PowerTen: Spend 10 Minutes with Baltimore’s Innovation Leaders

PowerTen Leaders

• Scott Garber, MBA

  Operations Director, Baltimore Angels

  Scott Graber has extensive experience on both sides of the table - as a former serial entrepreneur turned venture investor (17 angel investments). He has served in a variety of roles within larger enterprises -- ranging from entrepreneur-in-residence at AARP to an advisor at two intelligence agencies and the deputy head of strategy and M&A at a multi-billion-dollar international services company. Scott is currently the Operations Director for Baltimore Angels, a 70-member angel investment group that focuses on early-stage start-ups primarily based in the mid-Atlantic region.

• Lisa Ishii, MD, MHS

  Associate Professor of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins Medicine
  Senior Medical Director for Clinical Integration in the Office of Johns Hopkins Physicians
  Chief Quality Officer for Clinical Best Practices, Johns Hopkins Medicine

  Dr. Lisa Ishii, Associate Professor of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, is Senior Medical Director for Clinical Integration in the Office of Johns Hopkins Physicians, and Chief Quality Officer for Clinical Best Practices. In these dual roles she provides strategy, oversight, and support for clinician lead teams that focus on quality improvement across JHM. These teams, called Clinical Communities, set quality standards and focus on driving value through standardization, cost optimization, and sharing of best practices. Dr. Ishii also serves as Chief Quality Officer for Ambulatory Procedures, and Chairs the JHM Ambulatory Surgery Coordinating Council, the body with representation from all eight Hopkins Ambulatory Surgery Centers that convenes to set quality standards for ASC’s across JHM. She is also Medical Director of the Johns Hopkins White Marsh Ambulatory Surgery Center, and Chair of the Board of the Johns Hopkins Surgery Center Series. Dr. Ishii was recently invited to serve on the Board of Priority Partners.

• Rana Quraishi, PhD

  Director of New Ventures, University of Maryland, Baltimore

  Rana Quraishi earned her PhD in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from Columbia University and began her career as a research biologist and an AAAS Congressional Science Fellow. Subsequently she worked for over 15 years in finance at Citigroup, Inc., American Express Company, Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, Inc. and FGIC (GE Capital’s municipal insurance subsidiary), where she headed business development. She was subsequently Commercial Quality Leader for GE Capital. She was also a Principal at Conning Capital Partners/SwissRe. She returned to life sciences as CFO of Helicon Therapeutics, a startup company launched by Cold Spring Harbor, OSI Therapeutics and Roche which was eventually acquired, and has continued working with life science start-ups since then. At the TCG Group, a premiere private equity firm, she focused on business development opportunities for its life science companies. She has served on several for-profit and not-for-profit boards and has also authored the widely read "Market Demand Study for Commercial Biotechnology, Biomedical, and Bioinformatics Facilities in New York City" for the New York City Partnership and Investment Fund. Currently Dr. Quaraishi is the Director of New Ventures at University of Maryland, Baltimore and manages a team that brings together management expertise, business formation strategy, a physical space, and early-stage capital critical for success for new start-ups based on University technology.

• Samuel I. “Sandy” Rosenberg, JD

  Member, House of Delegates and Vice-Chair, Judiciary Committee, Maryland General Assembly

  Samuel I. “Sandy” Rosenberg has been a member of the House for Delegates since 1983 and currently serves as House chair of the Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics on and the Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive, and Legislative Review.

  Sandy is a graduate of the Baltimore City public schools, Amherst College, and the Columbia University Law School. He co-teaches Legislation at the University of Baltimore and the University of Maryland Law School.

• Ben Seigel

  Opportunity Zones Coordinator, City of Baltimore

  Ben Seigel is responsible for positioning the City of Baltimore to attract investment in Baltimore’s Opportunity Zones and maximize impact for local residents and businesses. Seigel is serving in a matching and clearinghouse role with the following key responsibilities: provide information about and promote priority projects in Baltimore’s Opportunity Zones; identify and inventory Opportunity Fund investors and match them with relevant projects; identify other potential investments and leveraged funds for Opportunity Zone projects; work with local communities to identify opportunities and connect with partners and investors; and monitor and track Opportunity Zone investments and impacts.

  Previously, Seigel served as the inaugural executive director of the Johns Hopkins University 21st Century Cities Initiative, an applied research and partnership building program that brings together interdisciplinary researchers with city partners to strengthen policies focused on improving distressed communities. Prior to Hopkins, he served in the Obama administration as a senior advisor in the office of Labor Secretary Tom Perez and as the director of the Labor Department’s Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Seigel also served as the team lead for the Obama Administration’s Baltimore Federal Task Force, formed in May 2015, where he guided senior-level staff across more than a dozen agencies and the White House, to bring enhanced federal and technical assistance to Baltimore. He currently serves as a board member of the Center for Urban Families and the Job Opportunities Task Force in Baltimore.

• Tina C. Williams-Koroma, Esq., CISSP, PMP

  Founder and President, TCecure LLC

  Tina C. Williams-Koroma is founder and President of TCecure LLC, a cybersecurity risk management company headquartered in Maryland. She possesses a BS in Computer Science from the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), an MS in Management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a JD from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. She is a Maryland licensed attorney, a member and officer of the Maryland Technology Economic Development Corporation (TEDCO) Board of Directors, a member of the UMBC Research Park Board of Directors, and an Adjunct Instructor for UMBC’s Graduate Cybersecurity program. Through a TCecure contract with the University System of Maryland (USM), Tina serves as the Cybersecurity Academic Innovation Officer for the National Cybersecurity FFRDC (sponsored by NIST, operated by MITRE in partnership with USM).

• Christy Wyskiel, MBA

  Senior Advisor to the President, Johns Hopkins University

  Christy Wyskiel is Senior Advisor to the President of Johns Hopkins University on matters of innovation, commercialization, and entrepreneurship. In her role, she heads up Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures, which includes technology transfer, the FastForward innovation hubs, and commercial partnerships for the University. In this capacity, Wyskiel has overseen growth of the innovation ecosystem at the University. Since 2014, JHTV has supported more than 2,000 inventions from across the University and the creation of over 130 new companies, which have raised over $1.5B in venture funding. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins, as an entrepreneur and investor, Wyskiel started, supported, and analyzed businesses in health care and life sciences for nearly 20 years. She co-founded two Baltimore-based companies with Johns Hopkins faculty members, serving as an executive of both, and has served as a formal and informal advisor to many other startups.