Dallas Innovates: From giving attraction maps the augmented reality treatment via a mobile app to an unmanned aerial system capable of monitoring air quality, the University of Texas at Dallas students offered a variety in Thursday’s Big Idea Competition final.
Dexter Ang is the CEO and Cofounder of Pison. Ang’s responsibilities include defining company vision, growing the team, and business development with consumer electronics and military clients. Ang is the lead for engagements with Bose, Microsoft, Google, Boeing, and the ALS Association and is a SME for Human Factors for the Augmented Reality Enterprise Alliance (AREA). Drawing on his expertise in HCI and mechanical engineering, Ang led Pison’s development of its patented nerve-sensing ENG technology and integration for disruptive capabilities. Prior to founding Pison, Ang worked as a senior trader specializing in signal processing and low latency communication at Jump Trading — a market leader in high frequency trading. During his eight-year tenure there, Ang led a $40 million PnL.
John D. Carmack II is an American computer programmer, video game developer and engineer. He co-founded the video game company id Software and was the lead programmer of its games Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, and their sequels.
Dr. Aldridge brings more than 20 years’ experience facilitating the translation of scientific discoveries into patient and commercial benefits. Her roles have included technology commercialization; improving patient outcomes through quality based initiatives; working with disease-specific nonprofits; development and venture philanthropy; and biotech and life science investing through venture capital. Her involvement in the biotech+ hub at Pegasus Park will work to strengthen the pipeline of opportunities to translate scientific discovery into real therapeutics, diagnostics, and medical devices to grow and more deeply establish a biotech ecosystem in the North Texas region. Dr. Aldridge received her Ph.D. from Duke University in the Department of Immunology and Program in Genetics, and her Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Science is from Texas A&M University
Bryan Chambers is VP of Capital Factory’s Accelerator and a General Partner in the Capital Factory’s VC fund, the most active VC fund in Texas. Prior to joining Capital Factory, Bryan helped to establish the Blackstone LaunchPad and the UT Dallas Seed Fund at the University of Texas at Dallas, where he actively advises students, entrepreneurs, and early-stage ventures and serves as a member of the entrepreneurship faculty. Bryan was a founding team member at Fixd Repair (Acquired by ANGI Home Services), an insurance technology and home services business where he led the business and corporate development strategy. Bryan has spent his career working with and investing in venture-backed startups including ReachLocal (IPO in 2010) and LevelUp (acquired by Grub Hub in 2018).
Kenichi N. Hartman is a Senior US Patent Agent And Partner at A.C. Entis IP. Kenichi received his patent training at the Manhattan office of Ropes & Gray, a global law firm with a leading IP practice and is a registered Patent Agent with the USPTO. He brings specialist technical knowledge gleaned from a 12-year research career.
Claire Leurent is Principal of Venture Investments at Johnson & Johnson Innovation. Claire focuses on pharmaceutical investments in areas of strategic interest to Johnson & Johnson.
She spent 14 years in the pharmaceutical industry in R&D and has led teams in design and implementation of clinical plans from First in Human to Proof of Concept studies.
Christine Brennan has over 15 years in the life-science industry including business development, corporate strategy and venture investing. She is currently Partner at MRLV.
Clay Heighten is a founding member of Caddis Partners. After completing residency training in Dallas, he practiced emergency medicine for 13 years. Clay is also a founding member of Green Park and Golf Ventures, serves on multiple boards of directors of early-stage healthcare companies, and is a co-founder of Dallas-based Health Wildcatters, a healthcare-focused business accelerator.
Karl D. Handelsman is the founder and Managing Partner, Codon Capital, and a key contributor and builder in the US biotech innovation ecosystem. Through his network and leadership, he drives Codon Capital to intensely focus on the best biotech targets for investments. Karl coaches at various incubators and teaches healthcare entrepreneurs.
James Graham is an experienced life-sciences professional, skilled in translation and commercialization of biomedical technologies. James currently serves as the director of investments at Research Bridge Partners.
Adil Adi is an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. Adil serves as the Principal of his eponymous Family Office and the Executive Chairman of WorldLink, a company he founded in 1998. Adil helped establish the Adi Family Office. Although it holds a wide variety of asset classes, the primary focus of the AFO is investing into and scaling companies in the sectors of Life Sciences and Emerging Technology such as Artificial Intelligence.
Daniel Kleinmann is a senior associate at the Adi Family Office where he manages the venture investments with a primary focus on early-stage Healthcare, Life Science, Deep Tech and B2B Enterprise Tech. He is passionate about supporting disruptive technologies that will fundamentally change the way we live.
Travis Whitfill is a partner at Bios Partners, where he invests in early-stage healthcare technologies that have potential to be transformative to healthcare. Travis focuses on business development and strategy, clinical development, due diligence, and deal sourcing and evaluation. He has a diverse background in the sciences ranging from biomolecular science to health services research.
Dr. Sherket Peterson is the Global Business Development and Strategy Manager in Healthcare for ABB. Sherket is a technical leader who thrives on developing innovative scientific solutions to deliver business needs. Prior to joining ABB, she served as a principal scientist at Johnson & Johnson and a National Advisory Board Member for the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Jonathan Mandelbaum is a Senior Associate at OrbiMed. Jonathan is a former drug discovery scientist passionate about building new biotech companies and developing innovative medicines to treat human disease.
Cheryl is passionate about the intersection of finance, technology, and social impact. She is the Head of Venture Growth and Partnerships at Republic, a one-stop-shop for founders to raise capital from both accredited and non-accredited investors. She is focused on introducing underrepresented founders to these alternative funding sources in order to help their startups thrive. In addition, she works on partnerships with other venture capital and ecosystem builders while supporting the growing Republic portfolio of 150+ companies. She is also a scout for Lightspeed and investment partner at the Community Fund.
Previously she worked as an analyst in a Connecticut-based private equity firm with an emphasis on minority and women entrepreneurs. She started her career in Investment Banking at Barclays, working in the Financial Institutions Group and Structured Finance. She holds a BA in Economics with honors from Harvard University.
Abe Minkara is the Chief Investment Officer and Founding Partner of Legacy Knight. Legacy Knight is an independent, family and partner-owned Multi-Family Office providing exclusive investment access and tailored advisory services to ultra-high net worth families and family offices. Prior to Legacy Knight, Abe managed a portfolio of investments at Mark Cuban Companies with a focus on technology, logistics, and consumer product goods (Shark Tank).
Abe is also actively engaged as an advisor and board member with a number of companies leveraging his expertise in strategy, operations, and capital allocation to help accelerate their growth. D CEO Magazine has recognized Abe as one of the 500 most influential business leaders in North Texas for 2020.Additionally Abe is a Member of Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) North Texas Chapter, Advisory board member at Institute of Excellence in Corporate Governance (IECG), Advisor at NPX (A new Donor Fund), Advisor at NYC based City Rock Ventures (Focus on impact with diverse founding teams), Mentor at Unreasonable Group (Global Impact Accelerator), Advisor at Guardian Bikes (Shark Tank Season 8 company), and Advisor/Mentor at Stadia Ventures (Global Sport Business Accelerator).
Abe received his MBA from the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX.
Jason Santamaria is a Managing Director in the Portfolio Operations group. Focused on Lean Transformation, Jason is involved in identifying, advising and supporting margin expansion opportunities through transactional & operational process improvement, complexity reduction and value engineering in Blackstone’s global portfolio company holdings.
Before joining Blackstone in 2018, Jason held a number of senior leadership roles in large public and private companies, including Serta Simmons Bedding, Newell Brands, Stanley Black & Decker, Avery Dennison, Morgan Stanley and McKinsey & Company. Early in his career, Jason served as an artillery officer in the United States Marine Corps and as a Fulbright Scholar in South America.
He holds an MBA from the Wharton School and a BA from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa.
Elle Bruno is the Managing Director of the Techstars & Western Union Accelerator. Elle has been a founder and startup operator for 19 years. In 2004 she started her first company, an eBay ancillary marketplace, and since then she has been integral in building three venture-backed startups, most notably Trunk Club. Her expertise is in consumer tech, specifically revenue and growth. Elle has been an angel investor and advisor since 2015, with a focus on investing in female founded companies, and was an EIR in the 2020 Techstars& Western Union program. In her free time, Elle enjoys working on her social goods site and contributing to charitable causes such as race education, scholarships for DREAMers, and closing the socioeconomic gap. She resides in Denver with her husband Tim, and three children George, Zoa, and Louise.
Mr. Gorton is a 13-time Serial Entrepreneur and bestselling author who has created industries and tens of billions of dollars in wealth. He has experience building both public and private companies in the digital health, telecom, music, energy, healthcare, book publishing, aerospace and water remediation industries.Throughout his executive career, Michael has founded and led industry-changing companies, including Internet Global, Teladoc, Palo Duro Records, Principal Solar, Water Environmental Technology and Back To Space.Michael is credited with being one of the pioneer/creators of the telemedicine industry, now valued at a quarter trillion-dollars globally.Book Genius named his current book: Broken Handoff the #1 M&A Business book of 2019.
As CEO, Chairman, and Founder of Teladoc, Gorton created and led the healthcare services company that was named by MIT as one of the Top 50 Smartest Companies in the World. Teladoc is now the world’s leading telemedicine company with a NYSE market cap in the tens of billions of dollars. Following Teladoc, Gorton was the founding CEO of Principal Solar, a public company he led to become one of the thought leaders in the solar industry worldwide, that delivered nearly 400 megawatts of sustainable electricity, enough to run approximately 70,000 American homes. With Internet Global, he led the company from concept to the #1 ranked Internet provider in North Texas and the construction of the world’s first DSL network and one of the first national VOIP networks. He is currently starting a roll up in the tele-health and digital health industries, with a goal of fixing some of the major issues in healthcare today.
Gorton’s passion project is asa founding CEO of Back To Space, LLC (B2S). Back to Space is a for-profit company that has four Apollo era astronauts on the team, including Buzz Aldrin, Walt Cunningham, Charlie Duke and Alfred Worden.The Company is building a Guinness Book of World Records map of the Moon, delivers a weekly Space News Flash, and is developing a TV show that has enlisted renown executive producers: Christopher Cowen (Apollo 13, The Decade Series, and Magnificent Desolation), and former Chairman of the Television Academy Hayma Washington (The Amazing Race, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, and Naked Science).Michael holds a JD in Law from Texas A&M University School of Law, a BS in Engineering from Texas Tech University, and an MS in Physics from The University of Texas at Dallas. He has established his status as a thought Leader and best-selling author through numerous awards, more than 20 white papers, 100+ articles, five novels and one business book on M&A transactions. His historicfiction novel Forefathers and Founding Fathers became an Amazon #1 best seller.Michael has run eighteen marathons, is working on his 3rd degree black belt in karate and has completed a 4,800-mile bicycle adventure across the US.He and his family have a goal of climbing the highest point of elevation in all 50 states. They have completed 42.
This is Matt Winser-Johns.
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