has an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, a Master’s in Computer Applications from Jawaharlal Nehru University, and a Bachelor’s (Hons) in Mathematics from the University of Delhi.

Vishwanath Madhugiri

Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer, SAAZ MICRO

Vishwanath Madhugiri is the Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer at SAAZ MICRO, Inc, a digital imaging innovations company. He has three decades of experience in the automotive, IT, and telecommunications industries, as well as in international commercial/research collaborations and incubating start-ups in Europe, the USA, India, and Australia. Madhugiri serves as a Board Member and Mentor at Technology Start-ups, and he is an invited member of the International Business Forum for both UK Trade & Investment and the CII-UK India Business Forum, an invited member of the India Council on Competitiveness, and an invited member of the Dean’s Advisory Council at the Jindal School of Management at The University of Texas at Dallas. In 2014, he was invited to Buckingham Palace by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for his decade-plus time and contributions to the UK Trade and Investment agency.

David Matthews

Managing Director, RevTech Ventures

David Matthews has a background as an entrepreneur, a lead investor in emerging investment funds, and as a venture capitalist. As an entrepreneur, he launched several successful start-ups including Intelecon and Green Mountain Dallas. He brought the initial capital together to launch emerging private equity and venture funds such as Red River Ventures, Elm Creek Partners, Trailblazer Capital, and RevTech Ventures. As a venture capitalist, Matthews has led investments in dozens of early-stage entrepreneurial ventures. With RevTech, he created a mentor-led, seed fund that has funded over 50 emerging retail technology innovators to date and led to over $500 million of capital formation for retail concepts like Neighborhood Goods and retail technologies like Pensa Systems and Accel Robotics. His successful exits include Green Mountain Energy (sold to NRG), PeopleAnswers (sold to Infor), Spawn Labs (sold to GameStop), and OrderMyGear (recapitalized by SGE).

Michael Mignardi

Manager of Technology Development, Texas Instruments Alpha Genesis Labs LLC

Mike recently retired from Texas Instruments (TI) after 32 years – all working within DLP® Products.  He holds a Bachelor’s and Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Florida.  He joined TI in 1989 within the Central Research Labs when DLP Technology was in the very early stages of development.  Mike was instrumental in bringing the technology to market.  He became the Manager of Technology Development and his team developed new pixel, package and process nodes. 

Kirk Otis

Dallas Lead, HawkEye Capital Partners

Kirk Otis has extensive experience leading operations, executing mergers & acquisitions, and leading strategic corporate growth initiatives. Through his work with VC and private equity funds, Kirk has completed over $13.5B in strategic transactions spanning 10 countries in North America, Europe, the mid-east, India, and Asia. He is a principal and leads the Dallas office of HawkEye Capital Partners Inc., serving on the fiduciary boards of three privately held firms. Kirk earned a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from Bowling Green State University and an MBA from Southern Methodist University.

Dayakar Puskoor

Co-Founder and Managing Director, Dallas Venture Capital

Dayakar Puskoor, co-founder and managing director at Dallas Venture Capital (DVC), is a serial entrepreneur turned visionary investor, who had the foresight to launch one of the first tech-focused venture fund. Headquartered in post-telecom Dallas, the fund invested in several pioneering early-stage startups in cloud, AI/ML and mobile technologies in Dallas, Silicon Valley, Seattle and India.

Chad J. Ronholdt

Managing Director, NVB Ventures

With over twenty-five years of experience in various scientific and executive level positions within the biomedical sciences, Mr. Ronholdt’s distinguished career has resulted in the development, validation, and launch of multiple regenerative medicine orthobiologic and cell-based products for orthopedic spine, trauma, sports medicine and wound care applications. His scientific accomplishments include six (6) issued patents, publishing ten (10) peer-reviewed scientific journal articles, and authored twenty-three (23) scientific abstracts. Mr. Ronholdt has been an invited speaker to major symposia to present on topics ranging from complex microbiology validations and stem cell characterization methodologies to FDA compliance requirements and entrepreneurial strategies. Mr. Ronholdt holds a B.Sc., in Microbiology from Colorado State University and an MBA from the University of Phoenix.

Lauren Tyra

Chief Scientific Officer, Green Park & Golf Ventures

Dr. Lauren Tyra is a scientist, venture capitalist, and Plano ISD School Board Trustee. After graduating from Plano East, Dr. Tyra attended the University of North Texas, where she double majored in Biology and German. She subsequently earned a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where she was heavily involved in student leadership, led science fair outreach, and was a National Science Foundation Fellow. Dr. Tyra is a published scientific author, with publications in the Journal of Cell Biology, eLife and Developmental Cell. She is now the chief scientific officer of a local venture capital firm that specializes in healthcare and life science startups. Her firm has over 65 active life science, healthcare, and technology companies, and she serves as a board director or observer for multiple startups.  Lauren is married to fellow Plano East grad, Jason Tyra, who is a tax attorney, certified public accountant, and United States Army Reserve officer. They are raising their two kids in Plano, where they are active in Scouting and sports. 

Kevin Vela

Managing Partner, Vela Wood

Kevin Vela is the managing partner at Vela Wood, a boutique corporate law firm based in Dallas, TX. Kevin focuses his practice in the areas of venture financing, fund representation, M&A, and gaming law. In recent years, he has represented both startups and investors in hundreds of financing transactions. Kevin has been selected as a Super Lawyer, Top Latino Lawyer, and Best Lawyer in Dallas. He currently teaches Series A Transactions at SMU Dedman School of Law and is a part of the Dallas Business Journal Leadership Trust, a network of influential business leaders in Dallas.

Jeff Williams

Partner, Interlock Partners

Jeff has more than 25 years of management, operational and investing experience, including over 17 years of investing in early and late-stage companies. Collectively, Jeff has managed, sold, and invested in over $1 billion worth of companies over two decades. Additionally, he sits on boards at The University of Texas at Dallas and Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business Venture Fund where he is a frequent lecturer and guest speaker on topics related to venture capital and entrepreneurship.