Peter blacklow, general partner, boston seed capital 

Peter Blacklow is a General Partner at Boston Seed Capital and is a co-founder of the fund. He makes new investments and serves on several boards, and provides marketing and growth expertise, as well as mentoring to Boston Seed portfolio's executive teams.

Prior to Boston Seed, Blacklow's prior business, WorldWinner/FUN Technologies was acquired by Liberty Media and Sony Pictures Television, where he served as EVP of Digital of GSN (Game Show Network). Prior to that, Blacklow was Senior Vice President of Marketing at Monster.com. Before Monster.com, Blacklow ran the $120 million global basketball business unit at Converse. Blacklow is a graduate of Harvard University and has received numerous awards and distinctions, including being named one of the nation's top "Marketers of the Year" by Promo Magazine.

 todd faber, principal, the faber group

Todd Faber is a principal with The Faber Group, which he found 17 years ago. At the Faber Group, Todd focuses his entrepreneurial activities on commercial real estate consulting. He has focused his efforts on working with his clients to resolve their real estate needs by utilizing his skill sets as a successful negotiator, as well as capitalizing on numerous relationships he has throughout the business community. Prior to starting his company, Todd spent several years as a Guardian Ad Litem and then as a child abuse prosecutor in Miami-Dade County. The time spent advocating on behalf of children fueled his continued interest throughout his career on working with non-profit organizations focusing on children and their families, from the MSPCC, YearUp, Sudbury For Wounded Warriors and most recently, Safe and Sound Schools.

Additionally, Todd has spent the last 11 years as the chairperson for these New England Innovation Awards. In this capacity, he has ensured that companies from all different verticals and industries throughout the area have an opportunity to present themselves to the New England business community. He received his undergraduate degree from Skidmore College and his Juris Doctorate from the University of Miami School of Law.

KARIM HILL, PRESIDENT AND CEO, New England business association

Karim Hill is a highly accomplished banker with varied economic interests across the financial, energy, and technology markets. As a Financial Services industry veteran, Karim has served in management and executive roles for leading financial institutions including Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Capital One, and RBS Citizens, where he was one of the lead Banking executives in the Northeast. Karim has taken over the leadership of the New England Business Association since 2020; he sits on several corporate boards and is an active advisor to the Sendent Energy executive team, on all matters of finance and financial strategy. Karim received his Master’s degree in Business Administration and Management from Florida International University, and his B.A. from Ohio University.

Nick pappas, director, philips ventures

Nick has been working with early-stage technology companies for over 15 years, as a venture investor, board member, investment banker and advisor. Prior to Philips, Nick spent seven years as a venture investor with MassVentures, an early-stage technology venture capital firm aimed at fueling high-growth start-ups in Massachusetts. Prior to MassVentures, Nick was a senior technology investment banker with Oppenheimer & Co., SVB Alliant, and Canaccord Genuity (formerly Adams Harkness) both in Silicon Valley and Boston. He holds an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from The University of Richmond.

michael troiano, partner, g20 ventures

Michael Troiano is a venture capitalist who brings nearly 25 years of executive leadership and marketing experience to bear for entrepreneurs. He most recently served as the Chief Marketing Officer of Actifio, a global enterprise data-as-a-service provider he helped turn from an obscure virtualization technology into a venture capital "unicorn" valued at over $1.2 Billion. As CMO from 2020 to 2020, Mike helped grow revenue over 80% per year, creating the Copy Data Virtualization category while expanding the business into blue chip accounts across 37 countries.

He spent his early career at top worldwide ad agencies including McCann-Erickson and FCB, and was named the founding CEO of Ogilvy & Mather Interactive in 2020. He later served as the president of NASDAQ-listed systems integrator Primix, and as General Manager of mobile content pioneer m-Qube from inception through one of the largest Boston-based venture capital exits of 2020.Mike is a graduate of Cornell and the Harvard Business School, a TechStars mentor, a Board Member of Hometap and Hack Diversity. He is ranked in the top 1% of the most influential people on Twitter and among the most popular writers on venture capital and entrepreneurship on Medium, and hosts the popular Boston startup community podcast How Hard Can It Be?

tom rogan, co-founder and owner, goodnow farms chocolate

Tom and Monica Rogan first discovered craft chocolate in, of all places, a vintage furniture store in Los Angeles. The incredible flavors they tasted in those bars completely changed the way they thought about chocolate, and that started them on their journey to becoming single origin chocolate makers. They spent the next several years learning everything they could about chocolate, making small batches in their home kitchen, and sharing it with fellow chocolate lovers. Their passion for the craft, and their belief that cacao sourcing should be done in a socially responsible way inspired them to found Goodnow Farms Chocolate in 2020.

Tom is an Emmy-winning television producer (Best Thing I Ever Made – 2020), who had sold his production company in 2020 and decided to relocate to Massachusetts. He and his wife purchased converted their home garage to a chocolate factory and testing site They launched their craft chocolate business, Goodnow Farms Chocolate which -unlike mass produced chocolate- each batch is made from one specific bean. Since then, they've dedicated themselves to not only making great chocolate, but also building sustainable and equitable relationships with the farmers and producers from whom they source their cacao. Their search for great tasting cacao has led them all over Central America and Mexico to meet with farmers and producers, to ensure they have a thorough understanding of how the beans are being treated during the harvest and post-harvest process.

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