Join us on Thursday, February 25, 2021 from 12-1pm to hear a presentation about common myths in funding startups from Tom Parkinson.
About the Speaker:
Tom Parkinson is Illinois Ventures' Senior Director, based in Champaign-Urbana. He has been investing in, mentoring and advising technology-based startup companies for more than 30 years. The team relies on Tom for his extensive knowledge of hardware, software, engineering, and SaaS technologies.
Prior to joining the Illinois Ventures team, Tom was a partner with a Chicago-based venture capital firm, where he helped raise and manage two venture capital funds that invested in under-served and fly-over parts of the country. He ran a successful seed capital fund affiliated with Northwestern University during the 1990s, and was CFO of an award-winning technology business incubator.
A passionate educator, Tom has taught entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial finance at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Ohio University, Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management and the Gies College of Business at UIUC. He taught the capstone class in Kellogg’s Discover-Test-Launch sequence for student entrepreneurs for four years. His students from Kellogg have gone on to launch more than a dozen new businesses in the US and around the world, raising nearly $200 million in venture capital. At Gies, he is currently teaching an iMBA course in Entrepreneurship with more than 600 students enrolled.
Tom is a member of the National Advisory Committee for Pipeline, a prestigious entrepreneurial fellowship program based in Kansas City.
Register for this virtual event HERE.
If you have questions, or need accommodations for this event, please email Cathy McArthur at mcarthur@illinois.edu.
