2019 CHAIR
As Managing Director of Technology Banking, Ryan covers Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico, providing opportunities for technology companies to grow, raise capital, and elevate their business through the use of SVB’s network and decades of time in the industry.
BOARD MEMBER
Sally is a Co-Founder and Partner at Sun Mountain Capital. Sally has extensive experience in evaluating investment opportunities, conducting due diligence, structuring transactions and raising equity and debt capital in both the public and private markets. She has worked in investment banking at Dean Witter Reynolds, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse. Prior to co-founding Sun Mountain Capital, Ms. Corning worked for 13 years in Credit Suisse’s Private Placement Group, where she led the evaluation of numerous companies and fund sponsors and structured, marketed and executed over 40 private transactions. Sally has an MBA from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business and a BSBA in Finance from Georgetown University.
Sally is a Board Member of Sun Mountain portfolio companies xF Technologies, BayoTech, and Risk Sense, Inc. Past investments include nanoMR (acquired by DNAe) . Sally serves on the Limited Partner Advisory Committee for a number of private equity funds, is a Trustee for the Thornburg Investment Trust and is a member of the Board of Directors for the New Mexico Venture Capital Association.
BOARD MEMBER
As a partner at Osborn Maledon, Aaron serves as outside general counsel for start-up, growth-oriented and middle market companies, advising officers, directors, managers and key employees on fiduciary and corporate governance matters. He also regularly represents clients in angel, VC and private equity financings and in M&A transactions. In addition, he helps clients draft and negotiate various commercial contracts.
Prior to Osborn Maledon, Aaron was an associate attorney at Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell LLP in Delaware where he counseled officers and directors of Delaware corporations on fiduciary and corporate governance matters. Prior to his law career, Aaron was a senior accountant at Pinnacle West Capital Corporation, and an assurance associate with Deloitte. Aaron received his B.S. in Accountancy from Arizona State University, his M.S. in Accountancy from Ohio State University, and his Juris Doctor from Duke University School of Law.
BOARD MEMBER
Tim Kelley has over 20 years of experience as an Entrepreneur in Construction, Education, Finance and Software in Mexico, South America, the US and Africa (Angola). He served as Founder, Chairman and CEO of KCA International Construction and Facilities Management for over 14 years and managed over $200 million dollars of projects in Mexico and over 2 million square feet of office, commercial and residential space throughout Latin America.
Tim was featured in Entrepreneur Magazine for innovative international entrepreneurship and currently serves as the COO of the Entrepreneur Opportunity Fund, owner and CFO with his wife of two education related companies with 45 + employees and several million in gross revenue, and is an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and Economics at Grand Canyon University and Chairman of the Canyon Angels.
BOARD MEMBER
Returning to Arizona to boost its entrepreneurial ecosystem, Nathan Mortensen joined Tallwave Capital with a strong venture capital network and background in deal sourcing, due diligence and fund strategy. As Principal of the fund, he oversees sourcing, diligence, governance and day-to-day operations of its $13.15 million Tallwave Commercialization Fund I. Closed in October 2014, the fund is concentrating on early-stage B2B software and technology companies across a variety of verticals and platforms with over 12 investments across the Mountain West, Southwest and West Coast.
Mr. Mortensen developed a passion for business while growing up in a small family business here in Arizona. After earning his undergraduate degree in Finance from Arizona State University, he explored corporate America by working at ON Semiconductor, The Boeing Company, First Solar and Celanese, primarily in finance, strategy and commercial roles. He then decided to pivot his career by returning to school and completing an MBA in Finance & Entrepreneurship from Brigham Young University (BYU). While attending BYU, he tasted the exciting world of startups and venture capital. He served as a director at Cougar Capital, a $2.5M student-run venture capital fund, and also worked at Peterson Partners in Salt Lake City improving investment selection for the early stage venture and search fund groups.
BOARD MEMBER
Chase Norlin is the CEO of Transmosis, an organization founded by Silicon Valley Technology Entrepreneurs dedicated to the research and application of technology to strengthen the American workforce.
Chase was previously the founder and CEO of Emerge Digital Group (EDG), named the 8th fastest growing company in America and the #1 fastest growing company in Silicon Valley by Inc. Magazine based on revenue growth. He developed Sony’s first online photo sharing venture, founded the first online video sharing company, and served as new venture consultant in launching Boeing’s online media licensing division. Norlin is a noted speaker on digital advertising, entrepreneurship, and workforce development.
BOARD MEMBER
Sandra Watson brings more than 20 years of economic development leadership experience to Arizona. She and her teams have successfully attracted hundreds of companies to Arizona that have invested billions of dollars in capital and created more than 75,000 quality jobs. Ms. Watson worked tirelessly to implement the new vision for the ACA and its aggressive 5-year business plan promoting the state’s pro-business, competitive value proposition. She provided invaluable leadership during the organization’s transition from the Department of Commerce into one of the nation’s first state-based public-private partnerships focused on economic development. Under her direction, the ACA leads statewide efforts assisting companies to locate, expand and grow – bringing high-wage jobs and capital investment to Arizona. Ms. Watson holds an Honors Bachelor of Commerce degree, and completed the Global Leadership Certification program at the Thunderbird School of Management.
BOARD MEMBER
Daniel Janes is a successful entrepreneur and now early stage investor. Dan cofounded, 42six Solutions, a Big Data and Analytics company that was acquired by Computer Sciences Corporation. Following the acquisition, Dan became active as an investor and member of Desert Angels and Arch Partners. Dan’s breadth of experience includes being a West Point graduate and former Army officer who led operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, worked inside of a large government agency, built a startup, and grew new technology offerings in a publicly traded company. Dan advises companies throughout Arizona with a focus on companies based in Tucson and Southern Arizona to grow the regional startup ecosystem and companies that will chart the future.
BOARD MEMBER
As a partner at Kickstart Seed Fund since 2015, Curt led several investments in Fund 3 as well as the first two investments in Fund 4. Prior to Kickstart, he led technology commercialization at two universities in Utah. Before his university involvement, Curt served as Vice President and General Manager of Nike Techlab as well as Vice President for Global Strategy of the company. Prior to Nike, he was Chairman and CEO of PeaceHealth (Oregon Region), an integrated health delivery system based out of Eugene, OR. Before PeaceHealth, Curt was a Senior Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company. As a member of the Invest Southwest Board of Directors, Curt and Kickstart will help continue to fuel capital investment in the region.
BOARD MEMBER
Stephen has more than ten years of executive leadership experience in tech startups, product development, government affairs and investment banking, and is currently Founder of Assure Vote. Assure Vote is a commercialized online, patented voter registration software designed to reach and engage voters online as well as facilitate ballot and ‘get out the vote’ initiatives. There he introduce the first voter data aggregation and appending system.
Prior to founding Assure Vote, Stephen was Director at The LIBRE Initiative, a social NGO startup dedicated to the empowerment, education and entrepreneurship of Hispanics in the U.S. Prior to that, Stephen was an Associate at the Royal Bank of Scotland Group where he focused on managing an SMB portfolio with a combined annual revenue of $750m. Stephen holds a B.I.S. in Business Communications from Arizona State University, and trained in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Commercialization from M.I.T. Sloan School of Management, and Technology in Government from Harvard Kennedy School.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Karen Katzorke has served as Executive Director of the Invest Southwest since the spring of 2011. Prior to serving as Executive Director, she worked for the ASU Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development for more than six years as Program Specialist and was responsible for the planning and execution of programs and events. Ms. Katzorke previously worked as Program Manager of Entrepreneurial Services at the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, where she coordinated entrepreneurial programs and provided organization and promotion for the Arizona Venture Capital Conference. She is experienced with early to mid-stage life science and technology entrepreneurs, assisting companies with access to capital and other expansion and growth needs. Ms. Katzorke has more than 10 years of economic development experience, which includes the Greater Phoenix Chamber and the Greater Phoenix Economic Council.