Farley Center Expands Faculty Roster
Six accomplished entrepreneurs and investors bring real-world experience in venture capital, technology, sustainability, and finance to the Farley Center.
The Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation has welcomed six distinguished entrepreneurship leaders to its faculty roster. These members bring diverse expertise, industry leadership, and a passion for innovation to Northwestern’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, strengthening Farley’s mission to equip students with the mindset, skills, and network to pursue their passions.
John Greene
Teaching: NUvention: Arts and Entertainment
John has over 25 years of experience creating exponential value by disrupting legacy industries. During his career, John has held a wide range of executive leadership roles: from Chief Marketing Officer at various startups to Chief Strategy Officer at an ad agency to a strategic advisor to ambitious CEOs. His recent projects include building a product that harnesses the power of AI to disrupt the wireless industry, reinventing the experience of blood donation, and exploring how AI can transform how we think about the process of scientific discovery. Previously, he helped build both UnitedMasters and The Coda Collection, each of which harnessed technology to disrupt the music industry. Greene has a BA from Carleton College and an MBA from Northwestern.
Rebecca Kahnweiler
Teaching: Strategies for Financing New Ventures
Kahnweiler has deep roots in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, both in Chicago and internationally. Her venture Sector3 is active today as a nonprofit promoting the economic and social development of vulnerable communities in Latin America. She also cofounded Wise Apple to scale the delivery of healthy meal options for children throughout the Midwest. Kahnweiler is currently the managing partner of Chicago-based LongJump, a founder-led fund and the most active pre-seed investor in Illinois, providing capital, connections, and community to help founders build fast-growing, scalable businesses. Kahnweiler has a BBA BA from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Northwestern.
Katie Kollhoff Mouat
Teaching: NUvention: Energy
Kollhoff Mouat is a cleantech entrepreneur and innovation leader dedicated to solving the world's most pressing resource challenges — from industrial waste to freshwater scarcity. She currently serves as innovation programs director at The Water Council, a nonprofit driving breakthrough solutions in freshwater technology. Her entrepreneurial journey began when she cofounded NUMiX Materials, a startup transforming industrial waste into valuable materials. NUMiX won the $50,000 Cleantech University Prize from the US Department of Energy at the 2018 Rice Business Plan Competition, placed second at the Cleantech University Prize national competition, and took top honors at Northwestern's VentureCat competition. She was also selected as a Department of Energy Fellow in the Chain Reaction Innovations Lab Embedded Entrepreneurship Program at Argonne National Laboratory. Kollhoff Mouat holds a BS from the University of Kansas and an MS from Northwestern.
Nick Robertson
Teaching: Principles of Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial Sales and Marketing
Robertson is a 15-year veteran and former Chief Operating Officer at Relativity, where he architected and scaled operations and go-to market from the first enterprise deal to $500M+ in revenue. He is also a general partner at OnDeanForward, which invests in enterprise tech in regulated markets. He brings practical experience in building and scaling technology companies to his teaching at the Farley Center. Beyond his work in the tech industry, he is a track and cross-country coach and substitute teacher at St. Athanasius School in Evanston. Robertson has a BS from Marquette University.
Jeff Smith
Teaching: NUvention: Arts and Entertainment
Smith is a seasoned entrepreneur focused on the intersection of technology and design. He founded Clarity Consulting, a technology and management consulting firm serving Global 2000 and enterprise customers in North America. Smith also established Truth Labs, a unit of Clarity, that focuses on integrating design and technology and has developed solutions for clients including Microsoft, Twitter, and Uber. He previously served as general manager at Perficient Digital as well as senior director at Truth Labs. Smith holds a BS from Northwestern.
Ramin Zacharia
Teaching: Startup Accounting and Finance
Zacharia is a seasoned executive, advisor, and operator across finance, operations, commercial, and technology functions. He is the president and COO at MD Integrations, a leading physician network and infrastructure technology for telehealth operations. In the past, he has founded and operated various growth technology and services companies such as Venminder and RTD Insights, helping scale the businesses. He also formerly was an investment banker at William Blair and Duff & Phelps, and he is a certified public accountant in Illinois. Zacharia has a BS from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.