Fireside Chats
VU has over 100+ Fireside Chats with Venture Capital Investors, Private Equity Investors, Angel Investors, Strategic Investors, Large Innovative Corporations, & Top Founders! Fireside Chats are available to current cohort members and VU alumni via our private educational video platform.
Advanced VC/PE Modules
VU has 20+ VC/PE Modules that are taught by VU's investment team (J. Skyler Fernandes, Andrew Zalasin), as well as other venture capital and private equity investors, startups, and strategics
Kevin Angeles
Former Executive Vice President, Strategy and Planning and Head of Mergers and Acquisitions for HSBC Bank USA
- Kevin teaches VU's M&A module.
- At HSBC his responsibilities included overseeing business strategy for the U.S. retail bank and leading all mergers and acquisitions activity in the United States.
- Over a 25+ year career he has led the acquisition, investment or sale of dozens of small to multi-billion dollar companies and asset portfolios across North America, Europe and Latin America.
- He has structured and negotiated numerous private equity investments, partnerships and joint ventures, turned around and recapitalized several companies and has led large teams in designing and executing challenging business strategies and operational initiatives.
- Prior to joining HSBC in January 2005, Mr. Angeles was a Senior Director with AEG Partners, a private equity and crisis management firm focused on acquiring, turning around and selling distressed middle-market businesses.
Chris Douvos
Managing Director, Venture Investment Associates
- Chris teaches VU's "How to Raise LP Capital" module.
- Managing Director, Venture Investment Associates
- Author: www.SuperLP.com
- Former Co-head of Private Equity, The Investment Fund for Foundations (https://www.tiff.org/)
- Former Senior Associate, Princeton University Investment Company
- Consultant, Monitor Company
- MBA, Yale School of Management
- BA, Yale College
David B. HorowitzFounder & CEO, Touchdown Ventures
- David teaches VU's Corporate VC Module.
- Touchdown Ventures: A firm that partners with leading corporations to manage their corporate venture capital funds.
- Previously Founding Partner and Managing Director at Comcast Ventures for 14 years.
- At Comcast Ventures, David focused on investments in digital media, advertising technology, digital home, education and financial technology.
- David managed investments in Entropic (NASDAQ: ENTR), Intellon (NASDAQ: ITLN), Invite Media (acquired by Google), LinkShare (acquired by Rakuten), Nuera Communications (acquired by Audicodes), Rubicon Project (NYSE: RUBI), and XOS Digital (acquired by JumpTV/Neulion.) David also led investments in several prominent privately-held companies including BlackArrow, Ninth Decimal, SnagFilms, UberMedia, Videology, Visible World, and Zero Fox.
- David also helped start and was a partner at Genacast Ventures, a seed stage venture capital fund affiliated with Comcast Ventures.
- Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Michigan.
Jacob Shapiro
Karlov Street Capital
Jacob teaches VU's Real Estate Private Equity Module
Previously a Principal at Cleveland Avenue
Investment Banking, Baird & Co.
MBA, Kellogg
BA, Columbia
Advisors
Shayne Evans
The Academy
- Founder & Managing Partner, The Academy Group
- CEO, University of Chicago Charter Schools
- Managing Director, University of Chicago Urban Education Institute
Brett Fink
VC at Moderne Ventures,
Previously at 500 Startups & SnapChat
- Director, Moderne Ventures
- Partnerships & Business Development, 500 Startups
- Special Projects, SnapChat
Steve Frenkel
Venture Partner / Advisor, VU Venture Partners
- Managing Director, Covalent Solutions, LLC
- Former Executive Director, Current Innovation
- Public/private sector leader in technology/business model innovation & finance
- MBA, University of Chicago / member Booth Bay Area Angel Network
- MPP, University of California, Berkeley
Pamela Goldberg
Babson College & Tufts University
- CEO, Massachusetts Technology Collaborative
- Director of Entrepreneurial Leadership, Tufts University
- Director of Business Relations, Babson College
Mary Hu
Investment, Diversity, & Inclusion Initiative
Chicago Women in Business Group, Capstone Co-chair, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
- Fintech VC Associate, Sandalphon Capital
- Product & Customer Success, Seedling - Prize-linked Savings Account for the Underbanked
- Founding Team Member, Product, Bento - B2B2C Digital Wealth Solution
- Participating in the Fintech & Blockchain investment team in Venture University's Fourth Cohort
- Chicago Booth, MBA
- Singapore Management University, BS
Jitendra A. Kavathekar
Investor and Former Managing Director @ Accenture Ventures
Founder and Managing Director, Accenture Ventures, Global Open Innovation
Experienced entrepreneur of tech companies Pixo, Devicescape, Twiki
Silicon Valley veteran running tech teams creating iconic products at Yahoo, Motorola, Palm
Board Member of Silicon Valley Forum
Timothy Knowles
The Academy
- Founder & Managing Partner, The Academy Group
- Founder & Chairman, The University of Chicago Urban Education Institute
- Founder & Director, The University of Chicago Urban Labs
- Deputy Superintendent, Boston Public Schools
- Founding Director, Teach for America in New York
Frank Rimalovski
VC & Professor at New York University
- Heads of the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute
- Managing Director of the NYU Innovation Venture Fund which invests in early stage NYU startups
- A member of the national teaching team for the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program
- An Adjunct Faculty at the NYU School of Engineering
- A venture capitalist for over 15 years
Bahiyah Robinson
Founder, VC Include
- Founder, VC Include
- Founder, Robinson (+) Consulting Group
- Previous Managing Director, The Appfrica Fund
- BA International Relations, UC Davis
Laura Kauer Rodriguez
VC at Bulldog Innovation Group (Yale's Angel Alumni Seed Fund)
- Managing Director, General Partner, Bulldog Innovation Group: Early stage VC run entirely by Yale alumni, focused on investing in the Yale entrepreneurial community
- Recovering Barclays investment banker; Accenture management consultant
- BS Engineering, University of Pennsylvania; MBA Yale School of Management
Viney Sawhney
Professor,
Harvard University
- Professor of Venture Capital & Private Equity at Harvard University (Faculty of Arts & Sciences)
- Founder and President of Boston National Capital Partners
- 25+ Years at Citibank & Other Overseas Banks
- MS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Shariq Khan
Partner, EMEA Origination & Distribution at Andriotto
Partner, EMEA Origination & Distribution at Andriotto Financial Services, a financial advisory firm that is a market leader in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry.
Partner, Corporate Development and Investor Relations at DizzitUp
Developmental Director at FarmZero
Leila Ira
Managing Director, InteR-Acting
InteR-Acting helps clients with financial and strategic partnerships, strategic business advice, corporate development and growth expansion, and marketing & communication strategies.
Partner, Corporate Development and Investor Relations at DizzitUp
Former Co-Founder and Managing Director of Leading Teachers
Marvin Liao
Partner at
500 Startups
- Partner at 500 Startups, focuses on the San Francisco Accelerator, Seed Fund Investments & International expansion in Europe
- Yahoo, Commercial Expansion into Emerging Markets
Diron Jebejian
Managing Director at Credit Suisse
- Managing Director, Financial Sponsors Group, Credit Suisse
- 20+ yrs at Credit Suisse within investment banking
Bruce Taylor
Founder at TAYLOR Consulting
Previously at Stanford GSB
Founder, Taylor Consulting (Strategy, Marketing, Innovation, Funding, etc.)
Formerly Executive Director, Global Innovation Programs at Stanford GSB
Managing Director, Stanford Ignite, Stanford GSB
20+ years Silicon Valley experience (Dolby Labs, SNOCAP, Personify, PwC)
MBA, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
