Craig Atwood

Founder and CEO
JangoBio

Craig Atwood, Ph.D. is founder and CEO of JangoBio, LLC, a holding company to five subsidiaries that provide medical, diagnostic and research products and services: JangoMed, JangoPet, JangoDx, JangoCell, and Woodburn Laboratory. He is a serial entrepreneur in the biopharmaceutical and biotechnology arena dedicated to developing stem cell products for the treatment of osteoarthritis, Alzheimer's disease and aging. He holds a faculty appointment in the Department of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

David Becker

Director of Operations
Lancaster Investments

With a background in Economics and Computer Science, I've always been interested in using data to help solve complex problems. I'm applying that skill alongside my passion for entrepreneurship to help make informed investment decisions in the real estate and early-stage investment industry.

Phil Bidro

District Manager
Insperity

Phil Bidro is the District Manager for Insperity with over 25 years of experience in recruiting, technology and HR administrative services. He manages the Wisconsin market and has nine Business Performance Advisors to support the growth of Insperity. Insperity offers a complete portfolio of HR and business performance solutions designed to address the most common challenges that business owners face - managing benefits, expenses and employee performance, providing round-the-clock access to reliable technology, recruiting and retaining the right talent, mitigating the business' exposure to risk, increasing workforce alignment and productivity, and more.

Erick Bratt

Business Advisor
Brighten Advisors

Erick Bratt is a Business Advisor at Brighten Advisors, helping businesses navigate the investor ecosystem and accelerate growth. Erick is active in the early-stage business ecosystem as a member of Milwaukee Venture Partners and the Wisconsin Startup Coalition. Additionally, he serves as a Startup Mentor to gener8tor’s accelerator companies.

Prior to establishing Brighten Advisors, Erick was the Data and Reporting Manager for Molson Coors, leading data and analytics within the Procurement Center of Excellence. Erick earned his B.S. in Business at Marquette University.

Megan Brobson

Vice President
Borgman Capital

Megan Brobson is currently a Vice President at Borgman Capital. Since joining the firm four years ago, the team has completed 13 acquisitions as they support a portfolio of seven companies. Megan focuses on deal origination, portfolio company management, and investor relations. Previously, Megan worked on the finance teams at subsidiaries of WPP PLC and Publicis Group S.A.

Margaret Capper

SVP - Commercial Banking Manager
North Shore Bank

Serving as Senior Vice President of Commercial Banking, Margaret Capper leads North Shore Bank’s efforts to provide customized solutions for middle market and small businesses in Eastern Wisconsin. With an emphasis on developing strong relationships, Capper works closely with owners and key managers of businesses to assist with their financial needs. Serving business clients for over 25 years, Capper brings valuable knowledge of day-to-day banking needs, cash flow strategies, and merger and acquisition funding. In recognition for her work at North Shore Bank and commitment to the community, Capper was named a 2020 Biz Times Notable Commercial Banking Leader and a 2023 Milwaukee Business Journal Woman of Influence. Capper is a servant leader and an advocate for educating new business owners who has facilitated financial literacy outreach with community groups including WWBIC and the Latino Chamber of Commerce. She also has a strong background in nonprofit and sits on various boards supporting the community.

Angelika Coghlan

Business Performance Advisor
Insperity

My goal is to help small and midsize businesses succeed so their communities prosper by providing HR that Makes a Difference™. It’s a calling.
Insperity offers a complete portfolio of HR and business performance solutions designed to address the most common challenges that business owners face-managing expenses, employee performance, access to reliable technology, recruiting and retaining the right talent.

Matthew Cordio

Partner
Skills Pipeline & CareDirect

Matt Cordio is Partner @ Skills Pipeline & CareDirect and Acquisition Entrepreneur. Skills Pipeline is a recruitment firm specializing in searches for technology and digital marketing talent in the Midwest. CareDirect is a HealthTech firm that has developed an affordable solution for healthcare facilities to secure and track narcotics. Cordio serves on the boards of the Milwaukee Tech Coaliton and the Wisconsin Startup Coalition, an organization he co-founded in 2020.

Nick Curran

President
Executive Search Partners (ESP)

Nick Curran is President of Executive Search Partners (ESP) and has been in the executive search industry for over 30 years. He has helped build countless executive leadership teams throughout the country with his candid, consultative approach and sound business acumen. Nick’s boutique executive search firm, ESP focuses primarily in representing private equity and venture capital backed investments in multiple manufacturing and service-based industries. Nick is a proven and accomplished leader in the executive search industry consistently leading ESP as one of Wisconsin’s most recognized and respected executive search firms. Nick is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire and a Certified Behavioral Analyst.

Daniel Einhorn

General Partner
Capital Midwest

Daniel Einhorn is General Partner of Capital Midwest Fund. Dan is on the board of Lumanu, Appraisal Vision, Factory Fix, Valid8, and NuCurrent. Dan founded the Wisconsin Investment Syndication Committee in 2016. Prior to joining Capital Midwest, he served as Investor Relations Director at UICI, a publicly traded holding company with five subsidiaries in the health insurance industry based in Dallas, Texas. Dan earned an M.B.A. in finance from the Cox business school at SMU. Mr. Einhorn also earned a B.S. from the Hotel School at Cornell University.

Andrew Gorman

General Counsel & Corporate Secretary
Brady Corporation

Mr. Gorman joined Brady as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary in April, 2020. In this role, he is responsible for Brady's global legal function and serves as corporate secretary and adviser to Brady's Board of Directors and senior management team on all legal, risk, compliance and governance issues.

Mr. Gorman previously served as Vice President, General Counsel (North America), Compliance Officer and Assistant Secretary at AptarGroup. Before joining AptarGroup, he counseled a variety of corporate clients in private practice, including as an attorney at Mayer Brown, LLP in Chicago, where Mr. Gorman started his legal career.

He holds a Juris Doctor from Loyola University Chicago School of Law, a Master in Professional Accounting from The University of Texas at Austin and Bachelor of Business Administration from The University of Texas at Austin. Mr. Gorman is a Certified Public Accountant.

Mark Grosskopf

CEO
New Resources Consulting

Mr. Grosskopf is the CEO and owner of New Resources Companies, a technology and business consulting firm with more than 200 consultants. Since 2003, Mark has launched five successful companies and acquired three and divested four. By employing a strategy of innovation, diversification and investment, Mark's companies have grown to over 250 people over the past 10 years.

Kathy Henrich

CEO
MKE Tech Hub

Tracy Johnson

President & CEO
CARW - Commercial Association of REALTORS Wisconsin

Tracy is President and CEO for CARW – the Commercial Association of REALTORS® Wisconsin, a trade association of 900 commercial real estate professionals representing 100 M SF of real estate for sale or lease. She oversees the statewide commercial data platform and leads advocacy efforts for the commercial real estate industry. She is a board member of Ascension Wisconsin and the Transportation Development Association.

John Keeler

Area Senior Vice President
Gallagher

Kerry Klecic

Vice President, CIC, CLCS
Brown & Brown of Wisconsin

Kerry Klecic is part of the Brown & Brown transaction group, which provides risk consultation and insurance coverage for Mergers & Acquisitions activity. This includes Due Diligence, as well as Representations and Warranties, Litigation and Tax insurance coverages. Kerry has been with the company since Summer of 2016.

Lee M. Koury

Managing Partner
Smart Business Network Inc.

Lee is managing partner of Smart Business Network Inc., a national events, media and marketing company founded in 1989, primarily responsible for expanding the company’s Aspire deal-making conference throughout the U.S. He plays a key role in establishing corporate policies and developing long-term strategy and growth plans. Previously, he founded and chaired the Growth Group at national law firm Arter & Hadden LLP (now Tucker, Ellis & West), which focused on working with middle-market and high-growth technology companies. 

Glenn Margraff

Executive Vice President
Wintrust

Glenn has over twenty five years of progressive experience that includes commercial, cash flow and asset based lending. Highly energetic, accomplished Banker who is committed to being a strong customer advocate and is intent on building long-term successful relationships through understanding your business and by providing thoughtful advice.

Bobola Odebiyi

Founder & CEO
CrossKudi

Bobola Odebiyi, CPA founded CrossKudi and currently serves as its CEO. Before starting CrossKudi, Bobola worked at PwC as a tax consultant, specializing in hedge fund and private equity clients. Additionally, he co-led the blockchain community of interest and trained colleagues up to the partner level to use emerging technologies to serve clients better. Bobola is a graduate of UW-Milwaukee.

Alex Panosian

Managing Partner
CW Growth Partners

Alex is the Managing Partner of CW Growth Partners – a family office located in Brookfield, WI. Prior to CWGP, during his Army service, Alex led paratroopers in Afghanistan and throughout Europe. Later, he managed teams at McKinsey. He has an MBA from the University of Chicago – Booth and a B.S. from the United States Military Academy.

Inge Plautz

Executive Business Development Officer, SVP
Old National Bank

As a Financial Services Executive and strategic growth leader in local, regional and national sales teams, Ms. Plautz has repeatedly driven transformative and dynamic growth cultures. Her collaborative and entrepreneurial spirit brings people together to succeed in enhancing cross functional collaboration, creating peer communities, augmenting collective business acumen and developing next-generation leaders.

A systems thinker, Ms. Plautz can recognize opportunities for collaboration across organizational enterprises, disciplines and industries including financial services, insurance and public accounting. Ms. Plautz graduated with an Executive MBA from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 2013.
She serves as the President of the Private Directors Association Wisconsin Chapter, Chair of the board for the First Tee of SEWI and board member of the Mequon Economic Development Committee.

Steven Szymanski

Attorney and Co-Chair, Corporate and Mergers and Acquisitions Sections
von Briesen & Roper, s.c.

Steve is co-chair of von Briesen’s Mergers and Acquisitions Section. He regularly represents buyers, sellers and financial institutions in mergers and acquisitions transactions, and small and middle market businesses in their general corporate and business planning needs. Steve draws upon his knowledge of tax, finance and the law to assist clients in finding creative and practical solution to their legal and business opportunities and challenges.

Will Tesch

CEO
HealthLX

Will Tesch is an accomplished leader whose career in information technology innovation spans more than 30 years across healthcare, supply chain, manufacturing and more. He is currently the founder and CEO of HealthLX, bringing composable automation solutions that solve data exchange and healthcare interoperability for payers, providers and HIT vendors.

Amy Walberg

CEO
PRESS

David Wierzbicki

CFO
MPE Inc.