Global Innovation Through Science & Technology: Meet the Senior Mentors

The State Department’s Global Innovation through Science & Technology program is in full swing here at 1871. The program, taking place from June 9th to June 17th, brings 12 startups from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia to 1871 where they will participate in programming and mentorship sessions aimed at helping them grow their businesses.

1871 matched participating startups with both peer and senior mentors for the duration of the program. The mentors have backgrounds in the entrepreneurship and technology fields and will advise startups on how to proceed with their businesses. In our last post, we introduced you to the program’s peer mentors. Let’s meet the program’s senior mentors:

Bryan Jurewicz

Title: Executive Advisor to early stage businesses
Mentee: Handasiyat.net
Mentor Bio: Bryan Jurewicz is a visionary entrepreneur, successful CEO and executive advisor to early stage businesses. Among his achievements, Mr. Jurewicz built the GradeBeam.com B2B Construction Communication Network, which connects 500,000+ contractors across North America. He led the company from initial concept through a successful acquisition and transitioned GradeBeam.com into a division of Textura, which subsequently went public (NYSE: TXTR). Mr. Jurewicz is now focused on helping companies execute strategies to accelerate growth, secure funding and achieve shareholder value.

Sean Chou

Title: CTO at Fieldglass
Mentee: Netizen Testing
Mentor Bio: Sean, as Chief Technology Officer, is responsible for the overall development and delivery of Fieldglass’ solution and services, overseeing the product development, hosting, professional services and marketing departments. He has provided the strategy and vision for Fieldglass’ award-winning cloud solution since inception. His development team was an early pioneer in cloud technology, with a number of innovations that have helped define the industry. Under his leadership, Fieldglass has received recognition from numerous organizations including The Stevie Awards, the Codie Awards, and the Chicago Innovation Awards.

Mike Bilder

Title: General Manager at Jackbox Games, Inc.
Mentee: Kola Studios
Mentor Bio: Mike Bilder is currently the General Manager of Jackbox Games, Inc, creators of YOU DON’T KNOW JACK, Word Puttz, Fibbage, and many other award winning social, mobile, and console titles. He has over 15 years of game development experience ranging from mobile (iOS, Android) and social titles (Facebook) to multimillion dollar console products (Xbox, Playstation, Wii) and emerging platforms (Amazon’s Fire TV). Prior to Jackbox Games, Mike was the Studio Head at Midway Games in Chicago and a Software Engineer at Motorola. Mike holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and holds a BS degree in Computer Science from Purdue University. He holds them really tightly. Seriously, no one else is getting their hands on those things.

Dan Ratner

Title: Executive Chairman and Co-Founder at Public Good Software
Mentee: Eneza Education Limited
Mentor Bio: Dan Ratner is Executive Chairman and co-founder of Public Good Software, which is redefining online philanthropy. Prior to PGS, he was Director of Development helping to build the technology team for President Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign. Before the campaign, Dan served as co-founder and COO/CTO at Sittercity, the nation’s largest service dedicated to helping parents find quality childcare online. In addition to his startup and campaign work, Dan is on the boards of Open Books, a Chicago literacy organization, and Fulcrum Point New Music Project. When not working, he loves to write and has published two non-fiction books on nanotechnology and is working on an upcoming novel. He lives in Chicago with his wife Genevieve Thiers and their amazing twin sons Ari & Leo.

Eric Lunt

Title: CTO and Co-Founder at BrightTag
Mentee: Smarter ++
Mentor Bio: Eric Lunt is the co-founder and CTO of BrightTag, a global leader in real-time cloud-based marketing technologies based in Chicago. Prior to BrightTag, Eric was co-founder and CTO of FeedBurner, which Google acquired in 2007. After the acquisition, Eric remained at Google in a senior technology role. Prior to FeedBurner, Eric co-founded and served as CTO at Spyonit.com (acquired by 724 Solutions), served as lead technical architect at Digital Knowledge Assets (creators of the collaborative personal publishing software “sceneServer”), and helped to lead the application architecture team in Accenture’s next generation technology group known as “Project Eagle.” Eric graduated from Princeton University with a B.S.E. in Mechanical Engineering and a Certificate in Applied Computational Mathematics. In addition to his work at BrightTag, Eric is a senior technology advisor to Twitter and was recognized as one of Crain’s Tech 25 for his contributions to drive technology growth in Chicago.

Joe Born

Title: CEO at Hale Devices, Inc
Mentee: Braci Inc.
Mentor Bio: As CEO of Hale Devices, Inc and previously Neuros Technology and contributing inventor to many of its products, Joe Born has advocated on behalf of open source hardware, digital rights, and generally on the subject of connecting global teams and innovating in the electronics industry using open source.

Paul Heinen

Title: SVP at Vornado Realty Trust
Mentee: AQAR-ESTATE
Mentor Bio: Vornado owns and manages over 100 million square feet of properties. Paul oversees office leasing for Vornado properties in Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Previously, Paul was Head of Asset Management at The John Buck Company for over 13 years, Vice President of Real Estate Services for Cain Brothers & Company, Inc., and Vice President of Development for the Koll Company.

Samuel B. Guren

Title: Advisor at OCA Ventures & Board of Directors Member of The Debt Exchange, SpotHero, and the CEC
Mentee: Tiket
Mentor Bio: Mr. Guren started in the venture capital/private equity business in 1975, with Continental Illinois Venture Corporation (CIVC), a subsidiary of Continental Bank (Chicago). During his tenure with CIVC, the firm’s investments ranged from Apple Computer to Yoplait to Kohlberg, Kravis & Roberts. The KKR investment took the firm into the buyout investment business.

In 1981, Mr. Guren was recruited by William Blair to co-found and manage William Blair Venture Partners. He grew the business to six professionals during three funds. Investments ranged from the founding of The Sports Authority to the buyout of Sanford Corporation to investments in various technology, healthcare and cable television companies.

Robert Baird recruited Mr. Guren in 1996 to manage the Baird Capital funds. While there, BCP grew from two to five professionals with a focus on outsourcing and temporary staffing. Mr. Guren joined Allied Capital in 1999, and stayed through 2002. He managed the Chicago office, and was on their Investment and Operating Committees.

From 2007 to 2011, he was the Managing Director of the Hyde Park Angels, an angel network affiliated with the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Sam is an advisor to OCA Ventures and a member of the Boards of Directors of The Debt Exchange (Debtx), SpotHero and the CEC, which manages 1871.

Mr. Guren is a recipient of the Stanley C. Golder Medal, which “acknowledges individuals who have made profound and lasting contributions to the private equity industry in Illinois”. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, and received an MBA from the Wharton Graduate School.