Alan G. Bunte, Co-Founder, Former COO, and Board Director, Commvault

Bunte is co-founder of Commvault, a leading provider of data protection and data management software. He retired from the company’s chief operating officer position in 2019 and stepped down as board director in 2020. He is currently a private investor, providing seed funding for several projects. Bunte has more than 30 years’ experience in business, product innovation and strategy development, and operations within the IT industry. He holds more than 50 patents. Bunte received a BBA and an MBA from the University of Iowa.

Richard L. Ferguson, CEO and Chairman of ACT (retired) and currently Co-Founder and Board Chairman of Intellisee

A 38-year employee of ACT, the last 22 as its CEO and Chairman, Ferguson led the company as it grew to become one of the largest education and workforce assessment companies in the world.  Following his retirement from ACT in 2010, he joined several Dallas-based educational technology start-up companies focused on helping higher education institutions put their degrees online, therby expanding access to education in the U.S. and Latin America.    During the past decade, he has mentored and served as board chairman of numerous education and health related startups. He also co-founded and currently serves as board chairman of Intellisee, a platform that uses AI to monitor for risks of various types (e.g., guns in the possession of bad actors) and then sends real-time alerts to users so that they can take informed action in a timely and effective way.  He continues working with and mentoring numerous young people that aspire to start their own business. 

Chris Klitgaard, Founder & CEO, Revology

Klitgaard is the founder and CEO of Revology, founded in 2022 to revolutionize healthcare revenue cycle management with robust technology, particularly in healthcare insurance follow-up. Klitgaard previously founded MediRevv, a revenue cycle services firm, where he served as CEO from 2007 until its successful exit in 2021. Klitgaard’s career began at University of Iowa Health Care, where he held various executive leadership roles. A proud Hawkeye, he earned a BBA, MBA, and MHA from the University of Iowa. A self-proclaimed “numbers nerd,” Klitgaard’s passion for people is what truly drives his career. His deep Iowa roots keep him active in the community through volunteer work. At home in Iowa City, Klitgaard enjoys walking his chocolate lab, biking, and keeping up with his four vibrant and witty children.
 

Ravi Patel, President, Hawkeye Hotels

Patel is president of Hawkeye Hotels, one of the fastest growing hotel companies in the country. He has overseen the development of 50 new construction and acquisition projects with total volume exceeding $1 billion. In addition to the hotel industry, Patel is a startup investor, philanthropist, and political activist. He is co‐founder of private equity firm Built By Iowa, having invested in over 20 early‐stage companies. Patel earned a BA in business management and certificate in entrepreneurship from the University of Iowa. His current board service includes Iowa Venture Capital Association and West Bank Community Board.

Dirk Quayle, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs Asset Management

Quayle is a managing director at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, serving as head of Defined Contribution Platform Enterprise Strategy. He joined Goldman Sachs in 2022 as a managing director following the firm's acquisition of NextCapital Group. At NextCapital Group Quayle was a co-founder, board member, and President of the company, as well as NextCapital Advisors, its RIA subsidiary. Quayle was also a co-founder of NextCapital’s predecessor company, Business Logic. During his career at both firms Quayle was focused on strategy, sales, product development, and capital raising. Earlier in his career, he was a director at Deutsche Bank Securities working on financing and relationship management with Fortune 500 companies. Quayle earned a BBA in Finance from the University of Iowa. He is a chartered financial analyst (CFA).

Nick Rhodes, Managing Partner, Obsession Media

For over 30 years Rhodes has been part of founding management for several successful start-ups and early-stage companies in TV programming and video technology.  In launching and building these businesses, he was a strategist for the acquisition of $250 million in committed equity and an operating manager through exit—with over $2.5 billion in asset value created.  These start-ups exist today as Fox Sports1, Fox Sports Net, Fox Deportes, NBC Universal Sports, and Game TV. Rhodes remains active in media and related IP. He received his degree from the University of Iowa in communication and theater arts with a focus on broadcasting and film.

Dennis Sparks, Former COO, UpToDate

Sparks graduated from the University of Iowa in 1980, with a BA in political science. He spent much of his career with the pharmaceutical industry starting as a packaging supervisor, transitioning to a variety of operational and sales roles including plant manager, sales director and a variety of global executive roles. His entrepreneurial role was as COO of UpToDate, Inc., the leading global on‐line resource for healthcare providers (doctors, nurses, etc.), where he played a role in growing the company from $40 million in annual sales to $120 million in a four-year period. The company was sold in 2008. He returned to the pharmaceutical industry (Pfizer) coaching/leading a variety of global integration projects. Sparks and his wife, Meg, also an Iowa graduate, reside in the Philadelphia metro area.

Nicole Strait, Head of Portfolio Operations, Norwest Equity Partners

Strait received a BBA in industrial relations and human resources management from the University of Iowa in 1993. She spent her earlier career in progressive HR leadership positions with leading consumer products and food companies, including Cargill, Pillsbury, International Multifoods and CNS (Breathe Right® Nasal Strips). In 2007, Strait co‐founded River Rock Partners, a consulting firm focused on assisting small to mid‐sized founder‐run and private equity owned companies with strategic and organizational planning. Since 2014, Strait has served as the head of organization strategy and portfolio operations at Norwest Equity Partners (NEP), a middle-market private equity firm. Strait leads NEP’s team of executive and operating advisors and works closely with portfolio company founders and CEOs to help them build high-performance, scalable organizations needed to deliver their strategic plans.
 

Keaton Walker, Founder, Walker Capital

Walker is a graduate of the University of Iowa College of Engineering. While earning a Certificate in Technological Entrepreneurship, he wrote a business plan that he further developed during his residency at the Bedell Entrepreneurship Learning Laboratory. That startup beef packing plant which he currently operates has, over the past ten years, generated more than $1 billion in value added GDP and $5 billion in total commerce for the state of Iowa.  Walker founded Walker Capital, a company that works with Iowa based start-ups to develop and scale businesses in manufacturing, agriculture, hospitality, and commercial real estate. Walker Capital is committed to statewide economic growth.