2024 BOOTCAMP PRESENTERS
Sameera Bazaz leads the Harvard Business School Alumni Angels Association’s Washington DC Chapter. She is currently Chief Operating Officer of the Hot Mommas Project, an award-winning women’s leadership venture that created and houses the world’s largest database of business case studies featuring women protagonists, role models and mentors. Sameera co-teaches Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership at the George Washington University School of Business and is a judge for the School’s New Venture Competition. Earlier, Sameera was Vice President and Senior Consultant at Vision Forward LLC, an early entrant into the flex work and independent consulting model, where she led process and operations consulting. Prior to VisionForward Sameera was Senior Account Manager and Vertical Lead at FreeMarkets Inc (acquired by Ariba and then SAP), the first online business to business strategic sourcing auction tool. Sameera began her career in corporate taxation and litigation support at Price Waterhouse in Sydney, Australia. Sameera earned a B.Econ. (Economics and Accounting) and LLB (JD) from the University of Sydney and an MBA from Harvard.
Mark Belinsky (HBS MBA 1982) serves as Board Member and Treasurer of the Harvard Business School Alumni Angels Association, is a member of the Selection Committee of the Harvard Angels of Northern California, and is also an active member of the Band of Angels. He has over 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur and operating executive. He’s founded, co-founded, or had C-level roles at companies including as SVP and GM at video encryption and software e-commerce company Macrovision (Nasdaq: TIVO) and at haptics leader Immersion Corporation (Nasdaq: IMMR). He’s been an active angel investor for the past 10 years, including investments in several HBS Angels funded companies. Mark holds a B.A. in Accounting and Finance from Wayne State University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Tom Cervantez (Harvard JD/MBA 92) is one of the Co-Founders of the HBS Alumni Angels Association together with Sean Jacobsohn MBA ’98, Maurice Gopikian MBA ’96 and Sajjad Masud MBA ’98. Tom is an active angel and real estate investor and also a Venture Partner at Accelerator Ventures and sits on the Boards of Sleepquest and PillDrill. Tom brings a strong deal background to his investments and portfolio companies from the legal perspective, having practiced law as a venture capital lawyer in Silicon Valley since 1992, as well as being a founder of BIZLAW.COM – lawyers for founders, startups and investors - based in San Francisco. Tom’s representative investments include Friendster (Acquired), OpenTable (IPO), Specialty’s Café & Bakery (Acquired) and On24 (IPO 2021). Tom also started/sold two companies GeoNet ISP (acquired by Level3 Communications) and Britton Silberman & Cervantez (Acquired by Thelen Priest). On the non-profit side, Tom sits on the boards of the HBS Latino Alumni Association and the HBS Alumni Angels Association.
Jason E. Klein is an experienced media CEO and builder of digital and traditional businesses who has led two successful turnarounds. He is founder and CEO of On Grid Ventures, an investment and advisory firm with a portfolio of 20+ early stage companies. Mr Klein is co-President of the HBS Angels Alumni Association. Mr. Klein was previously CEO of Newspaper National Network LP; and CEO of Times Mirror Magazines/Time4 Media, publisher of Golf Magazine, Field & Stream, and Popular Science. Mr. Klein is one of Alleywatch's “25 Angels Investors in NY You Need to Know,” a member of New York Angels, and a mentor at several NYC-area incubators. Jason has an MBA from Harvard University and a BA from Dartmouth.
Jean Kovacs, Co-Chair of the Global Board of HBS Alumni Angels, is a partner at Hillsven Capital, a venture capital firm focusing on early-stage enterprise SaaS companies, and sits on several company and non-profit boards. Previously, Ms. Kovacs was CEO and co-founder of Comergent Technologies, an e-business enterprise that was purchased by Sterling Commerce, a division of AT&T. Earlier, she co-founded Qualix Group, a developer of reliability software in distributed computing environments, and was closely involved in their IPO. She has also held positions in sales, marketing, and support at Frame Technology, Sun Microsystems, and Compugraphic Corporation. Jean has been named to the Silicon Valley/San Francisco Business Journal’s list of Most Influential Women in Business. In 2014, she and other alumni were honored by the dean of Harvard Business School for making an impact through leadership roles. She has been profiled in Fortune Magazine, The Financial Times, Computerworld, Internet World and InfoWorld. She has a BS in finance from Northeastern University and an MBA from Harvard.
Alexa McCulloch co-chairs HBS Angels of Southern California. She has invested across 5 continents for Communications Venture Partners, Partners in Life Science, and Goldman Sachs. McCulloch began her career as a rocket scientist and was awarded the Jefferson Goblet Award by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. An innovator in security and aerospace, she was CEO of NetCloak Inc., a B2B2C cybersecurity company; CEO of Grandeye Ltd., global manufacturer of 360° IoT security cameras sold to Creative Labs (SGX: C76); led team at Hughes that fully automated spacecraft testing (delivered 18 months ahead of schedule), created a software app that optimizes spacecraft power, and successfully launched satellite on repurposed Soviet ICBM from Russian Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. In healthcare, McCulloch was a Founding Partner at Circle Health (LON: CIRC), Europe's largest healthcare partnership; held public appointment as Independent Director of Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust; and served as Non-Executive Director of Pacific Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. She is a Techstars All-Star Mentor. McCulloch holds three engineering degrees from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Harvard.
Alysse Soll is CEO, underdog advisory, helping sports tech startups navigate and network the sports landscape and driving capital fundraising and acquisition. Alysse is an Angel investor (Series 7 and 63) and Board Member of the Harvard Business School Alumni Angels, where she is Deal Co-Chair and Sports Sector Lead. She is also the Vice Chair of WiST (Women in Sports Tech), a nonprofit designed to drive awareness and inclusion for women and the BIPOC community across the sports tech landscape. Alysse spent 17 years in the NHL growing the North American footprint and global fanbase. She spent the second half of her career in digital media, advertising technology and tech startups. She is a graduate of Cornell University where she earned Varsity letters for Women’s Ice Hockey (left defense) and Harvard Business School. She is the proud mother of a college freshman daughter who keeps her on her toes.
The Harvard Business School Alumni Angels Association, based in San Rafael, California, is a global nonprofit alumni club of the Harvard Business School. With 16 regional chapters and over 1000 members, it is the largest alumni-based angel organization in the world. For more information: www.HBSAngels.com