Executives in Residence

Discovery Launchpad’s Executives in Residence (EIR’s) lend their specialized knowledge and expertise to University startups on a temporary, part time basis. EIR’s engage directly with University of Minnesota start-ups to provide support as they develop their value proposition and business model.

Executives in Residence are generally recruited from the Venture Center’s volunteer Business Advisory Group (BAG), based upon the experience and background needed to support the University’s start-up community.
 

Discovery Launchpad Executives in Residence

Ann B. Schulte portrait

Ann B. Schulte, CFA
Lead Executive in Residence

Ann has over 20 years of experience in developing and implementing corporate, product, and commercial strategies and leading growth initiatives. She is adept at evaluating new business opportunities, monitoring industry trends, and optimizing investment for long-term revenue growth. She has received recognition for mentoring from both the MN Cup and the Medical Industry Leadership Institute.

Ann’s initial foray into life sciences and healthcare services was as an institutional equity investment analyst. She holds an MBA from the University of Minnesota and a BS in Accounting from the University at Buffalo (SUNY).
Find Ann on LinkedIn

 

Adam Bock's headshot

Adam J. Bock
Executive in Residence

Adam is an award-winning academic, venture financier, and serial entrepreneur. He has co-founded four university spinouts in the life sciences, serving as CEO or CFO. Adam is an internationally recognized expert in business models, technology transfer, and innovation. 

Adam holds a PhD from Imperial College London, an MBA from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a BS and BA from Stanford University.
Find Adam on LinkedIn

 

Joel Cannon portrait

Joel Cannon
Founding Executive in Residence

Joel has 30+ years’ experience as a company founder and leader in software, communications and control and energy technology, having co-founded and grown two notable companies over his career and participated in numerous angel investment, business advisory and board roles.

Joel holds an MBA from the University of Minnesota and a BS from South Dakota State University.
Read Joel’s thoughts on energy, business, and other topics on his blog

 

Charles Dennis Portrait

Charles Dennis
Executive in Residence

Chuck has over 35 years of experience in technology assessments, intellectual property, licensing, mergers, acquisitions, partnering, and R&D. His work has ranged from providing intellectual property (IP) legal services for jet engines and computer tapes to managing internal and external R&D projects, and negotiating acquisitions, spin-outs and licenses for data storage and medical devices.

Chuck holds a JD from Northwestern University and a BA in Physics from Carleton College.
Find Charles on LinkedIn

 

Kyle King portrait

Kyle King
CFO in Residence

Kyle has over 20 years of financial and management experience across numerous industries. He started his career as a CPA for RSM McGladrey and then moved into CFO roles with high growth technology organizations.

From there, Kyle has been involved as an advisor and CFO of numerous startups in the energy, consumer electronics, and medical sectors with a focus on business development, financing and capital raise/structure.

Kyle holds a BS in Accounting from UMN Duluth.
Find Kyle on LinkedIn

 

Portrait of Ginny Kirby

Ginny Kirby
Executive in Residence

Ginny Kirby has extensive leadership experience across all phases of the commercialization process for a wide range of products and therapies in the medical device industry. She has served on global senior management teams for companies ranging from Fortune 500 to early-stage startup. Throughout her career, Ginny has focused on developing and implementing strategies to establish clinical value and to drive regulatory approvals, reimbursement and market adoption of new therapies and technologies.

Ginny currently serves as a strategy consultant to CEOs and senior executives in the medical device and diagnostics start-up space, with a focus on FDA regulatory process and clinical research requirements, as well as commercialization strategy. She also serves as an independent board member for Nyxoah, S.A. (Nasdaq:NYXH), a Belgian-based publicly-held medical device company and as a board member for Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation, a leading non-profit research and education organization with a mission to create a world without heart and vascular disease.
Find Ginny Kirby on LinkedIn

 

Portrait of Marie Kuker

Marie Kuker
Executive in Residence

Marie Kuker, RPh, RAC, FRAPS, president, Kuker Regulatory Consulting, LLC., has more than 35 years of regulatory affairs and product development experience in the pharmaceutical industry in a wide variety of therapeutic areas including innovative medical technologies, orphan drugs and drug-device combination products.

Marie is founder and president of a consulting firm specializing in biopharmaceutical regulatory affairs. Marie’s experience includes leadership roles in global regulatory affairs for 3M Pharmaceuticals and Drug Delivery Systems and Orphan Medical. A pharmacist and alumni of the UMN, she is an appointed Fellow of the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Center for Orphan Drug Research of the UMN College of Pharmacy’s Department of Experimental and Clinical Therapeutics. 
Find Marie on LinkedIn

 

Portrait of Frances McCloskey

Frances McCloskey
Executive in Residence

Fran has over 35 years of experience in finance and accounting involving many industries including consumer products, financial services, medical technology, pharmaceuticals, software, and manufacturing. She provides a technical background in preparing financial models, valuations, and assessing and improving financial performance of organizations. Prior to forming two consulting firms, Fran practiced at PriceWaterhouseCoopers and was a financial analyst at General Mills. Fran is also a licensed CPA and a member of the AICPA and MNCPA.

Fran has an MBA from the UMN and a BA in Economics from Middlebury College.
Find Fran on LinkedIn

 

Portrait of Rebecca Mehrwerth

Rebecca Mehrwerth
Executive in Residence

Rebecca Mehrwerth is a commercial leader with more than 20 years of experience building commercial teams and leading product launches in the small, start-up biotech space. Her expertise in developing commercialization strategies for early stage companies has resulted in significant value growth. She has held leadership roles at GSK, TESARO, Celgene.

Rebecca is the current SVP, Head of Commercial for Epizyme, Inc a Boston biotech, and holds a BBA in Finance from Texas State University.
Find Rebecca on LinkedIn

 

Martha R. Sewall portrait

Martha R. Sewall
Executive in Residence

Martha’s 25 years in medtech product development and global business management have encompassed a range of clinical care areas and therapies with extensive experience in the development of new medical technologies.

Martha also teaches the Value Proposition workshops for MIN-Corps, and now for the new NSF I-Corps Hub: Great Lakes Region, and assesses projects for PDIC (Pediatric Device Innovation Consortium).

Martha holds an MBA from the UMN and a BS in Zoology from Duke University.
Find Martha on LinkedIn