Pat Flavin, JD

President

An entrepreneur, investor, and attorney, Patrick brings more than 20 years of experience in health tech and life sciences, including executive leadership positions at Arches Technology, Outcome Health, and closerlook. Patrick was a Co-Founder and Executive Director of MATTER, a Chicago healthcare technology startup center and innovation hub. He helped build biotechnology companies MediChem Life Sciences and Advanced Life Sciences, both of which he helped take public as chief legal executive.

John Flavin, MBA

Founder & CEO

John is a proven leader with a track record of bringing valuable corporate, academic, and civic enterprises from concept to reality, including Advanced Life Sciences, Chicago Innovation Mentors, MATTER, and the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago. John is Co-Founder and Chairman of Pyxis Oncology, Executive Chairman of ClostraBio, and Board member at Grove Biopharma. Over the course of his career, John has successfully raised more than $345 million of private and philanthropic capital to fund the development of transformative organizations.

Yuan Zhang, PhD, MS

Senior Director, Scientific Operations & Strategy

Dr. Zhang brings a passion for moving science from lab bench to patient bedside, and expertise in immunology and animal models of disease. She most recently cofounded Seurat Therapeutics, a biotech startup spun out of the University of Chicago, focused on developing an intranasal repurposed biologic for treating migraines, seizures, fibromyalgia, and other chronic pain conditions. Dr. Zhang raised $1.5 million and led the company to pre-IND, while managing business development, operations, therapeutic R&D, and strategy.

Ula Widawska

Senior Director of Financial Operations & Controller

As a Senior Director of Financial Operations & Controller for Portal Innovations, Ula oversees financial reporting and daily financial operations for the company. Ula has spent most of her career in healthcare finance, most recently as a Controller at Swedish Hospital part of NorthShore, where she was responsible for managing financial operations and overseeing financial reporting, accounting, accounts payable and treasury for several corporations. Ula’s strong business acumen aided her in leading several strategic initiatives that resulted in improvement of efficiency, reporting and daily financial operations. She brings a fresh perspective to building and leading finance teams, focusing on collaboration, empowerment and business growth.

Michael Schultz, PhD

Director of Venture Operations

Dr. Schultz is a scientist by training. He assesses new investment opportunities and supports companies within the Portal/Fulton Labs ecosystem. Before joining Portal, he was a life sciences consultant where he advised therapeutics, diagnostics, and medical device companies on indication prioritization, competitive landscape analysis, and revenue forecasting. He completed his PhD at Harvard Medical School where he researched mechanisms that underlie the aging process, with a focus on biomarkers, inflammation, and metabolism.

E.J. Reedy

Director of Platform & Ecosystem

E.J. oversees Portal’s membership experience, administration, and ecosystem development work. E.J. is a leading global expert in entrepreneurship having spent his career growing people, creating companies, and understanding the ecosystems that drive entrepreneurial success. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and many other leading global outlets. Previously, E.J. contributed to entrepreneurial growth through the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago. Additionally, E.J. spent more than a decade building the global footprint of the Kauffman Foundation, the world’s leading philanthropic agent supporting entrepreneurial change.

Steve Lehmann, MBA

Director of Venture Operations

Steve is a "startup midwife" who has spent the last decade helping inventors turn their discoveries into businesses, whether in a startup, a university, or even a refugee camp. He most recently led the George Shultz Innovation Fund at UChicago, where he nucleated and invested in University spinouts. Prior to UChicago he was an Associate for Ocean Tomo's Innovation Management practice, where he advised companies on how to acquire, develop, and commercialize technologies.

Rose Jones-Boyd

Executive Assistant to the Founder & CEO

Rose Jones-Boyd is the Executive Assistant to the Founder & CEO.
She is a seasoned professional with over 25 years of experience in professional office executive assistant positions and a track record of strong performance in high-volume, high-pressure environments. She has extensive experience with all administrative tasks including scheduling and correspondence.
As Executive Assistant, Rose ensures the smooth operation of the office. Having held several positions in the University and business fields, Rose can tailor her skills to meet the needs of colleagues and clients. Before joining Portal, Rose worked 13 1/2 years as an Executive Assistant at the University of Chicago.

Deonta Jones

Experience Manager

Deonta welcomes Portal visitors, members, and partners with a smile and pours positive energy into every interaction. From onboarding assistance to office and lab deliveries and all other administrative matters, Deonta creates a seamless and enjoyable experience for everyone. Prior to Portal, Deonta worked as an educator and caretaker.

Elizabeth Harney, MS

Manager of Lab Operations

As the Lab Manager at Portal, Elizabeth works closely with Yuan to support daily operations within the lab space and to provide a safe environment for our member companies.  Prior to Portal, Elizabeth was a bench scientist with a particular affinity for analytical chemistry.  In her lab work, she developed a strong understanding and respect for spreadsheets and documentation – her reliability in performance of this understanding (both in quality and consistency) makes her a particularly powerful asset in a safety-focused, scientific environment.

By switching paths from scientist to manager, Elizabeth is able to address the core motivations that had always fueled her pursuit of scientific exploration: to help people. Her starting point contributes to her ability to develop, communicate and teach processes that respond to the actual pain points of scientists.

When not running around the lab or furiously typing on her laptop, Elizabeth enjoys listening to all kinds of podcasts and reading books to unwind.

Kevin Flavin

Operations and Expansion Manager and Producer, Lab Rats to Unicorns

Kevin is working to help create scalable systems and practices that can be implemented and standardized across all Portal locations as we expand to Boston and Atlanta. His main goal is to design and/or implement tools that can help foster community and collaboration in co-working environments.

Additionally, Kevin works on all content capture, design, editing, and audio production for Lab Rats to Unicorns (a podcast created by John Flavin).

Suna Lumeh, MS/MBA

Director of Platform and Ecosystem, Atlanta

As Director of Platform and Ecosystem for our Atlanta expansion, Suna is establishing and leading Portal Innovation’s platform in Atlanta at Science Square Labs. Previously, Suna held clinical R&D roles in pharma, across both early and late stage biologics development. She grew her specialty in pharmacovigilance (safety & efficacy) and immunogenicity assay development at scale—sourcing, developing, and integrating novel diagnostic technologies and robotics platforms—before moving into the early venture space. She has since served as a biomedical science consultant for early-stage startups, ultimately cofounding two VC-backed biotech and digital health startups. In addition to supporting diverse founders, Suna remains an active advocate for youth STEM outreach, having established hands-on afterschool programs in Greater Philadelphia, Washington DC, and a girls' science mentorship program in Kenema, Sierra Leone. Suna intends to continue supporting and building the pipeline of incredible life science founders and teams capable of bringing life-saving solutions to patients, and scaling innovative biomedical and healthcare ventures that will feed into the economic development in Atlanta and beyond.

suna.lumeh@portalinnovations.com

Anna Tomaszewski

Senior Director of Business Development

Anna spearheads the growth of Portal's membership and partnership portfolio. Previously, Anna specialized in scaling growth-stage biotechnology companies with scientific talent. Her focus began in the Chicago ecosystem and quickly expanded into many other emerging biotechnology hubs. Anna is inspired by entrepreneurial motivation, disruption, and - most importantly - the patient who benefits from the scientific breakthroughs.

anna.tomaszewski@portalinnovations.com

Gianina Varea

Senior Director of Portfolio Development

Gianina is a Biotech entrepreneur passionate about bringing scientific discoveries to patients. She has experience in developing biotech start-ups from the ground up, ranging from strategy to operations and project management, as well as direct involvement in seeking non-dilutive and private funding from institutional and strategic investors. The most recent startup she helped build was Pyxis Oncology. As a Technology Venture Fellow at the Polsky Center at The University of Chicago she worked closely with Pyxis’ founding team to develop the strategic and financial materials to support Pyxis’ formation and $22M Series A. As Pyxis’ first employee, she worked as project and alliance manager, and in business development. She also supported the $150M Series B, several partnerships, and the IPO in October 2021. Gianina obtained her Masters’ degree in Bioscience Enterprise (MBE) at The University of Cambridge and a B.S. in Molecular Biotechnology Engineering from The University of Chile.

gianina.varea@portalinnovations.com

Angie Gill

Director of People Operations

angie.gill@portalinnovations.com

Ritu Shah

Managing Director

Ritu Shah is joining Portal as Managing Director, focused on portfolio company development and value creation by providing interim leadership to position and accelerated seeded companies to the next round of funding.

She has a proven track record in the biopharma industry with success in leading four successful mergers & acquisitions along with new company formation and operations. Ritu has led several drug development campaigns with emphasis on strategic and therapeutic portfolio management across private and public pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Ritu has spent over two decades in pharma drug development, of which the last five years were in biotech.

Nick Pennebaker

Director of Marketing and Communications

Nick is in charge of helping grow the Portal brand on a national level. He joins Portal with more than 10 years’ of experience in marketing and communications within a variety of industries, including financial services, commercial real estate development, and oil & gas, with his most recent role focused on building marketing campaigns at Northern Trust Asset Management. His background consists of public relations, email and web marketing, SEO/SEM, social media, and content development. Nick grew up in Austin, Texas, graduated from The University of Kansas, and still tries to fool himself into thinking Chicago winters aren’t that bad. 

Mike Faulman

VP of Operations

Mike joins Portal to help build consistency in the firm’s day-to-day logistical operations. His background has been dedicated to helping organizations and campaigns manage extreme growth, while thinking through problems before they occur. Mike’s prior roles include Director of Corporate Business Development and Licensing at Shinola where he led a national growth through new market opportunities, Personal Aide to former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and served as National Advance Coordinator for President Obama in The White House and '08 Presidential campaign. Mike is originally from Michigan, graduated from Michigan State University and has resided in Chicago since 2010 with his wife and two children.

Shahila Christie, PhD

Managing Director of Strategic Growth

Shahila Christie is the Managing Director of Strategic Growth at Portal Innovations. Over her 20 yr career Shahila spent the first decade as an academic researcher and then moved into the startup space where she enjoyed driving scientific strategy from a business perspective. She has held various roles including founding two startups as spinouts from universities, consulting for startup companies, followed by leading the clinical efforts for a medical device company in the oncology diagnostic space. In her current role Shahila ties these varied experiences together to help Portal Innovations grow and expand. Her role focuses on understanding life science ecosystems in cities beyond Chicago and building and implementing the Portal playbook to launch the platform in cities of interest nationwide.

In addition to her professional role, Shahila is an active Women In Bio member functioning in leadership roles over the years and also served as the Chicago Chapter President in 2020. Shahila has a PhD in Biochemistry from Loyola University in Chicago and did her postdoctoral work in drug discovery and development at University of Illinois.

Parth Rao, PharmD, MS

Director of Lab Operations

Parth Rao is an accomplished pharmaceutical professional with over a decade of experience in the industry. He has a proven track record in managing laboratory operations and facility maintenance for startups and established companies in the life sciences industry. Parth is known for his ability to streamline operations and improve efficiencies, his expertise in managing lab infrastructure, and his strategic vision for achieving growth and success. In this role as the Director of Lab Operations at Portal Innovations, he is responsible for formulating and executing strategic goals, developing operational and capital budgets, and managing relationships with life science startup companies and strategic partners. He will ensure everything will run smoothly and succinctly in our labs at both 400 N Aberdeen and 1375 W Fulton.

Throughout his career, Parth has held various leadership positions within the Biotech and Pharma industries focusing on biologics and novel gene therapies. He earned his Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Master of Science from Northern Illinois University. In his free time, he enjoys hiking, traveling, and spending time with his family

Krisha Panchalingam

Director of Lab and Scientific Operations

Krisha is the Director of Lab and Scientific Operations where she oversees day-to-day operations of the Boston Southline site.

Krisha’s role focuses on being a bridge between the Portal Venture Operations team and member companies by providing the operations support required for member companies to reach their scientific milestones and goals for growth and expansion. She has a track record of setting up labs for startup companies, space planning, and buildouts while managing existing lab and facilities operations.

As part of Portal Innovations operations team, she believes in building highly functional operations team to run at optimum efficiency while allowing scientists to focus on what matters most, bringing new therapies to patients.

Diana Colocho

Member Experience Manager

Diana Colocho is a Member Experience Manager at Portal where her main responsibility is to provide members with the best possible support. Diana is committed to helping the team succeed because and collaborate towards a shared goal, where extraordinary things can be achieved. She's passionate about project management, and enjoys seeing new projects through to the end. Diana enjoys cooking and watching sports in her free time.

Sylwia Klepacka

Accounting Manager

Sylwia is an Accounting Manager in the Finance Operations Department at Portal. Her extensive professional experience encompasses overseeing accounting operations, including month-end close, accounts payable and accounts receivable as well as working with external and internal business partners.  She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Finance as well as a Master’s degree in Accounting all from Roosevelt University.

Derek Johnson

Managing Director and General Counsel

As a Managing Director and General Counsel, Derek loves working at the dynamic intersection of science and law, dedicating his expertise to drive innovation and create meaningful impact for patients.  Derek has over 20 years of industry and law firm experience, working in both large pharma and start-up environments to support projects with small molecules, biologics, cell therapies, biotechnology, and devices.  As in-house counsel at Takeda, Baxter, and Myeloid Therapeutics, Derek handled a wide range of legal matters, including intellectual property, litigation, transactions, and legal operations.  Earlier in his career, he worked with McDermott Will & Emery and Locke Lord, representing pharmaceutical companies in patent litigations.  Prior to law, Derek worked various jobs related to the life sciences, including as a cGMP engineer and a research assistant.

Todd Sluzas

Chief Financial Officer

Todd has over 30 years of accounting, finance, tax, private equity, and venture capital experience.  Prior to joining Portal, Todd served as CFO for a private equity group where he has also supported multiple portfolio companies in the CFO role as well as Senior Tax Analyst for a public company owned by the group.  In addition, Todd managed the family office for the principal of the private equity group where he was responsible for investment analysis and due diligence, risk management, cash management, tax compliance and planning, and estate planning.  Prior to that, Todd spent four years with the accounting firm of Price Waterhouse Coopers LLP representing the firm’s audit and tax practice.

Jeremy Langsam

Analyst

Tim Flavin

Member Experience Coordinator

Haidy Delgado

Lab Operations Associate

Haidy Delgado is a lab operations associate at Portal where she helps with day-to-day operations.

Emily Yee

Lab Operations Associate

Brian Karanja

Operations and Ecosystem Manager

Brian Karanja is the Office and Ecosystems Manager at Portal Boston. He oversees the operations and logistics of a dynamic co-working space that fosters collaboration and innovation among life science startups. Brian leverages his 11+ years of experience in event production and logistics management to create and execute impactful experiential strategies that showcase the value proposition and vision of Portal Innovations and its members.

He has a proven track record of increasing market reach and conceptualizing event and content strategies for global companies and brands such as Red Bull, Reebok, Converse, Bodega Pirate Radio, and Nike. He's skilled in coordinating media equipment, project management, and growth strategy. Brian has a Bachelor of Science in Digital Filmmaking and Video Production and is fluent in English and Swahili. Brian is passionate about developing internal and external content strategies, visual storytelling, cross-functional collaboration, and emerging and existing trends. He helped to win Boston Magazine's Best of Boston 2015 "Dance Party" Award and has been repeatedly tapped to lead high-profile activations, launches, and events.

Monique Knighten, PhD

Executive Director, Houston

Linda Kim

Business Development Manager

Karol Sokolowski, PharmD, PhD

Director of Strategic Growth

Karol Sokolowski is the Director of Strategic Growth for the Ex3 program where he will be growing the business across Chicago and our expansion sites.

Karol brings a diverse knowledge base with 10+ years of translational biomedical R&D, strategic consulting, and clinical experience. He joins Portal from the Chicago Biomedical Consortium, where he wore many hats, but focused on leading biotech opportunity diligence and project management.

As part of Ex3, Karol will work alongside Portal member companies to understand and fill their organizational, staffing, & strategic needs as they strive to Series A and beyond. To do so, he will also continue building our bench of consultants & fractional executives, while also working with the Venture team to identify company needs.

Carson Chang

Technology Manager

Carson is Portal's Technology Manager where he helps with Portal's tech stack, troubleshooting, and providing IT support to member companies. Prior to joining Portal, Carson attended the University of Illinois Chicago, and recently worked as an operations strategist with Framework IT. Outside of work, Carson is an avid outdoorsman where he enjoys running, climbing, and cycling.

Tatiana Yglesias Ulloa

Executive Director, Boston

Tatiana is Portal's Executive Director in Boston at our Southline Labs location. Tatiana has been in life sciences for more than 15 years where she has worked in commercial strategy and lifecycle management from blockbuster commercial launches to indication optimization and post-LOE brand maximization strategies. She has successfully built and led high-performing teams across countries and therapeutic areas, and has recently been able to partner with accelerators and incubators to help successfully grow startups.

She received her M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management. As the leader for Boston, Tati is excited to position Portal as a local catalyst for the unification of the local ecosystem and to continue building robust networks that contribute to ultimate patient care through disruptive innovation.

Joanna Krakowiak

Director of Lab and Scientific Operations in Houston

Prior to joining Portal, Joanna was the Senior Laboratory Manager at NuProbe, and her expertise extends to setting up lab spaces, including space planning and buildout. With impactful roles at the University of Texas, Houston, and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, she showcases a unique blend of research proficiency and operational management. Joanna holds a Doctorate in Polymer Engineering and is a Certified Quality Improvement Associate. Her dual experience in both university and industry roles uniquely positions her to guide startups in navigating the transition between these realms. Dedicated to fostering seamless lab environments, Joanna is committed to advancing scientific pursuits and supporting emerging ventures.

Zach Hightower

Director of Business Development, Houston

Zach is Portal's Director of Business Development in Houston. He is a graduate of Texas A&M and has spent the past decade honing his expertise in distribution and specialized equipment sales within the biotech, pharmaceutical and academic research sectors. During this time, he's cultivated valuable relationships, consistently grown business, and has become deeply engaged in the fast-growing Houston life-sciences ecosystem.

Zach lives in Houston with his wife and two children.

Nancy Tyrrell

Director of Academic Partnerships

Nancy has worked with a series of life sciences companies and her most recent role was with the Chicago Biomedical Consortium, where she assisted faculty researchers at Chicago-area universities with funding and resources needed to advance therapeutic discoveries. Nancy enjoys being part of the Chicago life science community, and she is an active volunteer with a variety of organizations including Young Women In Bio Chicago, where she is a Board member and past President.  Nancy also serves on the Alzheimer's Association®'s Board of Directors and is a member of the Board’s Executive Committee.

Ashley Cornelison

Executive Director, Atlanta

Ashley Cornelison is Portal's Executive Director in Atlanta where she will lead efforts to grow and manage our Atlanta ecosystem at Science Square.

Prior to joining Portal, Ashely was the Vice President of Venture Development at the Georgia Research Alliance, Inc. (GRA), a non-profit (501c3), public-private partnership that helps universities in the state to conduct more research and create more companies.

As the VP of the Venture Development program, Ashley set strategic objectives, managed a multi-million dollar portfolio of commercialization grants and loans and counseled Georgia’s university scientists in their journey of launching companies around their inventions. She also oversaw program compliance, reporting and metric-driven accountability and chaired the program’s loan committee.

Ashley received her B.S. in Business Administration in 2008 from the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia and began her career working in contract law at an Atlanta-based law firm.

Harry Gerard

Director of Lab and Scientific Operations in Atlanta

Harry supports Portal's expansion initiatives, primarily in Science Square, to allow life sciences companies to thrive locally. In his current role, Harry ensures that resident companies have access to the critical resources and community they need to reach their technical and business milestones faster. Harry has a track record in designing and executing efficiently run and scalable launchpad models that address the needs of scientist-entrepreneurs at different stages of the R&D journey (notably in Boston as an integral member of the LabCentral organization). Harry is passionate about building inclusive and equitable ecosystems of innovation that drives economic activity and pushes the boundaries of medical science.

Dan Goddard

Director of Ecosystem and Platform, Boston

Dan brings over 18 years of experience supporting the early-stage life science community. His background includes roles in venture creation, as an early team member of multiple startups, and most recently as a consultant supporting company standup and launch. In addition to his direct involvement with startups, Dan works to cultivate connectivity across the life science community, including venture, academia, service providers, and entrepreneurs to launch and scale breakthrough companies.

Prior to Portal, Dan served as a Director at Browne Consulting, Manager of Financial Operations at Micro-Leads, Operations Manager at Akili Interactive, and Manager of Operations and Finance at PureTech.

Anna Slezak

Associate, Venture Capital

Anna is a recent PhD graduate from the University of Chicago, where she developed novel engineering approaches to immunotherapy in the lab of Jeff Hubbell.  During her PhD, she was heavily involved in the biotech ecosystem through involvement with the Polsky Center, Nucleate, and ARCH Venture Partners.  She has been with Portal since January of 2023 as a venture fellow and now joins us full time as an associate, where she will continue to support the venture team in evaluating potential portfolio companies and attracting capital to our ecosystems.

Ashish Uppala

Head of Engineering and Product

Ashish is Portal's Head of Engineering & Product for our proprietary A.I. tool, Stargaze. Formerly the CTO of scite.ai, Ashish brings a diverse background spanning research at the National Cancer Institute and engineering & product roles in fintech, cybersecurity, and metascience. He joins Portal to enhance how we identify and support breakthrough innovators and research through Stargaze. Stargaze harnesses A.I., machine learning, and metascience by developing computational models to understand and derive investible insights from the innovation landscape.

With his unique blend of technical, product, and domain expertise, Ashish is ideally positioned to lead the development of Stargaze, driving forward Portal's mission to support innovators.