TechXel Judges

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Richard has over 45 years business experience in Finance, Operations, Marketing and General Management within both technology and consumer industries. He has been CEO of a Fortune 100 company, several start-ups, consultant to about one third of the Fortune 500, Board Member and active investor in startups. He is currently an Entrepreneur in Residence at CTNext.

He has a Bachelors’ degree in Math, Physics, Chemistry and Fluid Mechanics from the University of Cambridge, and also a Masters in Chemical Engineering from Cambridge. He joined Procter & Gamble, (following a period as a Chemical Engineer at ICI Plc), in Consumer Marketing, before moving to Mars, Inc., in the UK, and several other countries. He worked in multiple countries. He then went into Strategy consulting at Marketing Corporation of America, where he worked largely for F500 companies in CPG, Financial Services, High Tech, and Telecommunications. He re-entered corporate life as CMO of US West and its cable business, where he named and launched the first “Broadband” product offering. He has been the SVP Marketing and Business Development of Remedy/BMC enterprise software, and President of Reliant Energy, a Fortune 100 company. Richard has also been involved in almost 2,000 startups since 1992. His roles have included founder, CEO, investor, Board member and Mentor. He has lived in ten countries on four continents and worked in many more via global responsibilities on several occasions. 

Alison J. Malloy is managing director of portfolio acceleration, and director of investments at Connecticut Innovations on their Venture team where she invests in technology start-ups. She is responsible for deal sourcing, structuring new investments, serving on boards, and accelerating portfolio companies. She serves on the Board of The Big Willow, serves on the Executive Board of Connecticut Venture Group (CVG), and is a regular speaker and judge for several entrepreneur organizations, including Golden Seeds, The Refinery and Springboard Enterprises. Alison was the co-founder and CEO of Design2Launch (D2L), a Connecticut-based software start-up focused on packaging and design collaboration for the pharma and CPG industries, acquired by Eastman Kodak Company in 2008. In 2016, she helped with the spin-out and merger of the company with BLUE Software, where she served on the Board of Directors. The company was successfully sold for the second time July 2018 to Esko Graphics (a Danaher company). Alison worked for General Electric and GE Capital, where she was the chief financial officer of the NBC Retail Experience Store, helped with the acquisition and integration of Mexico's Banco Alianza with GE Capital Mexico, and worked for GE Railcar, GE Fleet Services, and GE corporate. Alison received GE's President’s Award, the highest company award honor, and is certified in GE’s Six Sigma Methodologies™. Prior, she was Arthur Andersen where she focused on Management Consulting. She launched her career at the Slovak American Enterprise Fund, a Venture Fund, where she researched potential foreign companies for investment consideration, and most recently was Managing Director of Trimodia, LLC an Investment Company that invests in start-up companies. Alison is a dual citizen (US and EU), holds a BA from Boston College, and an MBA equivalent from GE Capital's Financial Management Program. She is proficient in Italian and Spanish.

Michael is currently a venture partner with Connecticut Innovations and a Managing Director of Nexam Capital. He has a 25 year career in private equity, investment banking and operations, during which he was actively involved in about 40 companies worldwide, and associated with over $5 billion of deal value. He has been an investment committee member of six funds, and served actively on numerous boards. From 1999-2009, Michael was president of ETF Group, a Swiss-based global venture capital group, and Nexam Capital, with investments in 10 U.S. portfolio companies, including Commerce One, Hotspot FX and Portero (where he served as CEO). From 1992-1999, Michael was Managing Director and founder of the international private equity business for Trust Company of the West, where he built joint venture offices in India, Taiwan, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina. From 1987-1992, Michael was an investment banker at Merrill Lynch and First Boston, during which time he led several significant telecommunications and natural resources transactions, including TelMex, and SQM. Michael grew up in Caracas, Venezuela, and is also fluent in Spanish. Michael holds a B.S. degree in Engineering from Northwestern University and an M.B.A. from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth.