Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur and Founder & CEO of Startup Genome, JF is the world’s leading voice in innovation ecosystem development, having advised more than 100 governments and agencies across 50 countries. He has founded five businesses and led others across two continents and three sectors (Tech, Life Sciences, and Cleantech), achieving two exits plus one growing at scaleup stage. 

Marc leads global growth and impact. He advises governments, scientific organizations, and venture-backed startups alike and is an appointed Expert in Entrepreneurship, IT and Future of Economic Progress by the World Economic Forum. 

Stephan works with clients in government and private industry consortia all around the world, advising on the creation and the acceleration of tech and innovation clusters. Prior to his role at Startup Genome, Stephan headed up the International Consulting practice at U.K. ecosystem agency Tech Nation (fka Tech City UK) in London and served as Managing Director of digitalswitzerland.

Previous to his work in the digital ecosystems space, Stephan worked as an executive director for professional services firms Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young. Stephan holds an MSc in Economics and studied at the University of Bonn, Germany and the London School of Economics (LSE).

Tricia runs operations and content at Startup Genome. Most recently she led communications and marketing at the BridgeCommunity corporate commercialization accelerator and helped Georgia State University expand their entrepreneurial efforts through opening an incubator and building a resource directory. 

Tricia previously served as the Director of Marketing at TechSquare Labs incubator and seed fund and kickstarted Hypepotamus as a publication — the largest tech blog in the Southeast U.S.

Mike leads on developing and delivering Startup Genome’s Hypergrowth Programs for cities and countries around the world using his experience as an exited entrepreneur himself, prolific angel investor, and advisor to governments and ecosystems.

Prior to this, Mike was Entrepreneur Success Director at U.K. Government funded Tech Nation, responsible for rolling out a U.K-wide network of scaling support programs for ambitious U.K. tech entrepreneurs through national growth stage and sector-specific programs including Upscale and Future Fifty, which forms the basis of the Hypergrowth programs.

Gary Oliver serves as President of Startup Genome Hypergrowth, helping to provide high-potential scaleups with the know-how and global network to rapidly become category leaders. Gary has over 30 years’ experience building early-stage, mid-size, and global technology companies.

Ravi is a pioneer in the startup accelerator space and has helped build several startup ecosystems around the world. Since 2006, he has been helping startups in the Indian startup ecosystem through a fund called Mentor Partners. Ravi is a co-founder of Microsoft for Startups and established its presence in China, Israel, Europe, U.S., and India. As the CEO of T-Hub, he built the world’s largest innovation campus in Hyderabad. As the Chief Innovation Officer of Telangana state, he helped build a vibrant innovation ecosystem of social, rural, student, and women entrepreneurs in the state.

He is a seasoned business leader, mentor, investor, and serial entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience building high-performance teams that collaborate across various functions to execute for consistent results. He has taken several companies from startups through growth to exit, both in the U.S. and in India.

Over the past 15 years Sam has advised high growth tech companies to scale and succeed in new markets and she has built international accelerator programmes for Governments, VCs and Corporate Venture Funds (US, UK, EU, Asia and the Middle East). At Startup Genome, Sam leads the activities and operations across the MENA region, she is responsible for designing and implementing Hypergrowth programs in the region, as well developing relationships with governments, scientific organizations and scaleups to support their growth.

In her previous role as International Director at Tech Nation, she built a new division for the organization, scaling the company for the first time into four overseas markets across Asia. Living in Silicon Valley for 8 years, she has previously led the UK Government Trade division in the USA, led commercial growth for private organizations in the US and sits on various governments innovation and growth boards.

Liam is responsible for the building and delivery of Startup Genome's Hypergrowth Programs globally, which are currently live in Montreal, Canada, and Tokyo, Japan. Prior to Startup Genome, Liam was Head of Programmes at Tech Nation, responsible for the delivery of growth programs to 250 entrepreneurs from seed-Series B+, and leading Upscale, a program supporting Series A+ companies with their growth challenges. 

He also worked in Strategy and Operations for a FTSE 100 tech company and led programs for an innovation consultancy.

Joanne leads Mentorship for Startup Genome’s Hypergrowth Programs where she curates a network of experienced leaders and successful founders to support our cohort companies successfully expand into the US market.

Since 2014, Joanne has worked at the intersection of supporting global entrepreneurs with access to Silicon Valley. She founded several organizations and initiatives focused on bridging the gap between Canada and the US market including the Canadian Women's Network, the preeminent community that helps female founders grow locally and scale globally, and CELS, a Bay Area nonprofit supporting the advancement of Canadian life science technology businesses. Joanne’s commitment to supporting women includes co-founding an angel investment fund with the mission to increase the number of female investors in early-stage startups. Her company publishes Disruption Magazine which profiles innovators in emerging industries to amplify their voice on the global stage.

Chris is Head of Research at Startup Genome. He was formerly head of new technology and startup research at Nesta, the Innovation foundation, and, prior to that, worked for several years in university technology transfer and enterprise strategy. 

Chris has advisory roles with the U.K.’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for Entrepreneurship, the UK Intellectual Property Office and the ScaleUp Institute. He is a 'Startup Europe' Ambassador, a Policy Fellow at the Centre for Science and Policy, University of Cambridge, and a Senior Fellow at the Global Entrepreneurship Network. He also consults as a Senior Entrepreneurship Strategy Specialist at The World Bank. Chris previously helped run the Startup Europe Partnership, a pan-European program dedicated to promoting corporate-startup collaboration, and was part of the secretariat of the European Digital Forum dedicated to helping digital startups scale across Europe.

Pranav supports assessment and strategy formulation for ecosystems across the world. He works extensively with Startup Genome’s members and partners to drive the largest data collection project on startup ecosystems globally. Previously, Pranav was a Research Analyst at A.T. Kearney and supported the firm’s Private Equity and M&A practice. 

He has worked on projects spanning investment strategy development, due diligence, target screening, and synergy optimization.

Parshant has been in data analysis for the past 10 years, six of which have been in Startup Genome’s Data Science team. He leads the team responsible for quantitative data infrastructure and analysis. This includes data on over three million companies, 280+ ecosystems, and survey data from more than 100,000 startup executives across the globe.

He brings a wealth of experience in working on GSER rankings and Ecosystem Assessments to the role. Prior to Startup Genome, Parshant had a Data Analytics role in a California-based SaaS company.

Sama is the primary liaison between Startup Genome and its Members, and works closely with the implementation teams to ensure all deliverables are on track. She is the point person managing queries and connecting Members to one another to build a strong, integrated network of ecosystem developers. 

Previously, as part of the Startup Genome Research team, she provided research, analytical, and communication support across multiple projects including the production and launch of the annual Global Startup Ecosystem Report.

Prior to joining Startup Genome, Forrest worked as the Data Manager at the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), where he was responsible for data analysis, survey development, and content generation.

Forrest holds a MS degree in Information Science from Drexel University.

Prior to joining Startup Genome, Marina was part of various marketing agencies and early-stage and scaling startups, helping win over and gain insights into customers.

Marina acquired and managed accounts for over 100 companies and co-founded a small video production company.

Franzis is in charge of events and public relations. She is a seasoned operations manager, bringing in over 10 years of experience in the media industry. 

Previously, she worked at the German Press Agency (dpa) and was involved in the production of several critically acclaimed movies, documentaries, and commercial campaigns. Franzis holds a degree in Communications from Berlin University of the Arts.

Anna is a primary contact point for Startup Genome’s global membership in developing and creating maximum impact in their startup ecosystem. She oversees inquiries and cultivates connections, forging a robust, cohesive network of ecosystem developers.

In prior roles, Anna focused on business development, focused on building relationships with ecosystems and providing dedicated support to help them thrive.

Kelly leads Startup Genome’s reports and content team, managing production of data-driven content on tech startup ecosystems. She has over ten years of experience in the publishing industry.

In prior roles, Kelly specialized in content creation and management across a variety of industries including a Fortune 50 telecommunications company and international medical journals. She holds degrees in English, Writing, and Publishing from Drexel University and a Master's degree in Organizational Psychology from Pennsylvania State University.