Tech Talk Virtual Event – April 28

Dr. Paul Campbell, Brown Venture Group and Full Stack Committee Member

Dr. Paul Campbell is a co-founder and managing partner at Brown Venture Group, LLC. Launched in 2018, Brown Venture Group, LLC is a venture capital firm exclusively for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous technology startups and founders. Prior to launching Brown Venture Group, Dr. Campbell was a telecommunication sales executive as well as a serial entrepreneur, launching startups in IoT and media production. He was one of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journals 2021 40 under 40 recipients and was recently also listed as one of the Twin Cities Business Magazine’s 2022 top 100 people to know. Dr. Campbell has been featured in publications such as Forbes, Bloomberg, Black Enterprise Magazine, and Authority Magazine.

Al Cornish, gener8tor

Al is a General Partner at gener8tor, a startup accelerator and venture capital firm. He is also the Founder/Chief Strategy Officer of Clear Shadow, a full service consulting firm that designs and implements strategies that promote innovation, drive value within diverse multistakeholder systems and maximize profitability in rapidly changing business environments. He spent the first five years of his career in the United States and Europe working in finance and strategy for a Minnesota-based medical technology company. Since then, a common thread throughout his career has been technology, including working with start-up companies as an attorney and lobbying on policies to stimulate technological innovation. Most recently, Al served in a senior management role for Amazon Logistics, where he provided strategic leadership on key community and operational decisions across a multi-million dollar network of facilities. Al is passionate about supporting entrepreneurs and investing in Minnesota’s best and brightest founders.

Diane Rucker, University Enterprise Labs (UEL) and Full Stack Committee Member

Diane Rucker is the Executive Director at University Enterprise Labs (UEL). Diane is responsible for all aspects of UEL’s operations, working with early-stage life-science and biotechnology companies to create partnerships to help them grow. She also teaches a class at the University of Minnesota on Leadership and Business Basics for Scientists and Engineers through TLI (Technological Leadership Institute). Diane has extensive experience in business strategy and growth, with leadership roles in innovation, engineering design, product management, and technology transfer. Her experience includes a collaboration with MIT’s Trust Center for Entrepreneurship and broad-based research and business experience around the world, including Europe and the Middle East.

Cole Stevens, Bridgemakers

Cole Stevens, born and raised in poverty to a black mother and white father in south Minneapolis, has had a childhood marked by financial hardship, addiction, curiosity and perseverance. Watching his parents trade in their dreams of becoming successful artists to work tirelessly to provide for him has shaped Cole into a relentless artist, activist and social-entrepreneur. He’s focused on enriching the lives and communities of those most underserved and underprivileged, and providing opportunities for fulfillment and prosperity to his peers through his work. A lifelong affinity for social grey areas has enabled Cole to bridge gaps across generational, political, racial and class divisions to bring people together for the common goal of making sure the innovative brilliance of young people is heard, respected and meaningfully engaged in our democracy society and economy.