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Entrepreneurship Advisory Board

lisa dallmerLisa Dallmer

Position: COO at Dimensional Fund Advisors, former COO of Global Technology & Operations at BlackRock and former COO/Head of European Market Services and Cash Markets at the NYSE Euronext

Lisa Dallmer is Chief Operating Officer of Dimensional Fund Advisors, a $609 billion asset manager based in Austin. She also serves on the Executive Committee and partner with senior leaders of the corporate, sales and marketing, and investment teams to develop and implement operational strategies that improve standards, drive efficiency, and enhance business capabilities a seasoned customer centric technology executive in financial services.

Most recently, Lisa was Chief Operating Officer, Managing Director of BlackRock's Global Technology and Operations Group, a position that she held from 2014 to 2018. At BlackRock she led operating model strategy to deliver enterprise value, operationalized platform technology by driving tech enabled transformation, set strategic investment criteria for adjacent business development and led operational M&A integration. Lisa worked across the $1.6Bn portfolio of global technology, client service, investment operations, and data services teams. She served as a member of the Global Operating Committee and the Technology & Operations Executive Committee. She participated in the firm’s global Diversity and Inclusion Leadership circle as the first executive to require diverse slates for every open role and later established BlackRock’s Girls Who Code partnership.

Lisa joined BlackRock in 2014 from NYSE Euronext in Paris where she was Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President for European Cash Markets responsible for all aspects of the commercial operating model and technology service delivery. In this capacity she led a $1billion portfolio consisting of $650M of customer revenue, new product development and the pan-European consolidation of client and market services for trading. From 2006 to 2010, she was head of Global Exchange Traded Products, ETFs and Indices, leading the integration of the product teams, client facing technology and business model change following the NYSE, Euronext, Archipelago and Amex mergers.

Lisa has twice been recognized, in 2011 and again in 2013, by Financial News as one of the “100 Most Influential Women for European Financial Services”.  She served as Co-President of the Women’s Bond Club 2007-2009 and as a Board Member in various committee roles from 2003-2007.

Lisa holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from Miami University and a MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, in addition to a year at the London School of Economics and an executive leadership program at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.


  

david hercheDavid Herche

Position: Chairman at Enerfab, Executive Chairman at West Chester Protective Gear, and Board Chair of Cincinnati Works

David Herche is Chairman and CEO at Enerfab, Inc., a world-leading supplier of engineering solutions serving the energy, environmental, chemical, pharmaceutical, food and beverage industries. Enerfab is the leading supplier of design/build process systems for the brewing, juice and fossil fuel power industries. It has achieved this position through a versatile diversification over the past twenty years. In 1988, Enerfab was a small company serving primarily the brewing industry and employing 150. Today, Enerfab is a diverse manufacturing and service organization that is a leading provider of maintenance services, capital equipment components and technology solutions for the energy industry and other industrial markets. The company manufactures and installs sophisticated pollution control equipment and provides maintenance services to process industries throughout the United States and it has grown to employ over 3,000 people.

David also serves as Executive Chairman of West Chester Protective Gear, the largest importer of industrial work gloves in the United States, and Board Chair of Cincinnati Works, a nonprofit organization that brings hope and encouragement to people living in poverty while assisting them in advancing to self-sufficiency through employment. Early in his career, David was both a practicing accountant and a CPA with Arthur Andersen. He has twice been recognized by EY as the EY Entrepreneur of the Year for Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky, in 1996 and again in 2008, and was Inducted into the Hall of Fame at the Thomas C. Page Entrepreneurial Center at Miami University in 2003.

David holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the Farmer School of Business at Miami University.


 

ben hoffmanBen Hoffman

Position: Senior Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer at Fifth Third Bank

Ben Hoffman joined Fifth Third Bank in March 2016 and currently serves as the Chief Strategy Officer.  In that capacity, Ben leads the Corporate Strategy, Decision Sciences, and FinTech teams.  Prior to his current role, Ben has served as Head of Corporate Strategy / Fintech and Head of Digital Lending for Fifth Third. 

Before joining the bank, Ben spent over a decade in consulting as a Partner in the Financial Services practice at Oliver Wyman where he advised leading banks and other financial institutions in the United States and globally.  Ben has written on behalf of Oliver Wyman and the World Economic Forum, chaired the American Banker Marketplace Lending & Investing conference, and sits on the board of The Santi School Project, a non-profit dedicated to giving girls and disadvantaged ethnic minorities in Nepal access to quality education. 

Along with his wife and two children, Ben lives in Cincinnati and is enjoying his return to suburban living, even as he maintains his passion for international football and world travel.


 

jason hollandJason Holland

Position: President and Chief Business Officer at Firework 

Jason Holland serves as President and Chief Business Officer at Firework, the global leader in bringing short-form video designed to inspire a shoppable, livestream video experience on any website. Since joining Firework in July of 2020, Jason has been integral to the company’s meteoric rise in profile and rapid expansion into markets across the globe. To fuel such growth, Jason draws from a 20-plus-year wellspring of experience as a leader, innovator, and driver of change within the digital media and marketing ecosystems of multiple Fortune 500 companies, including Coca-Cola, Kraft, Unilever, Kellogg’s, among others. Jason plays a pivotal role in the ongoing success of Firework introducing the company’s vision for the future of e-commerce to direct-to-consumer brands, retailers, and media publishers — a decentralized future in which brands can create and host immersive, shoppable video content on their own websites by adding just a single line of HTML code. Jason is continuously spearheading strategies for company partners to cater to new consumer demographics with short-form and livestream video, including the company’s recent industry-first partnership with grocery goliath Albertsons Companies, Inc.

Prior to joining Firework, Jason served as Global Chief Operating Officer and Partner at Evolve Media LLC. Throughout his 8 years at Evolve, Jason oversaw internal and external global operations playing a critical role in the company’s private equity rounds plus expanding the company’s footprint beyond the US, successfully establishing their international brand in markets such as Canada, the UK, and Australia. By the time he ended his tenure at Evolve, Jason had led their TotallyKidz brand to become the 3rd largest online platform for children in the world, generating a 20+% increase in global gross margin. Today, Jason remains as an Advisor to the business.

In 2020, Jason was named a finalist for Digiday’s Publishing Executive of the Year Award. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Logistics and Supply Chain Management from the Farmer School of Business at Miami University.


 

clint jonesClint Jones

Position: Co-Founder and CEO at GoHealth

Clint P. Jones is CEO of GoHealth (NASDAQ: GOCO), a leading health insurance marketplace that he co-founded with Miami alum Brandon Cruz and has served as GoHealth’s Chief Executive Officer since GoHealth’s founding in 2001. He has also been a member of GoHealth, Inc.’s board of directors since 2020 and a member of GoHealth Holdings, LLC’s board of managers since 2019, as well as serving on the board of managers of GoHealth’s predecessor since its founding in 2001.
Clint serves as member of the board of directors of Bridge Legal from June 2000 to January 2001,

Mr. Jones served as Intranet Market Manager for Holt Value, a former division of Credit Suisse. Mr. Jones speaks regularly at industry events and conferences. He is also active in insurance regulatory forums. GoHealth, Inc. (GoHealth) was named to The National Association for Business Resources’ list of Summer 2020 “Best and Brightest Companies To Work For in the Nation.” This is the fourth consecutive year GoHealth has won the national award. GoHealth also won the “Best and Brightest Companies to Work For” in Chicago for four consecutive years, beginning in 2017. In 2013, Mr. Jones was recognized by EY as the EY Entrepreneur of the Year for the Midwest and was also named to the annual Chicago leadership list, Crain’s 40 under 40.

Mr. Jones holds bachelor’s degrees in both Marketing and Management Information Systems from the Farmer School of Business at Miami University.


 

jeff kadlicJeff Kadlic

Position: Founding Partner, Evolution Capital Partners

Jeff Kadlic is the Founding Partner of Evolution Capital Partners, the award-winning and nationally recognized private equity firm dedicated to driving small business transformational success. His passion is simple; arm and inspire founders and business owners with operational leadership, capital management, and success drivers that competitive markets demand. He is the creator of Evolution PRO℠, the systematic organizational change agent that transforms the challenges small businesses face into sustainable and profitable growth.

As an industry bellwether, Jeff Kadlic drives entrepreneurial excellence and success outcomes. Evolution Capital Partners is the recipient of the 2014 Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) Deal Makers Award.   Ernst & Young named Jeff Kadlic as a 2013 Entrepreneur of the Year finalist.  Evolution Capital Partners is the 2013 recipient of Inc. Magazine 500 Award, featuring it as one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S.  In 2009 Jeff was the recipient of Cleveland Crain’s Business 40 Under 40 as one of Ohio’s leading business professionals. Jeff is a national speaker and published writer across leading industry initiatives, including micro-markets, micro-buyouts, entrepreneurial business strategy, and organizational transformation.  He co-hosted the radio show dedicated to best practices impacting the entrepreneurial community. 

Prior to forming Evolution Capital Partners, Jeff executed complex investments within large institutional settings for over ten years.  Collectively, his varied institutional investing experience laid the foundational experiences and market knowledge required to be successful across the competitive investment landscape of today.  Jeff earned his Master of Management Studies degree from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and his Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Miami University (Ohio).

Jeff is a dedicated steward for his community and philanthropic organizations. He serves on the Board of Advisors for the John W. Altman Institute for Entrepreneurship at Miami University and the Miami University’s Parent Council. He served as philanthropic board president for the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes and remained an active Board Member for nine years until 2019.    Jeff was also named Chairman of the Miami University Cleveland Development Board in 2015. Jeff calls Cleveland, Ohio home, where he lives with his wife and four children.


 

maria katrisMaria Katris

Position: Co-Founder and CEO at Built In

Maria Katris is Co-Founder and CEO of Built In, which has revolutionized the way the tech industry recruits and hires top talent. She transformed the company from its start as a networking site for the industry to the disruptive platform it is today, a national home for tech professionals and more than 1,800 customers, including innovative companies of all sizes across sectors. Headquartered in Chicago, Built In employs more than 220 professionals. 

Monthly, Built In attracts 3 million tech professionals globally. They rely on the platform’s content to learn about tech trends and news, grow professionally and discover opportunities at companies with missions they want to join. For its customers, Built In puts the stories of their cultures, technology and people in front of this otherwise hard-to-reach audience, helping companies fill their roles of the future.

In 2019, Maria and her team closed a $22 million Series C funding round led by Updata Partners with participation from MATH Venture Partners, which at the time was the largest funding round closed by a female CEO-led firm in Chicago history.

In 2021, Built In was recognized by the Deloitte Technology Fast 500™, a ranking of the 500 fastest-growing companies in North America. This marked the third consecutive year Built In was recognized on the Deloitte list. Also in 2021, the company earned a place on Inc. Magazine's 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America, with a growth rate of 277% over the previous three years.

Previously Maria was the Executive Director of TiE Midwest, the Chicago chapter of a Global not-for-profit organization dedicated to high-growth entrepreneurs. Immediately prior, Maria founded Nanny Boutique, a Chicago-based nanny placement agency, which she sold within two years. Maria has strategic experience working at Northwestern Memorial Hospital as a strategic analyst to the VPs and CEO. Prior to that, she spent four years as a healthcare consultant at Arthur Andersen and Huron Consulting Group.

In addition to building a fast-growth company that continues to disrupt the tech recruitment space, her top priorities include her awesome husband and being a mother to three amazing daughters. As she creates a path to purpose for her employees and the tech professionals who use Built In, she also follows her own purpose — a mission to show her daughters and team what it means to lead with empathy, accountability, and humility.

Maria was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year Midwest Finalist for 2020 and was recognized by Crain’s in its “40 Under 40” list. She earned her bachelor’s in Finance from the Farmer School of Business at Miami University and her MBA from The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.


 

sean laneSean Lane

Position: Founder and CEO at Olive AI and Founder and CEO at Circulo Health

Sean Lane is Founder and CEO of Columbus-based Olive AI, which markets an AI workforce platform built specifically for healthcare that has been adopted by over 600 hospitals, including 22% of the top 100 health systems in the country. The company’s software acts as a router between systems and data by automating repetitive, high-volume tasks and workflows, delivering hospitals and health systems increased revenue, reduced costs, and increased capacity.

In July 2021, Olive AI passed Root’s record for the largest venture capital funding round at the highest valuation in Ohio history with the $400 million round that closed last month at a $4 billion post-money valuation. To-date the company has raised almost $900 Million in funding.

Sean Lane is also Founder and CEO at Circulo Health, a Health Tech company that plans to bring much needed, disruptive innovation to Medicaid Managed Care. Earlier this year, the company closed a $50 Million seed venture round led by current Olive AI investors Drive Capital, General Catalyst, Oak HC/FT, and Silicon Valley Bank Capital.

Sean spent five years an intelligence officer in the United States Air Force and later served as an intelligence officer at the NSA, solving big challenges as a software engineer and technology leader.

In June 2021, Sean was named to Columbus Business First 2021 Power 100 list of the 100 people making the biggest impact in Central Ohio for 2021. He earned his bachelor’s in Political Science and Government at Miami University.


 

wendy leaWendy Lea

Position: CEO at Energize ColoradoFormer CEO at Cintrifuse, Board Member at Techstars, Board Member/Advisor to a number of high growth companies, and former Co-Founder and CEO of The Sales Consultancy (sold to Siebel Systems)

Wendy Lea is CEO at Energize Colorado, a nonprofit 501c3 organization established to provide relief to small businesses in Colorado, supporting local businesses in recovering from the economic impact of COVID-19, and serves as a Board Director at Techstars, the top-ranked startup accelerator network in the world.

Wendy recently stepped down from Cintrifuse, a public-private partnership established to drive the next phase of growth for the Greater Cincinnati region—innovation that will be enabled and delivered by startups, where she served as CEO from 2014 to 2018.

An accomplished Silicon Valley executive, Wendy has deep experience in marketing, sales, and customer experience. She is an expert at digital innovation and has worked with hundreds of companies around the world, from start-ups to large multinational corporations. Lea has experience with freemium, direct, and indirect business models. She has broad knowledge in business financing, from bootstrapped start-ups to venture funds and private equity partnerships.

Wendy serves on several boards, including Get Satisfaction, a leader in online customer communities and is headquartered in San Francisco, where she is the executive chair and Denver-based Xyleme, a Learning Content Management System (LCMS) that empowers teams to centralize and manage content, author collaboratively, publish to multiple outputs, and distribute to learning audiences, among others.

Wendy holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and marketing from the School of Business Administration at the University of Mississippi.


 

michael markesberyMichael Markesbery

Position: Michael Markesbery is co-founder and CEO of OROS. OROS designs, develops, integrates, and markets a line of extreme outerwear using its patented Aerogel-based SolarCore technology that is considered the “best insulation on the planet.” Developed from the NASA technology used for space suits, the space shuttle, and the Mars Rovers, OROS infused Aerogel to create Solarcore, helping to make outerwear thinner, warmer, and more flexible.

A 2015 graduate of The Brandery, the company raised a $2.0M seed round led by NCT Ventures with Fengshion Capital in 2016. Closed two follow-on seed+ stage rounds that total more than $8 million, one completed in 2018 and another in 2019, that includes investments by Listen Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Ridgeline Ventures, Break Trail Ventures, Elizabeth Street Ventures, RedHawk Ventures, retired Goldman Sachs Director Eric Dobkin, Misfit Wearables founder Sonny Vu, and retired Grainger CEO Jim Ryan. In October 2019, the company announced a multi-year $2 million subcontract under a Other Transaction Authority prototype agreement (pOTA) from the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center (CCDC-SC) Division of the United States Department of Defense.

Since its commercial launch in 2015, OROS has sold more than $10M of its extreme outerwear gear to customers in more than 100 countries worldwide, and today, the company’s proprietary insulative technology, SolarCore, is featured in other brands products, such as LL Bean’s boots, Cabela’s boots, and John Deere gloves, among others.

Michael was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 List of Top Disruptive Entrepreneurs in the U.S. in Retail & eCommerce in 2018 and was a member of Miami University’s distinguished 18 of the Last 9 List of Top Gradates in 2017. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Zoology and Animal Biology and a minor in Entrepreneurship from Miami University.


 

rod robinsonRod Robinson

Position: Vice President of Business Acceleration, Supplier Inclusion & Sustainability at Coupa Software, Founder and former CEO at ConnXus, and Board Member at The Techstars Foundation.

Rod Robinson is Vice President of Business Acceleration, Supplier Inclusion & Sustainability at Coupa Software. Previously, he served as CEO of ConnXus, Inc., a supplier data management software company that he founded in 2010 that enabled Global 2000 companies to discover new suppliers, manage supplier diversity tracking, supplier risk, compliance and reporting. ConnXus’ cloud-based platform provides powerful tools and analytics that enable large companies to validate, quantify and measure the diversity within corporate supply chains.

Rod led the company from start-up through multiple rounds of angel investment and venture capital financings that totaled more than $10 million, 628% revenue growth (2013-2018), building an enterprise customer base—including American Express, Caesars Entertainment, Coca-Cola, Cummins, Dell, Fifth Third Bank, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble and other leading brands—before the acquisition by Coupa on May 4, 2020. Rod currently serves on the Advisory Board of The Techstars Foundation and previously served as Chief Procurement Officer at Cincinnati Bell.

Rod was recognized by EY as a finalist for the Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the Midwest in 2012. He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the West Virginia University Institute of Technology and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Dun & Bradstreet fellowship recipient.


 

aaron ryanAaron Ryan

Position: Commissioner and President of Overtime and Overtime Elite (OTE) and Investment Committee Member of 1809 Capital

Aaron Ryan is Commissioner and President of Overtime and Overtime Elite (OTE), a transformative global youth basketball league that offers the world’s most talented young basketball players an alternative pathway to becoming professional athletes.

Overtime, named to LinkedIn’s Top 50 Startups list for 2021, has raised more than $140 million in venture funding to-date, including an $80 million Series C that closed earlier this year and was co-led by Sapphire Ventures and Black Capital VC that valued the company at $280 million. Other investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Spark Capital, Bezos Expeditions, Micromanagement Ventures, Morgan Stanley Counterpoint Global, Blackstone Strategic Partners, PROOF, and more than 30 NBA stars, including Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant.

Previously, Ryan had 22-year career at the NBA, where he served as Senior Vice President of the NBA 2K League, the first official esports league operated by an American professional sports league. In addition, Ryan currently serves as a member of the Investment Committee for the new Miami alumni-led growth equity investment fund, 1809 Capital, a $10 million syndicated fund that co-invests with Miami alumni GPs and investment managers at leading institutional venture funds.

Aaron holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Miami University.


 

david schwabDavid Schwab

Position: Executive Vice President at Octagon Sports & Entertainment Network, Founder of Octagon First Call, and Creator/Host of Beyond High Street Podcast

David Schwab is Executive Vice President at Octagon Sports & Entertainment Network, the world’s largest sponsorship consulting practice and a pioneer and leader in athlete and personality representation and management with more than 800 employees globally.

David also founded Octagon First Call, which is a celebrity strategy business with one goal in mind – to make this process straightforward, smarter and more efficient. Octagon First Call educates companies, associations and non-profits on the proper use of celebrity talent, then advise them on how to get the most value out of their partnership. This includes identifying the right talent, securing agreements, tailoring campaigns to fit both the marketing goals of the brand and the unique talents and appeal of the celebrity and managing the relationship throughout the duration of the term. And even telling clients when not to hire.

David is Creator and Host of Beyond High Street Podcast, a weekly podcast with highly successful Miami University alumni exploring the common traits that bring people to Oxford, Ohio and how that helped them with their professional successes.

David holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the Farmer School of Business at Miami University.


 

todd schwarzingerTodd Schwarzinger

Position: Venture Partner at Refinery Ventures, former Managing Director of Life Sciences and Healthcare at Silicon Valley Bank

Todd Schwarzinger is a Venture Partner at Refinery Ventures. Previously, he was a Managing Director and head of the Life Sciences and Healthcare practice at Silicon Valley Bank for the Bay Area and Pacific Northwest. Todd and his teams focused on capital, banking, and relationship solutions for healthcare clients of all life stages spanning biopharma, medical device, digital health, diagnostics, and life science tools.

Todd joined SVB with more than 15 years of investment banking and consulting experience with healthcare and life sciences companies. Prior to joining SVB, Todd was an Executive Director in the healthcare investment banking division at Morgan Stanley where he advised a broad range of medical device and biopharmaceutical clients on mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, the equity and debt capital markets. In his nearly nine-year career at Morgan Stanley across both London and New York, he was responsible for life sciences M&A transactions totaling over $5 billion and raised over $3 billion in capital markets transactions spanning North America, Europe and Asia.

Todd holds a bachelor’s in Finance from the Farmer School of Business at Miami University and received his MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.


 

greg van kirkGreg Van Kirk

Position: Founder and CEO at ProjectXSocial Entrepreneur CorpsCommunity Empowerment Solutions, and Columbia Business School’s Venture for All

Greg Van Kirk is a social entrepreneur, consultant and educator. He is Founder and CEO at ProjectXSocial Entrepreneur CorpsCommunity Empowerment Solutions, and Columbia Business School’s Venture for All. These are all ventures whose mission is to design and implement social innovation responses to long-standing development challenges.

Over the course of 20 years, Greg has worked with a diverse variety of organizations, leaders and communities in the US, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, Suriname, Brazil, Haiti, The Dominican Republic, Bosnia Herzegovina, Serbia, Egypt, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea, South Africa, India and Thailand.

He has designed social entrepreneurial experiences, taught courses, and led workshops for thousands of students and professionals. Greg founded of SocialEntrepreneurU, is a former Ashoka Leadership Group Member, is a two-time Ashoka Globalizer Fellow and World Economic Forum "Social Entrepreneur of the Year for 2012 (Latin America)".

He is the principal designer of the award winning MicroConsignment Model and has served as a consultant for organizations such as Levi Strauss Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, USAID, Chemonics, VisionSpring, Soros Foundation, Church World Service, Inter American Development Bank, Water For People and Fundacion Paraguaya in the US, Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

Greg began working in rural small business development as a Guatemala Peace Corps volunteer in 2001. He worked in investment banking for five years before arriving in Guatemala. Two deals he led at UBS during this time won “Deal of the Year” honors from Structured Finance International magazine. He currently lives with his family in New York City.

Greg also contributes time as a “Social Entrepreneur in Residence” at Miami University, Columbia University, NYU, Marquette University, Indiana University, University of San Diego and Arizona State University and has taught social entrepreneurship courses at Miami, Columbia, and NYU.
Greg is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative and was recognized by The World Economic Forum as the Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year in 2012. He holds a bachelor’s in Business Administration, Marketing, and Economics from the Farmer School of Business at Miami University.

Farmer School of Business Department of Entrepreneurship

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