Investing in Michigan’s growing economy.
This event was presented by Ann Arbor SPARK and University of Michigan Innovation Partnerships.
Thanks to everyone who joined us for the Michigan Startup Capital Summit. It was an exceptional day filled with valuable insights shared by our guest speakers. An evolution of the Michigan Angel Summit, we focused on the full spectrum of the state’s startup capital ecosystem. This year’s event offered a comprehensive educational program on early-stage funding, providing valuable insights and resources for entrepreneurs and investors across Michigan.
Michigan Startup Capital Summit 2024 Agenda
Registration, Networking, Coffee
9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Welcome Remarks
10:30 a.m. – 10:35 a.m.
Keynote
10:35 a.m. – 10:55 a.m.
Kelly Sexton, Associate Vice President for Research – Innovation Partnerships and Economic Impact | University of Michigan
As Associate Vice President for Research – Innovation Partnerships and Economic Impact at the University of Michigan, Dr. Kelly Sexton has been a driving force behind U-M’s leadership in innovation, corporate research, and technology commercialization. During her nearly 7-year tenure at the University, Kelly and her team have established two significant pre-seed venture funds: the Accelerate Blue Fund, with $15.6 million in assets under management, and the recently launched Michigan University Innovation Capital Fund and Michigan University Capital Consortium. This latest initiative, bolstered by a $5 million award from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation earlier this year, reflects the growing momentum in Michigan’s innovation ecosystem. In today’s keynote, Dr. Sexton will discuss these achievements and introduce an exciting new collaboration— a $60 million state-funded innovation fund aimed at accelerating Michigan’s startup ecosystem.
M3D
10:55 a.m. – 11:05 a.m.
Mike Hopkins, CEO | M3D
Panel: Technology Sector – The AI Landscape
11:05 a.m. – 11:50 a.m.
Moderator: Crystal Brown, Co-founder | Circ Nova
Mohammed Ghassemi, Professor | Michigan State University + Founder | Connect & Ghamut Corp.
Rada Mihalcea, Professor | University of Michigan + Founder | Initium.AI
Mitchell Rohde, Founder | Quantum Signal
AI’s time has finally arrived. Individual businesses up to large economies stand to benefit from AI through increased productivity and innovation. Join the conversation with our panel of AI experts and startup founders to discuss its impact on work, society, and early stage investing.
Coordinista
11:50 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Cindy Bauer, CEO | Coordinista
Lunch & Networking
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
How to Grow Your Angel Group
1:00 p.m. – 1:40 p.m.
Scott Jacobs, Executive Director | Queen City Angels
Queen City Angels (“QCA”), based in Cincinnati, OH, is one of the earliest angel groups in the Midwest, and has invested over $110M in more than 100 startups over its 20 year history. QCA has also become a thought leader in the growth and operations of angel groups, including ways to grow membership and implement AI into group management. Scott Jacobs, QCA’s Executive Director, will discuss the growth they’ve experienced at QCA, and offer insights on how Michigan angels might innovate and expand their investment activity.
MediCool
1:40 p.m. – 1:50 p.m.
Jeff Rynbrandt, CEO | MediCool
Networking Break
1:50 p.m. – 2:10 p.m.
Panel: Startup Capital Momentum in Michigan
2:10 p.m. – 2:55 p.m.
Moderator: Brenda Jones, CEO | Ulendo
Jim Baker, Managing Director | Michigan Outdoor Fund
Mike Flanagan, Vice President of Capital Programs | Ann Arbor SPARK
Patti Glaza, Executive Vice President, Venture & Managing Director | ID Ventures
Mike Psarouthakis, Executive Director of Impact Investments & Strategic Alliances | University of Michigan Innovation Partnerships
Jeff Wesley, Executive Director, MI Rise | Red Cedar Ventures & Spartan Innovations
In late 2023, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation launched the Michigan Innovate Capital Fund program to expand pre-seed and seed stage investing in Michigan. The program provided funding to university and nonprofit fund managers to invest in Michigan tech startups to grow the State’s innovation economy. A panel of those fund managers will discuss their efforts including their mission, processes, and ways for investors to engage with them.
360ofme
2:55 p.m. – 3:05 p.m.
Cindy Warner, CEO | 360ofme
Panel: Startup Investing Basics
3:05 p.m. – 3:50 p.m.
Moderator: Don Manfredi, Associate Director of Ventures | University of Michigan Innovation Partnerships
Matt Bower, Partner | Varnum
Carrie Leahy, Partner | Bodman, LLP
Evaluating early-stage companies for investment can be fun and challenging. New and experienced investors alike can always learn more about how to improve their due diligence efforts. In this session, you’ll learn about the legal and business sides of due diligence to help inform your investment decision making.
Closing Remarks
3:50 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Happy Hour & Networking
4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Michigan Startup Capital Summit Speakers
Jim Baker
Fund Co-Manager
Michigan Outdoor Innovation Fund
Jim Baker serves as the Fund co-Manager of the Michigan Outdoor Innovation Fund on a contractual basis with InvestUP. In addition to his fund management responsibilities, he also serves as the Associate Vice President for Research and Co-Director of Husky Innovate at Michigan Technological University where he covers technology commercialization, intellectual property management, research contracting, and campus-wide entrepreneurship initiatives. He is an active participant and supporter of the Michigan entrepreneurial ecosystem, including serving as a board member of Invest Michigan, Operation Action U.P., the Michigan Small Business Development Center, and Global Detroit. He regularly works with early-stage technology companies as a board member or advisor and is co-founder of Iverson Outdoors Inc, a U.P.-based outdoor equipment manufacturing company. Jim a licensed patent practitioner with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and holds a PhD in Environmental Engineering from Michigan Technological University.
Jim Baker
Michigan Outdoor
Innovation Fund
Cindy Bauer
Founder and CEO
Coordinista
Cindy Bauer, BSN, RN, is a female entrepreneur and founder with 18 years’ experience in complex healthcare populations, resource deployment, and care innovation. At the forefront of pioneering the first nurse designed caseload management software application for payers and providers serving high risk populations with decentralized teams, she leverages her expertise to revolutionize the way healthcare services are delivered through innovative technology and models of care to improve clinician experience and patient health outcomes while optimizing resource utilization. Bauer is recognized for organizational agility during early-stage rapid growth and ability to effectively execute under non-traditional working environments. She attributes her current success to the lessons learned through her experiences as a speedskater, homeschool mom, and legislator. In her spare time, she enjoys running, kayaking, and spending time with her adult children.
Cindy Bauer
Coordinista
Matt Bower
Partner
Varnum LLP
Matt is a partner with Varnum LLP and serves as outside general counsel to a wide range of emerging and middle market companies. His particular industry concentrations include software, SaaS, information technology, IoT, data analytics and other technology based companies, as well as manufacturing, automotive, advanced materials, pharma, medical devices, publishing, digital advertising and media, retail, and food and beverage.
Matt’s emerging companies practice focusses on capital fundraising, including SAFE financing, convertible debt, preferred equity financing, as well as securities law compliance. He works closely with companies from cradle (formation and organization) to liquidity (sale or merger) and all stages of development in between. Matt’s experience in the early-stage capital markets includes fund representation, fund formation and investments.
Matt is a member of Varnum’s Business and Corporate Services Practice Team, and participates in the Intellectual Property, the Data Privacy and Cybersecurity, and the Startup and Emerging Companies practice teams. He is also the lead partner of the firm’s Ann Arbor office.
Matt Bower
Varnum LLP
Crystal Brown
Co-Founder and CEO
CircNova
Crystal serves as Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder to the company. She most recently served as CEO and Co-Founder at Great Lakes Biologics. Prior to Crystal served as Business Operations Director for Ocuphire Pharma, Inc., a Michigan Biotech company. With more than 20 years of operations experience, she has served in senior leadership positions with General Motors, FCA Chrysler and Bank of America. Her accomplishments include the AT&T Excellence in Leadership Award, as well as Alta Resources Program Launch Frontrunner. Crystal earned her B.A. from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and her Executive MBA. from Michigan State Eli Broad College of Business, where she led her team to winning first place in the coveted annual Broad Entrepreneurship pitch competition.
Crystal Brown
CircNova
Mike Flanagan
Vice President of Capital Programs
Ann Arbor SPARK
Managing Member
Michigan Angel Fund
Mike Flanagan has spent the last 15 years within Michigan’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. He is currently Vice President of Capital Programs at Ann Arbor SPARK and Managing Member with the Michigan Angel Fund (“MAF”). At SPARK, Mike leads the SPARK Capital fund which invests in pre-seed and seed stage startups based in Michigan. He also leads the Michigan Angel Fund which is the largest angel group in the state with 160 members and is currently investing out of its fifth fund. In these roles, Mike has invested in over 60 startups from a range of sectors and has held board and advisory roles with multiple portfolio companies.
Prior to joining SPARK, Mike was Director of Capital Markets at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (“MEDC”). There he helped create and oversee the state’s private equity and loan enhancement programs, including the state’s private equity fund of funds, angel tax credit, mezzanine funds, and loan participation and collateral support programs. As part of these efforts, Mike also helped lead the creation, fundraising, and administration of an $80 million evergreen fund through the U.S. Treasury’s State Small Business Credit Initiative to help fund the growth of Michigan businesses.
Prior to joining the MEDC, Mike spent 10 years in banking roles with JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley. Mike holds a BA and MPA from the University of Michigan and has certifications from the Venture Capital Institute and Michigan Bankers Association.
Mike Flanagan
Ann Arbor SPARK & Michigan Angel Fund
Mohammad Ghassemi
Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Engineering
Michigan State University + Ghamut Corporation
Dr. Ghassemi develops tools and systems that combine human and machine intelligence (A.I.) to solve problems that neither humans nor machines can solve as effectively alone. His research interests include machine learning, data mining, natural language understanding, recommendation systems, decision support, crowd-sourcing, game theory, and human-in-the-loop methodologies. He is especially interested in problem domains where human behavior and judgement must be modeled, and accounted for.
Dr. Ghassemi has authored papers in several highly respected scientific venues including: Nature Scientific Data, Science Translational Medicine, Proceedings of the IEEE, and the Proceedings of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. His work has been featured by venues including the BBC, NPR, The Wall Street Journal and Newsweek. He holds multiple US Patents and has over 10 years of experience working in technical and strategic consulting with several of the world’s largest companies : Allstate, Estee Lauder, Thomson Reuters, S&P and Samsung. He currently holds affiliations with Standard & Poor’s Financial Services, the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Ghamut Corporation. He also serves on the advisory board of several startup ventures.
Mohammad Ghassemi
Michigan State University + Ghamut Corporation
Patti Glaza
Executive Vice President & Managing Director
ID Ventures
Ms. Glaza joined Invest Detroit in 2014 with over 30 years of experience in the tech sector. Her primary responsibilities include sourcing and facilitating the development of early-stage and high-growth companies by providing guidance and investment capital. She engages in outreach activities supported by a diverse network of experienced entrepreneurs to support inclusion efforts to help ensure women and minority entrepreneurs are proactively mentored to build their high potential tech startups.
Prior Experience: Most recently, Ms. Glaza managed the Michigan office for Arsenal Venture Partners, a national venture capital firm focused on IT, energy, and industrial technologies. She started her career at Accenture, where she managed national teams of consultants for F500 companies. She transitioned to venture and start-ups and then held executive start-up positions in healthcare IT, nanotechnology, and energy and environmental tech.
Professional & Board Affiliations: Ms. Glaza is an advisor/board member for organizations that include: Michigan Venture Capital Association (2024 Chair), Techtown Detroit, University of Michigan’s Innovation Partnerships National Advisory Board and Ann Arbor SPARK. She holds director positions for portfolio start-ups Genomenon, MicroLam, and Ripple Sciences. She is an active entrepreneurial instructor for the NSF/NIH I-Corps.
Education:
- BA in International Relations/Economics from Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
- Masters of Business Administration from University of Michigan – Ross School of Business, Ann Arbor, MI
Patti Glaza
ID Ventures
Mike Hopkins
Co-Founder & CEO
M3D
Michael has a diverse professional background, having worked across various industries, from Fortune 50 companies to startups. His experience spans healthcare, e-commerce, services, logistics, senior living, CPG, manufacturing, retail, clean-tech, and non-profit sectors.
He began his career in B2B sales before joining McKinsey’s Detroit office, where he specialized further in B2B sales and marketing.
Following his time at McKinsey, Michael held leadership roles at several PE-owned companies and startups, where he led global go-to-market sales and marketing teams, driving significant growth.
With multiple successful exits under his belt, Michael is now excited to bring his expertise to M3D, focusing on developing and launching healthcare-related devices and services centered around radiation visualization and measurement.
Born and raised in metro Detroit, Michael now lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with his wife Jen and son Chase. An avid traveler, he has visited over 100 countries and loves experiencing new places and cultures. Michael graduated with a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan in 2005 and returned to Michigan graduating in 2012 with high distinction for his MBA at the Ross School of Business.
Mike Hopkins
M3D
Scott Jacobs
Executive Director
Queen City Angels
In his role as ED, Scott promotes assistance and resources for entrepreneurs and startups. He manages educational programming and entrepreneurial assistance programs with QCA’s Marquis Sponsor and Partner, HCDC’s Business Incubator. Scott reviews applications for funding from companies seeking investment and provides feedback to entrepreneurs pursuing engagement from angel members and QCA. Scott also connects and partners with the entrepreneurial community, StartupCincy and works with other partner organizations in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, including, but not limited to, Aviatra Accelerator, The Brandery, CincyTech, Cintrifuse, Greater Cincinnati Venture Association (GCVA), Hamilton County Business Center, Hamilton Mill, Hillman, MORTAR, OCEAN, Pipeline H2O, SCORE and UpTech. Scott is a member of the branding/marketing committee of the Angel Capital Association (ACA), the trade group that supports angel investing.
Scott Jacobs
Queen City Angels
Brenda Jones
CEO
Ulendo Technologies
Brenda Jones currently serves as the CEO of Ulendo Technologies, Inc., an early stage technology company specializing in software that supercharges the performance of advanced manufacturing machines. Previous to this, she led the successful exit of Kinetica Labs, Inc., a University of Michigan technology spinout company. Brenda’ s contributions to the entrepreneurial ecosystem include her work as a mentor/speaker at the Ross School of Business and the New Enterprise Forum as well as her roles at Ann Arbor SPARK as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence and coach/mentor/speaker for Entrepreneur Boot Camp.
Brenda’s was introduced to academic innovation commercialization as the inaugural Managing Director of the University of Michigan Medical Innovation Center. There she launched the Center’s multi-disciplinary fellowship program and co-authored a winning proposal for pediatric medical innovation that won the Center a $2M grant.
Brenda’s startup and technology commercialization took on an international flavor when she provided guidance and recommendations concerning the commercialization of medical technology to the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota, Colombia and the Universidad Catolica de Chile in Santiago, Chile.
Beyond her entrepreneurial/startup experience, she has also held key executive leadership positions in organizations focused on software, SaaS industry and technology commercialization: VP of Global Services at Arbortext (acquired by PTC), VP of Services MyBuys (acquired by Magnetic), NSF International’s first Chief Information Officer and Consulting Director of Entrepreneurial Services at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Ms. Jones earned a bachelor’s at Yale University and an MBA at the University of Michigan.
Brenda Jones
Ulendo Technologies
Carrie Leahy
Chair of Executive Management Committee
Bodman PLC
Ms. Leahy concentrates her practice in corporate and business law. She counsels both established and emerging businesses on general corporate transactions, mergers and acquisitions, compliance with securities regulations, and issues involving venture capital funding.
Ms. Leahy is chair of Bodman’s executive management committee.
Ms. Leahy has drafted and negotiated transactional documents for both publicly and privately held entities involved in mergers and acquisitions ranging in size from $250,000 to more than $1 billion. She has drafted and negotiated operating and joint venture agreements and advised corporate boards in connection with various transactions. She has also advised clients on entity formation, corporate governance and other general business issues. Ms. Leahy has extensive experience working with the University of Michigan’s Technology Transfer Office and is part of a Bodman team that has represented a significant number of start-up and spin-off companies that have recently licensed technology from U of M.
Ms. Leahy’s securities law experience includes representing clients in connection with public and private securities offerings; preparing registration statements, proxy statements, and periodic reports; and advising clients generally on their securities law obligations. Ms. Leahy also assists public companies with their NYSE listing and reporting requirements.
For ICLE, Ms. Leahy has authored materials in the past on Choosing a Business Entity and moderated a panel discussion on “Advising the New Startup Company: Formation and Funding” (2013).
Ms. Leahy serves on the board of directors of Inforum Michigan. She is also a board member for the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti SmartZone Local Development Finance Authority and a member of the United Way of Washtenaw County Campaign Cabinet. Ms. Leahy also serves on the board of the Detroit Regional Chamber. She is a member of the State Bar of Michigan Business Law Section Council.
In 2021, Crain’s Detroit Business honored Ms. Leahy as one of Michigan’s 100 Most Influential Women. DBusiness magazine has twice listed her among Detroit’s 500 Most Powerful Business Leaders (2019, 2022). Ms. Leahy has been listed in Chambers USA under Corporate/M&A, in IFLR1000 under Mergers & Acquisitions, in DBusiness magazine “Top Lawyers” 2024 under Corporate Law and Securities Law, in Michigan Super Lawyers 2019-24 under Business/Corporate, and in The Best Lawyers in America 2021-25 under Corporate Law.
Carrie Leahy
Bodman PLC
Don Manfredi
Associate Director of Ventures – MUICF Fund Manager
U-M Innovation Partnerships
Don is a dynamic executive leveraging 25+ years of experience in building and running companies to help startup founders launch and scale their businesses. Don is also active in the venture community as an investor and fund manager for the Michigan University Innovation Capital Fund.
Don Manfredi
U-M Innovation Partnerships
Rada Mihalcea
Professor of Computer Science & Engineering
University of Michigan
Rada Mihalcea is the Janice M. Jenkins Collegiate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan. She has made contributions to natural language processing, multimodal processing, and computational social science. With Paul Tarau, she is the co-inventor of TextRank Algorithm, which is widely used for text summarization.
Mihalcea has a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from Southern Methodist University and a Ph.D. in Linguistics, Oxford University. In 2017 she was named Director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at University of Michigan, Computer Science and Engineering. In 2018, Mihalcea was elected as the new VP for the Association for Computational Linguistics. She is a professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan, where she also leads the Language and Information Technologies Lab. In 2008, Mihalcea received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. She is an ACM Fellow and AAAI Fellow.
Mihalcea is an outspoken promoter of diversity in computer science. She also supports an expansion of the traditional analysis of educational success, which tends to focus on academic behavior, to include student life, personality and background outside of the classroom. Mihalcea leads Girls Encoded, a program designed to develop the pipeline of women in computer science as well as to retain the women who have entered into the program.
Rada Mihalcea
University of Michigan
Michael Psarouthakis
Executive Director of Impact Investments & Strategic Alliances
U-M Innovation Partnerships
As Executive Director of Impact Investments & Strategic Alliances, Mike leads Innovation Partnerships’ investment programs, including the Accelerate Blue Fund and the Michigan University Innovation Capital Fund, while catalyzing new programs to increase outside investments in U-M startups. Mike also leads the effort to expand regional and national venture community engagement in Michigan for the benefit of the state’s startup and investment ecosystem. Additionally, he works on opportunities to strengthen regional economic development and Michigan university collaborations. In this role, he oversees the Technology Transfer Talent Network (T3N) and the Michigan Technology Research Commercialization (MTRAC) programs for Life Sciences and Advanced Transportation in their missions of supporting research commercialization efforts at public universities across the state, as well as U-M’s role in the Mobility Accelerator Innovation Network under the Global Epicenter of Mobility (GEM) initiative.
Previously, Mike was the Director of Ventures and the first Managing Director of the Accelerate Blue Fund at Innovation Partnerships. Before joining the University of Michigan, Mike was the Vice President of Business Acceleration at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation where he oversaw a $250 million portfolio of investments in over 150 early stage technology companies. Prior to the MEDC he was an Assistant Vice President at Forest Health Services where he managed a $50 million corporate venture fund that focused on Biotech, Manufacturing, IT, Logistics and Computer Security opportunities and also served as the President of Forest Health’s captive insurance program, Sequoia Captive Insurance.
Mike holds an MBA and M.S. in natural resource management from the University of Michigan and a B.S. from Eastern Michigan University.
Michael Psarouthakis
U-M Innovation Partnerships
Mitchell Rohde, PhD
President
Rohde Way
Dr. Mitch Rohde is the recently retired CEO and co-founder of Quantum Signal AI (QSAI), an advanced math-based engineering R&D company headquartered in Saline, Michigan. Under his leadership QSAI successfully built and delivered real-world solutions leveraging intelligent algorithms for almost a quarter century, to customers including the US Department of Defense, Secret Service, Department of State, Homeland Security, Raytheon, THQ, Sony, QinetiQ, Whirlpool, Amway, and many more. QSAI tech and products have been used worldwide, including significant contributions in forensics, autonomous vehicle modeling and simulation, and more. In 2019 QSAI was acquired by Ford, and Mitch continued to lead the organization until departing in January 2024 to pursue other interests. Mitch serves on a number of civic and professional boards and committees, and in 2022 was honored with the University of Michigan College of Engineering Distinguished Alumni Service Award. He has specific engineering expertise in signal and image processing, mobile robotics, circuit design, and modeling and simulation. Mitch holds BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering and MS and PhD degrees in Biomedical Engineering, all from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, and is a member of Sigma Xi, AUVSI, IEEE, SAE, HKN, and TBP. In his spare time, Mitch is a longtime collector and restorer of antique arcade games, and is currently building a new arcade and club called Ottos in Saline, Michigan. He reports directly to his wife Erin, two teenagers Abby and Cal, five pet lizards, and a hamster named Barnabus. He can be reached at www.mitchellrohde.com.
Mitchell Rohde, PhD
Rohde Way
Jeff Rynbrandt
President and CEO
MediCool Technologies
Jeff Rynbrandt is the President and CEO of MediCool Technologies, a MedTech company developing painless therapies to treat dangerous cardiac arrhythmias and other disorders. Based in Traverse City, and spun out of the Mayo Clinic, MediCool is preparing for a U.S. based feasibility trial to treat post-operative atrial fibrillation in 2025.
Prior to MediCool, Jeff was the Vice President, US Sales for CardioFocus, a laser ablation therapy to treat atrial fibrillation. Jeff was responsible for development and launch of the U.S. commercial strategy as well as building and leading the U.S. sales team from FDA approval through early commercial success.
Before CardioFocus, Jeff spent over 15 years with Boston Scientific and Guidant, in a variety of roles in Cardiac Rhythm Management and Electrophysiology, starting in marketing and encompassing clinical, sales and sales leadership roles. Throughout his career at Boston Scientific, he was instrumental in launching disruptive therapies and growing revenue and market share, with a keen focus on improving patient outcomes.
Before obtaining his MBA in Supply Chain Management and Finance, Jeff served as an Infantry Officer in the Army, serving in both command and staff positions of increasing responsibility. Jeff graduated from The Eli Broad Graduate School of Management at Michigan State University with an MBA in 2002, and The United States Military Academy at West Point in 1993.
He enjoys building and growing breakthrough therapies that benefit patient lives and improve economic outcomes for hospital systems. He has spoken at several MedTech industry events, particularly on raising capital in the startup environment and was recently recognized as a SmartZone Best Small Business for 2024.
Jeff Rynbrandt
MediCool Technologies
Kelly Sexton
Associate Vice President for Research – Innovation Partnerships & Economic Impact
Innovation Partnerships, University of Michigan
As Associate Vice President for Research – Innovation Partnerships and Economic Impact, Kelly works closely with the Vice President for Research as well as other leaders across the university to provide visionary and strategic leadership of U-M’s innovation, corporate research and technology commercialization activities, including overseeing Innovation Partnerships. In this role, she supports and encourages university-wide programs for intellectual property development, innovation and engagement with business and venture communities in the region, across the nation and around the globe.
Prior to her arrival at U-M in 2018, Kelly was the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Technology Commercialization and New Ventures at North Carolina State University, where she served as principal investigator for an NSF I-Corps site and co-founded an alumni angel investor network to provide a new source of funding for university startups and spinouts.
Kelly holds a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. in Molecular Pathology from the University of California, San Diego where she was supported by a fellowship from the California Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Kelly completed her postdoctoral studies at Stanford University where she was awarded a fellowship from the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Kelly serves as co-chair of the U-M Roundtable on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, on the Board of the Michigan Venture Capital Association, and as Vice Chair of the Ann Arbor SPARK Board of Directors.
Kelly Sexton
University of Michigan Innovation Partnerships
Cindy Warner
Founder and CEO
360ofme
Cindy is the Founder and CEO of 360ofme, Inc., an ethical data exchange platform. 360ofme transforms the paradigm of personal data ownership and rebuilds trust between enterprises and individuals. Based on low-code, secure, and compliant technology, the platform powers a scalable and profitable ecosystem anchored in verified identities, realtime consent, and cloud-native privacy workflows. Prior to 360ofme, Cindy spent her career as a thought leader in the development of strategies to leverage cloud computing to drive change, leading organizations at Amazon Web Services, NetApp, IBM, PwC, Salesforce, and EY/Cap Gemini. She also serves the Governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, in diversifying the state’s economy through leveraging new technologies and talent, as a member of the Michigan Strategic Fund (MSF).
Cindy Warner
360ofme
Jeff Wesley
Executive Director, Red Cedar Ventures
MSU Research Foundation
Before joining Red Cedar Ventures in 2018, Wesley was the CEO of TWO MEN AND A TRUCK – the nation’s largest local moving company. Wesley received national recognition as a top franchise executive at TWO MEN AND A TRUCK. Wesley also served as the President of Accu Bite Dental Supply, an Inc. 100 company that was acquired by a Fortune 500 company.
Wesley began his career as an Audit Manager at Deloitte. He gained significant experience in leading and scaling private companies to record success. Additionally, Wesley has been an Angel Investor for over 15 years and is presently a member of the Capital Community Angels and the Michigan Angel Fund. Wesley served on various economic and community boards including, Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP). He holds his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Central Michigan University.
Jeff Wesley
MSU Research Foundation
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