COMMITTEE CHAIRS

Resource ADVISORS

VIRGINIA ALTMAN

Virginia (Ginny) Altman, CEO and founder of The Exit Eagle, has been in the business of helping business owners to make their businesses what they want them to be for more than 30 years. She especially loves to help business owners to exit their business in a way that they, their family and employees celebrate. Virginia has helped more than 40 business owners to sell their businesses, and even more to increase the profitability and/or value of the business. 

ILANA DIAMOND

As Managing Partner of the 412 Venture Fund, Ilana leads the Fund Activities, including sourcing and due diligence; guiding the growth of the fund’s portfolio companies (supported by its Partners) and leading its “Founder-First” initiatives. Ilana continues to nurture her long standing relationships with the various Pittsburgh entities that define the Pittsburgh startup ecosystem, to identify early opportunities that support 412 Venture Fund’s mission of “Giving Back To The ‘Burgh”. She also serves as a Strategic Advisor with the fund’s parallel effort to serve as a catalyst and ally for minorities and women to build more equitable opportunities.Management.

SHEILA DINARDO

Sheila is the former Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of ANSYS, Inc., a public engineering software company, with responsibilities that included its global legal, compliance, internal audit, stock administration, and risk management functions. Prior to joining ANSYS, Sheila was CFO and General Counsel of Venture Beginnings, Inc., a technology incubator. Sheila was a shareholder of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, where her law practice focused on complex commercial litigation, antitrust and general corporate law. She is a former member of the Board of Directors of The Business Software Alliance, the leading software industry trade association. Sheila has an A.B. in Economics from Georgetown University, an M.S.I.A from Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business, and a J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh.

Mary Ann Dunham

Mary Ann Dunham, shareholder at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, counsels leaders in the technology, advanced manufacturing, health care and service industries on a broad range of transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, dispositions, financings and joint ventures. Mary Ann is a co-leader in the security monitoring and PERs practice groups.

Mary Ann’s general corporate practice is oriented toward helping growing companies from formation through financing to sale or acquisition, including drafting buy/sell, shareholder, management, loan, employment and non-competition agreements, as well as handling the everyday issues that companies encounter. 

WILL FREDERICK

Will is the Founder and Managing Partner of RightPlace Enterprises, a Pittsburgh-based advisory firm with Silicon Valley roots that combines deep industry knowledge and expertise in strategy, operations, financial management, and organizational transformation. Prior to founding RightPlace, Will served as CFO for multiple publicly traded and privately held companies in Silicon Valley, ranging from early stage start-ups to Fortune 100 enterprises.

His experience spans the company life cycle from early stage financing, successive fundraising, public company advising and communications, successful turnarounds, and M&A exit strategies. During his career as a C-level executive, Will has successfully completed $850M in private and public financings, M&A transactions, and debt instruments for companies. Will is an active member in BlueTree Allied Angels, Pittsburgh’s largest angel investment group, and in Next Act Fund, an angel investment group focused on women-owned and -led companies.

Mary Givens, CPA

Mary Givens is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Founder of Givens & Associates.  As a seasoned CPA, Mary specializes in accounting consulting with a focus on start ups and Small Cap Privately Held companies.  Her experience as an Accounting Executive encompasses Controller and Chief Financial Officer roles across a wide spectrum of businesses throughout the country.  She has successfully helped companies manage their business at any stage of their life cycle including start up, growth and investment stages when seeking capital from Banking Institutions, Venture Capital and Private Equity markets.  Mary has both public and private accounting experience, an accounting and finance degree from Texas A&M and is a QuickBooks Pro advisor.

LYNN-ANN GRIES

Lynn-Ann Gries has spent her career in the financial arena. From investment banking to venture capital, she has experience working with a wide range of companies, from start-ups to those in the Fortune 1000.

She is the Managing Partner of the First Check Fund, the newest in a family of 15+ funds managed by Alumni Ventures Group. She also runs her own consulting firm providing a variety of business services, including management of a women’s angel network, financial analysis, market research, and advisory services to entrepreneurs seeking capital.

Catherine Mott

Catherine Mott is the Founder and CEO of BlueTree Capital Group and BlueTree Allied Angels located in Wexford, PA (a suburb of Pittsburgh), with a satellite office in Erie. As of October 2015, BlueTree Allied Angels has invested $38+ million in 48 start-up companies. Catherine is the past Chairman of the Board for the Angel Capital Association and the Angel Capital Education Foundation (aka Angel Resource Institute). In September 2011, she was one of 21 individuals selected for the SEC’s Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies. Catherine recently joined forces with David Motley, Roger Byford, and Jon Pastor to create the BlueTree Venture Fund I, focused on investing in Series B rounds of angel-funded companies in the mid-Atlantic and Midwestern regions of the United States.

LYNNE E. PORTER MD, FACP

Lynne is former senior medical faculty at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in the Gastroenterology Division. She is boarded in both Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology. Currently, she is an Executive-in-Residence at the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). Here she helps startups move their research from the bench to the market. She helps with validation of the science, how best to commercialize it, support for dealing with the FDA, team development and market analysis.

Lynne also screens biomedical companies for investment for Blue Tree Allied Angels (BTAA), an angel investment group in Pittsburgh. She is a mentor for Women in Bio and undergraduate and graduate students at both the University of Pittsburgh and CMU.

Carl A. Ronald

Carl Ronald is a shareholder in the Emerging Technologies group of Babst Calland. He is also a highly experienced intellectual property attorney who has been representing clients, large and small, in the prosecution, licensing, and enforcement of their patent, copyright, and trademark rights for more than 20 years. As part of his practice, he counsels clients on how to strategically protect their inventive creations, domestically and in foreign jurisdictions, as well as providing advice on freedom to operate, infringement studies, portfolio analyses, and white space evaluations. He also routinely prepares and negotiates commercial and employment documentation relating to the ownership, use, transfer, sharing, and joint development of existing and new intellectual property.

Michael e. Silverman

Mike Silverman is a business attorney and the Chair of Cohen & Grigsby’s Tax Group. He advises clients in negotiating and structuring mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures, and with respect to tax planning, transition and exit planning, captive insurance companies, and estate planning matters. Mike serves as general corporate counsel for local, regional, and national privately-held businesses. Mike also has significant experience in representing individuals and businesses in federal, state, and local tax audits.

Brenda Smith, MBA, CFP 

Brenda Smith is a Certified Financial Planner™ and Professional Certified Coach® (PCC). As a Financial Advisor at Bernstein, she works with individuals, families, executives, and entrepreneurs on complex life and business transitions, addressing both the technical and behavioral aspects of wealth planning. Prior to joining the firm, Brenda was Founder & CEO of Peoplesmith Global, Inc., where she managed a global team of coaches and served as a trusted advisor to multinational CEOs, C-level executives and early-stage entrepreneurs on business strategy, management, and capital markets. Brenda began her career with Merrill Lynch, where she managed the national retirement planning (ERISA) product for the firm and then served as district manager for Merrill Lynch Northeast. Before that, she was Vice President of Investment Marketing at PNC Investments. 

Duane a. Stewart III

Duane Stewart is the Chemical Group Co-chair at Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney. He specializes in explaining complex intellectual property law concepts in a way that is accessible. Duane focuses on patent prosecution, portfolio management and litigation; trademark procurement and portfolio management; and analysis and due diligence for transactions including intellectual property (IP). He also has experience with copyright and trade secret law.