Advantage Accelerator

Chris is a seasoned technology, media and entertainment executive (Facebook, Amazon, Participant Media), consultant, advisor, Board Member, keynote speaker, moderator with vast international experience (having lived in Australia for 12 years). He has advised over 100 startups, held multiple EIR roles and has deep public market and private company acumen. He specializes in strategic storytelling, Investment Readiness, business development, founder mentoring and pitch coaching. 

Jen Akeroyd, PhD, RN co-founded SUTUREGARD Medical in 2015, completed the Accelerate and Launch programs in 2016, and was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 2017 by RAIN. She enjoys mentoring around issues related to customer discovery, broadly, and, more specifically, medical device commercialization including regulatory issues, and medical device sales and marketing. 

Mike Brown has served in various executive management roles for numerous global corporations (HP, Compaq and W.L. Gore & Associates) all in new business creation.

Rich is co-founder and CEO of Valliscor - a pharma-focused, chemical manufacturing company specializing in fluoroalkylation.  Rich is also Faculty Lead for Innovation Excellence and Professor of Chemistry at Oregon State University. He was a graduate of the first class of the OSU Advantage Accelerator

Cures Within Reach Past SAB Chairperson, NSF ACCESS Domain Champion in Biomedicine, NASA FDL Faculty, IEEE Nanotechnology and Biometrics Councils Member

Stan is an entrepreneur and technology industry veteran. He was the co-founder and VP Sales & Marketing for PointCentral, now a subsidiary of Alarm.com (ALRM). Stan volunteers with non-profit organizations that mentor job seekers in career transition, that teach financial literacy to high school students and low-income adults, and advises early-stage companies on business development. He is passionate about helping people understand the skills, resources and habits that lead to career and financial sustainability. 

Dennis E. Hruby, Ph.D., is a distinguished scientist with more than 30 years of experience in poxviruses, virology, and anti-infective research. Dr. Hruby was a faculty member at Oregon State University for 27 years and served in a number of capacities, including Director of the Molecular and Cellular Biology Program and Chairman of the Microbiology Department. Dr. Hruby specializes in poxviruses, virology and anti-infective research.

I’m a storyteller, an author, a teacher, a student, an entrepreneur, and a human with common sense. I started two consulting companies and most recently, I managed the businesses of YouTuber, Jenna Marbles (my daughter). For the past 25 years, I have dedicated myself to helping underserved communities start and grow their businesses. I specialize in innovative go-to-market strategies.

Ben is a neuroscientist-turned-investor who uses a data-driven approach to identify, research, and recommend investment opportunities. Ben joined the Oregon investment community in 2016 following a 12-year career in academic research. In eight years as Program Director for TiE Oregon Angels and four as Manager of TiE Global Angels, Ben has helped deploy over $10 million in global angel capital to more than 60 startups.

Research Associate Professor in mechanical engineering at OSU with extensive experience in designing and building mechanical devices to solve a wide variety of compelling technical problems.

Candace currently serves as lead instructor for OSU’s International Business course, in addition to teaching MBA and undergraduate business entrepreneurial courses at several other universities. She also served as Dean of the School of Management at Concordia University from 2012 – 2015. Candace holds a doctorate in Systems Science an MBA from Portland State University, and a dual bachelor’s degree in mathematics and economics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute. 

As the Federal Funding Assistance Manager at VertueLab, Dr. Mary Phillips coaches and mentors early-stage entrepreneurs to navigate the federal SBIR/STTR funding programs that support the research and development of innovative products with commercial impact. Mary also brings her passion for solving puzzles and pursuing her mission to support all entrepreneurs, especially those who have been historically excluded, to transform their STEM-based ideas and innovations into impactful products or services and thriving businesses.

Skip Rung is the founder, President, and Executive Director of Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI), Oregon’s first “Signature Research Center” and an unprecedented collaboration among Oregon’s research universities and the private sector. ONAMI’s mission is to accelerate research commercialization via startup and spinout companies in order to extend the success of Oregon’s world-leading “Silicon Forest” technology cluster. 

Peter Schuller is a systems thinker who spent his most of his professional career as a lawyer, corporate executive, entrepreneur, investment banker, and management consultant. In 2007 he left management consulting and founded the Institute for Applied Theology and Science, where he obtained a grant to research the nature of human consciousness, using a multi-disciplinary approach involving neuroscience, complexity science, and network science. 

David is a former executive from the semiconductor capital equipment industry with over 25 years’ experience in the semiconductor industry. He is a board member of TiE Oregon and an active angel investor through the TiE Oregon Angel group. David is the co-lead at TiE Oregon for the TiE University program working with several of the universities/colleges in the Northwest to foster entrepreneurship amongst college students and help them bring their innovations to life through support from the business/entrepreneur ecosystem. 

Serial entrepreneur, although he has tried to retire numerous times. Dan was named Entrepreneur of the Year for Benton County 2003.