2015 Fund Manager Team

2015 Managers

Hemant Bhardwaj
Fund Manager

Hemant Bhardwaj is a 2015 MBA candidate at Cornell University and serves as a Fund Manager for BR Ventures. He is responsible for directing the Fund’s strategy, leading deal-sourcing efforts, and managing external partnerships. Prior to Cornell, Hemant was a Director at UBS where he advised public corporations, privately held businesses, and entrepreneurs on M&A, equity and debt capital markets, and private placement mandates. Prior to his role with UBS, he worked at Citigroup where he advised asset managers, endowments, and ultra high net worth individuals on portfolio allocation strategies. In addition to BR Ventures, he serves as an Investment Associate at Red Bear Angel Group, a seed and early stage angel investment group, and is a member of the Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital Club and South Asian Business Club. Hemant holds a B.A. in Economics from Grinnell College where he graduated as a member of Mortar Board.

Pascal Christian
Fund Manager

Pascal is a 2015 MBA candidate at the Johnson School at Cornell University, where he focuses on investment banking and emerging market finance. Before business school, Pascal spent two years working in SPOTMED Group, a healthcare IT start-up providing data intelligence for hospitals and medical providers in SE Asia. During that time, he was in charge of product development and market entry strategies, and took the lead in raising seed and series A financing. In addition to BRV, Pascal is the treasurer of Johnson’s Musician Club and a recruiting advisor for the International Student Recruiting Club. Pascal holds a B.S. in Medicine and a M.D. degree from Universitas Padjadjaran.

Kamal Hassin
Fund Manager

Kamal Hassin is a 2015 MBA candidate at Cornell University where he is focused on corporate finance and general management. As Fund Manager at BR Venture Fund, Kamal is responsible for overseeing due diligence projects, portfolio management, and ultimately helping businesses accelerate second stage growth. His main investment interests lie in emerging technologies, specifically semiconductors, data analytics, and software services.
Prior to Cornell, Kamal was Vice President of Product Management at Protecode, a VC-backed software startup. He was responsible for productization of the enterprise software tools suite during the company’s early stages, and later on established a marketing organization and developed an international sales network. Kamal holds a B.Eng. degree in Electrical Engineering and M.A.Sc. degree in Technology Innovation Management Engineering from Carleton University.

Richmond Holden
Fund Manager

Richmond is a 2015 MBA candidate at Cornell and serves as a Fund Manager for Big Red Ventures. In this role, Richmond is responsible for planning and executing the firm’s investment thesis, souring new investments, supervising associate due diligence teams, and portfolio management. Prior to Cornell Richmond was an Associate at Seguin Partners, LLC a lower middle market private equity firm which focused on investing in growing companies in the business services market including business-to-business information, publishing, media, healthcare, security, and other outsourced business services. Prior to joining Seguin, Richmond was an Analyst and then an Associate with JSB-Partners in their New York office. During his time at JSB, Richmond worked on executing capital raising, M&A, and partnering transactions for the firm’s biotech and pharmaceutical clients. Richmond received his BA from Colorado College with a major in International Political Economy and a minor in History.

Alex Paranicas
Fund Manager

Alexander Paranicas is a 2015 MBA candidate at Cornell University, focusing on corporate finance and serves as a Fund Manager. He is responsible for helping direct the Fund’s strategy, assisting with performance calculation and overseeing due diligence efforts. Prior to Cornell, he worked in Strategy and Business Development at the world’s largest defense contractor, Lockheed Martin Corporation, focusing on intelligence, international and federal customers. During his first year, Paranicas was a BRV Associate, focusing on technology, security and internet-focused investments. In addition to BRV, he is Treasurer of the Johnson’s Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Club (EVCC) and an Admissions Ambassador. Alex has a B.S. degree in Finance from Georgetown University, speaks Spanish and enjoys studying foreign languages and skiing.

Joel Schrock
Fund Manager

Joel is a 2015 MBA candidate at the Johnson School at Cornell University and serves as a Fund Manager for Big Red Ventures. Prior to Johnson, Joel received his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Cornell’s medical campus (Weill Cornell). For his thesis research, he developed a technique to better understand the mechanism of a class of drugs, and applied this technique to a novel cancer therapeutic. Joel is also active in promoting biomedical entrepreneurs in New York City. He currently serves on the board for Weill Cornell’s Bench to Bedside Initiative and on NYC Tech Connect’s Entrepreneurial Scientist Advisory Panel (ESAP). Joel is particularly interested in developing ways to generate early revenues for biotech startups. He is an avid marathoner, and enjoys playing bass guitar in his spare time.

Sumved Sharma
Fund Manager

Sumved Sharma is a 2015 MBA candidate at Cornell University where he is focused on Sustainable Enterprises and serves as a Fund Manager. As a Fund Manager, he is responsible for shaping the fund’s strategy, overseeing due diligence projects, and portfolio management. His strengths lie in disruptive technologies that cover both hardware and software. Sumved started his career at Microsoft as a Program Manager after graduating from Georgia Tech as an electrical engineer. At Microsoft, he focused on gearing various technologies towards the education space. In 2011, Sumved joined SapientNitro and helped various firms in the retail and specialty eateries industries achieve various business objectives, such as organic revenue growth, through digital implementations.

Margaret Wu
Fund Manager

Margaret Wu is a 2015 MBA candidate and Forté Fellow at Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management focused on entrepreneurship, product development and the management of technology. As an Accenture consultant turned COO of OneSpout, a consumer web startup, she had 7 years of experience working in software prior to business school. At OneSpout, Margaret took on business development, marketing and multiple other facets of the operations to grow the company from infancy. At the same time, she developed a passion for building new products. As a Fund Manager at BRV, Margaret’s interest lies in helping entrepreneurs with innovative offerings build and scale their businesses.

Ben Peterson
Business Development Manager

Ben is a 2015 Johnson MBA candidate at Cornell Tech, Cornell University’s new tech-focused campus in New York City. Ben serves as the Business Development Manager of BR Venture Fund and is responsible for souring new investments and executing strategy and operations in New York City. Prior to Cornell, Ben worked for Deloitte Consulting after graduating from Texas A&M University.