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PAUL D'AMATO MANAGING DIRECTOR  
​MBA, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
B.S. Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.


​Paul is a successful serial entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in business strategy, operations, management, marketing, and information technology.

Paul is the Managing Director of the Grand Angels Venture Fund II and Trout Creek Ventures. As Managing Director, Paul has been involved in more than 70 venture capital rounds syndicating more than $100 million.

Paul is also an active angel investor with several angel groups in the Midwest. Previously, Paul owned and operated a retail chain in the Midwest that he started when he was a sophomore in college and sold fifteen years later to a strategic acquirer. Paul built the chain through organic growth and a series of M&A transactions.

Paul holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, and a Masters of Business Administration with an emphasis on M&A and analytical decision modeling from The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston.
Paul currently serves on the board of directors of Grand Angels, Tetra Discovery Partners, MAX Analytical Technologies, and Reconstruct Inc.

Paul has a strong background in business finance including private equity, venture capital, accounting, information technologies, and statistical modeling. Technology background in financial/IT systems integration, and Monte-Carlo pro-forma analysis. Software proficiency in Java, C++, SQL, and other database systems.
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Paul is an avid technology fan, high school FRC robotics team coach, and part time fly-fisherman.
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STANTON RAK ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER
Ph.D., Organic Chemistry, University of Minnesota
M.S., Organic Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
​B.S., Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
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Stanton is  the Head of Materials Technology, and Principal Technical Expert of Electronics Chemical Processes at Continental.

Stanton Rak has over 20 years of experience in the development of advanced materials and manufacturing technologies used for the electronic packaging and production of electronic controls, sensors, and communication devices.  The electronic controls serve to reduce pollution, increase fuel mileage, and enhance driver safety in the transportation industry.

​Stanton currently leads the strategy and direction for electronic assembly material selection and production release at Continental.  Stanton works worldwide with 30 manufacturing plants and 12 business units on materials standardization and advanced materials technology development.
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PAUL PATTERSON ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER
MBA, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
JD, Law University of Toronto Faculty of Law
BA, Politics, Carleton University.


Paul is the Vice President, Private Investment at Integrated Asset Management. (“IAM”). He is the Director of Business Development & General Counsel at Integrated Managed Futures. Paul joined IAM — a $2.3 billion Toronto-based asset manager active in multiple alternative investments strategies – in 2008. 

Since 2011, Paul has been working closely with its commodity-trading subsidiary, Integrated Managed Futures as Director of Business Development and General Counsel.  For the four years prior to that, he was Associate Vice-President of Institutional and Offshore at BluMont Capital, IAM’s wholly-owned hedge fund subsidiary.  Prior to joining BluMont, Paul practiced corporate and securities law with Lang Michener LLP (now McMillan LLP), a major Canadian law firm, and served as legal counsel to the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Paul is the past president of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Ontario and is a member of the Canadian chapter of the Alternative Investment Management Association (“AIMA”).  He is also a CAIA (Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst) Charterholder.
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PATRICK E. ZELLER ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER
JD, Law, John Marshall Law School
BA, Political Science and Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.


Patrick E. Zeller is the Director and Sr. Counsel for Information Governance, eDiscovery, and Privacy at Gilead Sciences. His work includes global responsibility for information governance including eDiscovery, data privacy, records management and information security. He is a former litigator and computer crimes prosecutor.

Patrick is a member of The Sedona Conference® international and eDiscovery working groups. He is also a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals and a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US).

Patrick is a frequent author and speaker on eDiscovery and data protection issues, including such topics as cross-border discovery, data protection and privacy; developing trends; technology-assisted review; and privilege and ethics in eDiscovery, Privacy, and Information Governance. He is an Adjunct Professor at the John Marshall School of Law, where he teaches a JD/LLM course "eDiscovery, Digital Evidence and Computer Forensics.

He also is a Board Member for The Cardozo Data Law Initiative (CDLI). This is a groundbreaking program designed to prepare law students for careers in the rapidly expanding legal fields of information governance, e-discovery, data privacy, social media law, and cybersecurity.
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NAIDU SANDRANA ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER
MBA, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University
MS, Software Systems, Birla Institute of Technology and Science
BE, Mechanical Engineering, Andhra University.


Naidu is the Executive at Accenture. Naidu is an Executive who has experience with Research and Development function in Life Sciences companies and has demonstrated deep business process knowledge.

Naidu worked with companies ranging from $500M to $200B in revenues and has defined R&D vision, strategy, and led global executions successfully driving R&D and Supply chain efficiencies.

​Naidu brings sixteen years of cross industry and consulting experience and has consulted over 30 clients in 10 different countries. He has an MBA from Kellogg, Masters in Software Systems and Bachelors in Engineering.
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ROBERT WHELAN ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER
MBA, University of Chicago Booth School of Business;
BS, Mathematics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.


Chief Financial Officer at Agricultural Asset Management
The CFO Leadership Council 
The University of Chicago Booth School of Business


​Robert is an experienced senior executive who builds successful teams and companies, delivering results for start-ups and other early to mid-stage businesses in challenging environments. Execution-oriented leader, who quickly identifies cash-generating opportunities and resolves complex issues to drive revenue, minimize costs and mitigate risk.

As Managing Director or Financial Director, delivered verifiable results for public companies and private equity groups in agricultural, real estate, manufacturing, and retail industries, including Agrokultura AB (formerly Alpcot Agro), Warburg Pincus, AREA Property Partners, Lime Rock Partners, and Horizon Capital.

CPA and former Audit Manager for KPMG in Chicago. M.B.A. in Finance and Entrepreneurship from the University of Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business. He is fluent in Russian.
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