SPEAKERS & MODERATORS
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| Matt Greenfield, Managing Partner, ReThink Education |
| Matt Greenfield is Managing Partner of Rethink Education, a venture capital firm focused on education technology. He currently serves on the boards of Allovue, BrightBytes, Care Academy, Kenzie Academy, and NoRedInk. He previously helped start Rethink Autism and worked for ABS Ventures. His non-profit affiliations include the boards of Southern New Hampshire University and Mouse.org. He holds a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in English from Yale University and has taught at Columbia University, the City University of New York, and Bowdoin College. ey |
| Rita Ferrandino, Founding Partner, Arc Capital Development |
| Rita Ferrandino is the founding partner at Arc Capital Development, a global private investment and advisory firm. Arc invests in and operates companies in the K-20 education market and has served 105+ domestic and international clients. She is a featured lecturer in the Penn GSE Education Entrepreneurship Master’s Degree Program and a widely quoted expert on the subject. |
| John Gamba, Jr., Director, Innovative Programs & Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Catalyst |
| Mr. Gamba joined Catalyst @ Penn GSE in 2019 as the organization’s first entrepreneur-in-residence and supports aspiring education entrepreneurs to help drive innovation in world-wide education. He brings 25 years of experience as a serial entrepreneur who has founded, funded and led several ed-tech companies from inception to commercial deployment to exit. After forming his own ed-tech incubator in 1999, he co-founded PACE, a school-to-home communications platform that connected thousands of K-12 schools to millions of families in all 50 states. Less than eight years after its inception, PACE was sold to NTI Group and then to Blackboard for $182 million. Most recently, John was co-founder and president of MassiveU, an ed-tech platform and online learning solution that powers the world's largest education companies and serves 400,000 learners, worldwide. Mr. Gamba holds a BA in American History from the University of Pennsylvania. |
| Michael Golden, Executive Director, Catalyst @ Penn GSE |
| Dr. Golden was named executive director of Catalyst @ Penn GSE in 2017. Prior to that, he spent seven years as CEO of Educurious, the education nonprofit he co-founded to create project-based learning opportunities, professional development, and an expert network that connects students to professions and career paths. The Seattle-based nonprofit reached nearly 100,000 students in more than 20 states. Prior to launching Educurious, he was the corporate vice president of Education Products Group at Microsoft Corporation. He has also served as vice president for strategic planning and marketing at Pearson Education and as deputy secretary with the Pennsylvania Department of Education, where he guided strategy, policy, programs, and legislation for more than 2 million PK-12, postsecondary, and higher education students. Dr. Golden earned his Ed.D. from Penn GSE and an MBA from Harvard. |
| Amanda Antico, President, EvolvED & Penn GSE Instructor |
| Dr. Amanda Antico, a current Penn Instructor at GSE, has a unique and diverse background. Adding to her vast experience as an organizational development strategist and consultant, she earned her doctorate in social entrepreneurship (George Washington University, 2010) and has taken a consistent, theory-meets-practice, evidence- based approach to innovative impact. She has founded, cofounded, and led multiple social-impact-focused organizations, including two public benefit corporations (PBCs). She has a deep, abiding confidence in the ability of economic enterprise to drive societal change. She is a master teacher, mentor, and consultant, having helped thousands of individuals and dozens of companies aspire higher and then pursue their goals with discipline and purpose.
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PANELISTS
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| Margaret Berger Bradley, Treasurer/Board Member, ImpactPHL |
| Margaret Berger Bradley joined Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania in 2016. As Director of Strategic Initiatives, she expands Ben Franklin’s access to capital with a particular focus on emerging impact investment strategies. In 2016, Ben Franklin organized an alliance, ImpactPHL to grow the impact economy in the Philadelphia region. With Margaret’s leadership, Ben Franklin launched ImpactPHL Ventures, a $15 million regional collaborative to grow early stage technology companies, focused on environmental, health and other social impact. Margaret has spent 25 years in Philadelphia, working in community and economic development. Prior to Ben Franklin, she directed the regional Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Initiative and was, for many years, with the Reinvestment Fund, a national leader in community investment. She has consulted to grant makers and major nonprofits nationwide. Margaret holds an M.B.A. from Yale University and a B.A. from the University of Virginia. A native of Ohio (whose welcoming Midwestern spirit she still loves), Margaret lives in Philadelphia with her husband David, a theater director, and their two teenaged sons. She’s enjoyed mentoring students in Temple University’s Fox Business School and women-owned small businesses via Athena Powerlink. She has recently joined the Board of Benefits Data Trust, which helps people live healthier, more independent lives by creating smarter ways to access essential benefits and services. |
| Eric Cantor, CEO/President, Paradigm Education Solutions |
Eric is President & CEO of Paradigm Education Solutions, a post-secondary and career services blended learning solutions business. Eric was appointed to this position in November of 2018. Paradigm is a portfolio company of CIP Capital, a mid-cap NYC-based private equity firm. Eric has extensive small-cap to large-cap general management, operating, and M&A experience, having held executive positions in education, professional development, and information and media services over the course of his career. Prior to this position, Eric spent six years as CEO of private-equity backed New Mountain Learning (the former umbrella company for Paradigm). Throughout his career, Eric has served on the advisory boards of several small to mid-sized companies in the not-for-profit and for-profit sectors. He is currently a venture partner at LearnLaunch, a Boston-based accelerator, where he has mentored a number of early-stage EdTech companies. Eric received a BA in history from Haverford College and an MBA in marketing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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| Shiv Gaglani, Co-Founder/CEO, Osmosis |
| Shiv Gaglani is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Osmosis.org, a leading health education platform with an audience of more than a million current & future clinicians as well as their patients. Shiv’s primary passion is developing innovative and scalable solutions in the fields of healthcare and education. To this end he curated the Smartphone Physical, which debuted at TEDMED, and the Patient Promise a movement to improve clinician-patient relationship through partnership in pursuing healthy lifestyle behaviors. Shiv is also an avid writer who has written two educational books, Success with Science and Standing out on the SAT & ACT. He is a regular contributor to Forbes, which named him to their 30 Under 30 List in 2018.After graduating magna cum laude from Harvard College in 2010 with degrees in engineering and health policy, Shiv began his MD degree at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (from which he is currently on leave) and earned his MBA from Harvard Business School in 2016. In his spare time he enjoys spending time with his family, skiing, running, and flying. |
| Mark Grovic, Co-Founder/General Partner, New Market Venture Partners |
| Mark co-founded New Markets Venture Partners in 2003 and is a General Partner. Mark serves or has served on the Board of Directors for APDS, Credly, Fishtree, Graduation Alliance, Orchestro (formerly Vision Chain, acquired by E2open), Think Through Learning (acquired by Imagine Learning), MediaSolv (acquired by Nasdaq: TASR), Lightningcast (acquired by NYSE: TWX), Moodlerooms (acquired by Blackboard) and Workspace.com. Mark also co-founded LifeJourney, an online educational company that allows students to test drive real life careers in specific corporations. Mark has been investing in high growth companies since 1992. Prior to New Markets, Mark was a Portfolio Manager for the Small Enterprise Assistance Funds (SEAF), a $200 million managed emerging market venture capital company, Director of Estonia-based Baltic Small Equity Fund, a Co-Founder and Principal of the Templeton Emerging Europe Fund, as Principal of Templeton Direct Advisors, and a Portfolio Manager of Private Equities at the Calvert Group. Mark graduated with Honors from the University of California, Berkeley, where he majored in political economies and received a JD from the Georgetown University. |
| Jean Hammond, Co-Founder, LearnLaunch |
| Jean Hammond is a serial tech entrepreneur turned active angel investor, and a member of Launchpad Venture Group, Hub Angels and Golden Seeds (co-founding the Boston forum), which focuses on investments in women owned or managed businesses. Jean is the cofounder of LearnLaunch, through which she engineers and supports the growth of entrepreneurial and investment ecosystems. LearnLaunch is a set of entities that support edtech and workforce edtech clusters in New England. She is the General Partner at LearnLaunch Accelerator, which provides investment, world-class mentoring and personalized support to a select group of high-growth edtech startup companies. Since 2014, LearnLaunch Accelerator has invested in 54 companies in 8 cohorts. Jean is the recipient of the Hans Severiens Award, the highest award for U.S. angel investors. She has served on the board of over 25 companies and organizations including Massachusetts Institute of Technology, her alma mater. |
| Alexis McCarthy, Managing Director, Triskeles Foundation |
| Alexis is Managing Director at Triskeles Foundation, the leader in values-aligned donor advised funds and mission-based investment strategies. As a national provider of donor advised funds (DAFs), she helps individuals, families, and organizations effectively reach their philanthropic goals in a simple manner, through separately managed accounts with values aligned strategies that deliver multiple levels of impact. Prior to joining Triskeles, Alexis held positions in the art world and finance at Christie’s and Morgan Stanley. She serves on the board of the Brown University Sports Foundation along with volunteering locally for an organization partnering with adults with developmental disabilities. She lives in the Philadelphia area with her husband, 3 children, 2 dogs, 2 cats, and 4 chickens. |
| Cat McManus, Development Officer, Benefits Data Trust |
| Cat McManus received both her doctorate (Educational Leadership) and her masters (Education, Culture & Society) from Penn’s Graduate School of Education. She earned a BA in Anthropology from Dartmouth College. Cat has had a lifelong interest in differential educational opportunities and issues of equity. After a stint as a private consultant, Cat is now a Development Officer for Benefits Data Trust, a national nonprofit headquartered in Philadelphia working to transform access to public benefits and services (food stamps, prescription access, healthcare, etc.) through partnerships, data, and technology. Before graduate school, Cat spent nine years in college admissions at Princeton and Penn, where she had the opportunity to run a partnership with a nonprofit focused on increasing access for low-income students, lead staff training, and contribute to the Opportunity and Access Team. Her research interests include community colleges, college access, educational equity, strategic partnerships, and organizational management. Much of her time as a doctoral student focused on socializing new Penn GSE initiatives and cheerleading the edtech startup community in Philadelphia, her hometown. |
| Karen Meidlinger, Managing Partner, Meidlinger Partners |
| Dr. Karen Meidlinger is a Founder and Managing Principal of Meidlinger Partners, LLC. Meidlinger Partners invests in, grows and develops water technology, product and service companies that have scalable solutions to clean water and wastewater in an energy efficient manner while meeting governmental standards. Prior to co-founding Meidlinger Partners in 2008, Dr. Meidlinger was an Associate at Johnson & Johnson where she spent almost four years leading innovation management projects, identifying new technologies that would drive future business growth for the corporation. Prior to her work at Johnson & Johnson, she ran the life science business incubator at the University City Science Center. She advised over 100 start-up companies, including several biotech companies that went from start up to exit, turning $432 million of VC investment into $1.2 billion. Dr. Meidlinger earned her M.B.A. at the University of Cape Town (South Africa). She completed her Ph.D. in marine ecology at the University of Southampton (UK) and her B.Sc. in marine biology at the University of Liverpool (UK). She also completed an entrepreneurship fellowship at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Among other things, she is a professional SCUBA diver who has SCUBA-dived under ice in Antarctica. |
| Omar Mencin, Director of Investments, Ben Franklin Technology Partners |
| Dr. Omar Mencin is responsible for sourcing, managing due diligence, negotiation and deployment of capital, and board observer portfolio management for investments in Information Technology companies for Ben Franklin Technology Partners. He currently co-manages Ben Franklin's Information Technology portfolio overseeing over 50 Ben Franklin investments including SideCar, Instamed, Clutch, Amino Payments, LeagueSide, KickUp,Timeline, Inc, Houwzer, Social Ladder, COSY, Audigent, Cloudnexa, Lithero, Kynective, and Practice. He has led both equity and convertible debt investments from seed to Series A stage companies in the software, e-commerce, digital media, AI, Blockchain, Robotics, Drone, Fin-tech, Ed-Tech, wearable technology, and Healthcare IT sectors. He has worked directly with the CEO and VP of the Investment Group to raise investment capital for Ben Franklin and has been responsible for strategy and portfolio analysis for the fundraising process, helping to successfully secure investment commitments from pensions funds and banks. Additionally, he has worked to secure and manage partnerships with regional accelerator programs including UPenn's EDSI (Ed-Tech Incubator), UPenn's APPITUP program for University based start-ups in partnership with Penn Center for Innovation Ventures, and the Philadelphia Inquirer's Project Liberty Digital Incubator for media based start-ups. Prior to Ben Franklin, Omar was an analyst in the Merchant Banking Division at Goldman Sachs (based in NYC) and was the founding CEO of the US Market Access Center, a Silicon Valley based accelerator and investment fund for international companies looking to establish a presence in Silicon Valley. The US Market Access Center is a partner with Stanford University and San Jose State University and has launched several successful companies including Daintree Networks (Acquired by GE), Heptagon Inc (Acquired by AMS), Codenomicon (Acquired by Synopsis), Edware TV and Innolume. |
| Katherine O'Neill, Executive Director, JumpStart New Jersey Angel Network |
| Katherine O’Neill is the Executive Director for JumpStart New Jersey Angel Network, a member led angel investor group that invests in early stage companies in Mid-Atlantic region. She is an investor in early stage growth companies. She has served on the Board of the Angel Capital Association and is active in ACA national committees. The ACA is the national organization representing angel investor groups in North America. Katherine represents the ACA at both national and international events. She is quoted in regional publications and the Wall Street Journal as a source for information on early stage investing. Katherine is a member of, Mid Atlantic Diamond Venture Board, NJ Economic Development Authority Edison Fund Advisory Board, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of SE Pennsylvania Advisory Board, NJ Tech Council, Princeton University MIRTHE Investment Focus Group and Rutgers Innovation Park Advisory Board. In recent years she has spoken at and judged business plan competitions both regionally and nationally at events such as PACT, NJ Tech Council, Angel Venture Fair, Princeton University Jumpstart Innovation Forum, Temple University BOSS bowl and Start Up Weekend Princeton. She is a mentor at regional accelerators Princeton University E-Labs and TechLaunch. Katherine is a seasoned financial executive and investor in early stage enterprises with extensive experience in start up and entrepreneurial operations as well as operational experiences in a diverse range of businesses. She has particular expertise developing technology-based business as well as strategic business plans. She has extensive multi-national experience and financial operation management and expertise in healthcare, biotech, pharmaceuticals, information systems, e-commerce and social media. She is the president of O’Neill Associates and consults with growth companies. In addition to her entrepreneurial activities, she was a senior executive in corporate finance in both a Fortune 100 pharmaceutical company the now GlaxoSmithKline and Fortune 500 chemical company FMC. |
| Mindy Posoff, Managing Director, Golden Seeds |
| Mindy Posoff is a senior financial services professional with expertise in strategic development, operational due diligence, and institutional sales and marketing. She has more than 20 years of experience with top-tier global financial services organizations. Ms. Posoff is currently a managing director and member of Golden Seeds, an investment group whose network is dedicated to investing in early stage companies with diverse management teams. She is also the founder of Traversent Capital Partners, LLC, a consulting firm focusing on strategic solutions for investment firms. Ms. Posoff also serves as an independent trustee of the Harris Associates Investment Trust for the Oakmark Family of Funds, a value driven complex of mutual funds.Prior to Golden Seeds and Traversent, Ms. Posoff was one of the three co- founders of NewMarket Capital Partners, LLC, an investment management company focusing on absolute return strategies for the institutional investor. She was the firm's chief operating and compliance officer, as well as co-head of Sales and Marketing. Previously, Ms. Posoff was a vice president at E*Trade, and a director and institutional sales manager of the structured product sales group at Credit Suisse First Boston. Ms. Posoff is a member of the Board of Managers of The Philadelphia Foundation; a member of the Board of Ben Franklin Technology Partners SEP; a trustee of The Community College of Philadelphia, a member of Springboard Enterprises’ Council of National Advisors. Additionally, Ms. Posoff was a trustee of Salus University and a founding member of the board of directors of 100 Women in Finance, the largest global association for finance and alternative professionals. Ms. Posoff has an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from Beloit College. |
| Jeremy Rogoff, Co-Founder/CEO, KickUp |
| As CEO, Jeremy leads the KickUp team's efforts to build strategic partnerships across the K-12 ecosystem and promote the use of formative data in professional learning. Jeremy co-founded the company with fellow educator Victoria Kinzig in 2015. Prior to starting KickUp, Jeremy served as a high school Algebra teacher at KIPP DC and in Clarendon, Arkansas as a Teach for America corps member. Jeremy is an alumnus of the Coro Fellows Program in Public Affairs, where he gained his initial interest in and passion for public education. Jeremy has been featured in educational publications from The Huffington Post to podcasts on leadership in K-12 education. Jeremy is a magna cum laude graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and a proud Philadelphian. |
| Julia Winter, Founder/CEO, Alchemie |
| Julia Winter, Alchemie CEO and founder: Julia taught college-level chemistry courses for over twenty years at Detroit Country Day School. She earned the James Bryant Conant Award in 2016, the highest honor given to a high school teacher by the American Chemical Society, for her success in the classroom. As the founder of Alchemie, her goal has been to build interactive digital tools for students based on her years of chemistry instruction. The belief that students could succeed in tough colleges courses if they were given engaging formative feedback was the initial impetus for founding Alchemie. The company has earned $1M in grant funding from the National Science Foundation through the Small Business Innovative Research program and the Michigan Emerging Technology Fund. |