Mike Marasco
After 20+ years working in the corporate world, Michael joined the faculty of the Northwestern University McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences as a Clinical Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation-CEI. CEI is dedicated to evolving engineering beyond the application of the sciences to the creation of businesses that capitalize on innovations. Michael has been teaching entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship for the past 14 years. For the past ten years, he had been an adjunct professor in the McCormick Master of Engineering Management program teaching Technical Entrepreneurship.
Michael continues to be a zero and early stage investor through his venture capital company, Solesde. He currently sits on the boards of Sportiqe, Zone Medical, and Context Media.
Previously, Michael was the acting chief marketing officer and vice president or CRM at Bally Total Fitness where he led their transition into a multi-channel integrated marketing organization. He was also the founder and general manager of the Chicago office of Digitas where he guided the office from startup to a staff of 80 providing interactive and relationship marketing services to companies like Allstate, Best Buy, Brunswick, and others. His background includes key roles at Organic, Inc. and Solucient, Inc.
Michael researches how established businesses can successfully foster new businesses through corporate venturing. He also focuses on the concept of “bootstrapping” – how to grow a company with little or no capital. Michael received his BS in Accountancy with high honors from DePaul University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Teddy Zmrhal
Teddy Zmrhal is an entrepreneur and learning designer. He cofounded Learning Productions, a learning simulation company (sold to SmartForce for $16M), and B!, a social health and wellness startup. Teddy teaches entrepreneurship and business strategy at the Haas School of Business, at Presidio Graduate School, and in the Design MBA program at the California College of the Arts. Teddy is also a mentor for Greenstart, a cleantech accelerator in San Francisco. He earned a Masters of Learning Sciences at Northwestern University, and MBAs in Strategy and Entrepreneurship from Columbia and London Business Schools.
David Dana
David Dana is a leading scholar in the fields of environmental, property, intellectual property, and professional responsibility law. Before becoming a professor, he was an environmental litigator in both the private (Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering) and public (U.S. Department of Justice) sectors.
Mark Petri
Mark C. Petri is Technology Development Director within Argonne National Laboratory’s Energy Sciences and Engineering Directorate. He coordinates and develops multidisciplinary applied and basic research programs aimed at sustainable energy production and transmission. He recently completed a one-year assignment in Washington, D.C., as the Science and Technology Advisor to Illinois Senator Richard J. Durbin. Dr. Petri received his Ph.D. from Purdue University through the School of Materials Science and Engineering. He has been with Argonne since 1989 and was formerly responsible for the laboratory’s applied research on alternative energy sources, including cellulosic ethanol, coal-based transportation fuels, hydrogen, and advanced photovoltaic systems.
Dr. Petri’s former research focused on the thermodynamic and kinetic behavior of materials. His work included the long-term corrosion modeling of radioactive waste, artificial neural network modeling of eddy current inspection signals for steam generator tubing, mechanical and physical property testing of advanced nuclear fuel cladding materials, and atomic diffusion modeling of fuel/cladding interactions in nuclear reactors. Prior to joining Argonne Dr. Petri held positions at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, the Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute, and Combustion Engineering, Inc.
