Meet the Team
CEO & Founder
Mr. Rahul Harkawat
Rahul is an entrepreneur with over 35 years’ experience as a founder of multiple startup companies in the US & globally. Diversity of Experience runs the gamut of incubation to exits for companies ranging from startups to global organizations in the field of software, mobile, MedTech & Chemical Polymers. Passionate about business scaling having built software companies to scale 8/9-digit revenues for Itochu, Japan & other startups.
Extensive experience in assisting Universities Commercialize research in Singapore & USA to enable underserved communities achieve significant milestones in their journey to achieve success. Rahul & his family live in Las Vegas focused on enabling & developing a startup ecosystem in the state of Nevada through a 503B nonprofit focused on entrepreneurship.
CTO
Dr. David Irvin
David is an experienced in Polymer Chemist with 30+ years’ experience in Materials Science specifically focused on nanomaterials, nanocomposites & aerogels. Has extensive work experience working with a team of chemists and engineers for startup companies, government projects.
He is a certified Navy Six Sigma trainer and has worked on several polymer innovation commercialization initiatives & has developed several patented polymers. David is a teacher and consultant who enjoys bringing new products to market. He & his family enjoy living in the outdoors with visits to national parks & remote locations.
Chief Operations Officer
Mr John E. Minnick, M.B.A.
John has 24 years’ experience in tech management in Multiple Industry sector experience including biotech, pharmaceuticals, chemistry and other industrial materials. He also brings 20 years of experience in economic development, business development, innovation management, entrepreneurship, startup, workforce development and training.
Experienced in product strategy, start-ups, and global business having worked with transnational companies in USA, Japan & EU. Has built and scaled biotech startups to successful exits. Has significant experience in driving and coordinating economic development efforts with public and private sector partners.
John currently lives in Las Vegas with a family spread across multiple geographies & is seeking to enable startups emerge from Las Vegas & UNLV ecosystem to become commercially successful.
Technical Advisory Board
Advisor
Dr. Wilton Chung
Wilton is an accomplished executive with demonstrated success spanning information service in technology, software, and financial services. Extensive experience with data management and outsourcing issues. Based on available opportunities, built a startup to a multimillion-dollar company.
Broad areas of expertise include managing the company various services components combining and integrating the offerings, including offshore development.
Wilton lives with his family focused in enabling Philippine business scale in the US while enabling his children to achieve their goals.
He spends his off hours learning the arcane realm of Physics the subject matter of his doctorate program.
Advisor
Dr. Pradip Bhowmick
Pradip K. Bhowmik is currently Professor of Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at University of Nevada Las Vegas.He obtained his Master of Science in Physical/Organic Chemistry and Ph.D. in Organic/Polymer Chemistry from University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and University of Massachusetts at Amherst, respectively.
He currently serves on the editorial board of 14 technical journals and is an academic editor for 10 journals including Green and Sustainability Chemistry, Chemical Science International Journal and Asian Journal of Chemical Science as well as an Advisory Board Member for InnoSense LLC, California. He has received or be nominated for several teaching awards including the :
Nevada Board of Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award (winner, 2015);
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Council for Advancement and Support of Education Professor of the Year (nominee, 2014);
The National Society of Collegiate Scholars Inspire Integrity Award (nominee, 2013); UNLV Foundation Distinguished Teaching Award (winner, 2011 and 2004);
He received the 2014 POLY Fellow and 2014 ACS Fellow Awards for his outstanding scientific/professional accomplishments and service to the American Chemical Society.
Advisor
Dr. Huolin Xin
Huolin Xin graduated from the Physics Department of Cornell University in 2011 and joined University of California, Irvine in 2018. Prior to becoming a professor at UCI, he worked at Brookhaven National Laboratory as a scientific staff member and a principal investigator from 2013 to 2018. His primary field of expertise lies in developing novel 3-D, atomic-resolution, and in situ spectroscopic and imaging tools to probe the structural, chemical, and bonding changes of energy materials during chemical reactions or under external stimuli.
His research spans the areas from tomographic and atomic-resolution chemical imaging of battery and fuel cell materials to in situ environmental study of heterogeneous catalysts, and to the development of deep learning enabled self-driving TEM. In 2008, 2010, 2011, and 2012, he received Distinguished Scholar Award, Castaing Award, and Presidential Scholar Award from professional EM societies.
His work on battery materials has twice been selected as the Top-10 Scientific Achievements in 2014 and 2019 by Brookhaven National Lab. His research has resulted in more than 180 peer-reviewed publications and 1 patent, 33 of which are published in Science/Nature sister journals (corresponding author on 8 of the 33). To date, he has graduated four Master's students and three Ph.D. students. Two of his group alumni have won the “Presidential Student Award” at the annual M&M conference based on their research in Xin group.
Strategic Advisory Board
Advisor
Mr. Georges Sudarskis
Georges Sudarskis is a global executive with over 20 years of CEO/CIO experience and 40 years of investment experience, spanning multiple continents and industry sectors.
Georges is a seasoned alternative investment management specialist, with quite an exceptional history in building, developing and managing very large institutional portfolios of illiquid assets, and empowering the teams that execute the strategies. His deep expertise in institutional design, governance and investments is preciously rare in most domains of asset management.
Beyond the search for superior risk-adjusted return performance, Georges’ passion lies with discovering and nurturing new managers, propelling existing managers into their next phase of growth, and experimenting with new approaches to capture earning streams. His pioneering efforts in eliciting new areas (new regions, new managers, new strategies) for private equity investing have earned him the reputation for “having put ADIA on the fund raising map”.
Advisor
Mr. Shiv Grewal
Senior executive and dealmaker with over 30 years of US and cross border experience. Mr. Grewal is known for negotiating some of the most prominent cross border life science, technology, clean tech, and financial services transactions on the west coast.
He also works with several venture funds who seek to invest in new and existing companies in the US and throughout Asia. Has experience with emerging growth businesses in clean technology, life sciences, and information technology.
Acting as a unique investment and development partner, he focuses on cross-border transactions throughout Asia by connecting U.S. companies to entities in Japan, China and India and by leveraging capital from Asia to invest in U.S. entities.
Advisor
Mr. Chinta Hari
Results oriented, high integrity, CFO, with over thirty years experience in all aspects of management, finance, accounting and auditing in the Commercial Transportation industry. Recently retired as CFO of the largest Commercial Truck Dealership - a division of Penske Automotive Group
(Dow: PAG)
Experience includes:
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Business turnaround expertise; Private Equity and Public Company experience
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International business, strategic and financial planning
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Mergers & Acquisitions
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Negotiating Bank financin
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Specialized knowledge in Distribution/supply chain management/Logistics
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MBA (UNC - Chapel Hill) and Chartered Accountant (India)
Contact today
If you have any queries or questions,
please feel free to reach out to us today.
949-427-0151