Ivan Chen

Background - Hi I'm Ivan, I grew up in various places in Taiwan, Canada, and even spent 6 months in Naperville not too far from Gleacher. I currently lead PBM Product for Series C startup Rightway Healthcare where I oversee member experience, technology, and strategic partnerships - I led the industry's first PBM partnership with the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Pharmacy. I have a passion for building healthcare products including CVS Health's Diabetes program, Optum's clinical trials platform and started out my career at The Advisory Board Company doing healthcare corporate strategy. I grew up in the Nobel Laureate lab of Dr. Gregg Semenza where I am peer-reviewed published on triple-negative breast cancer. I launched here at Booth in Summer 2023 and hold a B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the Johns Hopkins University.

Ask Me About - Healthcare innovation, health systems, product management, clinical trials, entrepreneurship, gene therapy, corporate strategy, eSports, basketball

Involvement in Entrepreneurship/VC - I started my first company out of Johns Hopkins called Forte Health where we wanted to incentivize healthy behaviors by building a mobile game and were seed-funded by the Baltimore entrepreneurial ecosystem. Since then I've worked on several projects and most recently I founded Ark Health, a clinical trials platform that was selected to 2024 NVC.

Fun Fact - Every city in the US I've spent more than a year in one a national sports championship: Baltimore Ravens in 2014, DC Nationals in 2019 and DC Capitals 2018, and Michigan Wolverines (Go Blue!) Football in 2023. Someone's going to pay me the big bucks one day to move!

Favorite recent books or podcast - Relentless Healthcare Value, Invest Like the Best, Dune by Frank Herbert.

Priya Patel

Background - I was born and raised in Novi, Michigan and attended the University of Michigan for undergrad (go blue!). I studied business at Michigan and was highly interested in strategy and investing. I started my career as an investment banking analyst in healthcare M&A, then transitioned into the tech world as a strategy manager at Salesforce. I am currently working at a series B tech startup called Airplane doing growth strategy. In my free time, I love to collect vinyl records, read books, and try new restaurants.

"Ask me About" - M&A strategy, working at an early stage startup, B2B SaaS, AI/ML, Michigan football

Involvement in Entrepreneurship/VC - I'm employee #19 at Airplane and am actively involved in scaling the company alongside my coworkers from a growth, strategy, and marketing perspective. I also have M&A experience from the sell-side perspective. I am active at Booth and am excited to dive deeper into investing and entrepreneurship during my time here.

Fun Fact - I've played electric guitar for 15 years and played in several bands in high school (yes, I used to be cool).

Favorite recent books or podcast - Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

Luke Greenfield

Background - I grew up on a farm about an hour South of Chicago and always was curious about how things worked. This led me to pursue a Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I decided to minor in food science and focus on the consumer products and food industries leading me to work for Clorox, PepsiCo, and now Mars in manufacturing and R&D roles. I have a passion for working to provide solutions for unmet consumer's needs. My experience at Booth has led me to focus on broadening my skillset into entrepreneurship, finance, and strategy. In my free time I enjoy tennis, snowboarding, spontaneously traveling, and everything involving physical activity or being outside.

"Ask me About" - Consumer products and the food industry, SPITC/PE lab, NVC, identifying consumer needs, and Chicago from a local's perspective!

Involvement in Entrepreneurship/VC - My initial exposure to entrepreneurship was independently working for neighbors on odd jobs throughout high school to provide an extra source of income. This independence and ownership piqued my interest and since then I have participated in SPITC/PE lab and NVC. In my current role at Mars, I work in R&D and work to launch new products and brands within the business.

Fun Fact - Each of the last three years I have started a new hobby. My first new hobby is snowboarding (see you on the Booth Ski trip!), followed by beach volleyball, and most recently golfing because apparently golf and business school go hand-in-hand.

Favorite recent books or podcast - My current favorite podcast is the Y Combinator podcast because it overlaps with a lot of concepts I have been exposed to at Booth and also provides different perspectives.

Frank Simpson

Background - I grew up in a small town in Vermont, and attended the the University of Vermont where I studied Economics and Community & International Development. I started my career in hedge fund accounting, but quickly realized I wanted to get involved with the world of data. After spending a couple years at a start-up focused on data collection, I found myself at The Boston Consulting Group supporting the AI/ML and the venture studio teams in a financial capacity. While working alongside the data scientists and product managers I built up my FP&A and commercial project finance skills, and continued to pursue an interest in artificial intelligence products. I have recently made the leap into venture capital myself - and would love to share details of my experience with anyone who is interested.

"Ask me About" - Early-stage venture capital, AI/ML start ups, SPITC, PE/VC lab, George Shultz Innovation Fund, snowboarding, and fly fishing.

Involvement in Entrepreneurship/VC - My initial exposure to venture happened early on when I learned about alternative investments while I searched for a job after school. Fast forward a couple years and I am currently working in a couple of different internships for a few different VC firms, as well as participating in the Innovation Fund Associate program through the Polsky Center.

Fun Fact - My family has a small apple orchard and we press apples each fall to make fresh apple cider.

Favorite recent books or podcast - Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C Gwynne, River of the Gods by Candice Millard

Qixin Chen

Background - I was born in China and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 2014 from University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. I moved to Chicago in 2015 to pursue a master's degree of public administration from University of Illinois - Chicago. I have served as a budget/financial analyst for the Illinois Governor's Office of Management Budget and the University of Chicago Budget Office. Currently, I am the Senior Investment Operations Analyst at the University of Chicago Investment Office. I launched here at Booth in Fall 2022.

"Ask me About" - Endowment, Investment Operations, Capital Budgeting, VCIC, Dog Park & Play

Involvement in Entrepreneurship/VC - My entrepreneurship may have been passed down to me from my family, since my father, uncle, and cousin have all committed their lives to running a family business. In my current role, I've had the opportunity to work with talents (also fellow Boothies) who underwrite investments in VC funds, co-investments, and UChicago start-ups.

Fun Fact - As a kid, I earned first place in several local Youth Chinese Chess competitions. In fifth grade, I represented the city and won a bronze medal in the National Youth Chinese Chess competition in my age group. One last thing, the phonetic spelling of my first name Qixin will be [chee-sheen].

Favorite recent books or podcast - Acquired, Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy