There are 2 co-chairs per pillar. The Entrepreneurship co-chairs focus on planning events and offering resources for aspiring and current student founders. The VC co-chairs plan networking events, treks, and info sessions with local and national VC firms, and offer resources for aspiring venture capitalists. The SeedCon co-chairs plan the annual Rattan L. Khosa Seed Conference aka SeedCon and partner with the Polsky center and various sponsors, industry leaders, guest speakers, and vendors to ensure this event's success.
Entrepreneurship: Archie Meng & Rohan Kishore
Venture Capital: Michaela Ciulla & Patrick Mispireta
SeedCon: Fiona Chen & Juan Jose Llanos Barbosa
To learn more about each of us, navigate to our respective profiles below (listed in alphabetical order by first name).
The PM co-chair holds all pillars accountable, supports the execution of all planned activities, and manages the day-to-day logistics between EVC and faculty, staff, and other clubs.
Program Manager: Griffin Bourjaily
Background: Prior to Booth, I previously worked across real estate acquisitions and structured credit, with experience underwriting over $4 billion in transactions.
I am the founder of AXiM, a real estate technology company building AI-enabled underwriting and asset management software for institutional investors.
Ask Me About: Hiking, muay thai, chess
How I Spent My Summer: I continued building my startup AXiM, a real estate technology company building AI-enabled underwriting and asset management software for institutional investors.
Fun Fact: TBD
Most Embarrassing Song on My Playlist: TBD
Background: Prior to Booth, I spent 10 years as a management consultant focused on technology product launches and post-merger integrations. During the past decade, I also founded two nonprofits and a telecom startup. During my time at Booth, I competed and won in the 2025 BoothHacks (best social impact award), Booth Investment Thesis Competition, and Toigo VC Intensive's Thesis Competition. I also started a social media channel (@myVCjourney)!
Ask Me About: Chicago's local VC and startup ecosystem and resources, growing from being a failed founder, and thriving in your 30s during your MBA. Outside of school/work, I'm always down to geek out about anime, manga, legos, and Pokémon. I also love hosting parties and building communities - definitely live by the motto "to have a village, you must first be a villager".
How I Spent My Summer: I will be a venture capitalist at Mendoza Ventures this summer in Boston and build my new startup. Additionally, I'm on the planning committee of ShiftVC, VC Unleashed's annual conference.
Fun Fact: I volunteered at an animal shelter for a couple of years and learned how to meow pretty realistically. Cats have followed me home before.
Most Embarrassing Song on My Playlist: "Go the Distance" from Disney's Hercules. If you're an active EVC member, I'll tell you my actual song next May before I graduate.
Background: Prior to Booth, I spent seven years in consulting, most recently Deloitte Consulting as a management consultant focused on the technology and quick-service restaurant industries. I led Deloitte’s eminence on Human Capital Trends based in Denver, Colorado. I am from Chicago, Illinois and have a B.A. in Economics from Northwestern University. During my time at Booth, I am focused on quick-service restaurant trends and founders in their startup journey, participating in Entrepreneurs’ Unplugged and Founder Roundtables.
Ask Me About: Franchising, Quick-service restaurant trends, Booth founders, Skiing, National Parks and why Arches NP is not that great
How I Spent My Summer: I will be working at Restaurant Brands International (BK, Popeyes, Tim Hortons, Firehouse Subs) this summer in Miami and building out my startup.
Fun Fact: I was interviewed on the Golf Channel for my undergraduate scholarship.
Most Embarrassing Song on My Playlist: Most Embarrassing Song on My Playlist: “Love Like This” by Natasha Bedingfield and Sean Kingston. Who doesn’t love songs that remind you of sitting by the pool in the summer with a frozen Reese’s cup in hand?
Background: Before Booth, I spent years moving across the capital stack — from structuring asset-backed securities at a Mexican investment bank, to sourcing early-stage deals across LatAm at a European VC fund, to founding and scaling a leasing division inside my family's business.
Ask Me About: Early-stage VC in Latin America and what deal flow actually looks like south of the border, starting a business in international markets, and why LatAm is one of the most underrated places to build right now.
How I Spent My Summer: I'm building a financial services lending company in Latin America focused on giving SMBs access to the capital they actually deserve.
Fun Fact: I'm originally from Cali, Colombia — the world capital of salsa — so dancing and listening to salsa is basically in my DNA.
Most Embarrassing Song on My Playlist: TBD
Background: Prior to Booth, I was a management consultant at Huron Consulting Group leading financial and operational transformations that generated cost savings for multi-hospital systems.
While at Booth, I was a 2026 Fund associate at the George Shultz Innovation Fund, interned with Arben Ventures in the Spring, and served as an advisor on Strategy & Ops for KNOWN, a pre-seed femtech startup.
Ask Me About: Healthtech trends, lessons learned through just in time recruiting, volunteering with Erie, Chicago eats
How I Spent My Summer: Will update you on how I’m spending my summer 🤣
Fun Fact: I'm passionate about improving women's health and am a dedicated volunteer and advocate committed to equity and access in care delivery.
Most Embarrassing Song on My Playlist: In honor of bieberchella, “that should be me” and “out of town girl” have re-entered my rotation
Background: Before Booth, I spent five years at Accenture supporting large-scale technology transformations across Travel, CPG, and Financial Services which gave me a front-row seat to how enterprises break, and what it takes to fix them. These days, I'm a spring intern at VamosVentures a seed-stage fund backing diverse and Latinx-led founders across Health & Wellness, FinTech, Future of Work, and Sustainability. I hold a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Clemson University, and I've spent most of my life living up and down the East Coast, which is my way of saying I'm from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
Ask Me About: Early-stage VC and deal sourcing, the Latinx startup ecosystem, Chicago VC/startup ecosystem, how to write a deal memo that doesn't put a partner to sleep, how I’ve integrated AI into my workflows, and the best kept secrets on the East Coast
How I Spent My Summer: Interning at VamosVentures where I screen inbound deals, conduct deep diligence on a $5M seed investment, build competitive analyses, and attended NY Fintech Week on the fund's behalf. Also doing my best to keep up with Booth.
Fun Fact: I was born in Japan and moved to the US at age 7, which means I spent my childhood bouncing between two very different worlds before settling into a life of bouncing between East Coast cities. Still processing all of it.
Most Embarrassing Song on My Playlist: "How it's Done" by KPop Demon Hunters and I use the word "embarrassing" loosely, because this song is genuinely a masterpiece and I will die on that hill.
Background: I co-founded an edtech startup in India and scaled it to 300,000 users after raising $4M from Lightspeed. Prior to Booth, I also invested in early stage AI startups in San Francisco through ODDBIRD VC.
Ask Me About: Fundraising, venture capital, founding a startup, scuba diving, cricket, travel.
How I Spent My Summer: I'm working as an AI Agent PM at Amazon Quick (AWS).
Fun Fact: I have scuba dived with 6 different shark species.
Most Embarrassing Song on My Playlist: The Ketchup Song - been trying to learn the lyrics for years but haven’t even gotten close.
