SPEAKING FACULTY

Congressman Bill Foster is a scientist and businessman representing the 11th Congressional District of Illinois, a position he’s held since 2013. He also represented the 14th Congressional District of Illinois from 2008 to 2011. He is the only PhD physicist in Congress. Bill serves on the House Financial Services Committee where he advocates for consumer protections and an economy that works for everyone. In response to the Great Recession, he helped create several important reforms in the financial services and housing markets, including the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. He currently serves as the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy. Recently, Congressman Foster was appointed to the Bipartisan House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence which is charged with considering legislative and regulatory policies that may be needed affecting the use of artificial Intelligence in healthcare, life sciences and other key areas.Bill previously served on the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee where he fought for evidence-based policies and forward-thinking approaches to some of our country’s most pressing issues, including climate change and energy innovation. Bill continues to be a champion for sustained federal funding for scientific research. He also served as the chairman of the Science Committee’s Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee, which is empowered to investigate and oversee federal scientific research. Bill’s business career began at age 19 when he and his younger brother co-founded Electronic Theatre Controls, Inc., a company that now manufactures over half of the theater lighting equipment in the United States. Before he became a Member of Congress, Bill worked as a high-energy physicist and particle accelerator designer at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). He was a member of the team that discovered the top quark, the heaviest known form of matter. He also led the teams that designed and built several scientific facilities and detectors still in use today, including the Antiproton Recycler Ring, the latest of Fermilab’s giant particle accelerators. Bill lives in Naperville with his wife Aesook, who is also a physicist. Bill has two grown children, Billy and Christine. Bill’s father was a civil rights lawyer who wrote much of the enforcement language behind the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Ivneet Bhullar brings a strong technical, business and operational background to Fusion Fund. Prior to joining, Ivneet spent over five years in various roles in biopharma at Genentech and Amgen. Most recently Ivneet was a Senior Manager in Amgen’s Digital Health & Innovation group as a part of the Strategy & Business Development team where he sourced, conducted diligence on, and executed transactions with health technology companies. Ivneet also previously spent time in Lazard’s Healthcare M&A team and has consulted for several early-stage startups on projects ranging from fundraising to developing go-to-market strategies. Ivneet holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an M.S. in Bioengineering from UC San Diego, and a B.S. in Bioengineering from UCLA.

Josh Carson is a Manager at WARF Ventures and brings over a decade of experience in the University startup ecosystem. Prior to joining WARF, Josh trained as a biochemist by way of the University of Denver (BS ’05) and the University of Wisconsin – Madison (PhD ’15). After an initial attempt at a metabolic diagnostic company that was unsuccessful, Josh joined WARF in the licensing group where his portfolio largely consisted of innovations in the biotechnology space. Josh led negotiations with both large entities as well as startups, including the founding license for Design Therapeutics ($DSGN, IPO ‘21). More recently, Josh joined the team at WARF Ventures, a $100M early-stage fund dedicated to companies working to develop WARF and UW-Madison technologies. At WARF Ventures, Josh leads the team in evaluating opportunities, performing due diligence on investments, and supporting existing portfolio companies in the life-science sectors. At WARF Ventures, Josh has led investments in companies from a range of industries including therapeutics, diagnostics, and medical devices. Josh is a board director at OnLume, and a board observer at BrainXell, Immuto Scientific, Voximetry, LynxBio, and Gregor Diagnostics.

Jenifer Christensen, VP, Strategic Initiatives, AbbVie

Matthew Cohn, SVP, Team Leader, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Alliant Insurance Services, Inc.

Sebastien Dhonte, Managing Director, Clairvest

Sebastien Dhonte, Managing Director, Clairvest joined the firm in 2010 and participates in all areas of the investment process. Sebastien leads Clairvest’s investment in Boca Biolistics, a leading biosample procurement and contract research organization while spearheading the firms efforts to make additional investments in outsourced services to pharma and biotech companies. Prior to joining Clairvest, Sebastien worked as a strategic consultant with McKinsey & Company in North America, and as a placement agent in Europe, assisting with private equity fundraisings. Sebastien started his career in investment banking with Bank of Montreal where he participated in M&A assignments, as well as equity and debt financings. Sebastien holds an MBA from INSEAD and a Bachelor of Commerce (Joint Honours in Economics and Finance) from McGill University.

Anna Elliott, Managing Director/Partner, Vertess Healthcare Advisors

Ted Keim’s practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, investment and venture capital transactions, private equity, corporate reorganizations and restructurings, and complex joint venture/company representation matters.  Ted’s clients include a broad range of public and privately held companies, both in the United States and globally, across a wide spectrum of industries, including healthcare and life sciences/medical devices, food and beverage, financial and technology services, industrials, automotive, aerospace and defense, retail, and hospitality.

David Kereiakes, Managing Partner, Windham Venture Partners

Rich Leavitt leads a team of specialists dedicated to developing creative insurance and risk management solutions for companies across the Life Science and Healthcare spectrum.

Leavitt has focused his career on crafting innovative solutions for Life Science and Healthcare companies on the vanguard of providing revolutionary products and services. He draws upon decades of relationships with insurance leaders in the US, London, Bermuda, ROW markets to offer tailored risk financing (e.g., manuscript, self-insurance, captive) to meet each client’s unique needs. These relationships have enabled him to secure outstanding results for clients, especially those with challenging risk profiles. Rich and his team act as an extension of clients’ risk, finance, legal, operations and asset management groups, providing outsourced risk management consultation with an analytical, thoughtful, and client-centric approach. His primary objective is to minimize both the cost, and uncertainty of risk. Leavitt has extensive experience in presenting to Executive teams, Audit Committees, and Boards during critical inflection points. Prior to joining Alliant in 2021, Leavitt founded and led the Life Sciences and Executive Risk practices at William Gallagher Associates. He then led AJ Gallagher’s Northeast region Healthcare practice when WGA was acquired.

Rahil Manji, Vice President, Clairvest joined the firm in 2019 and participates in all areas of the investment process. Rahil sits on the Board of Clairvest’s investments in Abra Health (a dental service organization in the Northeast), Bluetree Dental (a dental service organization in the Mountain West region) and Mountain Land Physical Therapy (an outpatient physical therapy business in the Mountain West region). Rahil leads Clairvest’s efforts to make additional investments in the healthcare practice management space. Prior to joining Clairvest, Rahil worked at Goldman Sachs in the Investment Banking Division, focused on the Natural Resources industry. Rahil holds a B. Eng. in Chemical Engineering from McGill University.

Michael Mason, Co-Head, Healthcare Lending, Old National Bank

Ari Markenson practices at the intersection of healthcare, law, and business. Ari advises healthcare industry clients, including investors, lenders, providers, and suppliers, on a broad range of regulatory and corporate matters, and has significant experience in complex healthcare industry mergers, acquisitions and financial transactions. He regularly represents private equity firms and lenders in such transactions and evaluates and advises on compliance and regulatory issues with regard to sellers and potential borrowers from banks and financing sources. He also advises various healthcare entities on regulatory matters, including conditions for participation; fraud and abuse; and survey, certification, licensure, and enforcement issues. Ari advises clients on Medicare and Medicaid conditions for participation, obtaining certificate of need approval, and state licensure. He has significant experience representing numerous providers in response to and appeals of audits and investigations by regulatory enforcement authorities regarding compliance with reimbursement rules and regulations under government healthcare programs. Ari frequently writes for industry publications and speaks at industry and professional events. He also teaches healthcare law and other healthcare management and policy topics at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, at Pace University, Department of Health Sciences of the College of Health Professions and at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University.

David Michael is an investor and advisor with nearly 30 years of international business experience. He co-founded Anzu Partners and developed the firm’s focus on breakthrough industrial technologies that shape and enable tomorrow’s industries. He has pioneered the financing and growth of several Anzu portfolio companies. These include the life sciences tools companies TeraPore Technologies (now also backed by RA Capital), Nanocellect Biomedical (now also backed by Warburg Pincus and Casdin Capital), Bioskryb Genomics, ImmunoScape (now also backed by the Singapore EDB Investments), and Intervenn Biosciences (now also backed by Softbank). Prior to his work at Anzu, Mr. Michael spent 24 years at The Boston Consulting Group as a Senior PartnerHe founded the firm’s Beijing office and led the firm’s Greater China practice, and the firm’s overall emerging markets practice. Mr. Michael has lived and worked in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Silicon Valley, and served clients in technology and life sciences across Asia and the Western U.S. Mr. Michael has advised many of the world’s leading companies in the technology and life sciences sectors. He has served on the World Economic Forum’s Emerging Multinationals Council, the Strategy Board of China Mobile Corporation, and the US-China Business Council. He is on the International Advisory Board of the School of Global Policy at the University of California. Mr. Michael chaired the launch committee of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, China, and founded the non-profit corporation Building Futures Now in East Palo Alto, CA. Mr. Michael has an MBA from Stanford Business School, where he received the school’s highest honor, the Ernest Arbuckle Award. He earned his BA in Economics, magna cum laude, from Harvard University, and was a Rotary International Scholar at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Imran Shaikh, Chief Technology Officer, Shore Capital Partners

Imran Shaikh is the CTO at Shore Capital Partners, a microcap private equity firm focused on partnering with companies with between $1-10 million of EBITDA. Imran’s responsibilities include working with portfolio company management teams to improve their technology and cybersecurity functions and preparing acquired platforms for add-on acquisitions.  Imran joined Shore with 25 years of technology experience leading technology and Cybersecurity strategy for public companies, startups, and PE-owned companies. He most recently served as a Director at Vista Consulting Group, the dedicated consulting partner of Vista Equity Partners. His responsibilities included working with the portfolio companies on their IT, Business Applications, Cloud Ops, Cybersecurity, tech-diligence, and strategic partnership management. He also served as the Head of IT for the Vista PE management firm. Before Vista, Imran was in a technology leadership role at SumTotal Systems. Imran started his career as a malware analyst for a Cybersecurity product company.