OUR MENTORS

Nancy Benovich Gilby
Nancy Benovich Gilby

Tom Borg
Tom Borg

Meri Dembrow
Meri Dembrow

Paul Henchey
Paul Henchey

Gary Hessenaur
Gary Hessenaur

Bob Honeyman
Bob Honeyman

David Maas
David Maas

Kristine Nash-Wong
Kristine Nash-Wong
As the director of entrepreneurial services at the SPARK East Innovation Center in Ypsilanti, Kristine helps early stage startups accelerate their growth by providing strategic consulting and marketing services. A strategic planner with more than 25 years of marketing experience, Kristine specializes in helping technology companies gain and grow market share. She is passionate about helping mission-driven companies deliver scalable, sustainable solutions. Before joining SPARK, Kristine founded the consulting firm Health Sapience which provided specialized consultancy helping health service and technology providers successfully scale. In this role, Kristine honed her expertise in strategic planning, marketing communication, business development, and design services. Kristine’s previous experience in the Ann Arbor/ Ypsilanti SmartZone includes serving as marketing director for HealthMedia, an Ann Arbor-based healthcare startup that was acquired by Johnson & Johnson. She has also previously served as a judge for the Acceleration Michigan Innovation Competition and the Blue Ocean Strategy High School business competition.

Ravi Nigam
Ravi Nigam
Ravi is the owner of the Law Offices of Ravi K. Nigam. He is a legal adviser and counselor for startups and small businesses assisting with company formation, business law, contracts, data privacy and security issues, immigration and business planning.

Clay Phillips
Clay Phillips
Clay Phillips is an experienced executive in the fields of open innovation, intelligence, business development, and strategy. Since 2014 he has been an innovation and growth strategy advisor for numerous startups, large companies and non-profits. He has worked with clients in the automotive, mobility, energy, IT, health care, materials, financial services, and specialty chemicals industries. Since 2018 he has served as the Mobility Technology Lead for the Michigan Small Business Development Center where he supports Michigan’s entrepreneur ecosystem and advises early-stage startups in the mobility sector. He has been an instructor for the NSF’s Midwest Innovation Corps program, mentor for GAMIC and TechStars-Detroit, and other mobility focused accelerator programs. He also serves as an Executive Advisor to SRI International.
Prior to 2014 Clay was an executive at General Motors R&D where he held leadership positions in corporate intelligence and strategy, alliance management, and innovation commercialization. He was a founding member and VP of GM’s corporate venture capital arm, GM Ventures, and led commercialization due diligence for the R&D Center’s open innovation and internal startup program. Earlier in his career he managed international product and portfolio planning and new business development initiatives.
Clay holds a BA from Trinity College and an MBA from Columbia University. In between degrees he served as an intelligence officer with the U.S. Navy. For fun, he plays guitar in a band, composes and records, and enjoys sailing whenever possible.

Arcadio (Kayo) Ramirez
Arcadio (Kayo) Ramirez

Soosmita Sinha
Soosmita Sinha
Founder and President of the Health Law Institute (HLI), Geneva, Switzerland; Board member of the International Network for Health Workforce Educators (INHWE), Cyprus; Board member at New Enterprise Forum (NEF), Michigan, USA.
Soosmita’s professional experience spans public, private and non-profit sectors in different geographical locations – Nigeria, United States and the Switzerland (United Nations organizations in Geneva). She holds a Pharmacy degree from Ahmadu Bello University (Zaria, Nigeria) and a JD from University of Michigan, (Ann Arbor, USA) and is currently licensed as both a pharmacist and lawyer in Michigan, USA.
Her passion for advancing universal access to healthcare and advocating for health worker rights led her to found the Health Law Institute (HLI), Geneva, Switzerland in December 2018. She is also a board
member of the International Network for Health Workforce Educators (INHWE) to help inform about the need for legal awareness and literacy of health workers.
She has been a lifelong entrepreneur but her interest in scalable startup entrepreneurship started during her law school at the Entrepreneurship Clinic and later as coach for the New Enterprise Forum (NEF). She is currently a board member at NEF and has been privileged to coach several startups.
Creative interests go hand in hand with her more analytical endeavors and her current top three interests include painting, photography and dancing Argentine tango [Soosmita.com]

Linda Smith
Linda Smith
A 1991 EMU accounting grad, Linda Smith has 35 plus years of personal entrepreneurial experience in farming, real estate and life science ventures.
Linda co-founded Michigan Innovation Headquarters with her husband in 2015. Serial entrepreneurs, they launched MI-HQ, a collaborative business incubator accelerator campus which has grown to 170,000 sq. ft. of flex office, wet lab and manufacturing space as a start up venture.
At 80 companies and growing, MI-HQ fosters Life sciences, Alternative Energy, Medical Device, Waste to Energy, Corporate Development and Micro Electronics together in a community environment. MI-HQ was awarded Ann Arbor Spark Project of the Year in 2020. Over 25 years working with early stage companies has provided Linda with a unique insight into what makes a successful start up. She enjoys helping other entrepreneurs succeed.

Dan Stewart
Dan Stewart
values that drive successful business development. He writes a frivolous blog, publishes a weekly newsletter, has numerous articles published in trade journals including SIA - The Staffing Stream, and has authored and published “Managing The MSP” - a book centered on the proposition of building successful relationships with Managed Service Providers in the contingent labor space. In addition to his extensive business development acumen, Dan is an accomplished public speaker. Dan holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Northwood University in Midland, MI.

Chao Sun
Chao Sun
Chao’s financial expertise will be counted on to support CapStone Holdings, Inc. and its affiliates and subsidiaries with setting strategic goals, directing operational activities for continued growth, evaluating investment opportunities and risk analysis, as well as portfolio management. Chao will also have responsibilities for entrepreneurial initiatives in Southeast Michigan, including developing strategic partnerships and alliances with local innovation hubs, universities, and venture groups.
Prior to joining CapStone, Chao was an organizational development consultant at Sensei Change Associates and the co-founder and chief financial officer of The Back Office Studio, a co-working space in Ypsilanti. As a first-generation immigrant, he came to the United States from China for his master’s degree in Human Resources Management and Organizational Development in 2010. A graduate of Eastern Michigan University, Chao is a part-time lecturer at the College of Business and gives back to the community through being the board member of the Neighborhood Theater Group and other efforts.