Mentors – Bethesda Green

Bethesda Green’s Innovation Center Mentorship Program

Mentors for Bethesda Green’s Innovation Center engage in a voluntary relationship with mentees in order to provides actionable advice and guidance. Our mentors are a huge part of the Bethesda Green community, and we’re grateful for their time and expertise.

Throughout the year, we invite mentors to participate in recruitment efforts, attend networking events and practice presentations, and provide both group and 1-1 mentoring to entrepreneurs of the Innovation Center. We understand that the most successful mentor-mentee relationships are built on trust and personal connection, and we work closely with both mentors and entrepreneurs at the beginning of each cohort to find the best match.

We seek to connect entrepreneurs involved in our Incubator and Accelerator programs with mentors who can provide targeted guidance to a single company for approximately 4 hours per month for a minimum of six months. Also, Mentors may be paired with entrepreneurs for a specific, one-off project, or asked to host quarterly office hours. Mentors in our community who may not be in a position to commit a set amount of time each month are invited to attend our networking and presentation practice events, and may be called on to support our entrepreneurs on a case-by-case basis.

We are always looking for seasoned business professionals who share our vision to build a sustainable economy. If you are interested in joining our network, please complete this survey and we’ll be in touch soon:

Mentor Survey

Senior Advisors

Seth Goldman – Founder of Eat the Change®

At Eat the Change, Seth is currently building a platform to inform and empower consumers to make dietary choices aligned with their concerns around climate and health. Seth is also the Co-founder of PLNT Burger, Honest Tea and Chair of the board of Beyond Meat. He has been widely recognized for his entrepreneurial success and impact, including Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year in Greater Washington, the Washington DC Business Hall of Fame, Beverage Industry magazine’s Executive of the Year, Beverage World’s #1 Disruptor and Partnership for Healthier America’s CEO of the Year. Seth is the co-founder of Bethesda Green, where he continues to serve as a senior advisor and member of the board. (LinkedIn)

Innovation Center Mentors and Facilitators

Sherry Altman – Advisor, Business Strategy & Environmental Management

Sherry Marin Altman is an experienced professional in the areas of business strategy, innovation, and environmental sustainability. A former Vice President for Booz Allen Hamilton, Sherry has led alternative energy investment strategies for multiple clients, covering wind, solar PV and solar thermal, as well as energy efficiency/recovery. She has also worked as an Energy and Environmental consultant and a Transportation Planner. She is an MBA with over 20 years experience in management consulting and engineering consulting. (LinkedIn)

Mark Bershatsky, CFA – Credit and Risk Manager, JLL

Mark is a finance lead and CFA/MBA with twelve years of investment banking and consulting experience, primarily in the renewable energy industry. He has worked on both deal teams and project teams to advise on capital raisings and project developments en route to successful completion, both domestically and abroad. He is most passionate about fighting climate change and enjoys advising start-ups in the space work toward that goal. (LinkedIn)

Monika Blaumueller – Innovation Strategy Consultant, Blue Mill Consulting

Monika Blaumueller has mentored scores of startups, organizing case studies where their business plans received feedback from venture capitalists and subject matter experts in their technology space and marketing. She served as a business reviewer for SBIR grant applications to the National Science Foundation, working with other business and science reviewers to assess the potential impact on the US economy. Monika has also run major product launches including a $30 million satellite telecommunications services, and a strategic mobile initiative at VeriSign. At DuPont, she delivered successful strategies for turn-arounds, increased market share and margins to multiple business units. At IBM she served external clients including the Pentagon, clients selected by the CEO for their high growth potential, and internal corporate initiatives. She is a TED Speaker on the topics of healthcare and humanitarian aid. LinkedIn

Colston Carr – Enterprise Account Executive, Google Cloud at Google

Colston Carr is a results oriented sales professional with 14+ years of experience in the Media & Entertainment, Financial Services, and Public Sectors with leadership skills in consultative sales, negotiations, relationship building, and business development. Currently, as the Enterprise Account Executive at Google Cloud, Mrs. Carr is responsible for overseeing client relationships and negotiating contracts. She has past experience working for IMB as a Client Representative and as a Sales Leader. Her passion for the environment and business sustainability comes from a month long trip with National Geographic, as part of her role at Google Cloud. Colston Carr has a BA in Economics from the University of Virginia and an MBA from the University of North Carolina. (LinkedIn)

Jon Chung – Associate Director: Lead Device Supplier Relationship External & Operations, Takeda

Jon Chung is an idea architect and mechanical engineer, with UX Certification, drawing inspiration from unique and discrete experiences to generate solutions. His areas of expertise include business development for technology, concept generation, design testing & development, human factors engineering, failure analysis, and risk mitigation. In his current position at Takeda, Mr. Chung manages new and existing suppliers to ensure continuity of development activities through negotiations and interprets the needs from technical stakeholders and project leaders to create actionable business plans. Jon Chung has experience in the medical industry, for Astra-Zeneca, where he spearheaded contract negotiations as the Global Category Manager of Device Procurement, and for MedImmune, where he conducted R&D research into medical devices. More recently, his focus on technology development has shifted to prioritize growth in renewable energy, carbon capture technologies, energy storage, sustainable/circular product design, sustainable & urban agriculture. He holds a Master of Engineering from the University of Maryland. (LinkedIn)

Musa Collidge-Asad – Chief Investment Officer, Inclusive Prosperity Capital

Musa Collidge-Asad has extensive leadership, investment, strategy, and ESG experience within diverse private, public and multinational organizations in the U.S. and globally. Most recently, he has led teams delivering innovative project development, technology, and financing solutions to resolve complex challenges across energy, environment, food waste, the CRE industry, and ventures at the intersection of technology and real assets. Mr. Asad has co-founded or played key roles for start-ups and early stage entities, which he helped develop into multi-million dollar organizations. He holds a JD and MBA from the University of Maryland. (LinkedIn)

Jimmy Edgerton – Co-Founder, AugMentors

Jimmy Edgerton believes that business and life are about relationships. When he’s not working at AugMentors to modernize the concept of mentoring with Julie, he works to help others find a more sustainable rhythm – “it’s not what you do; but why you do it.” Jimmy is a lecturer at Tufts University Friedman Graduate School for Nutrition Science and Policy, a Civil Engineer focused on sustainable processes, and former Co-Founder/CEO of Watusee Foods. (LinkedIn)

Philip Eliot – Managing Director, Reflection Ventures

Philip has been investing in and guiding startup companies as a venture capital investor for over 20 years. He is currently a Managing Director at Reflection Ventures where he focuses on social impact companies in areas including environmental sustainability, health, education, and financial inclusion. Prior to Reflection Ventures, he led the early stage technology investing for a $340M fund at Paladin Capital. He has served on the boards of directors for numerous companies at all stages of growth from pre-revenue through $200M+ acquisitions. Philip is passionate about the role that entrepreneurs can play in solving some of society’s most challenging problems and enjoys working with early stage, mission-driven companies. He has a BA in Physics from Harvard University. (LinkedIn)

Ian Fisk – Executive Director, Mentor Capital Network

In his role as executive director of the Mentor Capital Network — a group of more than 1,000 individuals who have built, managed, invested in, or studied social enterprises, Ian is a serial entrepreneur who has supported hundreds companies who are changing the way the world does business. His previous roles include CEO of ITF Consulting, Inc., Director of Projects for Wall Street Without Walls, co-designer of the AmeriCorps*VISTA Entrepreneur Corps, and the internet coordinator for a U.S. Presidential Campaign. Mr. Fisk has an MBA from the Yale School of Management. He teaches improvisation and storytelling for entrepreneurs. (LinkedIn)

Mark Frieden – Sustainability Consultant, Crossbow Strategies, Inc.

Mark works with businesses to increase the value of their business by identifying stakeholders and maximizing their social, environmental and economic impact to benefit employees, customers, suppliers, the community and shareholders. Mark has developed policies to manage climate change, waste/recycling, water management, energy efficiency and sustainability reporting. Specialties include: sales, marketing, B Corp certification, sustainability reporting, corporate social responsibility, transportation demand management, energy efficiency, health & fitness, advertising, and fundraising. (LinkedIn)

Pascale Fromont – Director of Product Management & Media, Intelsat

Pascale Fromont, after years working in Strategy, Business Planning, Product Management and Marketing, enjoys designing strategic plans that maximize outcomes for her company, its people and the greater good, and to implement them efficiently. She is an avid learner with a growth mindset, constantly looking for ways to develop her knowledge and to find paths towards self-improvement. As a dedicated people leader and mentor for colleagues, interns, and students, Pascale values empathy, honesty, and candid feedback to help others grow and reach their best self. Pascale’s experience includes leading a team of Product Managers, Commercialization Managers, and Product Marketers responsible for the management, evolution, and commercialization of the Intelsat Media product portfolio worldwide, developing global and regional go-to-market plans for new products & services, and financial planning and reporting. (LinkedIn)

Emilio Ghersi – Senior Vice President of e-Mobility and Renewable Energy, JLL

Emilio has over 25+ years of proven success in business development and originating, structuring, negotiating and executing financial (equity & debt) transactions worldwide. He has demonstrated experience in the US and Emerging Markets including Latin America, Africa, South Asia, Eurasia, and China. Mr. Ghersi has corporate governance experience as board member of financial institutions, including FINCA International and the Inter-American Development Bank, and advisory committees for Heifer International. Emilio has vast experience in managing and developing relationships with institutional investors, social impact investors, financial institutions, development financial institutions, investment funds, and government agencies. He has a BS in Industrial Engineering from Universidad de Lima and an MBA from the University of Rochester. (LinkedIn)

Bob Gower – Author and Managing Partner, The Alignment Company

Bob Gower is a New York-based writer, coach and facilitator who cares deeply about the financial, social, and environmental performance of organizations. As the Co-founder and now managing partner of The Alignment Company, Bob works as organization designer and team-development coach, helping leaders create cultures of high performance. He’s advised leaders at a variety organizations, from multinationals like Ericsson and GE, to nonprofits like New York Public Radio and the Wikimedia Foundation, as well as innovative tech companies like Spotify and Slack. Aside from his work at The Alignment Company, Bob is also an accomplished author of two books: ‘Agile Business: A Leader’s Guide to Harnessing Complexity’ and ‘Radical Alignment: How to Have Game-Changing Conversations to Transform Your Business and Life’. He has an MBA in Sustainable Systems from Presidio Graduate School and a certificate Applied Positive Psychology. (LinkedIn)

Alisha Griffey – Founder & CEO, Daintree Capital

Over the past decade, Alisha has served as COO/CFO of four start-ups in the clean energy, healthcare and fintech industries. She helped grow these companies from inception through exits that ranged from a small private sale to an IPO. In 2019, Alisha moved to the investor side of the table when she founded Daintree Capital, an investment firm that provides working capital loans to under-represented founders. Daintree’s portfolio now includes 12 companies across a broad range of industries. Alisha has a B.A. in Economics from the University of Virginia and an M.B.A. from Stanford University. She lives in Chevy Chase, MD with her husband and two kids and spends her weekends as a professional youth sports spectator.(LinkedIn)

Chris Haug – CEO, 360 Venture Management Group

Chris works with clients from start-up to exit to build phenomenally successful businesses and fix those that are struggling as “on-demand” strategy, execution, management, and financing specialists. Chris is also the Director of the Columbia, mid-Maryland Chapter of Startup Grind, the largest global community of entrepreneurs. The Startup Grind community believes in “giving first, not taking, helping others before ourselves, and making friends, partners, and collaborative opportunities, not just contacts.” (LinkedIn)

Anna Hakobyan – Global Sustainability, Supplier Diversity & Government Compliance Lead, AstraZeneca

Anna Hakobyan is an accomplished procurement professional with over 20 years of domestic and international experience in procurement and contracting, program management, compliance, sustainability and supplier diversity, having held various roles across the fields of human rights, hospitality, IT, and pharmaceutical/biotechnology. In her role at AstraZeneca, Anna develops and leads the company’s global procurement sustainability strategy and framework, as well as leads the Global Supplier Diversity Program and Government Contract Compliance. Prior to joining AstraZeneca, Anna served as the Procurement and Contracts Director at Instos Inc., a minority‐owned company, where she led the company’s sourcing and procurement activities for a large contract with the U.S. Department of Defense. Anna Hakobyan has an MA in Political Science and MBA in Acquisition and Contracting from American University. (LinkedIn)

Doug Holly – Senior Advisor for the Chesapeake Agricultural Center & Entrepreneur in Residence for Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship

Doug is a senior advisor at the Chesapeake Agricultural Innovation Center and an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Maryland Innovation Center. He helps early-stage entrepreneurs clarify goals, navigate the complexity of starting their business and find access to resources to move their business forward. He brings a background in project management, sales, finance, product development and business operations to help business owners make sense of the many decisions they face. He is a principal and co-owner of Eagle Management Group that helps small businesses with operational improvements. He has also led/supported several acquisitions and was an instructor at Loyola University teaching graduate level courses in innovation and leadership. Doug also volunteers in the MTC Venture Mentor Services program where he helps several startup CEOs develop their businesses. (LinkedIn)

Dan Israel – VP of Marketing & Sales, Compost Crew

Dan Israel has led growth for Compost Crew, the mid-Atlantic’s largest food scrap composting company, since 2020. Dan is a seasoned leader of high-growth businesses with over 19 years of experience working with leading tech companies and high-growth start-ups, and an experienced product manager and product marketer. Dan was the Vice President of Vlocity, a member of the board of Clariti Cloud Inc., and the Head of Government Marketing for Google, where he owned the product marketing strategy for bringing Google’s popular consumer apps to the government market. (LinkedIn)

Vadim Kagan – President, SentiMetrix Inc

Vadim Kagan has an M.S. in Computer Science and over 35 years of experience in software systems development, design, installation and support. He is founder and president of SentiMetrix, a cutting edge data analytics and machine learning solutions provider. (LinkedIn)

Takatoshi Kamezawa – Chief Relationship Officer, TrueAlgae

Taka is a partner of NExT Impact Ventures, an impact investment fund for startups. Taka assumes the position of Chief Relationship Officer for TrueAlgae, innovative Biotech company. He is an accomplished global executive and a CFA charterholder with over 25 years of investment and project experiences at several multilateral development banks, including Asian Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, International Finance Corporation, and the World Bank. He has worked on private investments in over 50 countries when he worked for these development banks. (LinkedIn)

Daniel Kaute – Director, Oxford Startup Strategies

Daniel is passionate about innovation and uses his international network of business, customer, and academic contacts to guide product development and to market strategies, bringing unique, innovative and disruptive technologies to market, and helps and mentors many different early-stage companies. He works in the Industrial Internet of Things (VMC, IIOT/Industrie 4.0) and Cleantech, advising a disruptive Lithium Ion Anode Technology company, as well as sustainability (current focus plastic recycling). Daniel is also advisor to Oxford Brain Diagnostic, with a unique MRI based technology to measure brain degradation and allowing to detect dementia early. (LinkedIn)

Scott Knowles – Vice President, The Knot Worldwide

Scott has helped businesses scale and grow across a wide range of stages from seed to pre-IPO and beyond, with a focus on two-sided marketplaces. He has helped companies build the right pool of talent, determining how to best allocate investment and resources to the most strategically important initiatives and provide a narrative that aligns strategy and work from the board to the engineer on the ground. He has experience developing and deploying GTM plans, developing business cases for investment, building orgs for scale, professional development, establishing the right goals and KPIs, developing new markets, and marketing. Recently, Scott has turned his focus and passion to help businesses who are developing solutions to drawdown our carbon footprint and develop new models that will allow humanity and the earth to thrive together. (LinkedIn)

Chris LaRosa – Product Manager at Google

Chris is a Group Product Manager responsible for Sustainability and Health products on Google Search. Previously Chris was a product lead for Music at YouTube, computer vision projects in Google’s Research and Hardware teams, Video at Twitter, and at Flux, a company developing technology to reduce building CO2 emissions. Before starting a career as a Product Manager, Chris was a fellow with the Thomas J. Watson Foundation and completed undergraduate studies at Hamilton College, a masters degree in computer science at Emory University, and a masters degree in International Affairs at Georgia Tech. (Linkedin)

Dorrit Lowsen – President and COO and Change Finance, PBC

Dorrit Lowsen seeks to utilize the power of public financial markets to shift capital from harm to healing. Prior to her role at Change Finance, Dorrit was the Chief Operating Officer at Agora Partnerships, and an environmental affairs specialist at the US Department of State, where she focused on climate change, air quality, and other environment, science, and technology issues while at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. (LinkedIn)

Tracey Madigan – Director, 15 Minutes Group

Tracey is a media trainer who helps CEOs, authors, scholars, etc. share their message in strong and memorable ways. She has a background as a broadcast journalist and offer insight on what speaking techniques work well — either in the boardroom, or in public. (LinkedIn)

Brandon Mason – Business and Technology Consultant, Maryland Small Business Development Center

Brandon Mason is a successful entrepreneur and subject matter expert on government contracting, small business, and SBIR grant and proposal development. As the Director of Technology with the Small Business Development Center (SBDC), he assists companies through start-up and the product commercialization process through evidence-based entrepreneurship principles. Before his work with the SBDC, Brandon co-founded Mid-Atlantic Angels in 2014 and Mason Livesay Scientific (d.b.a., IB3 Global Solutions) in 2012, following his departure from Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Brandon is a West Virginia University and The Catholic University of America graduate. (LinkedIn)

Robert Mazer – Founder, Smart City Works

Robert Mazer is a passionate and seasoned entrepreneur and attorney with extensive and multi-decade experience in developing creative and innovative solutions to extremely complex business and legal problems in the telecommunications industry. In his experience he has demonstrated the ability to launch and restructure organizations with a keen eye for alliances, integration and establishing forward-thinking footprints and scalable business models. Currently, as the Founder of Smart City Works, Mr. Mazer helps business in their business accelerator bring to life the most promising business ideas and companies to rethink civil infrastructure innovation. Specific topics of expertise include smart buildings/infrastructure, safety and security, water, energy and transport. Robert Mazer has a MA in Political Science from Catholic University and a JD from American University. (LinkedIn)

Mac McCabe – Sustainable Business Consultant

Mac supports founders, particularly in the areas of natural and organic foods (from restaurants to manufacturing) and those who are building social enterprises (particularly those that include marginalized populations in their employee pool). In his consulting practice, he is often asked to step in to active management participation for a period of time. He was the CEO of Greyston Bakery, Eileen Fisher, Northeast Cooperatives, the COO for Georgetown Collective, and the Board Treasure for Frontier Cooperative. He was also the co-founder and CEO of O’Naturals, Inc. (LinkedIn)

Max Menke – Founding Partner, GrowthX

Max has extensive experience developing and executing data-driven, scalable and repeatable go-to-market strategies at the early product-stage across various industries and products. His expertise is centered on building systems, tools, processes and market messaging for teams to accelerate the path to product market fit and exponentially grow revenue. Before joining GrowthX, Max built the sales technology stack and lead generation playbook for multiple early stage companies. His experience identifying ideal prospects and constructing sophisticated, multi-step email campaigns resulted in a 3-5 X increase in lead generation and overall pipeline development, putting all companies he has worked with on a path to predictable revenue. Max spent several years in China where he was managing director and the only foreign employee of a successful education startup that went from 15 employees to over 200 in 18 months. (LinkedIn)

Julie Meyer – Founder and CEO, Eat Well Global

An energetic founder, mentor and leader, Julie has the honor of leading strategic B-to-B organizations focused on supporting the population’s wellbeing. Julie founded Eat Well Global, a strategic communication consultancy on a mission to empower global change agents in food and nutrition, in 2012 and currently serves as Co-CEO, leading strategic growth. Connecting physical health with mental health, Julie is also the co-founder of AugMentors, a platform designed to be a rising tide of mentoring, offering organizations a shared language to support the bonds that keep employees connected and motivated in our changing landscape. She is on the advisory board of Babson’s Womens Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership and is a frequent mentor for Babson, as well as the WIBO program and Tufts University, her alma matter, and is a member of Chief. (LinkedIn)

Greg Miller – Founder and CEO, Greg Miller & Associates

Greg Miller advises clients on strategic and financial issues, with a focus on information technology, hospitality and senior citizen services. He is a former Senior Vice President at Marriott International. (LinkedIn)

Andrea Moore – Finance & Accounting Expert

Andrea has a mix of public accounting, hedge fund and start-up experience. She most recently served as the controller for Compass Therapeutics Inc. Andrea started with Compass as the third employee when it was in the seed investment stage. She established all of the accounting systems and helped grow the company through a multi-tranche series A financing, followed by an alternative public offering in June 2020. Andrea is very excited about applying her start-up experience in organizations aligned with her personal interest in sustainability. Her skills include accounting systems and processes, financial statements and taxes. (LinkedIn)

Yann Palmore – Vice President, Smart Building Solutions, JLL

Mr. Palmore, in his role as Vice President of Smart Building Solutions, guides clients through a structured process that prioritizes program goals, defines specific smart building strategies, specifies appropriate technologies, and oversees implementation. Mr. Palmore has 20+ years experience in developing and operating high-performance buildings. He was instrumental in the overall design and delivery of the J. Craig Venter Institute in La Jolla, CA; considered the world’s first net-zero laboratory building. Mr. Palmore holds a BSBA and a certificate in Computer Science from Washington University, and an MS in Technical Management from Johns Hopkins University. (LinkedIn)

Violaine Panasci – Brand, Data Privacy & Regulatory Attorney, Rockridge Venture Law

Violaine is an Attorney at Rockridge Venture Law, the first B Corp Law firm in TN. She uniquely combines her work in sustainable supply chains, intellectual property protection, and technology law to advise clients in areas where business and society move faster than the law. She studied law at the University of Ottawa before completing an LL.M. in New York with an emphasis in food systems and sustainable supply chains. Her practice areas include agricultural technology, cannabis, copyrights, data privacy, food & beverage, regulation, sustainable supply chains, and trademarks. Violaine is also a Certified Information Privacy Privacy Professional (CIPP/US) and helps organizations around the world bolster compliance and risk mitigation practices. (LinkedIn)

Jean-Luc Park – Senior Director: Social Impact Funds, TEDCO

Jean-Luc is the Senior Director of Social Impact Funds at TEDCO, responsible for defining and executing the strategy for the funds with dual objectives of financial returns and Maryland economic development. He has over two decades of experience in business development and investment fund management. Jean-Luc was one of the founding partners of Ferrum Capital, an EB-5 regional center focused on facilitating investment for real estate developments to support job creation. He was a consultant to the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and to the board of Calvert Social Funds, a publicly traded mutual fund. He is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University (B.S. Math/Computer Science 1994, B.A. Economics 1994, MBA 1998). (LinkedIn)

Ben Parry – CEO, Compost Crew

Ben has dedicated the last twelve years of his career to protect the health of our planet — first by building and operating solar power plants around the globe, and more recently by growing the food scrap recycling industry in the Washington, DC area. He specializes in operations, asset and risk management, and finance. (LinkedIn)

Pinal Patel, JD, MBA – Policy and Partnerships Director, Green and Healthy Homes Initiative

Pinal specializes in environmental law and policy, partnership development, and marketing/communications. She is passionate about improving the sustainability of food systems and reducing toxins in consumer products. She develops and communicates health and housing policy to eliminate home-based environmental health hazards, encourage weatherization (reduce energy), and help advance the GHHI’s strategic plan to end lead poisoning by advocating for policy change at the federal level. (LinkedIn)

Greg Payne – President and Principal Consultant, Emerging Market Enterprises, LLC

Greg is a management consultant with experience and specialized training in organizational development, change management, finance, process improvement, ethnography, and social entrepreneurship. Committed to supporting entrepreneurs and business owners, especially those in emerging markets, as they face challenges related to market entry and scale. (LinkedIn)

Kirsten Quigley – Founder & CEO, Lunchskins

Kirsten is the founder and CEO of Lunchskins, a mission-driven, woman-owned business that designs, manufactures, and markets award-winning sustainable consumer products. In 2009, Kirsten combined her background in conservation with a focus on business and innovation to solve a growing problem and design modern alternatives to single-use plastic that offer function, style and impact. Kirsten holds a degree from Stanford University with a focus on International Health and the Environment. (LinkedIn)

Jeneanne Rae – Former Specialist Executive, Deloitte Digital

Ms. Rae is an award-winning expert in Innovation, Customer Experience (CX) and Design Strategy who has led dozens of projects structuring design-led organizations and programs, building “experience” capabilities and culture, and orchestrating multi-disciplinary service design approaches. She has been a pioneer working at the intersection of business and design for more than 25 years, advising her clients to embrace human-centered design methods and tools as an innovation strategy that can produce outsized returns and decreased risk to investors. During the past 5 years Ms. Rae was a Specialist Executive with Deloitte Digital, where she grew the revenue and organizational capabilities of its Customer Strategy and Applied Design practice. Her experience and knowledge applied in this role included a full spectrum of digital capabilities including qualitative and quantitative research, service design, agile development, product management, digital transformation, and CX data architecture and analytics. Ms. Rae holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Marketing and Finance from the University of Virginia. (LinkedIn)

Jason Schwartz – Cultural Food Tour Guide, Blue Fern Travel

Jason is the former Founder of Energy Efficiency Partner, a company that worked in conjunction with providers across the nation to address a wide range of commercial cost reducing energy solutions with an emphasis on LED Lighting Upgrades. He’s an expert in Business Development, Channel Development, Market Activation, Smart Grid Technology, and Sustainable Development. Currently, he works for Blue Fern Travel, DC’s only one-for-one food tour, where a portion of every ticket sale goes to feed a local district resident 3 full meals. Schwartz has a BA in Social Sciences from Colorado State University and an MS is Organizational Change Management from New School University. (LinkedIn)

Daniel Selli – Defense SBIR/STTR Subject Matter Expert

Daniel’s professional focus is helping emerging dual-use technology transition into the Department of Defense and National Security markets through the SBIR/STTR program, particularly the Air Force and Space Force. Daniel’s diverse client portfolio covers various technology verticals, with a strong focus on renewal and sustainable technologies. His team has helped some of industry’s most cutting edge and innovative technology companies generate $50M+ in revenue from Defense contracts and R&D funding. Daniel is a US Marine Corps veteran and has experience in strategy and technology consulting with leading global firms such as Deloitte, PwC, and Capital One. He holds an MBA and MS in Finance from Johns Hopkins University – Carey Business School and has an undergraduate degree from Cornell University. He also holds a Project Management Professional certification. (LinkedIn)

Shannon Sentman – Founder, Sol Vista

Shannon is a big-firm attorney turned entrepreneur. He has worn the many hats of a founder, and continues to push his latest company, SOL VISTA, to new levels of success as its CEO. (LinkedIn)

Andrew Sherman – Founder and CEO, American Bully Manufacturing LLC

Andrew Sherman is the Owner and Cofounder of American Bully Manufacturing. With 10+ years of experience in the manufacturing industry, Andrew took his love for creating and innovating, and opened a business to develop products for their clients. With his entrepreneurial spirit, he is determined to change the way people look at manufacturing and focus on bringing back US made products. He is fully involved in the surrounding Manufacturing community, volunteering his time for young adults in the Manufacturing industry and spending any remaining free time with his rescue dog, Chevy. (LinkedIn)

Neil Soni – Author, The Startup Gold Mine, and Founder, Unlimited Brewing Company

Neil Soni has built, grown, and created ventures – both within large organizations and as an entrepreneur. Neil helped build and grow Estee Lauder’s External Innovation capabilities, and led the growth team at MomTrusted.com, a venture capital backed social marketplace for education and care. He also founded and ran CollegeZen, a platform that helped high school students connect with and learn from peer mentors attending colleges of interest. (LinkedIn)

Chris Stix – Senior Fellow, Conservation Law Foundation

Chris Stix has extensive experience as a financial advisor, investor, fund advisor, and founder of two businesses. Most recently, Mr. Stix has applied his finance skills to climate solutions. At the Conservation Law Foundation, he demonstrates how utilities can scale down power generated from fossil fuels and how utilities can transition off natural gas, through the development of a financially viable approach for new natural gas plants to dramatically reduce their emissions over time. While at Conservation Law Foundation, Mr. Stix migrated the endowment portfolio to integrate ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance). Chris Stix has a BA in Environmental Studies from the University of Wisconsin and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. (LinkedIn)

Maureen Thomas – Principal Consultant, Tapas Consulting

Maureen Thomas is known as an innovation change agent focused on customer-centric communications and strengthening and accelerating strategic partnerships across sectors in an inclusive process that builds on the diverse talents and strengths of the partnering organizations, team members and stakeholders. Ms. Thomas served in the Naval Reserves for 14 years with detachments assigned to Pacific fleet operations and the Navy Command Center as a liaison officer, duty briefer and public affairs officer. Ms. Thomas’s brings unique talents as a tech translator, connector, motivator and accelerator of innovative change. Her specialties include growing and building strategic public/private partnerships for organizations working with tech startups in cutting edge market spaces including health, transportation and climate sustainability, focused on growing a sustainable startup culture of innovation and entrepreneurship. Ms. Thomas serves frequently as a panelist and moderator for virtual panels, regional conferences on entrepreneurship, women in innovation, small business opportunities/startup funding vehicles, SBIR/STTR; and has published articles on small business challenges in tech industries, including satellite, microelectronics, cyber and UAS/UAV. (LinkedIn)

Polly Vail – Independent Consultant

Polly is an Independent Consultant for Social Impact clients. She provides customer discovery and acquisition strategies as well as sector analysis for start-ups and non-profits. She is also a Venture Mentor at the University of Maryland College Park and was named Mentor of the Year in 2015. Polly ran an angel investor backed crowd-sourcing ad services company named GeniusRocket. She has run entrepreneurship training programs at the Women’s Business Center in DC, and was Board Chair at the WBC. Polly was Managing Director for Advertising Sales revenue for the New York Times’ Washington DC office, after managing Advertising Sales client relationships in New York City. (LinkedIn)

Katya Vert-Wong – Co-Founder, Nostopharma

Katya is a seasoned and experienced C-Suite operations leader, with 20+ years of Pharma and Biotech experience. She is passionate about environmental restoration and business sustainability. As an entrepreneur herself, Katya has proven success record in pursuit of imaginative and innovative research and development projects with the potential to have a significant positive impact. She has extensive experience with business plan development, financial projections, preparation of investor-ready packages. Katya’s operations experience and scale-up track record comes from years of building innovative products and processes that support such innovative product development. Katya holds MSc in Biochemistry from Weismann Institute of Science, and MEM in Business and Bioengineering from Dartmouth College. (LinkedIn)

Diana Watts –Business Department Chair, Trinity Washington University

Diana Watts is an experienced university educator working to promote social innovation and equity across business and environmental science/ policy education. She has a passion for supporting collaborative sustainable practices across communities, business, public, citizen advocacy groups and nonprofits. Mrs. Watts is skilled in teaching, curriculum design, research, strategy advising and incubator support. Apart from acting as the Chair of the Business Department at Trinity Washington University, she is also a faculty member at John’s Hopkins University, where she teaches courses in Sustainable Business and Managing Responsible Organizations. She has a PhD in Political Science from the University of California, Berkley, and a MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University. (LinkedIn)

Joe Weinstein – Senior Director, Georgetown Business for Impact

Joe has over 20 years of experience in high-impact, high-growth businesses and nonprofits as a builder, strategist, COO/chief of staff, program/team/client manager, and writer/analyst/researcher. He has deep experience in creating comprehensive strategies and translating those strategies to effective implementation; leading teams to create and execute change management plans; building and managing new programs and projects to achieve concrete, measurable objectives, and working in collaboration with key stakeholders; and recruiting and managing teams, and providing them with the resources, motivation, guidance to achieve results. (LinkedIn)

Tim Young – President, Young Marketing Consulting

Tim is a performance-driven marketing strategist with 20 years of experience growing international brands and organizations. Prior to launching Young Marketing Consulting, Tim was the VP of Marketing and Technology for Entrepreneurs’ Organization. Specialties include brand growth and identity development; lead generation and conversion; digital marketing; social media; customer satisfaction evaluation and improvement; customer segmentation and CRM; ROI analysis and improvement; campaign development and execution; product and brand development and lifecycle management. (Linkedin)