I co-lead the 1842 Fund, a new inception and pre-seed stage venture capital fund anchored by the University of Notre Dame and managed by High Alpha Innovation. The 1842 Fund co-creates and funds startups that support faculty research, student innovations, and community startups and drive economic transformation in the South Bend-Elkhart area. By design, we ONLY invest in companies through the IDEA Center at Notre Dame and a new venture studio, the 1842 Studio, that builds software startups targeting societal challenges aligned to the Strategic Framework and Catholic Social Teachings.

High Alpha Innovation partners with leading organizations to help them achieve tangible innovation through systematic creation of startups and venture studios. My primary focus is establishing new venture studios with partners and fundraising efforts.

I sourced and evaluated new growth opportunities for Marriott, I built and managed its corporate venture capital program, and I supported the incubation of new businesses and technology capabilities across the company.

Greenspring Associates is a venture capital investment platform that manages over $15B in capital for its clients. They invest in emerging and established fund managers in the venture capital space and directly into expansion-stage IT and Healthcare companies. My team supported Greenspring's direct portfolio companies as well as fund managers and their portfolio companies, primarily through introductions to relevant investors, entrepreneurs, customers, strategic partners, service providers, and other members of Greenspring's network. Primarily, I worked closely with senior corporate executives to help their organizations navigate the venture capital ecosystem to identify and connect with relevant investors and startups across our network. I also ran Greenspring's Deal Network that sourced and vetted Seed to Series B startups, identified venture firms in Greenspring's network that might be a fit, and then facilitated 1:1 introductions to VCs if they expressed interest.

Startup studio that incubated and launched new companies. As development director, I identified new opportunities via market research, tested and iterated new business and product concepts, developed business plans/pitch decks and partnered with seasoned entrepreneurs to launch businesses.

Worked with Fortune 500 clients to develop long-term growth strategies, build best-in-class innovation systems and apply a proven consumer-driven innovation process for creating winning new products and businesses, leveraging and building upon the work of Innosight co-founder Clayton Christensen (Innovator’s Dilemma).Functional Experience:- Market analysis (trend analysis, competitive benchmarking, patterns of disruption)- Quantitative research (survey design, financial modeling, market sizing)- Qualitative research (ethnographic research, consumer, client and expert interviews)- New product development (idea generation, concept development, business model design, test learn plans, implementation plans)- Business plan development (product strategy, roadmaps, supporting rationale) - Workshop facilitation (leading ideation sessions, teaching innovation concepts) - Innovation system design (innovation-related governance, organizational design, people development, resource allocation, product development) - Strategy development (strategic visioning, corporate strategy, portfolio planning)- Change management (planning, communications, coaching)Relevant Industry Experience:- IT Infrastructure/Software- Consumer Devices and Apps- Healthcare IT/Software- Entertainment and Media

Interned at the strategy and innovation consultancy co-founded by Clayton Christensen.

Built consumer-driven new concept development process to identify, develop and launch new product categories, including the launch of the eReader category.

Supported Best Buy Mobile leadership and business teams with market and consumer insights. Led all market research efforts, including data-mining (e.g. database queries), market analysis (e.g. market share tracking), consumer research (e.g. survey design, focus groups) and reporting tools (e.g. leadership dashboards).

Supported subscription services category (e.g., voice/data/video) by assisting in category planning and execution. Responsible for vendor management, assortment planning, financial forecasting, online and brick and mortar merchandising and other day-to-day operational tasks.