Bill serves as a Venture Discovery Director at BIV’s Generation Food Rural Partners (GFRP) fund. Prior to joining BIV, Bill was Managing Director at the Purdue Foundry at Purdue University, working with early-stage startups in developing growth, commercialization, and fundraising strategies.

Bill’s background includes roles at multiple startups, including as CTO and CEO, in addition to deep experience in financial services. His focus is on moving technologies to markets to solve real-world problems. He holds an MS in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Georgia.

Mike is a Venture Discovery Director at BIV’s Generation Food Rural Partners (GFRP). Prior to joining BIV, Mike worked with early-stage startups in developing growth, commercialization, and fundraising strategies at the University of Delaware, the Delaware Innovation Space, Dreamit Ventures, and as an independent advisor.

He is a lifelong entrepreneur, founding his first business before graduating college. After graduation, he established, merged, led, and sold several boutique digital media & marketing companies. When not accelerating businesses, he can often be found in the cab of a steam locomotive while volunteering as a railroad locomotive engineer and conductor at Steamtown National Historic Site.

Elsa is the Vice President of BIV’s Generation Food Rural Partners (GFRP) fund. She is a hands-on business builder who has spent the past 8 years building and launching new businesses in Academic, Corporate, and Small Business settings. She started her career cofounding a medical device company, and led that company as CEO through an exit. Elsa leverages her empathetic mindset and diverse background to translate customer needs into tangible solutions. As a formally trained Biomedical Engineer with experience across various industries, Elsa helps to bridge the gap between technical ideas and commercial execution.

Kenza is a Program Associate in Paris. She initially graduated from La Sorbonne University with a bachelor’s degree in IT and Mathematics. She then pursued a master’s degree in business management at Em Lyon business school.

Caroline Mak is the program director for Big Ideas Ventures accelerator in NY. As a former food entrepreneur, Caroline Mak is committed to advocating for innovative entrepreneurs. She co-founded and ran a beverage company, Brooklyn Soda Works for seven years and the successes plus the failures of her first company led her to become invested in learning more about what supports are necessary to ensure companies are able to grow sustainably and thrive. Prior to joining BIV she worked as program director at the New York based social enterprise Hot Bread Kitchen where she oversaw the sales of their bakery, then moved to overseeing the small business incubator program; she was most recently at the impact agency NationSwell where she oversaw community engagement programming. She sits on the advisory board of non-profit organization WEALF, where she mentors and supports women entrepreneurs, and has taught social entrepreneurship at the School of the Visual Art’s Design for Social Innovation department.

Caroline grew up in Hong Kong, received her bachelor’s degree in biology from Stanford University and a Master’s of Fine Art from the University of Chicago.

Christopher Pace is currently Vice President of Capital Development at Big Idea Ventures. Chris has over 20 years of Portfolio and Investor Relationship Management experience in alternative and traditional assets. Chris has built successful businesses with teams at BNY Mellon (WestLB Mellon Asset Mgt/Siguler Guff) and Rogers, Casey & Associates. His expertise is in portfolio construction, manager selection, direct investing (co-investing) and fund-raising. Chris has discretionary investment experience with funds and companies in: venture capital, growth equity, buyouts, real assets, distressed debt, mezzanine and special situations. His relationships in the LP community include pension funds, fund-of-funds, endowments, foundations, advisors, insurance companies, family offices and consultants.

Elaine Lee is the Scientific Fellow with Big Idea Ventures in Singapore. She is a food technologist with more than 5 years’ worth of experience in food industry. Prior to joining Big Idea Venture, she worked in Meiji Seika Singapore and Aalst Chocolate (which recently bought over by Cargill), specialised in product development and commercialisation. She also has experience in Quality Assurance and Quality Control, familiar with different countries food regulation.

She holds a Bachelor (Honours) Degree in Food Science and Nutrition.

Leonard is a Scientific Fellow at Big Idea Ventures. He has previously worked as a research assistant in the National University of Singapore (NUS) in the research areas of Food Chemistry, Food Safety and Food Technologies.

He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Food Science and Technology at NUS, and is pursuing his Masters Degree there as well.

Sumona is a Marketing Associate at Big Idea Ventures Singapore. Prior to this, she was the City Head of an ecommerce Agritech startup in Singapore. Leading a startup has given her significant insight into executing digital marketing campaigns, streamlining operations, improving customer acquisition and building relationships with commercial partners.

She has also worked in international relations at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and has executed projects for NGOs in SG, UK, India & Tanzania over the course of her Social Sciences BSc degree at University College London (UCL).

Prior to joining Big Idea Ventures, she worked within the consumer packaged goods industry for
20+ years. Carol has experience in commercial strategy, operations, and sales with Bayer,
Reckitt Benckiser, and Nestle Purina. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Saint Joseph’s
University.

Manasa is a Program Manager at BIV supporting the NYC accelerator cohort and early stage venture investments. She began her career working at the Dalio Institute. There she supported artificial intelligence research which served as framework for the start-up she most recently worked for – Cleerly. She brings a broad knowledge of the innovation and venture ecosystem. After her time at Dalio, she was an Associate at Steel Sky Ventures and Red Cedar Ventures where she helped with all aspects of fund management from sourcing, diligence, operations, and portfolio management.

She holds her B.S. in Biology from Michigan State University and her M.S. in Health Policy & Economics from Weill Cornell Medicine.

Olivia is the Global Brand Manager for Big Idea Ventures. Prior to this, she worked in the media and advertising industry across the world. First as a journalist for national newspapers in Sydney, Hong Kong, and Singapore, and then as a digital and brand strategist at advertising agencies, start-ups, and global media company A+E Networks.

She has experience building and growing brands, developing audiences, and using content innovation to create growth opportunities and drive positive behavior change.

She holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the University of Technology, Sydney, and a Bachelor’s degree from La Sorbonne University.

Marion Bazille is the Program Manager for BIV Paris. Graduated with a master’s degree from Paris Dauphine University, she has more than 3 years experience advising impactful organisations in their growth journey. Prior to BIV, she worked for Business France, the Trade Department of the French Embassy in London, developing sales strategies for the agtech and foodtech sectors and advising entrepreneurs and founders in their international development. She also has experience working for Sanofi analysing future growth opportunities.

Henrietta is Vice President at Big Idea Ventures responsible for global acceleration across our 3 locations (New York, Singapore and Paris) and following early stage venture (seed to early series A) investments from our New Protein Fund. Prior to this, she worked in FMCG firms including Danone, Mondelez International and L’Oreal where she launched more than 100 products to market in categories as diverse as food, beauty and infant formula in more than 30 countries. She is also a registered nutritionist with her research on the Mediterranean Diet published in Maturitas and Proceedings of the Nutrition Society.
She holds a Bsc Hons in Food and Human Nutrition from Newcastle University and an MBA from INSEAD.

Adrien Villalonga is Investment Associate at Big Idea Ventures in Paris. Prior to this he worked as a financial auditor for Mazars and as a venture capital analyst for two early-stage venture capital funds. Additionally, he has experience in Supply Chain Management in the aerospace sector.

Adrien holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from ESSEC Business School (Paris) and a CEMS Master’s in International Management from ESADE (Barcelona).

Emily is the Director of Investor Relations at Big Idea Ventures. Previously, she led strategic growth at Vokal, a digital consultancy. Prior to that, she was an associate with Tyson Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Tyson Foods, where her investment focus areas included alternative proteins, sustainability improvements, and technology-enabled operational enhancements. Additionally, she has experience in public health research and health education.

She has a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from UNC-Chapel Hill and a Master of Management Studies from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Andrew D. Ive, Founder and Managing General Partner, created Big Idea Ventures to solve the world’s biggest challenges by supporting the world’s best entrepreneurs. He has invested in more early stage / pre-seed food companies than any other investor worldwide. Investors in New Protein Fund I include a variety of investors such as Tyson Foods & Temasek.

Andrew serves on the Advisory Board for Tufts Nutrition Council, is a Friedman School Entrepreneurship Advisor, previously served on the Small Business Council Board of the Department of Trade and Industry advising the UK Government on entrepreneurship and high growth companies. A Harvard Business School graduate and Procter & Gamble brand management trained.

Click here to see what Andrew has been up to lately and to contact us for interviews and speaking opportunities.

Tom is the Chief Investment Officer for Big Idea Ventures. Prior to this, he was a Founding Partner/Chief Financial Officer of Tyson Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Tyson Foods. While at Tyson, he led investments in Beyond Meat, Clear Labs, FoodLogiQ, Future Meat Technologies, Memphis Meats, MycoTechnology, New Wave Foods and Tovala.

He graduated from Villanova University with a BS, Accountancy. Tom has a CPA license (State of New York).

Tom is an in-house resource for the portfolio on all matters related to accountancy.