2025 ACG CIN APR LUNCH: Annual VC Panel

Emma Off is CEO, President, and Partner at CincyTech where she oversees the firm's strategic direction and business development efforts, operations, fundraising, and collaborates closely with the investment team on investment decisions and portfolio management.  Emma serves as a member of the Firm’s investment committee.  

Prior to joining CincyTech, Emma served as a Partner at the national law firm Thompson Hine, focusing on corporate transactions and mergers and acquisitions.  She has a breadth of experience in counseling private investment firms and funds and U.S. and international public and private companies across various industries on matters involving complex commercial arrangements, reorganizations, mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, entity formation and corporate governance, fiduciary matters, and capital raising and investment. During her tenure, she also served as the co-chair of the diversity, equity, and inclusion committee.

Emma was recently recognized by Purpose Jobs as a top woman in tech 2024, alongside 25 other women to know in Midwest tech.  She was selected by the Cincinnati Business Courier as Bosses to Watch, 2024.  

Emma is a Chambers USA 2022 ranked lawyer in Corporate/M&A. She is one of six practitioners recognized by Legal 500 on the M&A Powerlist: United States 2024 in Ohio and one of 16 partners in the mid-market to receive the distinction of a Next Generation Partner. Emma was also selected for Legal 500’s inaugural list of the top 250 M&A lawyers in the U.S, one of seven attorneys recognized in the State of Ohio. Additionally, Emma was selected as an Ohio Super Lawyers Rising Star, 2018-2021, and is listed in the Best Lawyers in America, 2020 - 2022.

She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Eyas Medical Imaging, Clarigent Health, IncludeHealth, Hive Networks, ArtsWave, Bearcat Ventures, and the Association for Corporate Growth.

Nicholas Archer is a dynamic executive with a strong track record of leadership in healthcare innovation, strategic partnerships, and financial operations. Known for his ability to create and execute growth-focused business models, Nicholas combines his expertise in mergers and acquisitions, value-based care, and healthcare operations to deliver exceptional outcomes at both business unit and enterprise levels. He is passionate about building high-performing teams and fostering cultures that prioritize consumer-driven experiences and operational excellence.

In his previous role as vice president and head of partnerships and customer success at Hippocratic AI, Nicholas was instrumental in shaping the company’s go-to-market strategy. As a founding member of the leadership team, he oversaw sales, account management and customer onboarding, driving the successful integration of AI technologies into health systems, payors and pharmaceutical companies. Under his leadership, Hippocratic AI secured 30 key partnerships in its first 90 days, with 85% of partners retained over seven months—an impressive feat for a pre-product company. Additionally, Nicholas closed the company’s first $2 million in annual recurring revenue, signing six customers for proof-of-concept AI programs.

Nicholas also serves as an advisor for Thrive Health Tech, contributing to the company’s early-stage development and helping to secure $7 million in pre-seed funding from notable investors, including CVS Health Ventures and Frist Cressey Ventures.

Previously, he held several high-level roles at AdventHealth, where he led ventures in virtual healthcare, lifestyle medicine and post-acute care. His work included securing joint ventures and scaling innovative healthcare models like hospital-at-home programs. Nicholas’s career at AdventHealth included the successful turnaround of business lines, capital planning for market expansion and the development of digital health platforms that enhanced consumer experience and operational efficiency.

Nicholas has served on the boards of Andrews Memorial Hospital in Jamaica and the African American Chamber of Central Florida. His commitment to advancing healthcare through innovation, strategic partnerships and operational excellence is evident throughout his career.

Mr. Archer holds a BS in Finance from Oakwood University, an MBA from Warrington College of Business, University of Florida and has participated in the Harvard Business School's Executive Education program.

Jan Rosenbaum, PhD is President, CEO and CSO of Kurome. She is a drug development professional, chief scientific officer, and innovator with more than 25 years of pharma/biotech technical management experience.

Dr. Rosenbaum is the former chief scientific officer of Airway Therapeutics, a 2011 spin-out of CCHMC that is also a CincyTech portfolio company. In addition, she serves as a business development advisor on the Therapeutics Development Team of the Harrington Discovery Institute, University Hospitals, Cleveland, OH, and chairs the Science & Industry Advisory Committee for IRICoR, University of Montréal, Canada.

She holds a Visiting Scholar position in the Department of Pharmacology and Systems Physiology, where she co-created and teaches a Drug Discovery course for graduate students each Fall semester at the UC Medical Center.

Daniel T. Starczynowski, PhD, received his PhD in molecular biology from Boston University. He studied the NF-kB family of transcription factors and their role in B-cell lymphomas. During his postdoctoral fellowship at the BC Cancer Research Center, Dr. Starczynowski identified and characterized novel candidate genes in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Following his postdoctoral training, Dr. Starczynowski joined the faculty at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and at the University of Cincinnati as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Starczynowski’s laboratory investigates the molecular and cellular basis of hematologic malignancies with the goal to advance novel therapeutic strategies.

The Starczynowski Laboratory is interested in the molecular, cellular, and genetic basis of hematologic malignancies, with a specific focus on myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). MDS is a hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) disorder resulting in abnormal blood cell production and a propensity to progress to AML. Unfortunately, the complexity and heterogeneity of MDS and lack of mouse models has impeded our understanding and treatment of this disease. The long-term objective of the Starczynowski laboratory is to identify altered genes and signaling pathways, and understand the contribution of these alterations to the pathogenesis of MDS and AML. The overarching goal is to eventually provide novel therapies to patients with myeloid malignancies.