Faculty Advisor - Professor David Brophy
Professor David J. Brophy is a member of the Finance Faculty at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan where he teaches courses in venture capital and private equity finance. He is Director of the School’s Center for Venture Capital and Private Equity Finance at the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies.

He has published extensive research on venture capital and private equity finance and has twice won the National Association of Small Business Investment Companies Research Award. He authored the book Finance, Entrepreneurship and Economic Development and has published a large number of research papers in this and other aspects of finance. He is a founding member of the Journal of Business Venturing editorial board, The Journal of Private Equity Finance, and the International Venture Capital Journal.

He has been a director of several public companies and is involved as a director, investor and/or advisor to emerging technology-based companies, banks, money market funds, and financial services firms including Compass Technology Partners (CA), Munder Capital Management (MI), Continental Capital (OH), River Place Holdings (MI), and General Motors Acceptance Corporation Wholesale Auto Receivables Corporation.

Strategic Advisor - Jon Nieman
Jon is the Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Collective IQ, primarily focused on expanding the private equity and corporate venture platforms of the firm. Since joining Collective IQ, Jon has played an integral role in building out the firm’s private equity affiliation program, establishing its partnerships within the corporate venture space, and creating new products and funds. Before becoming partner of Collective IQ, Jon was with State Street’s private equity consulting group (with clients representing over $150 billion in private equity and real estate) and was responsible for duties such as investment monitoring, due diligence, research, consulting and business development. Prior to joining State Street, Jon was a private equity portfolio manager for the State of Michigan Retirement System which has $10 billion in capital committed to private equity. Jon also worked for technology-focused venture capital firm, Southeast Interactive Technology Funds, and for the pension system of Owens-Illinois, Inc. and has had operational experience working with Nortel Networks and Airpath Wireless, a wi-fi startup, where Jon raised $6.5 million in VC funding as CFO. Jon holds a BBA in Finance from Eastern Michigan University and an MBA from Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina. Jon also serves on the board of the Strategic Venture Association.

Technology Advisor - Dr. Nicholas Khabbaz
Dr. Khabbaz has twenty five years experience in architecting, designing, building and implementing global enterprise-level applications. His experience includes enterprise architecture, UML-based modeling and design, OO analysis and design, enterprise data modeling, process modeling, database design, data warehousing, application integration, and project management. His domain experience spans the capital markets, banking, credit card, treasury, energy brokerage, transportation, and high-tech industries. He taught Computer Science and Information Systems at different U.S. universities. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA.