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John M. Hanak

John is the remaining founder and current managing director of North Riverside Partners.  Formerly the Chief Innovation and Corporate Officer at the University of Oklahoma he also served at the Purdue Research Foundation as managing director of Purdue Ventures and was one of the co-founders of the Purdue Foundry, an entrepreneurial hub spinning out over 40 startups each year, many with Purdue University technology.  Previously, he served as Statewide Director of Purdue’s network of technology incubators across the state of Indiana.  Prior to co-founding North Riverside Partners 2003 and arriving at the Purdue Research Foundation in 2005, he served as President, CEO and board member of Digital Innovations, a Chicago-based technology product development and marketing firm. Before joining Digital Innovations, he spent more than 20 years in the steel industry with a $2.3 Billion Fortune 500 integrated steel manufacturer where he was Vice President with responsibility for all administration and legal matters.  He also co-founded a small angel investment partnership.  He holds BS and JD degrees. He has served, and continues to serve, on a number of corporate and volunteer boards and is a former chair of the board of directors of the International Business Innovation Association and former president of the Venture Club of Indiana.

As managing director of Purdue Ventures, he was the fund manager for three seed funds and also managed the Purdue Research Foundation’s portfolio of startup investments, all with a total of approximately $40M in asset value. 

John is currently active with Vinsense LLC and Hexakit Inc. in interim CEO roles.