Jason Weedon is the Founder & CEO of Gourmet Gorrilla. Confronting growing childhood obesity and diabetes epidemics, in addition to a lack of access to healthy food in schools, Jason Weedon was inspired to start Gourmet Gorilla with his wife Danielle, to create a source for healthier, better tasting meals in schools in the Chicagoland area. At the same time, he also identified a lack of a robust local and sustainable food system to support the option of healthier meals. Gourmet Gorilla was created as a way to solve both of these issues. Jason previously spent 12 years in environmental consulting, and received his MA in geology from the University of Aberdeen, UK. He is a member of the Great Lake Food Hub Network and through his leadership at Gourmet Gorilla, was awarded a 2011 HUFED, USDA grant to bring fresh produce programs to underserved areas using schools as hubs. Jason's work centers around helping build healthier bodies and minds in our schools, and creating innovative ways to produce healthier meals and source more sustainable ingredients from our local food system. He is a 2013 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in Chicago.

Fellow since

Kristi Klemm is the CEO and Founder of Yankee Hollow, a monthly artisanal cheese and goods subscription box and marketplace. Prior to Yankee Hollow, she worked at Groupon where she was employee 40 and one of the first marketing hires, where she created the brand GrouponWorks and developed many of the SMB marketing strategies still used today for the company, and its clones all over the world. Kristi has also worked at Careerbuilder.com, Yahoo! HotJobs, and has consulted for dozens of startups. Her expertise lies in the areas of operational marketing and helping traditional processes and business models evolve to meet current market needs. Kristi's work earned the top 10 B2B Websites of 2010 by B2B Magazine. She holds a degree in English. She is a fan of travel (not vacations), bad pop music and the Chicago culinary scene. Kristi is passionate about solving the problem of crime in Chicago using technology. She is 2014 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in Chicago.

Fellow since

Rowida Assalimy is the founder and CEO of Ro’s Beverages He received the Best New Product award at Coffee Fest Chicago 2012. He was also a finalist in University of Chicago New Venture Challenge Finalist in June 2013 & Elevate Fueled By Fairfield Finalist in July 2013. He holds bachelors degree from Kansas State University and MBA from University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He is a 2014 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in Chicago.

Fellow since