A.R.I.’s Advisory Board consists of a diverse group of industry leaders with experience as venture capital investors, venture debt attorneys, asset allocators, pension administrators and trustees, company founders, university professors, and C-suite executives, This esteemed group provides A.R.I.’s leadership team with guidance on matters such as strategy, corporate governance, capital raising, and risk management.
Premal Amin – COO, Onco Filtration
Premal Amin is the COO of Onco Filtration. Previously, he was the Interim Administrator for the Austin Fire Fighters Relief & Retirement Fund which is a defined benefit pension plan with over $1.25 billion in assets. Following his years working for various entities, ranging from Dell Technologies to starting his own businesses, in 2010 Premal became the Director of Operations for the Austin Firefighters Association (“AFA”), a role in which he served for over seven years. In 2017, after receiving immense recognition for his accomplishments with the AFA, Premal moved to his current role with the Austin Fire Fighters Relief & Retirement Fund. Premal currently serves as Chairman of the Austin Firefighters Outreach Fund and has served on board seats for the City of Austin Community Development Commission, 100 Club of Central Texas, First Night Austin, and Pratham USA (Austin Chapter). With a strong track record and extensive knowledge in finance and management, Premal is a recognized speaker in the areas of fiduciary responsibilities, fund governance, the importance of securities litigation, investor due diligence and portfolio risk management.
Kathryn Bohn – Business Development, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
Kathryn is a Business Development Specialist at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, broadly recognized as one of the top 10 global law firms. Previously, Kathryn worked at A.R.I. as Director, Business Development, Marketing, Diversity & Inclusion. In this role, she managed business development and marketing initiatives, including identifying, establishing, and expanding relationships with corporate partners, company founders, investors, and other stakeholders. Kathryn helped to build A.R.I.’s key initiatives related to Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (“DEI”), including internal and external educational and training programs aimed at creating more equitable and efficient access to capital for company founders. Prior to joining A.R.I., Kathryn worked for more than a decade at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, where she held multiple roles in Business Development and Marketing in Los Angeles as well as Philadelphia.
Randolph Cohen – Senior Lecturer, Harvard Business School – Ph.D
Randy Cohen is the MBA Class of 1975 Senior Lecturer of Entrepreneurial Management at Harvard Business School. Cohen teaches finance and entrepreneurship at HBS, and has previously held positions as Associate Professor at HBS and Visiting Associate Professor at MIT Sloan. He currently teaches Field X and Y at HBS, courses for students who are starting businesses while obtaining their MBA. In 2019, he advised approximately 100 startup businesses in these courses. He also co-created the Alternative Investments course for Harvard Business School Online, which is taken by thousands of students and professionals each year. Cohen’s main research interests are the identification and selection of money managers who are most likely to outperform, as well as asset allocation, risk management, and anything else related to building great investment portfolios. In addition to his academic work, Cohen has helped to start and grow multiple businesses, mostly but not exclusively, in the area of investment management, and has served as a consultant to many other companies. He is co-founder of PEO Partners, a liquid private equity asset management firm. Mr. Cohen graduated Cum Laude from Harvard University and earned a Ph.D in Finance from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Dan Espinal – Founder and CEO, Rarebreed Veterinary Partners – MBA
Dan Espinal is the Founder and CEO of Rarebreed Veterinary Partners, a high-growth technology-enabled community of thriving independent veterinary practices. Dan previously ran the IDEXX Laboratories (NASDAQ: IDXX) In-house Chemistry business and Corporate Development & Strategy team, where he managed, led, and executed global acquisitions, managed the annual strategic planning process, and structured complex partnerships. Before IDEXX, Dan was a venture capital investor at Allied Minds, Plc (LSE: ALM), focusing on internet and communication technologies. Prior to Allied Minds, he was a management strategy consultant at JSA Partners (formerly AT Kearney), providing aerospace and defense companies with market entry, competitive strategy, acquisitions and investment decision support, and advisory services. Dan is a U.S. Army combat veteran and airborne-ranger qualified infantry officer with service time as a combat advisor. He led over 150 combat patrols in southeastern Afghanistan and spent time as an executive officer of the 173rd Long Range Surveillance Detachment (Airborne) as an infantry platoon leader. Dan earned his MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.
Roy Lowrance – Chair of Advisory Board, University of Miami, Institute for Data Science and Computing – Ph.D, MBA
Roy Lowrance has worked at the intersection of business and technology strategy for over 40 years and is a leading data scientist, and expert in AI, who has founded and lead multiple FinTech companies. Currently, he is Chair of the Advisory Board at the University of Miami’s Institute for Data Science and Computing. Previously he was the Managing Director of NYU’s Center for Data Science. Professionally, Mr. Lowrance served as CTO at Capital One Financial and at Reuters (now Thomson Reuters). At Capital One, he introduced new technologies and improved the effectiveness of the technology supporting credit risk management. Previously, as a management consultant, he was a partner with the Boston Consulting Group, where he was a leader in improving the effectiveness of client information technology organizations. Prior to this, he was a senior engagement manager at McKinsey and Company, where he focused on strategy development for technology-intensive businesses in financial services companies. Mr. Lowrance earned his Ph.D in Computer Science from New York University, his MBA from Harvard Business School, and his undergraduate degree in Mathematics from Vanderbilt.
Guy Pinkman – Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) Advisory Committee Member, Trustee for the City of Lincoln Nebraska Police and Fire Pension Fund
Guy Pinkman is a Presidential Appointee to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s Advisory Committee. The PBGC was created by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to protect the retirement incomes of over 35 million American workers in private-sector defined benefit pension plans. Mr. Pinkman has served for over a decade as a Trustee for the City of Lincoln Police and Fire Pension Plan Investment Board in Lincoln, Nebraska. In addition, he is a Captain with the Lincoln Fire and Rescue Department. A firefighter for nearly 30 years, he has served as a Battalion Chief for over a decade. Captain Pinkman has been recognized by the Lincoln Fire and Rescue Department for over 20 Phoenix awards, numerous citations of valor, and paramedic of the year. As a recognized speaker and trainer, Captain Pinkman has appeared at numerous colleges and universities throughout the country to teach classes and conference seminars covering topics such as management and leadership skills. Mr. Pinkman earned his BS in Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Gina Sanchez – Founder & CEO, Chantico Global – MA
Gina Sanchez is the Chief Executive Officer of Chantico Global, an institutional asset allocation consultant, which serves many of the world’s largest pension funds and endowments. In 2013, Chantico Global was spun out of Roubini Global Economics, where Ms. Sanchez was the Director of Equity and Asset Allocation. Previously, Ms. Sanchez served as Managing Director of Public Investments at the California Endowment, a $3 billion Los Angeles-based foundation, and as Director of Public Investments at the Ford Foundation, a $10 billion New York-based foundation. In both roles, she was responsible for making asset allocation and manager selection recommendations for all external public managers, including both total return and absolute return strategies. Before this, Ms. Sanchez spent over a decade in asset management and banking. She was a Portfolio Manager and investment strategist for eight years at American Century Investment Management in Mountain View, California, where she ran over $6.5 billion in assets under management. She began her career at JPMorgan in New York as a Research Analyst covering Emerging Markets. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Harvard University and a Master’s degree in International Policy Studies from Stanford University and was the recipient of Institutional Investor’s 2009 Foundations and Endowments Rising Stars Award.
Matt Schwartz – Partner, Head of Venture & Growth Lending, DLA Piper – JD
Matt Schwartz is a Partner at DLA Piper, the third largest law firm globally. Matt is an internationally recognized expert in venture debt and leads DLA Piper’s Venture & Growth Lending practice, is the Chair of DLA Piper’s West Coast Finance Practice Group, and represents banks, funds, family offices, companies and high net worth individuals in structuring and negotiating a wide range of debt and equity investments. At DLA Piper, Matt represents lenders and companies in connection with technology, life science, asset based, private equity and venture capital finance and has extensive experience in counseling lenders and companies on corporate structure issues, mergers and acquisitions, commercial contacts, negotiation tactics, and corporate strategy. Matt sits on the Board of Directors of the John Brockington Foundation and is a founding board member of the Randy Jones Foundation. Matt also is host committee member and fundraising leader for the Best Buddies Hearst Castle Challenge.
Sunny Singh – President, Tech Coast Angels – Ph.D
Digvijay “Sunny” Singh has a broad technology, investing and business operations background. He started his career with deep engineering projects at Lockheed Martin where he worked on F-16 fighter jets. During his EE/CS Ph.D. at UCLA, he became part of the founding team of an AI-based medical device startup which received institutional venture funding and went on to be commercialized with full FDA approval. Sunny subsequently launched his own IT and cybersecurity business which exited in 2020. He invested most of the earnings into distressed real-estate and remains an active California real-estate investor. Sunny also started Angel investing in early-stage startups in 2015 and was invited to join Tech Coast Angels (TCA) in Los Angeles in 2017. He climbed the ranks at TCA over the years and became the youngest President at TCA until his term ends in 2022. Sunny was also the founding and managing member for the first TCA Los Angeles startup fund in 2019. Sunny has reviewed tens of hundreds of venture capital (VC) deals, has a personal portfolio of a few dozen startups, and continues to be very active in Southern California.
Liz Ward – Startup Advisor & Consultant
Liz Ward is Founder and CEO of the Dragonfly, a strategic advisory firm specializing in Seed and Series A technology enabled companies in supply chain and logistics. Previously, Liz held several leadership roles at Transfix, a digital freight brokerage now valued at $800mm; and Convoy, Seattle based logistics startup now valued at $2.75B post money valuation. Prior to venture, Liz was an executive and minority owner at Ward Transport & Logistics, a Top 25 LTL carrier in the U.S.; and, was a founding member of Price-Tran LLC, an asset-based trucking company pioneering an easier and more efficient way to price freight that is now widely used across trucking companies. Liz launched her career at Booz Allen — where she consulted with domestic and foreign intelligence and law enforcement agencies to disrupt and dismantle illicit supply chains, most notably the global heroin trade. Her team’s work was referenced in President Obama’s 2011 Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime. She graduated with honors from Lehigh University with a B.S. in Supply Chain Management, and is an APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP).
Ben Wiles – Partner, Prospera Law, LLP – JD
Ben Wiles is a Partner at Prospera Law, LLP (f/k/a LKP Global Law, LLP) in Los Angeles, one of the top venture finance law firms in Southern California. He represents venture capital and private equity investors and emerging growth companies in formation, debt and equity financing, mergers and acquisitions, strategic joint ventures, technology arrangements, and general corporate matters. His practice spans the therapeutics, medical devices, retail, adtech, insurtech and blockchain industries. He has handled corporate matters and financings of all sizes, from small pre-seed convertible note deals to nine figure late-stage investments for the world’s largest venture capital firms. He also regularly handles sell-side M&A exits. Previously, Mr. Wiles was an attorney focused on venture capital and emerging companies at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP and Day Pitney LLP. Mr. Wiles cares deeply about innovation in the practice of law and is an active member of the legal hacker and blockchain legal communities. Mr. Wiles earned his BA in Economics and Political Science at Swarthmore College and his JD from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.
Troy Zander – Partner, Barnes & Thornburg – JD
Troy Zander is the partner-in-charge of Barnes & Thornburg’s San Diego office and a member of the Corporate Department. He focuses his practice on the representation of lenders and companies in documenting technology, life sciences and middle-market financing transactions, including venture debt financings, traditional commercial leveraged debt financings, and bridge loans. Troy has represented agents, lenders, participants and companies in credit facilities aggregating in excess of $50 billion. He also has represented companies, secured and unsecured creditors, committees, trustees and asset purchasers in bankruptcy and out-of-court proceedings and continues to represent lenders in forbearances, loan restructurings, amendments and modifications. He has restructured debt in excess of $2.5 billion in federal, state and out-of-court proceedings. Troy is an author and speaker on the subjects of secured transactions and lending against intellectual property assets and a member of the California Bar Association, the San Diego County Bar Association and the Federal Bar Association.