Erik Gordon
Faculty Managing Director
Erik Gordon's interests focus on entrepreneurship and technology commercialization, including strategy, marketing, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and venture finance. His expertise also includes alliances and joint ventures, intellectual-property strategy and licensing, and the roles and operations of boards of directors, particularly in the biomedical, energy and green-technology fields. Mr. Gordon is the managing director of the Wolverine Venture Fund and teaches a foundation course on how to prepare business plans for new ventures in the life sciences, biotechnology and other industries and another course on how to market start-up businesses to potential funders, customers and other key influencers. Previously, Mr. Gordon was the Shulman Family Chair in Technology and Business Innovation and associate dean at Stevens Institute of Technology. He also served on the faculty and as associate dean/director of the graduate division of business and management (Carey Business School) at Johns Hopkins University. During his career, Mr. Gordon has co-founded or advised numerous companies. Gordon holds a B.A. in economics from Bucknell University and a J.D. from The Albany Law School of Union University.
Jack K. Ahrens II
General Partner, TGap Ventures
Jack has been a venture capitalist and fund administrator since 1979; first as President of United Capital Corporation of Illinois (an SBIC), since 1983 as a General Partner of Pathfinder Venture Capital Funds I, II and III and since 2002 Founding General Partner of TGap Ventures. Prior to that he had seven years of experience in bank trust investments and operations. He became a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) in 1982 and has advanced training at the American Institute of Banking, NASBIC Management Institute, and Stanford Advance Management College. He is a graduate of Indiana University.
Timothy B. Petersen
Managing Director, Arboretum Ventures
Tim Petersen leverages his broad business experience creating, growing, and financing entrepreneurial firms to target promising capital-efficient investment opportunities. In recent years he has particularly focused on investments in companies that are changing the way healthcare is delivered. Tim led Arboretum’s investment in HealthMedia (acquired by Johnson & Johnson) and Accuri Cytometers (acquired by Becton, Dickinson and Company) and served on the Board of Directors of each company prior to exit. He also led Arboretum’s investments in Advanced ICU Care CerviLenz, Inogen, MyHealthDIRECT, PathCentral, Tangent Medical, Fidelis SeniorCare and IntelliCyt Corporation, and presently serves as a director of these companies. Tim is responsible for Arboretum’s financial and fund management activities and is a member of the Investment Committee. He has been a venture capital investor for the past fourteen years. Prior to joining Arboretum in 2002, Tim was the Managing Director of the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan, leading the creation and rapid growth of the Institute's programs. He also directed the Wolverine Venture Fund (WVF), the Institute's venture capital fund focusing on early-stage life science and technology investments. Previously, Tim spent nine years at the economic consulting firm Industrial Economics, Inc., becoming a member of the firm's senior staff in 1991. Earlier in his career, Tim was also a manager in the investment banking practice at Plante & Moran. Tim is involved in a number of community efforts focused on entrepreneurship and frequently lectures at local universities on venture capital. He is currently the Alumni Fund Manager for the Wolverine Venture Fund and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Michigan Venture Capital Association. Tim earned a BA in Economics from Williams College, where he was captain of the men’s tennis team. He also holds an MS in Economics from the University of Wisconsin- Madison, and an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.
Mina Patel Sooch
Founder & General Partner, Apjohn Ventures, Fund President and CEO, ProNAi
Mina Sooch brings with her almost twenty years of healthcare and pharmaceutical experiences as an entrepreneur, strategy & finance advisor, and venture capitalist. As a founder and general partner at Apjohn, she had been active in sourcing, screening, due diligence, and closing of all the fund investments. Mina currently serves on the board of ProNAi, Svelte, and CytoPherx with prior board seats at exited companies ZyStor and Asterand and prior board observer seats at exited companies Afmedica and Ikano. She recently completed two years as Chairman of the Board of the Michigan Venture Capital Association which she has served on also as board member for over seven years. She also has been a board member of the Midwest Healthcare Investment Network for over eight years. Mina shares her time and thoughts by serving as speaker, moderator, panelist, or judge at many entrepreneurial and life sciences community activities. Since 2001, Mina has been fully engaged in the early stage life sciences space through synergistic roles as founding principal of Apjohn Group (life sciences business accelerator) and entrepreneur in residence at North Coast Technology Investors ($100 million early stage venture capital firm in Ann Arbor). Through those roles, she has served as founding CFO of Afmedica and founding CEO of SenseGene Therapeutics (now ProNAi). Prior to 2001, Mina spent eight years as a global account manager at Monitor Group, a top tier global strategy consulting firm based in Boston, with her client base consisting of mid-cap and large-cap healthcare companies and multi-billion dollar private equity companies. With a focus on M&A, she has worked on over 30 deals including $7B Pharmacia & Upjohn merger in 1995 and $1B merger of PharMerica in 1997. Mina was also a founding leader of Monitor's Corporate Finance practice in 1998 with Tom Copeland. Mina began her career spending several years in research and product development at Ford Motor Company, Dow Chemical Company, and Proctor and Gamble. Mina received a MBA from Harvard Business School in 1993. She graduated summa cum laude and commencement speaker from Wayne State University in 1989 with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering.
Ryan Waddington
Co-Founder and Managing Director, Huron River Ventures
Ryan has over 15 years of experience in investing, operating and consulting roles in the alternative energy and environmental sectors, and is widely recognized as an experienced cleantech investment professional. Ryan has invested in more than 20 energy technology companies at seed, venture and growth equity stages, totaling over $100 million of invested and committed capital. Prior to co- founding Huron River Ventures, Ryan helped establish an energy-focused private equity group within New York-based Ziff Brothers Investments, one of the largest and most successful family office investment firms in the country. There he became part of the core team of investment managers and worked on multiple transactions in sectors including renewables, biofuels, power transmission and advanced materials. Ryan began his career in venture capital working inside DTE Energy’s corporate venture group, where he worked on investments in fuel cells, energy storage, power electronics and waste-to-energy, among others. Ryan also established and executed a seed stage funding program at NextEnergy, where he funded several prominent Michigan-based alternative energy companies, and co-founded a “dot com” web portal for outdoor enthusiasts while in business school. Ryan holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan, an M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Wisconsin, and a MBA with Distinction from the Ross School of Business at University of Michigan, where participated in the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise.
Michael Godwin
Partner, Managing Director, Resonant Ventures
Michael has worked with venture backed startups since 1996 and has been a venture capital investor since 2010. He currently serves on the board of directors of Accio Energy and Filament. Prior to founding Resonant, Michael worked with Menlo Innovations to help develop the first production release of Accuri Cytometer’s C6 Flow Cytometer. Before Menlo, Michael built the royalty allocation system for the Independent Online Distribution Alliance, acquired in 2009 by Sony Music Entertainment (SME). Prior to IODA, Michael worked in the Bay Area as a software engineer with Zengine (IPO Nasdaq: ZNGN), WebCrawler and Excite which was acquired by AT&T for $6.7B– the largest M&A involving an internet company at the time. Michael has a Bachelor of Music from Berklee College of Music and an MBA from the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business where he served as a Managing Director of the Wolverine Venture Fund’s student advisory board. He currently serves as an advisor to the Wolverine Venture Fund and has served on several non-profit boards in the Ann Arbor area.