Judges

The three $100,000 Business Plan Competition finalists will present their business plans to a panel of national venture capitalists.

The judges who will determine the contest's winner are:

Bob Greene
Managing Partner
Contour Venture Partners
New York, NY

Bob Greene is a managing partner of Contour Venture Partners and has been a venture capitalist since the late 1980s. Greene cofounded Contour with Matt Gorin in 2006 and shares responsibility for oversight of all Contour investment activities. Prior to launching Contour, Greene was one of the three managing partners of Flatiron Partners, and was also formerly the general partner heading the technology practice of Chase Capital Partners in New York City.

Michael P. McQueeney
Managing Partner
Summer Street Capital
Buffalo, NY

One of Summer Street’s founding partners, Michael McQueeney currently oversees the firm’s investment activities and takes an active role in virtually every aspect of the investment process from debt sourcing to fund marketing. He serves on the board of two Summer Street portfolio companies; MaxQ Technologies and Commonwealth Sprague Capacitors. A former senior executive with extensive sales, marketing and operations experience in the banking, manufacturing and construction industries, McQueeney is treasurer of the National Association of Small Business Investment Companies. He earned his M.B.A. at the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College and received his undergraduate degree from Bowdoin College.

Mark J. Morrissette
Managing Director
North Atlantic Capital
Portland, ME

Mark has been in the venture capital industry for more than 10 years. Prior to joining North Atlantic Capital as a managing director in 2000, he worked at Advent International in Boston, and in consulting at CSC Index in Cambridge, Mass. Morrissette has invested in and sat on the boards of more than a dozen technology product and service businesses. He has earned a B.A. from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, and is a past president of the board of the Northeast Regional Association of Small Business Investment Companies.

Tripp Peake
Managing Partner
Long River Ventures
Hadley, MA

Tripp Peake is a managing partner of both Long River Ventures and Worcester Capital Partners and brings more than 20 years of venture building and investing experience to the funds. Immediately prior to Long River, Peake was a partner at Kestrel Venture Management, where he focused on the management of Mass Ventures Equity Fund, a $14 million early stage fund established in western Massachusetts in 1997. Before joining Kestrel, Peake was co-founder and CEO of two venture development consulting companies: Mass Ventures, based in Amherst, Mass and associated with the University of Massachusetts; and Science Park Associates, based in New Haven, Conn and associated with Yale University. Both of these companies provided university spin-offs and regional entrepreneurs with strategic and financing advice and helped raise more than $50 million in private equity for 18 different early stage ventures. Peake holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A from Yale University.

Tony Schmitz
Managing Director
Pine Street Capital
Albany, NY

Tony has been an entrepreneur and executive since 1983, focusing primarily on creating and building value for technology companies. Schmitz was a founder/principal of three technology companies that were acquired by publicly listed companies. Currently, he is a director of 24/7 Real Media, a publicly listed company. Schmitz has also been active as a principal investor in and an advisor to a number of early and growth stage companies. He received a B.S. degree in Business and Computer Science from the State University of New York at Albany.