Bachelor of Science, Civil Engineering, Oklahoma State University
Master of Business Administration, University of Central Oklahoma
Kevin is the Founder and Managing Partner at Serac Ventures and has over 16 years' experience in finance and private markets investing. Prior to Serac Ventures, Kevin was a Partner at Spur Capital Partners where he led investments into top-tier, early-stage venture capital fund managers and select co-investment/direct investments. Prior to Spur, Kevin was the Director of Angel Investments and Venture Advisor at i2E, a seed-stage investment firm. In that role, Kevin sourced and led investments into early-stage companies in the biotech, materials, consumer, and SaaS sectors. Kevin also has a combined eight years of investment experience as a Bank Examiner at the Federal Reserve Bank and as a Financial Advisor at Morgan Stanley and Northwestern Mutual.
Kevin has also serves as a Trustee and Investment Committee Member for the Oklahoma City Maps Investment Operations Trust and he is a Board Advisor for i2E Investment Management Company. Kevin is the author of Starting Your Own Venture Investment: A How to Guide, and writes regularly about startups and venture capital on his blog, TheJCurve and Medium page.
Bachelors of Arts in Finance, The University of Kansas School of Business
Masters of Business Administration, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business
Devin is an Associate at Serac Ventures and brings to the team an extensive background in investing and operational excellence with backgrounds in venture capital and management consulting. Prior to Serac Ventures, Devin was an Investor at TechNexus Venture Collaborative, where he led end-to-end deal execution from sourcing to due diligence across vertical SaaS, fintech marketplaces, and deeptech investments. Prior to TechNexus, Devin was a venture fellow at Swanlaab USA Ventures and Serac Ventures, where he focused on building out internal operations, deal execution, and strategic projects across the portfolio. Furthermore, Devin spent time as an M&A (Mergers & Acquisitions) consultant at West Monroe Partners and Deloitte Consulting serving middle market private equity firms in transactional due diligence.
In addition, Devin also has a passion for increasing diverse representation within the venture capital community by serving as an AlumniBoard Member for Chicago:Blend and Community Manager for BLCK VC Chicago.
Bachelor of Science in Economics, The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania
Chris Tsakalakis is a venture partner at Serac Ventures, where he provides strategic advice to portfolio companies, input on due diligence, and help in sourcing investment opportunities. Chris has been a technology CEO, advisor and board member for more than 25 years with experience developing and leading consumer technology businesses at Kiva, Vivino and StubHub. Chris has also been an entrepreneur in residence at Benchmark Capital and started his career at Bain & Company as a strategy consultant.
The purpose of the Guild is to help Serac portfolio companies with strategic needs as they grow. Serac portfolio companies have the opportunity to present to the Guild to share their business and highlight areas where they need assistance. The intent is to help founders connect with experienced professionals who can help them navigate roadblocks and accelerate their growth.
Brandi has more than 20 years experience in finance at organizations that include JP Morgan Chase, The Federal Reserve Bank, and the National Bureau of Economic Research. Brandi has a successful track record of designing, executing, and communicating quantitative solutions for a broad range of technical audiences. Her core competencies include the ability to analyze large volumes of data to define benchmarks, establish causation, and identify trends and correlations that are used to guide decisions in developing national policy and in mitigating risk for multi-trillion investment portfolios.
Connect with Brandi on LinkedIn.
Michael Katz is a seasoned executive with over 20 years experience leading and scaling marketplace and SaaS businesses. He has a proven track record of success in driving operational excellence, revenue growth and building and managing high-performing teams.
Most recently, Michael served as the Vice President of International Supply & Global Business Operations at StockX, where he led the company's expansion into new markets (APAC and EMEA) and their operational success. Prior to StockX, Michael held senior leadership positions at StubHub where over 14 years helped StubHub grow the business from startup to scale. Other key roles included CRO at DTI Management (now Victory Live); and SVP Endeavor OnLocation.
In addition to his corporate experience, Michael is the CEO and Founder of Live Sphere Consulting, where he provides consulting and fractional executive services in Live Events & eCommerce Marketplaces.
Michael is a graduate of University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He’s passionate about health, wellness and training and lives in Los Angeles with his wife and son.
Connect with Michael on LinkedIn.
Madeline brings over 17 years of leadership experience across technology, government, enterprise, and academia. Today, Madeline serves as an Executive in Residence with the University of Central Oklahoma MBA program, where she teaches AI strategy, governance, and implementation.
Previously, Madeline was a Senior Manager at Deloitte where she led a portfolio of cross-sector enterprise AI consulting engagements, and served as the U.S. Head of Strategy & Operations for Deloitte’s AI Center - overseeing board strategy, go-to-market, and a skunkworks team of 120 ML/DL engineers delivering more than 100 of the firm's most advanced research-to-commercialization AI projects. Earlier in her career, she drove large-scale defense and technology projects with Booz Allen and worked in the executive and legislative branches in the State of Oklahoma.
Madeline holds an MBA from the University of CentralOklahoma and a BA from Southern Methodist University.
Connect with Madeline on Linkedin.
Garland Moore is a Solutions Architect for an American technology company. He has over 15 years of experience and specializes in application security, multi-cloud management, online fraud prevention, application delivery networking (ADN). Prior to his current role, Garland was the Lead Systems Engineer at Gulfport Energy, an oil and gas company focused on exploration, acquisition and production of natural gas, crude oil and NGL in the United States. Garland consults large corporations regularly on architecture and design of modern applications and automation.
Connect with Garland on LinkedIn.
Jonah Zahnd is an academic researcher, author, and former VC currently leading the Project on Impact Investments at Harvard Business School. He also advises VC funds and startups in the climate, healthcare, and fintech verticals.
Before HBS, Jonah was an early-stage VC investor at Global Millennial Capital, and previously led market research projects and strategic initiatives at Goldman Sachs. Jonah has served as a Consultant with Cognoscere and held a research appointment at the Cornell Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. Jonah holds an MSc from the London School of Economics and a BA from Westmont College.
Connect with Jonah on LinkedIn.
