Bob Saunders, Chairman & Co-founder
Bob is a General Partner of OCA Ventures (Chicago), a Founding Partner of Saunders Murdoch and Associates (Louisville/Boston), and is an active investor in many healthcare startups. Bob was a Managing Director and General Partner at Chrysalis Ventures from 1997 to 2009. Bob was a founding board member of MetaCyte Business Lab, the University of Louisville’s life science incubator. Over the last 30 years, he has invested in several dozen startup companies and has mentored 100+ startups. Bob received a B.A. from Stanford University, an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, and an M.A. from Harvard University. He was both a Fulbright Scholar and a Marshall Scholar.
Jackie Willmot, CEO & Co-founder
Jackie has 30+ years of experience in the healthcare industry including 13 years as a clinician and 15 years as an executive at Humana in the Innovation Center as well as 2+ years working for a Humana Startup in the United Kingdom. Since leaving Humana in 2009 Jackie has worked with 100+ startups. Jackie was trained by Steve Blank in his ‘Lean Launchpad Educators Class’ at Stanford University and serves as a business coach in a variety of capacities. She was a founding member and on the Board of Directors of the Network for Entrepreneurial Women and works with healthcare startups via the LaunchIT program where she works closely with Coulter, ExCITE, and iCorp funded companies. She is a Master’s prepared Perinatal Clinical Nurse Specialist and holds an MBA from the University of Louisville’s entrepreneurship program, a Master’s of Science from the University of Pittsburgh and a Baccalaureate Nursing degree from Villa Maria College.
Eugene Krentsel, CSO & VP of Strategic Partnerships & Alliances
Prior to joining XLerateHealth, Dr. Krentsel served as Associate Vice President for Research and Innovation and Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Louisville. He was responsible for the full range of activities in the discovery-innovation-translation-commercialization spectrum at UofL, including working with external groups in the public and private sectors to promote commercialization of university technologies and advancing industry engagement and entrepreneurship. Prior to being recruited to UofL in 2013, he served as Assistant Vice President for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Partnerships at Binghamton University in New York, where he helped develop and protect faculty intellectual property, paired researchers’ expertise with pressing market needs, and offered guidance to faculty and students interested in starting their own business. Eugene is a member of the National Science Foundation’s Advisory Committee on SBIR.
Rebecca Brown Rice, Life Science Advisor
Rebecca Rice is the Director of Operations at the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council (LHCC). Previously, Rebecca managed the NIH-REACH Hub and its associated healthcare technology development grant at the University of Louisville (called ExCITE) where she oversaw the investment of $3million into a portfolio of 19 promising early-stage healthcare technologies, including small molecule therapeutics, diagnostics, mHealth technologies, and direct-to-consumer products. Rebecca received her BS in Neuroscience from Brown University and is a PhD candidate in Neuroscience at Yale University.
Ashok Seetharam, Biomedical Engineering Advisor
Ashok is the Co-Founder and Product Lead of Toggle Health: a healthcare startup connecting surgeons to their digital case data in the operating room using a sterile wireless controller. Before Toggle Health he served as the Chief Technology Officer of Orthopedix, leading product development of custom orthopedic wrist implants using 3D-printing technology. He has experience in medical device design and product development process, UI/UX, CAD/CAM, 3D printing, regulatory, and product management. Ashok received his MS in Biomedical Engineering from Brown University.
Zack Pennington, Technology Advisor
Zack is a creative and active entrepreneur. As the CEO and Co-Founder of a biotechnology startup, he has first hand experience in commercializing a university-developed technology. Zack has participated in several Startup Weekends and will work with the accelerator community to facilitate similar healthcare oriented events. He received a B.A. in Communications and an M.B.A. from the University of Louisville.