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The University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Resurgence Fellowship – A new program to connect students and startups at the Cleantech Accelerator.
This program, supported by the Breakthrough Energy Fellows Ecosystem Grant, provides selected University of Chicago students with the opportunity to support innovation and business development in the fields of clean energy and sustainability.
“The Resurgence Program aims to bring cleantech entrepreneurs from around the country to Hyde Park and connect them with the University of Chicago ecosystem. The Breakthrough Ecosystem Grant will support institutional efforts aligned with this mission. It has provided us with the opportunity to create meaningful experiential learning opportunities for our students and a source of talent for our accelerator’s technology entrepreneurs. This was a great first step in building a connected network and nurturing ecosystem for the future,” said Resurgence Director Ozge Gunei-Altai.
The first group of Resurgence Fellows are all MBA candidates from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. They support startups in key business development areas such as financial modeling and forecasting, customer discovery, market opportunity assessment, and investor preparation including data room staging.
“Breakthrough Energy is proud to support the University of Chicago with an ecosystem grant. We are empowering organizations to help students, scientists, and innovators collaborate to develop solutions to climate change. We are committed to leveraging our resources to give,” said Ashley Grosch, Vice President of Breakthrough Energy. “Through the development of our unique Business Fellows Program, we have seen firsthand the effectiveness of the collaborative model that the Resurgence Program is working to implement. We are excited to see this program come to fruition.”
2024 Resurgence Fellowship Cohort:
- Matthew Cason // Matthew is interested in advancing the world’s technological infrastructure towards a greener and more prosperous society. Prior to joining Booth, he worked at Accenture, Oasis Financial, and Capital One, in addition to various political advisory roles. Matthew holds a BA in Economics and Political Science from the University of Chicago. She will support Alpha Nur as a Resurgence Fellow.
- Natalia Cuenca // Before attending business school, Natalia worked as a materials engineer in the refining and petrochemical industries. Her work in the field sparked her interest in climate change technologies and accelerating the energy transition. She is particularly interested in driving solutions for hard-to-reduce sectors, and she will support ExPost Technology.
- kelsey french // Kelsey is passionate about North American commodity markets and decarbonization. Previously, he was a specialist consultant in McKinsey & Company’s energy practice and has worked as an investor in both the early-stage (VC) climate technology and late-stage (PE) industrial services sectors. She is based in Houston, Texas with her husband and her three cats. Kelsey will support C+UP as her Fellow in Resurgence.
- Alexis Zhu // Alexis has a background in materials engineering and logistics. As a Resurgence Fellow, Alexis is excited to contribute to Natural Sciences’ growth through sustainable business development and strengthening the market establishment of the company’s magnetic oil separation technology.
- Tim Reichman // Passionate about sustainable energy solutions, particularly battery technology and energy storage, Tim will be supporting Strenergy. Previous experience includes software engineering and management consulting.
- Kohei Yagura // Before entering business school, Kohei worked at a government-run development bank specializing in infrastructure development, first as a loan officer supporting power plant project development and then as a risk analyst, primarily in the climate sector. I was involved in risk management. He is passionate about developing renewable energy and expanding clean technology and will support Blaze Power.
“We designed this fellowship to connect top business talent from the University of Chicago with technical founders participating in accelerator programs, because combining business and technical expertise is the secret to success in accelerating deep tech ventures,” said Ryan Brownlow, Program Manager. at the Polsky Center.
Fellows will also have the opportunity to attend Resurgence talks, workshops, and events, and have the opportunity to connect with other innovators, investors, thought leaders, and entrepreneurs working in industries related to cleantech.
// The Resurgence Cleantech Accelerator is supported by Deep Tech Ventures at the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in partnership with the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering. Start-ups gain access to additional funding opportunities, as well as business training and technical advice, premier facilities, industry mentors, student talent, and venture capital.
