About

Armstrong helps guide IU’s efforts to further economic development and job creation, to support new business ventures, to transfer IU-developed technologies to the marketplace, and to build partnerships with businesses and universities across Indiana and throughout the nation and the world. In this role, he established the Innovate Indiana Fund and the Indiana Philanthropic Venture Fund.

Prior to this appointment, Armstrong served as Executive Director of the IU Office of Engagement and as Associate Director of the Office of Technology Commercialization at IU’s Advanced Research and Technology Institute. He also served as the Executive Director and General Counsel of the Indiana 21st Century Research and Technology Fund. In that role, he managed a $140 million fund that provided early-stage investments for collaborative research partnerships and cultivated high-tech industries for the state of Indiana.

A native of Madison, Indiana, Tony holds a B.S. from the IU Kelley School of Business, a J.D. from the IU School of Law – Bloomington, and an M.B.A. from Butler University.

Jason Whitney serves as Vice President of Venture Development and Executive Director for the Indiana University Angel Network, supporting and developing Indiana University affiliated entrepreneurial ecosystems nationwide.

Whitney’s responsibilities include managing the operations of the IU Angel Network, leveraging new and existing partnerships to fully benefit IU entrepreneurs, and conducting business development and due diligence activities for the IU Philanthropic Venture Fund.

Prior to his appointment, Whitney served as Vice President for Launch Indiana at Launch Fishers where he was responsible for the development and execution of the statewide innovation-driven entrepreneurial capacity building.

Jason holds a B.S. in management from the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University.

Mike Burton serves as Chief Financial Officer for IU Ventures. His responsibilities include strategic planning, financial management and reporting, budgeting and operations.

Burton holds a B.S. in accounting from Ball State University and is a licensed certified public accountant in both Indiana and Florida. He is a member of the Indiana CPA Society and the American Institute of CPAs.

Starting a new venture is hard and requires more than a great idea. Offering start-up support to IU affiliated founders is essential. Mentorship, access to talent, early-stage funding opportunities, networking, and connections to resources are critical to success. In his role as Vice President – Engagement, Jon is focused on activating and cultivating the global IU Founders and Funders Network.

Barada’s responsibilities include alumni and student engagement, marketing, fundraising, angel network development and a little bit of a lot more. Previously, Barada served as President and CEO of the Bloomington Health Foundation where he oversaw deployment of a $35M fund dedicated to helping the people of Bloomington and neighboring communities lead healthier lives.

Originally from Rushville, Indiana, Jon holds a BS from the Kelley School of Business and an MBA from Butler University. Jon and his wife, Brooke, have three children: Kate (15), Ellie (14), and Ben (12).

James (Jim) Fielding is a veteran Consumer Products, Media, and Retail executive whose positions have included President of Consumer Products and Innovation for Fox Television Group and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Global Head of Consumer Products and Retail at DreamWorks Animation, and CEO of Claire’s Stores Inc. Over his career, Fielding has held key roles in the merchandising world at companies from Lands’ End, Inc. and The Gap to The J. Peterman Company and Dayton Hudson Department Store. Jim also served as President of Disney Stores Worldwide during his 12 year tenure with the firm. Jim is currently a Partner in
Archer Gray, an independent Media company best known for Film and Broadway productions, specializing in talent from historically underrepresented voices.

He also currently serves as Executive in Residence working with the IU Ventures Team and the Office of the Vice-President for Diversity, Equity, and Multicultural Affairs. In this role, Jim lends his expertise to special projects like Strategic Planning, Branding and Marketing priorities, and working on Student Engagement.

Fielding earned a B.A. in Political Science and Management from Indiana University. Jim currently serves on the IU Foundation Board of Directors. He is a founding member of the Queer Philanthropy Circle, and a proud member of the Black Philanthropy Circle and Women’s Philanthropic Leadership Council. He served on the Hamilton Lugar School Dean’s Advisory Council from 2016-2019, contributing his energy, enthusiasm, and marketing expertise as well as giving generously to establish the James D. Fielding Family Study Abroad Scholarship and the James D. Fielding Internship Abroad Scholarship. Jim has also funded a Leadership and Advocacy Scholarship Fund through OVPDEMA. Fielding is an active Angel and Seed investor, and mentors many Start-Up founders and teams.

Emily Atkinson has a BS in Health and Rehabilitation Science and recently graduated with a PhD in Anatomy, Cell Biology, and Physiology from IU School of Medicine. During her PhD studies she investigated multiple cross-functional disease areas including musculoskeletal health, metabolism, and oncology.

She is well versed in scientific writing and was an NIH-funded pre-doctoral investigator for her thesis work. Throughout her graduate career, Emily developed a passion for scientific outreach and bridging the gap between science and society. She is eager to expand her scientific and communication expertise with an introduction to biotech focused venture capital and portfolio management.

She believes venture capital will not only utilize, but synthesize her knowledge in cell biology and scientific communication to holistically push science forward and efficiently bring innovations from the bench to the public. Outside of work, Emily enjoys traveling to and hiking the National Parks, taking care of her two dogs, and supporting local coffee shops.

Kate Evinger serves as Senior Venture Analyst with IU Ventures. Kate holds a B.S. in Finance with a Co-Major in Entrepreneurship and Corporate Innovation from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.

Kate has over 6 years of experience within venture, having previously worked with nationally-ranked startup accelerator, gener8tor, throughout her undergraduate career at IU and into post-grad. In total during her time with gener8tor, Kate worked with 45 startup companies, helped to allocate over $1.4M in venture investments and was a two-time recipient of the Twin Cities “Inno Under 25” for her work in the Twin Cities entrepreneurial ecosystem. Kate also led the development and launch of a scale up program for Seed and Series A sports technology startups with Houston-based sports holding company, Pokatok, where she created programming to share resources and provide introductions to investors, advisors and subject matter experts for participating companies.

Kate looks forward to pairing her passion for entrepreneurship and IU to help support and uplift IU affiliated entrepreneurs.

Neil Powell serves as the Executive Director for Student Learning.

Neil’s responsibilities include co-leading the IU Ventures Fellows program, in addition to his full time faculty role at the Kelley School of Business’ MBA program serving as the Director of the Strategic Finance Academy. Neil also teaches in the Masters of Science in Finance program.

Prior to joining Indiana University in 2019, Neil spent over two decades in High Tech Finance roles, primarily at Intel Corp., including the Finance Director and Controller of Intel Capital’s Corporate Venture Capital Fund, the world’s largest CVC fund, and the head of Intel Finance for Japan and South Korea. After Intel, he was the Vice President of Finance and Corporate Controller for Lattice Semiconductor. Neil proudly started his career as a bank examiner for the FDIC based in the San Francisco Field Office.

Neil earned his BA in Economics from Western Washington University and an MBA from Indiana University. Currently he serves on the boards of the Indiana University Credit Union and New Hope for Families. Neil also is part of the IU Angel Network.

Quick is the owner of Avalyn Quick Enterprises LLC, which develops plans and processes to help individuals or organizations achieve goals and unlock potential. She brings over 30 years of combined corporate, entrepreneurial and nonprofit board experience to her coaching consultancy practice that serves multiple industries and functional areas. Her experience spans startups to Fortune 500 corporations, where she drove the development and execution of strategies and helped launch an in-house training program focused on entrepreneurial skills,

increasing the scalability of minority-owned businesses and establishing peer-to-peer best practices.

Cate Brady has over 20 years’ experience as a successful technology entrepreneur and innovator in healthcare working on complex problems. Currently she is the Executive Director of Innovative IU Health, where she is responsible for creating the innovation program for the healthcare system. Previously, Cate was the Director of Care Innovation at Advocate Aurora Healthcare (AAH) where she was a technology thought leader creating new care models in Cardiology, Pediatrics, Behavioral Health, Dementia, and direct to consumer initiatives. Prior to AAH, Cate was the COO of Neurocern, an angel backed business to business to consumer company focused on dementia where she raised angel funding along with landed the two anchor customers in the long-term care insurance and pharmaceutical industries.

Cate’s first role in technology-enabled companies was as the co-founder and COO of Apropos Technology. That company went public (NASDAQ: APRS) and was later purchased by a corporate buyer. She went on to be the founding board member of a healthcare insurance decision support company that was purchased by WebMD. Along with her extensive hands-on experience she been an investor, board member, or mentor for dozens of early-stage growth companies. Cate is on the Advisory Board of the Goodwin School of Business at Benedictine University.

Cate’s LinkedIn Profile

Ezzeddine is a board member for IU Ventures portfolio company NERx Biosciences and CEO of IU spin-out Airbase Breathing Co. In 2010, she helped found X-Chem Pharmaceuticals and was appointed its chief business officer. She was instrumental in crafting the company’s business strategy and in establishing multiple revenue-generating partnerships with top-tier pharmaceutical companies — including AstraZeneca, Bayer, BMS, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Roche and Sanofi — with a cumulative deal value surpassing $2 billion.

Fielding is a veteran executive in consumer products, media and retail whose positions have included president of consumer products and innovation for Fox Television Group and 20th Century Fox Film Corp.; global head of consumer products and retail at DreamWorks Animation; and CEO of Claire’s Stores Inc. Fielding also served as president of Disney Stores Worldwide during his 12-year tenure with the firm. He is currently a partner in Archer Gray, an independent media company best known for film and Broadway productions, specializing in talent from historically underrepresented voices.

Moynihan is chief commercial officer of Genezen Laboratories, a contract development and manufacturing company focused on good manufacturing practice in the cell and gene therapy space. Moynihan’s previous experience includes working as associate vice president of IU Ventures and acting director of the Innovation and Commercialization Office at IU. She served the same role at the University of Michigan’s Office of Technology Transfer.

Ginther is a venture associate at High Alpha, a leading business-to-business software-as-a-service venture studio in Indianapolis. She was previously a senior associate and head of platform for IU Ventures. Ginther began her career in marketing and business development for the behavioral health care industry. She is a board member for the Venture Club of Indiana and a board observer for The Bee Corp.

Wong is chief commercial officer of Geneoscopy, a venture-backed developer of gastrointestinal diagnostics. Wong forged a successful 17-year career at Roche Diagnostics, where he held senior leadership roles in strategy, business development, marketing, communications, market access and sales. At Roche, he was general manager of a $600 million business unit, leading 350 employees serving a broad range of customer segments, from BioPharma firms to individual patients.

Kathy is a general partner at JMI Equity, a growth equity firm focused on investing in leading software companies. Kathy was brought in to lead deal structuring and execution and SEC registration, and until November 2021 was also CCO and GC responsible for compliance, legal, and firm administrative functions. Kathy sits on the boards of Swiftly, Kognitiv, the American Online Giving Foundation, Inc., and Friends of Downtown San Diego. She sat on the board of SpaceIQ until its combination with iOffice in 2021.

Prior to joining JMI, Kathy was a partner in the corporate, private equity and technology companies groups at Goodwin Procter LLP, where she was a founding partner and co-chair of the Silicon Valley office.

Mark’s 20+ years of experience spans medical device (Biomet, Zimmer, Tornier), pharma / biotech (Roche), and life-science (Vanderbilt Tech Transfer) including corporate, early stage, and start-up environments. Mark has led multiple new product development and commercialization efforts across the globe, including surgical robotics / software, surgical implants, and biologic technologies among others. From 2015-2021, Mark was co-founder, CEO, and board member for Owl Manor Medical, LLC, an animal health biologics / medical device company. Owl Manor established a successful US and international business (Europe, Middle East, Canada and Mexico) whose portfolio was acquired by Zoetis, Inc. in June 2021. Mark’s forte is evaluating, initiating, managing, and growing new business ventures / opportunities from inception through exit.

A practicing attorney for more than 30 years and Clinical Professor of Law at IU’s Maurer School of Law for 17 years, Mark directs the Elmore Entrepreneurship Law Clinic, a live clinic focusing on start-up ventures. A problem solver and design thinker, Mark focuses his interest and teaching on the real business consequences of legal decisions. He works to teach young lawyers to understand that legal advice and decisions are not made in a vacuum and to add value by considering clients’ business goals first, only in the context of the law.

Mark has been working at the intersection of law and business since earning an undergraduate degree in Physics in 1988 and his MBA and law degrees simultaneously, from the IU Kelley School of Business and IU Maurer School of Law in 1992. He practiced in Indianapolis for 14 years before joining the Maurer faculty, most recently at the firm Bose McKinney & Evans. An entrepreneur himself, Mark has launched and operated businesses in commercial real estate, hospitality, and digital educational tools, among other areas.